February (and January) Releases for Infinity!

Still playing catch-up I'm afraid... and although the January releases aren't actually news anymore I enjoy writing my little blurbs about the new minis so I'll post two months worth of releases in this one article. I'll start with February though as those are actually hot off the presses as it were. Then you can continue and read about my thoughts on the January stuff if you feel so inclined. :)

The first Crusader Brethren was released back in October and was well received by the community, although I wasn't all that impressed myself (not really a knight fan), and here's the HMG version. It's already been previewed at Beasts of War and has been ridiculed for its little Hopscotch skip! Of course it's supposed to look like he's just landing from his air drop and you can see that if you actively keep it in your minds eye as you look at the mini. But as soon as you stop thinking it he's back to hopscotching! Well... for me anyway. There's also something about the loincloth that rubs me the wrong way - which is understandable as long loincloths like this are hard to get right I think. I sound awfully negative which I don't want to as I really like the design of the mini, it's just the pose that's a bit awkward.

Next up a box of Bao Troops which is something I've been looking forward to since I got my Paradiso book. With a solid statline, a decent selection of anti-infantry weapons and Multispectral Visor 2 the Bao provide a relatively cheap alternative for anti-camo duty. The concept art that we saw a while back looked brilliant but I don't think sculptor Javier Ureña has managed to capture it quite as well as I hoped. Again it's the loincloth that throws the models off balance a little. For a moment I also thought we saw the return of the infamous combat high-heels when I saw the Bao, but that's an effect of the concavity of the shin guards, and perhaps the angle of the photo. Now, I'm nitpicking a bit here as I think the rest of the model looks great and it looks like you can leave the loincloth off if you want. In any case I'll be getting a box for sure!

Aww... our beloved Ko Dali truly has been sepsitorised and turned into an agent of the Combined Army. While I would have prefered a new model for the regular Yu Jing version of her I can't deny that this model really is spectacular! Obviously the inspiration has been Kerrigan from Starcraft but CB has been able to put their own touch upon it of course. The large wing like structures will make her hard to hide though, and I'm not sure I'd use the "tail" thing if I got the model myself. In game the new and improved(?) Ko Dali is quite a scary CQB monster with two assault pistols and a nano-pulser. She's still fairly fragile though, so until she's been able to absorb some extra wounds from downed models through Protheion it might be best not to use her too aggressively.

Another mercenary box and another reason for me to start a Qapu Khalqi army! These new Kaplan Tactical Services are some of my favourite Infinity miniatures released so far! The Spitfire KTS that was released a while back was ok, but a hunched, slightly static pose short-changed the the model I think. Here we get a few different poses that, while still hunched, really help to bring out the cool design of these mercs. Again I think we've got some video game inspiration going on here as the KTS look quite similar to the Combine soldiers from Half-Life 2. I just want to get these guys and the Druse and paint them in a kind of police-esque colour theme of dark blue and off-white (again, like the Combine)! Damnit! How am I ever going to complete a faction with cool stuff like this being released all the time?!

Finally we have the mandatory Tohaa release, this month in the form of their AD troop Gao-Tarsos. Now I quite like what I've seen of the Tohaa so far, with the Spec-Ops being my favourite, but none of the models have really impressed me enough to start considering getting some Tohaa of my own. Until now. This guy sculpted by Jose Luis Roig is absolutely awesome! This is a perfect example of how to make a good looking dynamic pose that looks natural (which is ironic as Jose also sculpted the hopscotching Crusader Brethren). The big jump/drop back on his back looks nicely hi-tech and alien at the same time and the helmet simply looks badass. I really hope we get to see the HMG version soon enough as I would want to have as many as possible of these if I ever start collecting Tohaa. Do have a look at the larger and better pictures at Angel Giraldez blog.

So in summary a good month overall, although I think the Bao could have been a little better and that Crusader Brethren will always be the butt of jokes when on the field. On the other hand Ko Dali, the KTS and the Gao-Tarsos are altogether brilliance and great examples of what you can expect from CB at regular intervals. My favourite model of the month has to be the Gao-Tarsos although I think it'll be a while before I actually own one myself. Now... let's take a quick look back on January as well...

