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To start out this blog, I'll go through a bit of the somewhat love/hate history I've had with the game in the past. If you're not interesting in my not-so-short tale of gaming love found and lost, I'd suggest skipping ahead to the pic below and then the next post.

My interest in Heavy Gear started out back in the mid-90's when a friend and I saw an ad for the upcoming RPG Heavy Gear in the Gencon Program guide. We both were intrigued by the art and the idea of smaller mech combat and were fans of DP9's prior works (both of us owned copies of Protoculture Addict and the Macross II Robotech books). When we played a few games at Gencon, we both were hooked (and ironically earned playtesting credit for the second HG book published!). I started up a Northern force while my friend collected the South. Unfortunately, DP9 decided to switch editions around two years later as well as completely change the scale of the minis from then on and both of our collections were now not really compatible with future products. We both decided not to buy HG products anymore (and my friend got out of minis in general) and for the next almost 10 years my only involvement with the game was playing a convention game here and there (including playing penny-marker vectore based Jovian Chronicles and Gear Krieg back when it was just gears with little WWII plastic infantry bits glued onto the minis!). During that time, HG came out with new revisions of the core same books roughly every 3 years and eventually ended up with Blitz. After getting some assurances from the guys at DP9 at Gencon that Blitz (which came out a few months earlier) was here to stay, I got back into the game mainly because of the new minis, which reminded me in shape/style alot more of the old RAFM ones than the tactical ones did. Unfortunately, two years later Locked and Loaded was announced as replacing the four Blitz books that had been published to date and a promised free PDF update never materialized. With my book collection phased out yet again, I was back out of the HG hobby (and so was my FLGS which had their entire blitz collection made unsellable just like with their previous HG sets).

Recently, I stumbled onto an incredible deals on Southern minis for Heavy Gear. After a few years of not really paying attention to HG (other than the occasional nerdrage post in Balance's threads here), I found myself contemplating visiting Terra Nova again. Forewarned by my prior experiences, I started looking for news of another edition change as it had been a couple years since L&L came out and was due for an early DP9 edition swap; soon enough, i found some info on the upcoming Field Manual (including here on dakka). There was indeed a mini-edition change in the works mere weeks away but it looked like DP9 were finally changed somewhat and were at least giving the rules to their PDF customers as a free update. In the end, it was the minis that did me in yet again as they were now mostly updated from the tactical HG styles that I didn't particularly care for. I really did like the current minis and always liked their art... and the rumors of changes to L&L improved what I already thought was a solid ruleset back in the original blitz days... So I decided to jump back into the game. The Northern Army (my old stomping grounds) offered by the seller was already sold but there was still a Southern Force for sale so I decided to bite and picked it up (heck, the Support Cobra was my favorite mini and I didn't even play the south back in 1st edition!).

So, without further adieu/pontificating/whining, here's my new southern force in all of its blister/box glory!



So with that fell swoop, I found myself back on Terra Nova.

I'll continue now with a bit of first impressions after being away from the game for a while, starting with the Locked and Loaded book. The book contains the main rules for the game in the first section (soon to be replaced by the Field Manual) with the traditional four army lists coming right after. The original blitz books were never very heavy on fluff (I used to refer back to my 1st edition army guides for those) and L&L continues this. That said, this is a tabletop wargame and that fluff is easily available via the still in print (and downloadable) RPG-side books so no big loss there. While I've purposely been avoiding the rules section so as not to confuse myself with the upcoming Field Manual changes (I've got it on preorder at the FLGS), the army lists are presented in a clear and concise fashion that is relatively easy to understand. The only thing I found a bit confusing there was the use of army icons instead of army names next to the force-org equivalent slot the squad takes up in each faction. The size of the book is quite impressive at 200 or so pages as I was used to previous books coming in at around 120pgs and costing the same amount $35 USD. The art inside is largely unchanged with plenty of the Ghislain Barbe classics (always my favs) as well as some good ones from more recent artists. This value does appear to come at some cost as the paper feels a bit lighter and the text also seems lighter than even prior Blitz books (it's the equivalent of printing at home on draft vs normal in its look). In addition, I've found several mistakes mainly related to use of umlauts in the text that should have been caught prior to release. One thing I'm not sure of is whether I've got the 1.1 version of the book. If any readers here have an idea of how to check that, I'd appreciate the info.


