Hobby catch up...

Six months since my last post... but I've still been busy!

After the last posts Antares odyssey, I have found myself pulled in many hobby directions. I have enjoyed the Antares game, but on the local front it has proved to be a bit of a hard sell. Those who were gracious enough to give it a go, were still more keen to stick with their original love of 40K, despite several also now being Bolt Action players...

Also during this time, I came to the conclusion as a side thought that I ought to at least have an army of my own for each of the primary games that I now sell. So having long been absent from the Warhammer worlds both fantasy and Sci-fi, I took steps to enter the GW realm once more.

First port of call was Age of Sigmar. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'd had a couple of games of this new system and found them enjoyable and easy to play. And so after a bit of thought I decided to go with a Chaos army, themed primarily as Slaanesh and Slaves to Darkness mix... of the Chaos Gods Slaanesh always caught my attention the most... I loved the whole excess, seduction, temptation angle... it really seemed the clever beguiling side of evil I liked the idea of... not the blunt instrument of Khorne, nor the repulsive rot of Nurgle, or the....weirdness... of Tzeentch...



The humble Chaos Warrior has always struck me as the resolute foot soldier of evil... unswerving, marching steadily on remorselessly... I liked that image... they would be my infantry centre... The flanks would be traditional fast cavalry and what better than Seekers and Hellstriders...








back this up with a Warshrine, an Exhalted Chariot and more... its been great fun, and on the painting side too... my little girl had often asked why I needed pink paint to paint my toy soldiers... well now I could give her a reason...





The Herald above and Masque below, these too little minx's are a lot of mischief in a small package...



The beauty of 'going demon' is its no big leap to use them in the AoS's sister game too ... 40K... grab some Chaos Marines and you've got the same idea in the future setting...










So two new armies on the go... but of course I cant only do one army for each setting, as I have to do one for son-and-heir too to fight against on the home front... so there is also a fledgling Dark Angels Army on the go , along with StormCast Eternals... lovely models, cant wait to get some of the winged ones...

And on that topic I really cant wait for the new 40K stuff to come out, we've got a heap of pre-orders so thanks guys for your support its been awesome :)

Roll on the 17th!

Still on the GW front, LOTR has still been getting some love... Some Fell Wargs have been finished and more goodies are on the way as I still try and work through the LOTR bunker of unpainted goodies...



Diversifying back to Warlord, and Bolt Action is still getting some attention, and a 250/1 Ausf D finished recently to add to my Krauts... An extra armoured MMG to transport my CO in...

And on the topic of Bolt Action, the local club KWC is hosting a 1 day 800pts themed day on 1st July so get your self along if able!

And back to where this post started ... I finished off the last plastic Concord squad from my Xilos starter set.... still more to add to this army,. but they've slipped down the painting ladder as GW rises to the fore...

Hope to catch up again, in the not too distant future... 

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/