 Ariadnian Briscards. Very nice, realistic looking sculpts, although the different size (scale?!) of the Sniper Rifle compared to the rest of the guns look somewhat silly.

 Yu Jing Celestial Guard Hacker. Quite a surprise to see a model for the CG hacker, but a very welcome one as it's probably the Yu Jings most cost-effective hacker. The updated CG model looks great and I hope that some day in the future we might see resculpts with this kind of detail for the rest as well.

 Tohaa Gao-Rael. Sinister looking medium infantry that I quite like. The small weapons of the Tohaa helps to add that hi-tech feel I think. 

 ALEPH Support Pack. Nothing new here, move along. Good mix of stuff though. Definitely a good box to pick up for a fledgling ALEPH player.

Wildcats. I liked the earlier Spitfire Wildcat but this girl is even better! Some people have complained about the pose and that it's a bit "too much" and the hair doesn't seem all that popular either. Both work for me though, and I'd be happy to have this Wildcat in my army if I played Nomads.

My favourite January model is definitely the unassuming but very well sculpted Celestial Guard hacker, closely followed by the Wildcat. Seeing as I'd like to try out playing the ISS I could see an ALEPH support box in my future as well. 

Speaking of the future the rumoured releases for March are ALEPH Penthesilia (motorcycles, woo!), a box of Nomad Reverand Moiras (resculpts methink), a box of Tohaa Chaksas, Shasvaasti Haiduk, Caledonian Volunteer HMG and a PanO support box. Some new Moiras would certainly be welcome and ALEPH motorcycles sounds awesome! Roll on March!

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A Delayed Update

Twilight Imperium in full swing!

Hello out there! Sorry for the lack of updates recently. You might remember I said I'd post a tactics article on how to play the with the Rebel fleet in X-Wing. Unfortunately I chose to type it out in Word for some reason and I ended up deleting it by mistake when it was pretty much finished. This made me a bit frustrated and I couldn't find the energy to blog for a while. Plus I'm simply lazy. Haha! Don't worry though, the tactics article will make a re-appearence further on once I've absorbed the new Wave 2 ships. I have been busy playing games though so I thought I'd post a quick round-up of my gaming and geeking activities this past month.

First off, Ed from Two Hour Wargames sent me a review copy of the recently released 5150 Star Navy and I've managed to get a couple of games in. It's been an interesting experience since it's quite different from your run of the mill Full Thrust-esque game. It's more about the big scale stuff and just as much about what happens between battles as what happens during them. Some more games are needed before I feel ready to write a proper review though.

I realised that I had forgotten my GZG ships so we used figures from Twilight Imperium instead. 

Worked great!

Not only was it fun to play Star Navy it also resparked my dormant passion for spaceship gaming! I've been come to the conclusion that what I'm lacking the most right now is carriers and fighter craft, so my next order from Jon at GZG will include some for both the FSE and the UNSC. I have also been looking through my collection of Babylon 5 Earth Alliance ships and managed to get hold of some old Starfury fighters for them (although I think I might use them for my UNSC as well) so there might be some B5 in the future as well.

Great haul but... sad. 

In more spaceship news I got a whole box full of Lightning Strike/Jovian Chronicles models from DP9. Awesome... yes, but it was a bitter-sweet package to get as they've now discontinued their JC line of miniatures. Jovian Chronicles have been one of my great sci-fi/RPG inspirations since I got hold of the first edition book back in the late nineties. I've always wanted put together two proper fleets of Jovian and CEGA forces, but the large scale difference between the ships and the EXOs (mecha) and the price of the models you need most of have meant I kept postponing it. Now, in this final order I only bought ships as I couldn't afford enough EXOs to fill out a fleet.