L&L on top, original Blitz on the bottom

Now onto a quick look at some of the minis, starting with one of the typical four Southern gears, the Iguana scout. When I first got into the minis hobby in the mid 90's, metal (and indeed lead at the time) was king with plastic and resin relagated to specialty minis generally with lower levels of detail. Since my tabletop playing over the past 10 years has consisted of mainly prepainted plastics (DDM and some SWM) and 40k, I've gradually gotten used to plastics. Looking at the Iguana below, I am impressed in general with the level of detail and the forethought put into casting it. There is generally very little flash (a few strands sticking out here and there) compared to GW models and the parts that do need clipping generally have it done on a surface that isn't visible (like a joint or flat area that faces downward). The mini two pack comes with a stat card for each as well as a few weapon upgrade options which is a welcome change from previous Heavy Gear options. IIRC, even the initial Blitz releases didn't come with weapon extras. Another question for those more learned than me regarding the upcoming DP9 offerings... are the stat cards that come with minis going to be updated to the new movement defensive modifiers and weapon bands used in the upcoming Field Manual? Will those cards be offered up as a free downloadable PDF on the website?


Iguana Pack bits

Looking at a few more gears, the above was mainly the case although there were a few exceptions, mainly in my Naga strider. The Naga had a few defects including a large dent in the front of the main chassis where it joins the pilot's compartment that will have to filled down as the two don't line up any more. While the strider is not even close to the top of the list of things to assemble first, I will have to at some point decide whether to keep that as battle damage or to greenstuff it back into proper shape.


crappy pic of the Naga... I'll try and take a better one to replace it.

The other strider I looked at (the Dragon) didn't suffer from ANY problems that I could find. The resin model was refreshingly light and detailed with smooth pieces with none of the air bubbles or thin spots that you frequently find with Forgeworld products. The large areas that connect the pieces to the sprue were all very smartly placed and I don't expect any problems with this model. I'm not sure if the Naga problem above is just because of an old mold but I'd wholeheartedly support DP9's changing all the big guys to resin ASAP.


a few of the many part of the Dragon Strider


Well, that's it for now. My next post will probably consist of me going through a few ideas of how to structure the army as the South has several different leagues (similar to space marine chapters) that affect how your army is built.

Balance wrote:Random comments:

* Downloadable datacards are coming. I'm waiting for them myself. I'm not sure what's going to happen with the packed cards in the future.

* Let the guys know if there's problems with the Naga! I'm waiting for parts for one myself, actually... I think mine might even has a similar issue. The guys will drop a new main hull in the mail for you.

* Also on the Naga, have you seen my Naga Assembly Article?

* I'm thinking you might have the pre-1.1 version, but I can't think of a firm identifier at the moment. Look at page 120: if there's a block about 'Infantry Backup' I think that's the 1.1 version.

* I know I'm biased, but I'm curious to hear more about your thoughts about quality of resin casts from FW and DP9. In FW's favor, they do some massive pieces so they're going to have to deal with more warping due to the stresses involved, but I'm amazed at the number of complaints I've heard about their stuff. I've only assembled a few DP9 resin kits, but they've been pretty easy to work with, better than the metals.

* The Field Manual has a few tiny tweaks to army lists... The kind of thing that might cause a 5-15 point shift in a 1000 point list. Nothing major, though.

I didn't see the Naga guide but its definitely helpful. I took another pic of the Naga piece (see below) but I think I'll take your advice on contacting them after I've assembled a few more squads, in case there are any other problems (saves me trouble and DP9 shipping $$). Also, very nice and intuitive website and store btw. I do indeed have the 1.1 version of the book as I cross checked a few more things (like the revised point costs listed in the 1.1 errata) after posting last night in addition to checking the infantry backup blurb you mentioned. Good news about the datacards too. Does the field manual incoporate the Gear Up maneuver rating changes also?



