The Galactic Marines get ready to repel The Legion!

Even though I mostly like my sci-fi hard and gritty, I have to admit that I do like a bit of Space Opera ever so often. Growing up watching Star Wars, Star Trek and others of it's ilk, I think I will always love it, and so I got motivated to paint up some more of my models from the Ion Age 15mm range.

First, the good guys, The Galactic Marines, defenders of the worlds of man:

                                    A Platoon's worth of Marines, with some vehicle support.

                                  The command squad here in the middle, led by Lady Gallaine.

Some of the heavy power-armored infantry that I forgot to get into the Group-shot, with a standard marine for size-comparison.   

A battlesuit usually accompaines a marine platoon, giving them some extra firepower, and looking bad-ass to boot!

 

Lastly, we have one jet-powered armored transport, capable of carrying a single fire-team of marines into combat. It also carries a chin-mounted gatling-gun and a rocket pod to lend aid to the marines.

 

 

The latest threat to face these defenders of peace in the known space, The Legion has recently started appearing in the fringes of human space, attacking frontier worlds. They seldom leave much behind, exept burnt and pillaged remains.

 

A typical group of the Legion, led by a captain, they often imbed a brute in powered armor when they need to crack harder targets. 

The Captain, leader of this particular band of legionnaires. The invaders seem to have a harshly enforced chain of command, the legionnaires will follow the captains orders without question.

While these Power-armored adversaries dont have a known name, they are often referred to as brutes because of their mannerism on the field of battle, or sometimes bulls, because of the look of the skull mask they wear.

The Legionnaires themselves are the most numerous of the Legion, when they raid colonies on the frontier worlds they come by the thousands. This particular group only has 5. Have they lost a good few of their number, or are these warriors special? For the moment, who can tell?

 

For now, I paint them because I like the models, but these two forces, along with some old laserburn models and assorted others will hopefully be used to play a Space Opera twist of Pulp Alley some day.    

 

Hope you have enjoyed them!

SoBH AAR: An encounter by the pond

I had some time on my hands, so for some post-lunch entertainment I decided to play a game of SoBH.

Having been away from this game for a while, I decided to keep it simple; a pitched battle between the Barbarians and the Undead.

 You can see both of the warbands line-up in the previous post : Link

The Barbarian warband is crossing a marshy plain, moving south towards the spot revealed to their shaman.
Wulfgar, who had been scouting forward of the rest of the band, comes over to Ymar, obviously out of breath. "We have a problem chief" he manages between the his attempts to catch his breath.
"What have you seen to make you return to us with such alacrity?" Ymar demanded of the hunter.
"A Group of the risen dead, Ymar, they are coming this way" the hunter replied.

The warband comes face to face with the undead horrors as they both arrive at a stinking pond.

      Moving towards the pond, and the warriors, are the risen dead that Wulfgar spotted.

                                               The two warbands form their battle-lines.

Having the advantage of spotting their enemy first, the barbarians take the first move, and lady luck is on their side! All the barbarians manage to activate, with 2 or 3 successes each!

 Clearly wanting to put their best foot forward, the Undead warband advances to meet the barbarians. They too have great luck, and activate all but 2 models with 2 actions each.

              The battlefield after the first turn, no engagement yet, but plenty of lucky dice rolls!

                     They say that the dead travel fast, and these recently returned certainly are!
Cloven Skullsplitter, the undead second in command, is the first to engage an enemy. He charges Rorik Stoutblade, their heavy blades clash and rorik is pushed back by the force of the blow! 

 Ymar seizes the opportunity as it presents itself, and he charges Cloven! He swings low, to take the legs from under the skeletal warrior, but Cloven is a veteran warrior and he smoothly knock the younglings blade aside before his blade bites into Ymars side.
The Barbarian leader collapses, the fight knocked out of him. First blood to the Undead! 

                      The shock of seeing their leader laid low, everyone but the hunter recoils!

 Start of the 3rd turn Rorik is the first to snap out of the shock, and with a bellow he charges the skullcleaver. His sword swung in a deadly arc, his undead opponent is lifted of his feet, and he crashes to the ground.

