More painting - the Ba'kash get dirty!

A couple of weeks ago I put up some pictures of my Ba'kash getting their first touches of paint - an overall coat of Army Painter Weapon Bronze. I then gave them a coat of Strong tone to knock this back a bit. This worked as intended, and my original intent was to then dry-brush, detail paint and then weather, but I then found after a test I really needed to weather first before drybrushing to knock back any over-application from the weathering stage.

Now of course, space "weather" is really just variations on subatomic particles and radiation, with maybe some ionised gas thrown in for good measure. This is rather immaterial, however, because what I wanted to do was to create the "feel" of a raider fleet that used rather aged and worn - if still perfectly serviceable - ships. As I'd gone for a bronze base, I decided to spot wash a three-stage weathering mix - a dark blue-green, followed by a lighter turquoise and finally some Vallejo Green Wash. This produces a very distinct finish;

I also went mad on one cruiser just to see what it'd look like...

So after this had dried I decided it probably should have been more dilute for the effect I wanted (the original ones I tried were)...oh, well, just chalk it up to experience! This is why I definitely needed to drybrush after weathering, which I did...

This absolutely improves the look, although the photographs don't really capture the look that well. Anyway, I then went on to drybrush with Greedy Gold to add some lustre.

Finally I added a Shining Silver/Bronze/Gold mix (all Army Painter colours) to further accentuate the worn look and give some detail highlighting. Overall I'm pleased with how this turned out.

The next stage was to detail paint the "stripy" banded elements on the main body and arms, which I envisage as some sort of inorganic ballistic or ablative plating. This I did in Vallejo 70.896 - German Extra Dark Green.

The destroyers had a similar treatment on their exposed pipework, leaving the "collars" in the base metal

This was followed by a Strong Tone wash and highlighting with 70.890 Retractive Green.

I'm pretty happy with them so far - just need to add engine and weapons glow to them now, which I'll do by airbrush, with final highlights by brush...then my raiders are ready to fully support the Zenian League wherever needed!

Planetfall Unboxing - RSN Assault Helix

Quite some time ago I acquired the RSN Assault Helix for Planetfall, but with a busy summer it's had to wait until now for airing.

Opening the box we are greeted with the usual Spartan bubble bags, and there's not much space left inside!

Eager as ever to get our hands on the actual resin, the little bags don't resist for long...

We'll start with the smallest elements first, since they're single piece (though very well executed) - the light tanks. You get six of them in the set.

These are nice little models, and I love the way they are very similar in several aspects to the old Dindrenzi Daggers from Firestorm invasion.

So, these are nice models, but they're not why you've bought this set, am I right? Next is the Temple of Dramos.... (just placed together here...not glued!)

Now I'm in two minds about this model...I'm really not sure if I like it or not. It's very thematic, but it plays to one element of the RSN which has always been a fringe one, and it seems a bit too impractical in many ways for them - their ships in Firestorm are not fetishised in any way, yet here you have a combat model which has large sculpted angels on it....it's cool, but I'm just not sure how it sits with me...I'm firmly "on the fence"!

The model itself is made of several pieces

The base (here it's upside-down)

The legs/stands...four of them that fit onto the underside of the base element...

...like so

 Turning the base over, you have two areas for the vertical sections

Which are here, and fit in place....

..like so

You then have the Dramos Angel statue piece, hcih sits between them....

...here it's just placed on top, it actually sits flush - but be careful that you mount it at the same time as the vertical sections, as the angles on the sides mean you can't put it in place if you glue the sides on first.

But you probably didn't buy this set for the temple either - even if you love it. What you probably bought the set for is...

The Avenging Robot! Yes, this Gundam-esque beast is the real reason you bought the RSN Assault Helix. It's a stylised human-robot with wings, missiles and a big sword. It's a combination of resin and metal, and it has a degree of being posable.

The chest section is slightly iron-man, with a central piece very mush like a power core and thick armour plates.

The head is white metal, and very stylised, which I like. The ball and socket jointing allows this to be put at almost any angle

The arms are both single piece, reducing the flexibility of poses somewhat but I think anything else would have made the model too fiddly. The Left arm comes with a cluster-rocket pack.