As for the FW stuff, I'll start off by describing my favorite (and first) model from them, Inquisitor Rex. He's got an incredible amount of detail on his chest (with the various reliefs and scultpures decorating his armor) that amazes me every time I look at him. Unfortunately, my model came with a broken off psychic hood because the resin was thinned out as well as had several bubbles there, a shoulder armor trim that also was so progressively tapered off/thinned that i'm missing one half of it on a side, and a cloak where the resin thinned out in three spots so much that it has multiple moth eaten holes. This is in addition to the usual things you *should* expect with resin like some easily trimmed *thin* flash that leaks out from the model between the two haves of the mold (see the Naga pic above for the superthin resin between weapon barrels of the Visigoth) as well as some bent pieces if they're thin (like his sword) that need warm water correcting.



FW has an incredibly talented sculpting team whose work is regularly screwed up by casters who don't take the time and effort to do the job right and their bosses who lack any apparent QA if my experiences (and those invariably posted in any FW thread) are an indication. The flash in the Visigoth barrels above is what I expect and is easily fixable. The type of flash in the FW icon pic below (not mine but identical to the problem I had with my own set of Grey Knight icons) shouldn't have made it past anyone in the packing phase.



Products from smaller companies like DP9 and Scibor show that it is possible to catch these mistakes (or simply avoid them in the first place) in resin products if you care to do so. The only conclusion I can draw from FW is that they don't care to. The area on one piece with a casting problem on my Naga pales in comparison to the blunders on FW pieces I've personally witnessed.

So last week I put together a few gears and went to the FLGS to get in a game or two of Heavy Gear and maybe 40k depending on the time and numbers of takers. Two people I know said the week before that they'd be willing to try the game so we set up on some left over terrain from a 15mm game and played a quick demo with some basic gears (see pic below)



You don't get too much more basic than a Hunter/Jaeger chassis so I went with 3 of those per side for the demo game, inspired by the upcoming starter that comes with the same. Modelling-wise, I'm not too happy with how the arms across the chest poses came out but there wasn't too much of a choice there as the typical gear has a chest that sticks out like Santa's gut. The guns just dont seem to be held very naturally and it always looks to me like they're holding the gun in front of them for inspection. I went with the kneeling chassis for the light bazookas and will probably use the running pose for the second weapon upgrade in the eventual GP squads these guys will belong to (still deciding on which weapon to use for that..). Much to the chagrin of my players, I'm still not sure of what to do about the bases. I'm not really a fan of the look of hex bases in general but I do realize their functionality in a game where turns are measured in hex faces. I was eyeing some of the Warmachine lipped slotted circular bases as I've always liked their look. Do you guys think anyone would have a problem with using them as long as the proper angles were marked out on the bases? Some of the larger gears do come on circular bases so I don't see that as being too much of a stumble. In all fairness, I do have to mention that the Warmachine ones are a bit bigger being 30mm but I don't really see that helping the owning player in this game as it might in 40k. Ideas? I'd ideally prefer to have a circular base that incorporated hex face marking in the design but I couldn't find any myself and my thread asking out it in P&M here got no responses.

