Continuing the Antares journey

Back in August last year I think it was, I took an exploratory dive into the Antares universe, and since that time, I've beevered away, building armies, trying out the game and roping in some of the locals to give the game a whirl, to whom I am very grateful; David, Jayden, Paul, Robert, Garry and Chris, please take a bow!

The game took a wee while to get to grips with, and whilst being conversant with Bolt Action certainly helped, there are certainly differences between the two games. And indeed Bolt Action itself has gone through a revision since then, incorporating some of the ideas from Antares... like the Follow or Snap to order mechanism.

Similarly we've had another game come along which appears to have then taken some hybridized route between the two games; Konflikt-47... which has incorporated the idea of Reactions from Antares but didn't adopt the other changes that came along with the upgrade to Bolt Action2...

But I digress, back to Antares and I have to say I have really enjoyed getting my head around the game, and it's more classic or 'high sci-fi' setting, if that's the right way to describe it...?

It's background is certainly a refreshing change to the doom and gloom laden milieu of another certain well established sci-fi game...

I have found the differing human races that feature there make the game easy  to get your head round, yet each with a unique character of their own.

There are no other true alien race armies as such in their own right, the Tsan-Ra being one exception but even they are an allied squad with the Isorian force.

I am sure we will see an Alien race in the not too distant future... the name Vorl has been whispered in dark corners and we await with bated breath to see how they will eventuate.

The game is still relatively in its infancy and many of the described larger vehicles are yet to have models produced for them, making the game a largely infantry affair. But I am happy to say the guys at Warlord are steadily producing figures and vehicles to complete and expand on the range.

Having listened to the podcast the Freeborn Shard it's been interesting getting a glimpse of the mind of the games creator and how he plans to take it forward... Rick Priestley none the less.

Rather than coming up with an army list or revision of one and then trying to get all the models churned out for it before the next revision is due, Rick has this time taken the approach of adding story arc supplements which add and expand on the existing ranges, rather than replacing wholesale...

That was one of the reasons I dumped 40k many aeons ago... I had started collecting squats and collected and painted a whole army...only  to see them canned ... I then switched to orks only to see a codex revision that made redundant half of what I had bought and painted.... even now the company continues to revamp it's ranges forcing you to try and keep up...  

So nice to see a more reasonable approach to developing and expanding on a game  system....

Antares plays well, and if you've enjoyed Bolt Action, and like sci-fi, then you really should give it a go. Admittedly the Xilos stater set, whilst good value, was a little tough to get to grips with, largely due to the number of special rules attached to the Ghar race.

The new Kar'a 9 set is a much better intro to the game with two well matched regular infantry forces. And great value again. And with an easy intro version of the rules to break you in gently.

So again I say give it a go... you won't be disappointed.

I will be taking our Hobby Corner stall to the Hutt Miniatures clubs Valley Con event this weekend... and whilst there will also be demo-ing  Antares with mate Chris Pooch, and no doubt ably assisted by mate Dave Oemcke.

Here's some pics of the troops and scratchbuilt terrain I've been working on... (thanks again to Bala Menzies for helping out with some of these buildings)

Boromites

Concord troopers

Concord Drones

 Concord and Boromite Comparison

 Xilos Beasties - Drummer and Snappers

My painted Concord so far... still more to finish and Ghar to finish too...

Anyone with any good links to other Antares related blogs or websites... feel free to add then in the comments.

Some links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gatesofantares/

Farmhouse completed.

A few pics of the completed farmhouse I showed earlier...

I decided to just go with a predominantly grey stone colour scheme, with a few areas of yellow or red bricks...

I did crop down the length of the chimney to protect against breaks. I just got it painted and Chris dropped it and snapped the chimney off! Thankfully it was a clean break and glued back together ok.

The internals again just whitewashed and a stained balsa wood floor. An opening front door too.

And some Krauts to show possible occupancy.

Well that's my second building done. I have something a little bigger planned next ... Watch this space. 

WIP - Another farmhouse for Bolt Action

Been breaking out the styrofoam again and have another building on the go. A little more ambitious this time, a two story farmhouse, with two seperate levels and removable roof. 

 

Balsa for floors, matchsticks for windows, card for roof. Just need to card shingle the roof now and then on with painting. A door and chimney pot will complete the build. 

Will post more when finished. 

Farm cottage for Bolt Action

With getting into Bolt Action, one small problem is not having much in the way of suitable scaled buildings for WWII. 

So I made a small farm cottage to start off my options ... 

Constructed mostly of dense blue foam ( Styrofoam) card stock for roof and shingles, matchsticks for window and door frames and some balsa for floor and door. 

Front above and rear below ..

At first I was just going to have it a solid building, but then decided since it was for skirmish gaming, to have a lift off roof so I sawed the roof off!

So that meant painting the inside as well and giving it a floor...

A US sniper team takes up position above...

And Chris then pleaded for it to have a opening door... So more balsa and some simple glued on card stock hinges effected the door... 

Sniper changes position to shoot out the doorway... 

So that's the first one done. Would ideally have been my 'defensive terrain' entry for the painting challenge but I was no where  near completed at that stage.

It may actually do for other periods too and maybe even LOTR as a Breeland building?

More to come.

Ruins of Osgiliath (GW) - WIP

A recent great deal with Dave Docherty, netted me some LOTR goodies over Xmas...

Now the Painting challenge is in full swing, and I should be painting, but I find it hard to sit inside on a sunny summer day, and I can't paint outside, but I can trim models... so I trimmed and put together one of these sets of ruins...

They went together quite well, but there were a few gaps to fill - I used DAS clay.

Once the clay was dry I went over with thinned PVA and sand to give them a more dusty/rubbly look...

I've just based undercoat sprayed them, ready for some paint later...

I do rather like these as they have some thickness to them, and have detail on boths sides. And I belive you can add sets together or stick bits on in differing places for variety. I'll see what I do with sets 2 + 3.

I think they will also do for other settings too -  Pirates exploring a lost ruin on a Desert Isle or, the ruins of the old Abbey for Empire of the Dead...

Ruins of Middle-Earth

Having recently got some Gondorian soldiery ready to play with in the game, I felt it was high time I got some suitable scenery made...

The classic battle ground to be fought over for Good and Evil is the once mighty Capital city of Osgiliath, which at the time of the War of the Ring finds itself in ruins... a no-mans land almost, between the forces of Gondor and Mordor as each sides vies for supremacy...  each occupying it for a time as they seize it from the hands of their foe...

So I had a rummage in the off-cuts box of Styrofoam I had, with bits left over from the Durins Causeway build, and set to with the hot wire cutter...

The Stryfoam sheet was 25mm thick, too thick really for basic building walls at this scale , so the off cuts I sliced in half to make approx 12mm thick sheet pieces... These I then scored on a brick pattern 10mm x 20mm, with a black biro...

Made a nice piece with some arches and added a blasa wood floor level... some coarse sand glued on for rubble effects...

Then painted up with craft paints. Grey base coat then white to pick out the bricks... Very simple and inexpensive...

I consciously decided not to base them as I get frustrated when base edges of terrain cause models to topple over...

Some Gondorians defend the ruins above...

A decent start - I've got lots of ideas to elaborate on these first simple designs...