The right with the huge sword (which I think is a leviathan CQB weapon)

The legs are also one-piece, though these and the arms are all ball and socket jointed to the body, allowing a lot of variation in build. The legs contain rocket motors, and I like the feet that have flipped back into "flight mode"...it would be nice to see some variant arms and legs in future for variation too - a standing version would be cool.

Finally, the wings and flight stand insert are white metal pieces that both attach to the central body, and both have some variation - the flight peg holder is ball and socketed, so you can have your robot flying in different ways, and the wings and scored to allow them to be bent back slightly at an angle (be careful though a the last thing you want to do is snap them!).

I've already assembled mine and sprayed it gold - this is a statement by the RSN of man's supremacy, to hearten its allies to fight and to strike terror into the hearts of the alien scum that oppose it! I'm looking forward to finishing it....now tell me how many grown men are going to be doing the exact same thing, and then flying it around their games room making pew pew noises?!?

System Wars Review Part 1 - Relthoza Ships

The final Zenian force in the System Wars Invasion ship release is the Relthoza, who I think got some amazing designs for their models - how do their stats stack up?

Now the Relthoza were a particular design challenge for invasion ships, because their cloaks give them a hellish advantage in trying to get to a position unmolested. So making tougher ships would be difficult, since it's already difficult to kill a cloaked Relthoza carrier. It's no surprise, therefore, that the ootheca is VERY similar to the stock Hive/Theridion - in fact she only differs in having double the AP in terms of headline stats. She also only has 2 WC compared to 8, so you'll probably be fielding interceptors or maybe support shuttles, and her weapons are much less prevalent being in just a single arc - Fore, where she's heading!

So, why would you take this ship? Well, MARs for one start to show the differences. The Ootheca has the Planetfall and Durable MARs, of course (the latter making her that bit less vulnerable to SRS which ignore cloaks). She comes stock with Self Repair, highlighting the durability aspect of the ship, even if she's few reasons to decloak normally. Also looking to Hardpoints, Stealth Systems is free rather than +10 points, again emphasising the defensive nature of the ship. That's fine for Planetfall, but what if we want a non-PF build?

The option here gives +4WC and also Quick Launch - that's a pretty massive reason right there. As the Relthoza have a huge 8" command distance, you're now talking about a 20" threat radius from embarked SRS...Ouch! You can also give her Second Assault, so now we've a permanently cloaked 20" SRS monster with 2 x 8AP boarding (and take a couple of Stinger/Wolf escorts and you can make it 10AP a time)...now if you also take a Theridion with Shunt Matrix (4), you're really going to mess with your enemy in terms of their assessment of how to defend against you. So, alone the Ootheca is a dark horse, but combined with other ships she suddenly becomes very interesting indeed.

The Cotesia is not a particularly rugged ship - again having the same base stats as a Gila or Assassin, but with +1 HP, twice the AP and more PD. Her weapons are close ranged and rather weak, and she has the standard Invasion ship MARs. As an invasion ship she will probably take +1 HP and make for the planet, but non-Planetfall? Well, the Relthoza have approached the Asasault cruiser from a slightly different angle, and her option is to take +3WC, but with a restriction on only taking Assault craft).

Now, for those of you who don't know what Cotesia means, they are a species of parasitic wasp - and that's really what this ship is. It skulks around the edges of the battlefield or shunts in, and performs boarding strikes while cloaked - it really has little reason to uncloak, since both its SRS and boarding assaults can be launched from the shadows. It preys on targets of opportunity, it's not meant to try to tough it out against other ships 1-2-1...that's not the way the Relthoza play. Is it going to be everyone's cup of tea? Most likely not, since the Relthoza can be a tricky force to get right, but used carefully this squadron could snatch a large ship late game and seal victory.

The Ichneumon (another parasitic wasp) is another tough little invasion ship, also with 3 Hull Points, making it difficult to remove with crits. It additionally has the Relthoza Systems Network MAR, granting it Stealth Systems from other Cloaked vessels, meaning you need to get in close to really have a chance of taking it down. It can take an additional PD, giving it almost invulnerability to long-range torpedo snipes when combined with SS granted from SN.