As for the actual game itself, the dice gods were unfortunately not with us for the first game as the chance cubes attempted to rob all involved of any dramatic resolution whatsoever. The only time a player rolled a fumble on defense the attacker rolled a fumble... the single instance of attacker double-sixes got the same on defense for a MoS of only 1 with modifiers! It also didn't help that they always kept 2 of their 3 gears stationary deep in their own deployment areas and were too afraid to move up. One player didn't really like the nitty-gritty of the rules and how so many different factors affect the shot (which is one of the things I actually like about the game); he prefers the straight up BS roll in 40k with a separate save. The other player in that game (despite not achieving much more than 1 box of damage per turn) did like the game and was willing to try again this week (and actually watched/helped out during the second game). At the end of the first game, a couple of other regulars walked up and were interested in trying a quick game as they both had heard of HG but never got into as there weren't any other local players. The second game went alot better as I was a bit more confident in the rules (still screwed up the cover/concealment determination a bit though) and the players were more aggressive in their tactics. One player basically flanked two of his gears at top speed into the opponent's deployment area while the third (the bazooka guy) covered them; the second player moved up steadily albeit somewhat cautiously. This time, the multiple instances of boxcars and fumbles actually weren't mirrored by the other player and several gears took enough damage to blow them up in one shot. The game actually was neck and neck each turn (with each player having almost the exact number of damage boxes) until the final duel between bazooka Jaegers at 14".

For the next game (hopefully this Friday), I decided to add a few more rules into the mix. I still won't be playing with the scenario rules (it'll just be a come out a fight engagement for simplicity) but I decided to add a few more specialized gears to the squads. Each squad will be styled as an underfunded Leagueless Standard group (basically a Jack of All Trades cadre) with a "leader" gear (Sidewinder), a scout gear (Silverscale), and a heavy gunner (Python).



I'll use the four normal Jaegers from the first game to round out the squads and have a buffet of the standard gear weapons in their usual configurations (autocannons and rockets in light/medium/heavy flavors). The Sidewinders came together without a hitch but I did have some issues of my own making with the Python and the Silverscales. With the Python, I wasn't exactly sure how the LGM (light guided mortar) and the HRP (heavy rocket pack) were supposed to connect on the back of the model and couldn't find any pictures on the internet showing the back of them after assembly. I ended up gluing them on but one of them (the one whose torso is turned to the side) has the LGM at a bit of a wierd angle. I was very close to assembling them as the Badlands version of the Python (the HRP and LGM are replaced with a single larger mortar) but the inability to take that configuration in a MILICIA force prevented me from choosing it. While I'm using these as a leagueless force now, I eventually plan on these models making up the core of my SRA MILICIA sub-contingent. Assembling the two priciest models in that sub-force in a completely useless configuration probably isn't the best idea.

The Silverscale, on the other hand, was purposely assembled incorrectly on my part. The sensor boom on the extending arm is actually supposed to attach exactly between the two cyclinders of the V-engine and extend straight forward over the head of the model.



The part is so tiny and delicate that I have *zero* confidence in my ability (despite using foam for storage and transport) to keep that part glued on with normal use. I decided to instead model it in a sort of lateral stowed configuration with multiple points of gluing/attachment for added stability. I'm happy with one of them but I wish I had slid the second over a bit so that the webcam tip of the boom was more visible from the front of the model instead of being hidded by the shoulder pad. There is also supposed to be a tiny protrusion in front of the head that wouldn't last connected for more than a month either so I skipped it (besides, I could use the two small prongs to convert a standard Iguana head to the bunny ears upgraded variety). I might end up drilling a small hole into the area and insert a small metal wire into the front of the head as an antenna instead. Ultimately, I think my decision will be based on whether or not these two models look sufficiently different from the Basilisk model with the boom assembled differently.

So that's it most likely for this progress report. Hopefully with the next post, I'll be able to comment on the Field Manual rulebook as it comes out this week and I've got it preordered a the FLGS (along with another set of markers/counters).

Balance wrote:Thanks for the website comments (as that's my baby. ) I'm actually hoping to migrate to a different platform to give us some more flexibility... I'd like to do assembly articles (like I did for the Naga) for most of the more complex kits (Anything more complex than the basic Gear minis, really...) to help smooth the gap between normal kits and the HHT-90 which actually comes with instructions. Plus people like seeing photos of the minis, and modeling articles always draw me when I'm checking out FoW or GW's sites.

The Field Manual should have the Gear Up changes. It's pretty much everything from GU1-3, but 'patched' into the main rules to make things smoother, and with some elements revised based on player feedback.

