The Tsan Ra Crawl Their Way Into Beyond The Gates Of Antares
June 13, 2016 by brennon
Warlord Games have shown off some of the miniatures that are coming to the Isorians for Beyond The Gates Of Antares. Here we have the Tsan Ra Phase Squad who look like very strange creatures indeed...
Now we're liking these. It's interesting seeing the folks at Warlord Games delving into more alien creatures with a strange mix of organic armour and synthetic pieces too. When you see the chap in the middle with his mandibles open I think you'd agree that he's creepy as hell.
As well as the miniatures there's also the box preview which shows them off in a cool cinematic way. The back of the box also contains some background and fluff to get you started with them.
I think that the Isorians have certainly become one of the neatest factions for folks interested in Gates of Antares. In the box you get a Tsan Ra Leader with a Plasma Duocarb and X-Sling as well as two Tsan Ra Troopers with Plasma Duocarbs.
Not bad miniatures right?
"It's interesting seeing the folks at Warlord Games delving into more alien creatures with a strange mix of organic armour and synthetic pieces too..."
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Original aliens! It’s refreshing to see aliens who only differ from humans by the colour of their skin or by having some slightly more/less emphasized physical attributes. These look truly strange and intimidating.
Agreed @ panzerkanzler – the Tsan Ra really are as far as you can get from the kind of ‘alien forehead’ syndrome popularized by Star Trek, where ‘aliens’ always seem to be humans with minimal forehead, facial, and/or ear lobe prosthetics and a strange, usually weirdly over bright skin tone, with blue and purple currently being in vogue for some reason. Legitimately alien looking aliens, with a body plan and physiognomy unlike anything known to exist, is a refreshing change of pace. I also agree with Brennon – the mandibles on the squad leader really are very creepy to look… Read more »
Indeed, they achieved great diversity from the initial ‘human’ races the aliens are the looking so promising.
I think designing non-human species and beings actully non-humanoid is a very important thing to do. Especially at the stage we find ourselves at in fantastical fiction in general for but also in the miniatures market. It’s sad that designing something like that has to be considered a daring, risky move. Diversity and the leaving of worn down paths are in themselves highly valuable. Comfort zones tradition ought not be directing the pace of genres that are by their very essence bound to free-thinking and ceativity.
Btw, on the other hand, Antares does have many human(oid) factions, but there is a different, very specific background reason to it. Namely they all stem from the same root, i.e. us, and some developed in other ways or were manipulated into certain deviations. Which is very cool, I think. Stange, actually, that this seems very uncommon for humanoid species’ backgrounds.
The background is strong, and it has a nice diversity and that means there is probably something for most people within it. Certainly the evolved races idea is not one I recall seeing before. It is also more ‘true’ sci-fi than many games which seem to have lately more tended to military game set in space.
decent aliens is why I never buy miniatures these days and have had to be forced to make my own to get the kind of thing I like so I agree with you. I pretty much hate every existing alien race in every wargame (and every mainstream SF setting for that matter) – dont really like these ones though as they have legs and arms :/
Those are really nice.
Original ? Yes. Reasonably well sculpted ? Sure. Appealing to me ? Meh… I don’t find them that interesting, unfortunately. Maybe the limbs are too thick. Or too weird. But I can’t really fault them… I mean, they’re aliens.
I get what you mean and I, too, sense that a bit. It’s like a ridge with the potential of bad papier machee B-movie aliens on one side and a really intimidatingly alien non-human species on the other side. So tipping the balance to the “right” side is really decisive. As mentioned below I believe painting might influence that drastically.
different.
Hmmm… I don’t like them either. Philosophically and logically I think @panzerkanzler and @vetruviangeek are right. A lot of aliens aren’t very alient. But like @elromanozo I find these odd (not even odd-cool).
They sort of remind me of the things I dislike about some Mantic sculpts: weirdly proportioned in a way that doesn’t appear ‘realistic’.
Perhaps I’ll feel differently if I can seem them in real life.
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These here are weird and blood curdling strange. And I like them. A whole lot. A different colour scheme might suit them well though, I reckon. So to support better the menacing side of their alien nature. Oddly enough I think of black and red tones as in the box cover picture’s background. How did I manage to forget Antares has the Isorians?! They are the ones, I might actually like among the Antares range – preying on my soft spot for bioengeneering ruthless organizations in SciFi settings (for that I blame AT-43s Therians, Firestorm’s Directorate & their bunch and… Read more »
Great to see the range expanding. I’m in no doubt there’s a whole lot more Rick has in store for us. Bravo.