For the non-Planetfall version, it can take a cloaking field. This was dismissed by a lot of people (including me, when I first saw the proposal, I thought "What's the point?"), but read those MARs again. The ship has Systems Network, which grants Stealth Systems to other Systems Network ships in Command Distance. This has traditionally meant Relthoza smalls have to cluster around capital ships (since no prior smalls had SN). The Ichneumon breaks that tradition - for 75 points you gain a 16" x 48" band of Stealth Systems granting cover to your fleet on a 4/5 Cloaked Difficult Target with no reason to ever decloak - that's an ability I'd really like, and will be, taking advantage of in my Relthoza fleets of the future - Terran nukes? Who cares???

System Wars Review Part 1 - Directorate Ships

Next in the line-up of System Wars invasion ships are the nefarious Directorate, and we start with their Assault Carrier, the nicely-named Integration;

The Integration is a typical Directorate approach to invasion ships. Standard Carrier type hull with DR5 CR9 and 7 HP, but with a cruiser-level speed of 9". Also, instead of a cloaking field she has a respectable 2 Shields and 6PD, plus the Durable MAR. You can remove the latter for another Shield, giving her Terran-levels of protection, or go for broke by boosting her Planetfall value and knocking off a single shield. This gives you a wide range of basic builds in terms of protection/utility balance.

She only starts with 3 WC, but can boost that to standard carrier level of 6, and her weapon systems are respectable but short-ranged, similar to the Heavy cruiser. Base AP is actually lower than a standard carrier (as is CP), but you can boost this to 10AP in a non-Planetfall build, and upgrade these to Special Forces with a Second Assault option.

This makes for some interesting builds - you can make a non-Planetfall shield heavy (and this very durable) close-assault option with interceptors or support shuttles, or go for less protection and increase the WC and go for Assault Craft too - that's now quite a scary boarding threat.

Her accompaniment is a couple of Liquidator Class Frigates, which then give her a 15AD RB2 beam attack, which you can make Biohazard too - not shabby. In either of these forms, she makes a pretty lethal shunt-bomb. Planetfall wise, she's fast and hardy, and able to protect herself from most threats.

Next is the slightly more aggressively named Appropriation assault cruiser. The model is almost as big as the Integration, and she reflects this with base stats almost as high as the carrier - Dr5 CR8 is better than the much-lauded Justice heavy cruiser, though HP5 reflects the more modular nature of the craft compared to that ship and the Integration.

She comes stock with a single shield, and can either boost this to 2 or make up that 6th HP. Her AP is relatively low at 3, but the non-Planetfall version of this boosts it to 5, again the same as the heavy cruiser. In fact, many comparisons will be made to that ship as she stacks up very favourably. In non-Planetfall build, you can make her pretty similar for 65 points compared to the Justice's 80.

Now the Justice is more survivable due to her cloak, but the Appropriation brings higher CR plus a shield, and no attenuation of her weapons for less points. So once again we have difficult choices, and with decent weapons (5/6/3/-), a squad puts out decent mid-level firepower in a very hard shell, with a scary boarding threat to finish. I could see commanders running a squad of each, which would be difficult to face to say the least.

The Induction...your culture's first step into the Directorate way of life...sounds so organised and efficient, doesn't it? :-)

The Induction is a cruiser-hard hull with Reinforced Fore, Durable and Difficult Target (this makes it more difficult to kill than a Directorate cruiser!), standard Directorate Frigate movement, good PD and 2 AP. You can remove the Planetfall MAR and give it Bigger Batteries, which make it quite an efficient SRS sweeper. It's also cheap. Having the unmanned MAR protects it from decrewing, and whilst it makes it theoretically vulnerable to boarding, it will always get 3 dice from PD and AP to defend itself, and who's going to waste a boarding action on them?

Now I think I saw someone pick up on this, but with 2AP each they give you an 8AP shunt board you're paying 80 points for. Pay 100 points and the PD threat to SRS is even greater, and their durability against them and torpedoes much higher. That to me is an interesting option. In fact, I'd not bother shunting them, I'd have them on the board, because if someone wants to waste firepower on them, they're welcome, they can shoot down enemy SRS quite efficiently (a squadron should take out, on average, at least 1 wing per activation), and they're a constant boarding threat. That's not a bad threat profile for a small investment. I may well be adding another box...