Anyway, glad you're enjoying it. The Field Manual has been pretty well received and the crew that works on it deserves some compliments, I think... Now I jsut need tog et the datacards posted and hopefully get a more responsive and itneresting webs ite up.

I definitely think the assembly articles are a good idea for the larger models (especially ones with front and back shots to show how the bits are supposed to connect... see my python comments above). My next project will be my veteran Fire Support Cadre with Cobras a plenty and I luckily found a side shot of someone's unpainted support cobra to use as a guide (I'll be changing the position a bit but its good to know how its supposed to look though). One suggestion that I'd make about the shop is to make the bits image a bit more visible. Despite it being clearly written, I somehow missed it for the past two weeks and kept wondering why the drawings of the unit were on the shop entry but not a pic of the actual fig. I'm hopefully not the only person dense enough to have missed the sentance that says "click here", lol.

I've been peeking at the GU1-3 stuff and printed out the easy to use stuff like weapon ranges and new defense modifiers for the demo games. I'll hopefully have my copy tomorrow if it arrived at the store (unlikely but you never know).

Balance wrote:The Silverscale is a model I keep meaning to order... I think I'm going to end up focusing on my Capricians first, then maybe go South once I get to a 1000 of them.

Then again, I also keep wanting to work on Black Talons, and the Utopian drones...

Pfft... [in best Russian accent] You big money HG web guy like millionare chocolate rain boy. You need no to worry and can assemble many army same time! I'm a bit surprised that a downgraded model like the silverscale requires a veteran slot so keep that in mind.

Balance wrote:I know the guys are really trying to move away from product art using drawings of designs and using photos instead (so it's a "Possible how to assemble" instead of an admittedly cool image) but it's not easy to change every old insert, so it's kind of a rolling change. Newer releases (like the Arena stuff or the new box sets) will all have photos, albeit photoshopped in some cases.

I'm a big fan of the old Ghislain art (it's what got me into HG in the first place back in the 90's) so I'd be sad to see it go completely. Maybe have the art as a non-expandable image on the entry with the painted minis and components clickable to enlarge? That said... I haven't coded a website since frames were all the rage and Netscape 3.0 was new so take my advice with a heaping dose of salt.

Balance wrote:
I'm working on a new version of the main web site to make adding content easier (Our CRM is... cranky. And not recommended) but it's a slow process as I've got a day job to cover the whole 'food' thing. I definitely want to do more assembly journals, though, as they've been well received. I like being able to write about the setting in an almost historical context, although I might try to slip some not-totally-canon fiction past the editorial review. Like I did here....

I'll have to do some quick articles. I've got pics of my Kodiak being assembled, but I wanted the painted images to go along with it.

I like the fiction. Its a quick read and makes the site a bit more interesting than a normal small company's storefront. Speaking of being employed by DP9, is Xactoboy still at DP9? When I got into the original blitz, one of the highlights of visiting the DP9 website was seeing his WIP minis. Since I've started haunting the site and forum again over the past few weeks, I haven't seen anything from him.

Balance wrote:
I think the Silverscale may have been a weird fit as it's described in the older books as a rare option, so it got the veteran requirement. My ESE force may be based around Basilisk squads led by Iguanas, although I admit the Army Commander Paratrooper Squad might not be a good idea.I just like the idea of an Emir who buys the best for his personal squad and outfits everyone else in much cheaper Gears...

I'm still having trouble figuring out how much EW is enough for an average game. Obviously this depends on your normal opponents and the armies they play but the mechanic seems interesting but a bit nebulous for me so far (zero games played with the rules for it). Hopefully, I'll get a few more people interested in playing HG and actually have to worry about it beyond the theoretical!

Last weeks demo game with the figs in the pic above didn't happen unfortunately so I didn't get any play time in (nor did I get my Field Manual). The demo was supposed to be before the RPG but the coGM of our Deathwatch game wanted to start early since we were all ranking up that night and we wanted to redo the character sheets. Since then, I've been working on the centerpiece of my planned Southern Army... a veteran Fire Support Squad. (see box pic below blatantly hotlinked from DP9's site!)