 Cloven attempt to defend himself from his prone position, but he can't avoid Rorik's blade..
The Death Cultist moves in to try and take down Rorik. His runeblade carves right through the barbarians mail shirt, skevering him.

 4th turn, you can see some of the movment that happend outside of the cameras focus.

In the far right end you can see just the hunter fighting Gutslasher, one of the undead warriors.

 A better shot. The hunter and Gutslasher is locked in a deadly struggle, probing the defences of the opponent.

 Crowkiller, the Undead marksman, gives cause for his name when his shot goes wide. Egil, the barbarian berserk, laughs at the feeble attempt.

Piercer, the skeletal spearman, decides to back up Gutslasher, who's having a hard time taking down the hunter Wulfgar.
Assur, the barbarian shaman, finally commits to the battle. He only rolls a single success however, and he moves into close combat with Crowkiller.

                                    Close-up of the fight in the Woods. Sorry for the blurry pic..

                                                             And the fight by the pond.
       The 5th turn was just starting, and the Barbarians were itching to get back at the Undead.

 Wulfgar was in a bind, fighting 2 opponents at once. A spear-thrust he blocked without much trouble, but gutslasher took advantage of the distraction and slashed at the hunters abdomen, wounding him.

Assur struck Crowkiller, splitting him down the middle, while Egil charged in to hack away at the Wight, leader of the Undead band, but only manages to knock him down.

                                                                            Turn 6.                                
                     Egil fights like a man possessed and knocks down the Death Cultist as well.

Gutslasher pushes the advantage, wanting to disembowel the already wounded hunter. Wulfgar fights valiantly, but his wounds and being outnumbered is too much, and he gets slashed open.

With the hunter out of action, Assur realizes that the battle is lost, he gets his downed comrades and fall back to the camp, while Egil acts as rearguard.

Undead Victory!

It was an fun game, but after the initial lucky first round, the Barbarians were plagued by low rolls and actions. They did hold on to the bloody end though, and after some needed rest and time to lick their wounds, I'm sure the sinister Undead won't have seen the last of the Barbarians.

This was the first of what will hopefully be many more battles of SoBH. There might even be a Campaign..

That's it for now!

SoBH Warbands painted up

I actually finished these guys about a week ago, but I wanted to hold off until I finished making some stat cards as well.

                                                 The Barbarians, whole group assembled.

First we have Ymar Bearkiller, son to the chieftain. He brings his band of warriors, along with the tribes shaman Assur, to undertake a quest given to his people by their gods.

Then there is Assur, speaker for the gods. He acts as both advisor and shaman to Ymar's father, and he accompanies the band of warriors to decree the will of the gods.

Egil is a bit of a loose cannon, but he was included in the band for his combat prowess. Ymar is hoping that his bloodthirst will be enough to cut their way through the challanges that will no doubt stand in their path!

                                          Rorik is a dependable warrior, a veteran of many a battle.
                                     More than that, he is fiercely loyal to the tribe, and his friend Ymar.

The last member, Wulfgar, is one of the huntsmasters of the tribe. His expertise will be sorely needed, and the tribes willingness to send him with the warriors underscores the importance of the task at hand.


During the week I was figuring out the stats for Barbarians, I also managed to finish up the Undead warband:

                                              The Undead group in their death-defying glory

                                            Leading the band is the Wight, an champion of old.
                                 His master granted him a new life of sorts, in exchange for his service.

                   Cloven is acting as the Wights second in command, he is a "fresher" recruit if you will.
                          His name was given as a joke because of his deadly wound, but it stuck.

          He is called Crowkiller partly because of his preference in using their feathers for his arrows,
                                       and partly as a jab at his at times poor marksmanship.

                                     Brought back simply for his reputation as an master of cruelty,
                          the mysterious master put Gutslasher back to work, doing what he does best.

 

   A poor peasant levy in life, Piercer is used to following, so when the master commanded, he obeys.

By this point I realized that I was a couple of points short of the recommended 300 points, so I decided to add a model I was planning on including in another warband:

The final member given to the Undead warband, a death cultist. Remarkably the only living member, he is the masters eyes and ear, reporting on their progress through arcane rituals.

With that, the two first Warbands are ready for action! an AAR will hopefully follow in the coming weeks, and some more characters might be painted up as well!

Hope you liked it!