Instead I'm planning to get fleet scale mecha from different sources. There are the Japanese fighters from GZG and there's a whole bunch of different variants on Shapeways (like these), besides Eli's sculpts available from 15mm.co.uk. I've even considered doing my own 3D models of Jovian Chronicles EXOs in fleet scale and print using Shapeways. I've always wanted to learn 3D modelling so this might be a good way to start. Expect to read more about Jovian Chronicles going forward, I'm not letting it go that easily!

Oh, and being inspired by both this thread on TMP and by watching the altoghether excellent remake of the original Space Battleship Yamato / Starblazers (Yamato 2199) I painted one of my Earthforce cruisers and have started working on other ships as well. I've just been using simple block colouring as it gives the model a bit more of a cartoon feel.

Hopefully the first of many.

As for the new anime series, I really can't recommend it enough! It's nothing like the absolutely awful live action film released a couple of years ago. Yamato 2199 simply modernises the original series and have made it more logical and removed some of the over the top sillyness. There are some additional characters as well and the space battles are gorgeous! Check it out!

Turn one. My fleet is lined up in formation to take over the galaxy!

Next up we played a six player game of Twilight Imperium which was a lot of fun! We haven't played it for close to a year I think as we burned out a little on it last time. I got to play the Yssaril tribes who are generally considered to be the best race, with their ability to skip turns and hoard action cards. It was a fairly close game with only the Mentak player lagging seriously behind. After having been at it for about nine hours we decided to end the game as if the Game Over card had been drawn. There were three of us sharing first place at eight victory points - me, Letnev and Sarr - but since I had the most completed objectives I was the victor. Yay! Now, don't let the nine hour play time scare you off. We take it very slow and this includes breaks for eating and lots of talking on the side. We do have another game lined up for next week that I'm looking forward to!

Finally... I've payed my first Infinity campaign game! You all probably know that I hold Infinity in very high regard, but the excellent rules and the beautiful models have sometimes feel wasted on simple deathmatch games like we've been playing up until now. Sure, there are loads of fan made scenarios, but having an official scenario/campaign book like Paradiso feels like the final piece of the puzzle being slotted in!

That's no Pangguling, I hear you say. Well, that T/O marker IS a ninja so... ha!

We (of course) played the first scenario, Data Recovery, and my opponent was the mercenary heavy Qapu Khalqi. He fielded a group of Kaplan Tactical Service, a group of Odalisques sprinkled with some specialists and a remote. I had a very diverse list featuring several different hackers (going from a Shang Ji to a Ninja) some light infantry, a couple of remotes, an Engineer and finally a Tiger Soldier and a Daofei to lay down the hurt.

My opponent seized the initiative early and analyzed the first alien tech which revealed where the relevant data was located. Unfortunately for me my opponent had that area well covered by a Odalisque with a Spitfire. He dropped two Yuan Yuan who threw smoke all over the place and allowed his engineer to get close to the alien tech. The tide turned when I brought in my Tiger Soldier armed with a HMG though! With the greater range of the HMG and the Mimetism to make him harder to hit the Tiger Soldier pretty much cleaned house on my left flank, allowing my engineer to make her way to the alien tech and download the data. She made it back to the Pangguling remote but failed the upload roll. Grrr!

On the right flank my Shang Ji charged forward and torched a couple of KTS operatives. That meant my opponent was in retreat and his last few models ran off the table. This of course meant that I didn't have any more chances to try and upload the data and I won with a measly two points! Sometimes it doesn't pay to kill your opponent!

It was a fun game and playing a detailed scenario like this really shows off all the cool stuff in Infinity that you normally don't see in tournament style games. In most of these scenarios Baggage Remotes are either mandatory or helps you greatly if you bring them and although I've got a couple of Pangguling I hadn't managed to assemble them in time for the game. This weekend I took time to put them together and magnetise them though and they certainly are cute little buggers!

The total reaction version.

I need to put together my spec-ops model as well and then it's time for painting!

That's most of what I've been up to. Expect another post going through the new Infinity releases I missed last month as well as the new ones for February (Bao troops!!) tomorrow or so...

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