My favorite gear from back in first edition was the Support Cobra (second from the left) which is actually a *downgraded* version of the standard model but with IMO ridulously cool looking guns. I was very pleasantly surprised that the configuration is actually very inexpensive points-wise in a Southern Army and decided that I'd use two of them to accompany my Army Commander and his Political Officer. Besides, the discount in points would help me to pay for the upgrades on the models that mattered more!

Despite my love of the original design of the Support variant Cobra, I felt that it needed a bit more heft to the autocannon (VHAC) as well as a bit more aggressive and in your face (literally since it'll be pointed more toward the enemy!) field gun (the VLFG artillery piece on its back). Since I was going to be pinning the VLFG in a different position, I decided to convert the now unused support bracket for the field gun for the front handle of my autocannon so that the open palm arm (with a bit of cutting and repositioning) can help hold the weapon. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the aggressive posture and repositioning of the two support models. For the Political Officer, I modelled his gear as a striking cobra with a medium bazooka (with an IG bit as the panzerfaust-esque gunshield) and kept the heavy rocket pod on his back for when I need to hit a few models with a single weapon (it's an area effect barrage). Finally, I had only my Army Commander to figure out. As I said above, I'm still trying to work out the details of how much electronic warfare is enough for an army. From my reading, the one model who needs ECCM most is the army commander as alot of his effects are prime actions to block with enemy ECM. The only way to incorporate both defensive and offensive EW on the commander was via the Brahmin Cobra EW variant pictured below (thanks to Red Castle on the dp9 forums for filling me in on the fluff of the variant as well as providing a pic).



I decided to use a spare Tau Crisis Suit shield generator for the satellite dish on the back and later added the antenna from an IG vox unit when the comm nature of the model wasn't obvious enough from looking at the group. While not obvious, the head is a minor variance from the standard cobra head with slightly different vanes and bunny ears and the left shoulder rocket pod is replaced with a EW pod (the cone visible in the pic). The IG antenna are a bit retro-tech and out of place but I felt like I needed something more to make the model's upgrades stand out from arm's length as the head and EW pod changes are a bit subtle while the dish isn't really visible from the front. Any ideas? Finally, I decided to use the assault weapons upgrade on my command squad and outfitted them with the chainswords models for some extra OOMPF in close combat.





I'm pretty happy with the general results for my command squad. The squad will definitely be a space hog in the old foam tray with all the weapons sticking out at various angles but they should make a nice centerpiece unit for the army.

I'm still working on my ideas for a paint scheme for the force. Perhaps its the old Northern player in me but I'm leaning towards a WWII Soviet paint scheme including the decals as a bit of a dig on the Southern army I'm now playing. For those not familiar with the fluff, the South in HG may use french terminology and language but their government and society are modelled more on the old Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union than anything else. The Southern Republic keeps its alliance together mostly through force (like with the Warsaw Pact) and I'm strangely drawn to this non-canon paint scheme. The HG core book doesn't have too much guidance in regards to standard army schemes so I'm open to more conventional ideas if anyone has some. Well, that's it for now. For the next week or so, I think my goal for the blog and the army will be to fill out a few more Jaeger upgraded weapons for the general purpose squads that I used for the demos. Thanks!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
edit: One final thing... After assembling these models (the first without the stem that fits in the slot-base provided), I've decided to go with the Warmachine lipped circular bases for all the models. The stance on these cobras has the feet hanging half off the hex bases that come with them and that definitely detracts from the appearance. Since I don't plan on assembling a full squad over the next few days, I should be able to work on that this week also.