System Wars Review Part 1 - Dindrenzi Ships

Continuing the System Wars ships analysis, next in the book are the Dindrenzi....let's start with the Legion:

So as we already saw, the model is a real monster - how do the stats stack up against that expectation? Well, pretty well actually - the Legion is just one CR off a standard Battleship in terms of toughness, and 1HP off in durability - so straightaway she is one of the toughest invasion ships, and certainly a very tough ship to carry a carrier tagline. At almost the same base cost as a Battleship, she's also the most expensive invasion ship across the board.

Weapons-wise, she has the same rail cannon as a Cataphract, but as they're on separate rails it's nice to see her Gunrack is much more substantial. She also carries 7 wings base, so potentially an 18AD Bomber strike too - all of this makes her a good mid-short range brawler. A base 7AP also means she's dangerous close-in, and that coupled with 6PD make her difficult to take with an assault. She has a massive Planetfall 6 value, which you can further boost to 8 at the cost of most of her wings.

So already she's got a good solid baseline of stats, and looking at Hardpoints and Upgrades ,you can tailor her to be more wing or assault focussed. The non-Planetfall option adds 3AP, making her 10AP, to which you could add Launch tubes, Second Assault and Assault Blitz - that's nasty. Of course now you're paying 210 points for her without wings, 245 with. You'll probably want Deck Crews too, topping her out at 255 points.

Interestingly - especially with her decent Gunrack, you can add Retarius escorts, which make the broadside output from her pretty formidable....though you're now at a Dreadnought cost of 300 points.

Then we have the Drawback - if you're looking at this thinking how on earth do I counter a monster like this at Patrol fleet, well, you're in luck. The Legion takes TWO Tier 1 slots in a Patrol fleet, meaning you can't field it in Invasion missions (as Planetfall ships don't fill mandatory Tier requirements). Of course you can take the Behemoth version in non-planetfall, but you've now invested 40% of your points in a single squadron - the main ship of which is DR6 with no shields....

Again, it's all about these difficult choices and options. Does the Legion give a Dindrenzi player new options? Definitely yes. Will Legions been seen to the exclusion of other Tier 1 options from now on? I really don't think so. I'm sure they will see action, but they will be amongst Nausica and Praetorians and Gunships and so on. It represents a very Dindrenzi, completely unsubtle approach to invasion, and that is to cram a massive obvious block of armour and guns into the throat of the enemy before he can destroy it. I like it a lot!

Speaking of a lack of subtlety. here comes the Castra. This is a veritable slab of a ship, with DR/CR not far off many Battleships, 6HP and decent movement. It turns like a shopping cart, but it does have a decent (if short-ranged) gunrack. It has 5AP, and the removal of Planetfall adds second assault, plus the upgrades allow these to have Assault Blitz, meaning you can pull of decent boarding assault on relatively undamaged ships.

That's about as complicated as the Castra gets. The other trick up its sleeve is that the squadron can add an accompaniment of Buckler Escorts, boosting linked squadron PD up to 10 and outgoing firepower to quite nasty levels. Still, for 185 points, a 16", 16AD threat isn't so bad...200 points and next activation thats likely to be followed by a 10AP Assault Blitz boarding assault. Not cheap per se, but another point of utility in fleet building and keeping your opponent guessing.

Last in the Dindrenzi line is the Scuta Frigate, which has the stats of a Terran Cruiser, but the standard DT instead of a Terran shield. It also has Three, yes - 3, Hull Points, making it VERY hard to get rid of these ships. It can upgrade its already high AP, but then it doesn't have the high squad size to keep it intact like other invasion smalls.

For its non-planetfall build, it can change from being a simple frigate to a dedicated escort. With that innate hardness and high PD, that could make it an interesting alternative to SRS cover. It's expensive, however, at 25 points a pop, but imagine a legion with three of these covering it on the way in to a planet! As they count as a Zenian League Escort, adding one of these to any capital ship that can take them will almost guarantee a 4 PD baseline defence even after heavy damage, meaning your vulnerability to torpedoes, SRS and boarding is hugely reduced. Taking them down is going to be a massive PITA, and require some dedicated high levels of firepower.

So once again, we see a set of different options for both invasion missions and non-planetfall use. They won't be to everyone's meta, nor will they necessarily be auto-takes where they fit, but they provide choice, which is always a good thing in my opinion.