Sci-Fi AAR: Starship Troopers

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Friend Neil and I finally managed to get together for a wargame: with Neil bringing a 6mm Starship Troopers game to the party.

This was immense fun as I took command of three platoons of Mobile Infantry and tried to complete various missions in the face of extreme Bug attack!

My tactics of hanging back at one end of the table and concentrating fire on the Bugs as they came at me piecemeal worked quite well, but it was the bombers that really made the difference.

Highly recommended as an afternoon’s entertainment, and thanks to Neil for running the game.

The Rest of the Itu'a

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When you have your painting mojo fully engaged, you can churn out units almost at will!

Yesterday's post mentioned the first of the Itu'a units from the Itu'a box from the lead mountain, today's post is the rest of them: a platoon of kalat warbeasts and their supporting bio-mortars.

These are big figures for a 15mm range. Khurasan describes them as: "Massive, three-meter-tall Kalat warbeasts lumber amongst the myriads, one type providing even heavier fire support from arm cannons, another deadly close combat power with massive crab-like claws. A third type of massive Kalat deploys further to the rear, in bio-batteries of three, breeding toxic bio-mortar bombs in an egg chamber mounted on their carapace -- from these they feed the bombs into their arm mortars to launch toward enemy lines."

The figures in the picture are mounted on 2p pieces (just over 2cm across), so you can see how big they are. The bio-mortars are even taller.

So that's the Itu'a done for the moment, and so great was the impetus they provided that I've re-done my Hive gallery in the Q13 section of this website. Here's the Hive massed and ready for action:

First of the Itu'a

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Having got my painting mojo back with the Astagar, it was time to pull the next box out of the lead mountain and see what was in it.

I have far too many boxes in the mountain at the moment: some of them literally unopened!

What tends to happen is that I happily paint and play for a couple of months and then suddenly realise that (a) I have money in my PayPal account and (b) there are loads of new releases that I haven't bought yet...particularly 15mm sci-fi releases that, if I don't buy now, could disappear forever if, as is so often the case, the manufacturer goes out of business. I then end up manically buying everything new that, of course, all arrives at once, and ends up in the lead mountain cupboard.

This particular box was from Khurasan Miniatures: a controversial company (Wikipedia IABSM scandal, TMP sock-puppet scandal) which produces an amazing range of figures, both historical and sci-fi. 

I have lots of both, and this particular box contained sci-fi figures from their Itu'a range: an insectoid/carapace-heavy race that I intend to include into my Hive army.

First up is an Itu'a Swarm: a platoon of "Myriads, who are smaller than humans but armed with long biorifles and a set of pincers with which they can more than hold their own in close assault".

These are very nice. Despite their ridiculously sized commander (at least 30mm tall) the main body are proper 15mm figures that paint up very nicely indeed. I've chosen to paint them in my Hive colours of various shades of dry-brushed red, but the picture on the Khurasan site shows what you can do with them if you can actually paint.

Next up are the Itu'a Kalat warbeasts: more scale creep!

Assault Crabs from Khurasan Miniatures

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Originally posted 9th August 2014

I've been wanting to get these Assault Crabs from Khurasan for my Hive army some time. 

Although the picture doesn't show it very well, these models have a lovely layered, shell-like back that dry brushes up really nicely. I used several ever-lightening shades of red, then orange and finally a very, very light brush of yellow. Turned out really well.

Q13 Army Lists

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Originally posted 4th March 2013

As an example of how Q13 army lists can constantly evolve, I have also re-organised my Space Bug, Hive and Stikk army lists. 

The Space Bugs are now the pure Highlander Studio range, unpolluted by other figure manufacturers. 

Now that I've actually built and painted a Skuttler tank from Khurasan's Stikk (Entomol) range, I've realised that the antennae on its, er, rear end are just crying out to be defined as having an EWSO function. So the list has been changed to reflect that.

Finally, I've now gathered together all my red bug-types into one mashed together army list called The Hive. This contains Highlander's Space Bugs; some of Khurasan's Stikk range; and a few other bits and pieces. We'll see who wins next time we play "Invasion Earth"!

Odonate Gunships for the Hive

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Originally posted 8th February 2013

Reinforcements for the Space Bugs in the shape of some Odonate Gunships from Khurasan's excellent Stikk range. Regular visitors may recall how the Bugs were soundly squished by WW2 Americans in my last Q13 "Invasion Earth" encounter. These flyers will hopefully address the balance!

Q13 Army Lists

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Originally posted 8th January 2013

I've updated three Q13 army lists on the site: the Space Bugs from Highlander Studios (a few tweaks following the game, below); the Quar from Zombiesmith (to take into account their new Coftyran releases); and WWW2 Americans with experimental weapons from Clockwork Goblin (tweaks and new releases). I've also added the Stikk (a.k.a. the Entomal) range of bugs from Khurasan.

Space Bugs

The Quar

WWW2 US

The Stikk

 

Christmas Painting Part 1

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Originally posted 7th January 2012

With the forthcoming launch of my IABSM-based, company-sized, sci-fi rules, I also spent a lot of time painting sci-fi figures. The biggest holiday project was painting up the Chewks from Khurasan: they are cracking models a bit like the Jawas from Star Wars.

One of the best things about Khurasan is that they make an effort to produce figures that will give you more than just infantry squads: as a rule, each of their ranges (and they have many!) have infantry, command, support weapon and vehicle models...and lovely models they are too. Particularly good are the Chewk drilltanks: vast tunnelling AFVs which come with option to have a chewkannon artillery piece mounted on a boom arm. Here they are in troop carrying mode: click to go to the gallery to see the whole range.

Other manufacturers are also realising that they need to produce entire ranges rather than just infantry squad models. Highlander Studios, manufacturers of the excellent Space Bug range, have augmented their basic offering with anti-tank, anti-aircraft and flamethrower teams: also painted up over Xmas.

Finally we go back to Khurasan again for some APCs for the Karkarine Landser "shark-headed" infantry from their Pelagic Dominate range. Called, appropriately, Karkwagons, these are all plastic kits that are really nice to paint. They seem a bit small for the size of the Karks themselves i.e. it looks like it would be a tight fit to get a squad of seven inside...but they will look good on the tabletop anyway!

​So that was Christmas 2011: a couple of cracking games of IABSM3 (see the AAR below) and a load of painting. About 150 foot and nine vehicles: not Kev standards, but not bad! Roll on 2012!

Air Power for Q13

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Originally posted 2nd September 2011

Air power is proving an important part of the new, full-length version of the sci-fi rules based on IABSM that I'm writing. With that in mind, I thought I'd better reinforce my ground troops with a selection of aerial drones: sort of uber-Predators.

All the drones, below, come from Spartan Games' excellent range of starships for theirFirestorm Armada game. They paint up very easily, and I would highly recommend them to people looking for this kind of thing. Each of the drone models, below, is about 3-4cms long, so ideal 15mm drone size. So, for my sci-fi armies, we have...

Lilypad Drones for the Aphids: 

Stalker Drones for the Felids:

And Cone Drones for the Spug contingent of the Hive:

Those of you who have followed some of the AAR on this site will know what a pain this type of drone has proved to me in the past: time to arrange a game with Neil for payback!