So I took a week off of modelling once I finally got my Field Manual to absorb the rules before cutting and gluing more models together. The Field Manual definitely seems like an improvement to me both as an old school player and a new one to the current Blitz rules. The switch from 5 to 3 range bands makes it easier to calculate the modifiers (which after playing 4 mini-games so far can take a while!) as well as teach them; also, the reduction of +1 maneuverability units due to speed brings it a bit closer to what I remember back in 1st edition. I'm also happy to report that the quality of the type in the Field Manual is quite good and doesn't have the draft-print quality that I complained about in the L&L book. Finally, the flow charts for some of the more intensive calculations like forward observing/indirect fire definitely help. Overall, a definite improvement from L&L.

Modelling wise, I've spent the last few weeks building up my proper SRA army instead of the mostly downgraded limited funding MILCIA models I first built. This was mainly because I wanted to show the variety in abilities that the current range of Gears have (i.e. going from -1 to +1 defense) compared to the old school mainly replaced in the fluff variants I was using. My GP squad got a bit more elite in that one Jaeger was upgraded to a command variant while another got a paratrooper rifle... bringing my two GP squads up to 5 models each (command, 2x light bazookas, 1x paratrooper gunner, and a Sidewinder) giving me both fully upgraded normal and veteran variants. I also added my previously shown Fire Support squad into the army with their two Support Cobras and two Strike Cobras. To join them on the front lines, I've got two Brawler Black Mambas (with their heavy grenade launchers) and two Blazing Black Mambas (with Gatling lasers). For the laser Mambas, I eventually plan on adding some kind of power cable from the weapon to the powerplant on back as they seem a bit bare without their rocket pods. Finally, to round out the army of demo models I've got a veteran recon squad with two regular Iguanas and two upgraded comm Iggies (with bunny ears!).

I finally decided on using the warmachine/malifaux lipped circular bases for the models after tried to balance my cobras on one of the provided hex bases and having almost all but the heels of the model hanging off the sides. Since some of the HG models actually come with circular bases, I don't see this as too much of a problem as long as I clearly mark some of the arcs on the base. I bought enough at my FLGS to outfit most of my proposed army and they've got more on the way to finish off the bunch. Also, I've decided paint scheme wise to go with a Legion Noire theme to the army (especially as it matches what I did with my previous Deathwing army!). Basically, the models will have a base coat of black with red and silver trim as well as some white decals to customize the army as my own personal force. Now to the bad part... I primed my models two nights ago with the same flat black base coat that I normally use (but outside since I didn't want the basement smelling like fumes as I was priming more than normal number of models). When I checked on them last night, I noticed that the primer went on grittier than normal and that parts were coming off like charcoal dust just with regular handling. I ended up taking a soft bristle toothbrush to the models to knock off the really caked/gritty parts but am still undecided about whether to strip them. I'm not sure how much is visible from the pic but I'll try taking a close up later this weekend. I'm still using them for a couple of demo games this weekend, though. I might try a black wash coat to even out the colors on a model also and will take a close up side by side of both to compare the difference.



More info later this weekend as I look back with hindsight on my first two somewhat real sized demo games including the Field Manual rules.

Da Boss wrote:Nice blog, love the grey scheme on your models.
I'm poking around Heavy Gear Blitz myself, because I feel the urge for some sort of change in Sci Fi gaming.

While I'd love to take credit for the painted models, they're actually hotlinked pics from the DP9 website to show the minis I was planning on putting together. I'm priming my last 4 minis tomorrow for my initial army; currently none of them are actually past the flat black primer stage. I'll probably start next week on painting one of the General Purpose squads to test out my paint scheme beyond the theoretical.

LeBaron wrote:I've never really seeing any HG games anywhere but, with the new FLGS just a short drive away, I may see if they have any players there. I've always thought of using HG units in a CSM army for proxies but that never really went anywhere.

