Xenos Rampant

The Spartiates have two units of elites.  Airfix Robogear bodies and resin heads.  Poppy Red Speedpaint and the metal is intended to look like ancient bronze with a base of Miniature Paints Deep Bronze Green then overlaid with Citadel Castellax Bronze highlighted with Sycorax Bronze

There are also two units of skeleton horde.  Pallid Bone Speedpaint over a zenited undercoat.  Some drops of Bony Matter added from time to time to give a bit of variety in tone.  Transfers from LBMS.  These only cover the main part of the shield and the rim therefore needs blending in.  This was done with the same recipe as the Elites with a Deep Bronze Green stippled over with a pre-mixed paint I made from some old Burnished Gold and a red/bronze colour.  This was then augmented with Citadel Technical Nihilakh Oxide.

And one half together:

This shot of the full force also shows the photography setup in the spray booth – Jon Hodgson Sci-Fi Backdrop and a Model Scene flocked display mat.

I had an idea to create a force of opposite types in the game, some super expensive super soldiers coupled with some cheap as chips rabble. This should offer some interesting options for the commander as the super soldiers will hit hard but are few in number so potentially vulnerable to concentrated fire from the opponent.  The mass rabble offer the option to screen them or tie up the opposition in a grinding hand to hand leaving the supers to focus on the objectives.

I have some of the Airfix Robogear miniatures who are proto Space Marines.  These are great value if you haven’t seen them before.  Didn’t like the sculpts much but did have a spare set of resin Spartan stylalised heads that together made some unique super soldier miniatures.  The heads had the compulsory grimdark skull detailing and that led me to making this an undead faction and combining my super soldiers with hordes of undead.  I had a box of Wargames Atlantic skeletons and their styling is after the ancient Greek so they should feel like there is an affinity in styling with the super soldiers.

24 points as standard. Final list is:

5 Spartiates Elite inc. officer (6), anti-tank weapon (+2) Undead (+0) – 8 points
5 Spartiates Elite inc. officer (6), anti-tank weapon (+2) Undead (+0) – 8 points
15 Primitive Infantry Hoplites (1) Mob (+2) with primitive missiles (+1) – 4 points
15 Primitive Infantry Hoplites (1) Mob (+2) with primitive missiles (+1) – 4 points

The Enforces got unlucky and failed an early activation on turn 1 and again on turn 2.  This held them up.  Meanwhile my free movement meant I was making excellent ground between the buildings toward the objective.

Here you see the objective immediately below the tower – my units ar coming in from the top right corner of the market place.  The Assault squad are ahead and plan to overshoot the objective to screen the main cultist double strength unit who will come in behind them and pick up the objective.

Here we see the table from the Enforcer’s side.  They have one elite unit in a good place in the market area near the objective.  Their main double unit spent time climbing the house but is now well placed to provide covering fire.  The leader and elite unit started in the central courtyard (where the goats are) and have moved around behind the building below that to see into the market place.  The heavy infantry unit with the AP weapons are on the battlements at the bottom of the screen.

The next shot shows the positions at the end of turn 4.  The Enforcer AP unit has been hit by the Cultist heavy support unit but passed the courage test to hold position.  In the centre the Cultist Assault squad are in position to screen the main unit behind from the elite Enforcers.  The main unit has picked up the objective broken robot and is moving back.  An unfortunate failed test to shoot meant the Enforcers again failed to do much this turn.

The position at the end of turn 5.  The main Cultist unit makes their escape.  The screening Assault squad charged and were mauled by the elite Enforcers but further shooting attacks failed to finish them.  On the battlements out of the bottom of shot the Cultist Heavy support has routed the AP unit.

The final turn saw the Cultists lose the rest of the assault squad and the heavy support unit to shooting from both elite Enforcer units.  The main Cultist unit has made it back to their deployment zone and will exit at the start of the next turn.  Ending the game.

Final scores.  Enforcers 2VP (for the 2 units destroyed), Cultists 5VP for getting the objective off the table.  Cultists win.

Takeaways:

We learnt that this version of the rules has a lot of units with Free movement or shooting that don’t require an activation roll.  To maximise each turn you really need to complete all of your free activations prior to starting to do the ones that need a roll.  It is amazing how often you’ll fail a roll even when the odds are that you should pass.  7 may be the average score on 2D6 but that doesn’t come up as often as you want or need it to unfortunately.

It was a fun game and played very quickly.  We’ll definitely play again soon.

We’ve played Rampant games before so are familiar with the general mechanics but this was our first time through with the Xenos version.  I had the Silent City board set up after the Terrainfest so we used that.

After rolling for scenario we got Kilo: VIP Extraction.  In this scenario an Attacker, who gets the first activation, tries to retrieve an objective from the centre of the board.  The defender tries to stop them, usually by retrieving the objective themselves.  We’ll be playing with the two factions we have, Cultists (attacker) versus Enforcers (defenders).  Rather than a VIP we’ll be using the broken robot as the objective.  Victory points – each destroyed or routed unit is worth 1 VP, leaving with the robot from your table edge is worth 5VP.

Here is the table before we started.  The Enforces chose to enter from the left, the Cultists will come in from the right.  The objective was placed at the foot of the big tower in the middle.

Here’s my Cultists’ first move – sprinting forward from their deployment zone down the alleys between the houses, assault squad on the left, assassins on the right and the main squad of 10 in the middle with the brutal leader and bodyguard immediately behind.

The heavy support unit started on the extreme left on the battlements with a good view across the central marketplace.  My opponent’s hand is where their commander initially deployed.

The two forces meet.  Don’t fancy the Enforcers chances having allowed those blades to get that close.

Pretty simple paint scheme here.  Speedpaints 2.0 again.  I love the clotted blood colour of Murder Scene which was perfect for the robes.  I did highlight these with a drybrush of Citadel Foundation Tallarn Flesh.  Skintones were Crusader Skin, gloves Grim Black, boots were a russet brown Dusk Red and weapons were Polished Silver with a Citadel Badab Black wash.  Yellow accessories were a couple of coats of Maise Yellow.  Gold was the green toned Aztec Gold with a highlight of Vallejo Metal Color Gold after the matt varnish.  Weapon blades had a similar highlight of Metal Color Pale Burnt Metal to get them to glint appropriately.

The leader is a Warzone Supreme Necromagus and his bodyguards are painted in a style reminicent of the Warboys from Mad Max – Fury Road with the pale fleshtone drybrushed white.  The bodyguard models are Nexus Cyclos Infantry from the Kryomek range still sold by Scotia Grendel.  I particularly like the “boom sticks” as an idea for cultists.

10 Cultist light infantry with heavy weapons.  North Star plastics with a couple of weapons from their extra resin sprue but mostly from NS plastic Scavengers.

Cult assassin is a Warzone Dark Legion Reaper of Souls.  Plastic NS Cultists for the acolytes.  Fortunate that the plastic set had very similar sickles to the one their leader sports.

Assault cultists.  Weapons are from the NS Sci-Fi conversion sprues.  Yellow masks to make them easier to spot on the table.  I guess this choice was in honour of the standard Space Marine helmet colour scheme but I didn’t make that connection when I was painting them, just needed a bright contrast to the robes.

The heavy support.  This is another Warzone model, Karak the Keeper who is about 60mm tall so looks quite imposing alongside everyone else.

I had a box of North Star Cultists and ordered the Sci-Fi weapons extra sprues as the basis for a cultist force.  I have a couple of Warzone miniatures that looked ideal a character models and they went with them.  24 points again.  Final list is:

Brutal leader and 4 Light Infantry bodyguards with armour piercing and fanatical discipline – 5 points
10 Cultist light infantry, increased squad size and heavy weapons – 5 points
5 Cultist assault light infantry, assault doctrine, close quarter doctrine, fanatical discipline – 4 points
Cult Assassin and 4 acolyte beserk infantry, fanatical discipline – 4 points
1 Oversized support infantry (counts as 5), engulfing – 6 points

The original unit of 10 were painted in the traditional layered acrylics style.  The new ones like these above were done with Speedpaints 2.0.  Specifically the main blue colour was Beowulf Blue which claims to be “dark Purplish Blue” but over my zenithed undercoat it looked rather pale.  I therefore went with two coats and that has produced this deep bright blue colour on the helmets and armour.  The uniform and boots are Highlord Blue with the brighter cuffs in Tidal Wave light blue.  Skintone was Crusader Skin. The guns were a 50/50 blend of Enchanted Steel and Grim Black.  Orange lenses were two layers of Zealot Yellow (which is actually a pale bright orange).  The Rocket ends were Nuclear Sunrise orange and some thin hazzard decals.

The broken robot is an objective marker from the XR Nickstarter.  Speedpaints again.  A blend of grey on the rocks and Brazen Copper on the body.

Captain and armoured Enforcers.

Second armoured Enforcer unit.

Heavy weapon Enforcers.

Double sized Enforcer unit.

Sniper drones.

The entire Enforcer force.  24 points ready to go.

I started by going through my Sci-Fi miniatures and dividing them into sections to create the initial factions of 24 points each.  One of the first was a police type faction that I’ve called The Enforcers.  They will be linked to one of the more military factions so I can play narrative games with two factions a side.

The figures are a mix of some Gates of Antares Concord, Stargrave troopers (from the sprue I got with the rulebook) and the plastic Combat Zone “Troopers” from em-4.  The em-4 stuff is already painted, as are the drones but in a standard Concord colour scheme that would need a tweak to fit this force’s dark blue.

The final list is:

1 Officer with 4 Elite Armoured with Armour Piercing – 7 points.
5 Elite Armoured – 6 points.
5 Heavy Weapon Enforcers (Light Inf) with Armour Piercing – 3 points
10 Enforcers (Light Inf) increased size – 3 points
5 Sniper Recon Droids (Sniper Team +2, Skimmers +1) – 5 points

I’ve been waiting for my Jon Hodgson Backdrops books from their recent Kickstarter run in collaboration with Bad Squiddo.  I wanted to pair the backdrops with some simple groundscapes and found these Model Scene pre-flocked mats.  I think they are for scale modellers to display their models but they are a decent size being the same length as the backdrop book and deep enough for some perspective in the photos.

They arrived this week and I needed to think of how to change my photography setup as they won’t fit inside my very small Green Stuff World lightbox.  Inspiration struck as I looked at my spray booth and though – that looks a bit like a big light box.  And so the new setup is born.  Adjustable daylight strip light which I can angel to get decent light from in front and sufficient ambient light being diffused in through the box sides as there is a window behind.

And so to the first model.  A quick test paint of an old Ground Zero Games scout model with serious Zulu vibes.  Not sure if I can use him in any of the list builds but he has been kicking around for a while and my theme for this project is to help make sense of my very diverse range of random seeming Sci-Fi models so here he is in the new backdrop enhanced setting.