While I could see them as marine proxies due to their armor, I think they go a bit better rules wise as tau if you just count their jump pack movement as their secondary ground movement (almost all gears have rollerblade wheels on their feet for faster movement). The older and larger RAFM scale gear models were perfect in size for this with the bigger gun varients able to count as broadsides while the mediums could be crisis suits and the small ones as stealth suits. Unfortunately, those older scale gears are harder to get as they haven't been made for over 12 years. Not my pic below but just an example on from AAN iirc:



The current ones are definitely closer to marine sizes as you suggested. As for your FLGS, make sure to tell them that Alliance (the biggest game/hobby distributor in the business) now sells Heavy Gear stuff. Stores in the past were reluctant to order HG or DP9 stuff because they'd have to order direct from the company (more effort/shipping costs/etc) but that recently changed according to the HG forum announcement page. Also, they just came out with new starter armies for people that include the two rulebooks in pocket AOBR size that I mentioned in my previous posts (the Locked and Loaded book with the army lists and the Field Manual that replaced its game rules). I believe they also have starter rules for download from their website (DP9.com) if you wanted to check them out with some proxies. HG may not be as frequent as 40k ones but they're out there (usually looking for others). When I ran my two demo games a week ago, a guy was just walking by and started looking at the models and said he had a Northern army in his car that he'd never used! He couldn't play but my opponent ended up using his figs that he graciously lent instead of having a south vs south battle with mine.

So it's been a couple weeks worth of waiting and working on the figs. After playing a few demo games with my caked on gritty primered models because I didn't want to lose any momentum with generating interest in the game, I finally put the minis in their stripping bath last weekend. It took a few days and about a half dozen scrubs to get the paint off (the gritty parts came off in the first two 24 hour soaks but a few portions actually sprayed on correctly and took a while to scrub out). With the models now back to mostly bare metal (and having a strange patina to the metal after stripping!), I decided to change up my paint scheme to something that did NOT use the same color basecoat as I didn't want the same thing happening again. In addition, I've been negotiating a trade of my MILICIA subset army (including the first few figs I assembled for this blog... the silverscales and pythons!) for a small Black Talon Force which will now inherit the black paint scheme with red/silver details I was planning on using for my SRA army.

I decided to go with sand basing and a sand colored coat with earth tones and a heavy wash for my scheme this time around as it fit the desert equatorial fluff of Terra Nova better and also because I'd never done either choice before. I painted up a quick two set of models (my command Jaegers) to test out the scheme. Its not too complicated as it relies on the wash for alot of the depth/detail and pretty much requires only a few steps per model (Base color spray, brown "feet" and shoulders, two color metalic weapons and engines, flesh wash, and then head sensor and rocket tip detail work). I'm not under any misconceptions that the scheme will win me any painting awards but I think it looks good enough to be called tabletop quality.






I still eventually plan on putting on some white eagle decals for the regiment icon as well as the usual hazard/warning markers. The question I guess I'd ask any readers is whether you think dry brushing the washed armor in the same color as the rocket tips is a good idea? I'm not the greatest with normal edging/highlighting as I tend to lay it on pretty thick despite my best intentions but that is the other option. My hope for the next week is to get through the majority of the other models in the pic above with the brown and metallic details in preparation for my weekly trip next friday to the FLGS to play Deathwatch and purchase a few pots of flesh wash (I'll probably just have them drying during the game now that I think about it!).

LeBaron wrote:It's a basic but well done scheme. I was thinking maybe some scorched marks would look a bit better, IMO.

Thanks. Someone on the dp9 forums suggested something similar and I decided to blackwash the front and back faces of the rocket packs for a little additional contrast (and the black color matches the idea of rocket scorch marks from previous launches). It won't win any painting awards but it's quick and effective which right now are my two biggest concerns. I'll have pics on my next update in a few days as the rest of my two GP squads are drying from their flesh wash as I write.

I finished my first two squads yesterday (pic above). The decals and base looked a bit too bright and I decided to at least put some of the same wash over the decals to muddy them up in accordance with the armor they're on. I'm still undecided on the base color I chose. Initially, I thought it would be quite similar to the sand basing but that's not the case as it is waaay brighter than I had anticipated. I even tried using the wash on a test model with the same color but the result was very uneven and I decided not to do it for the GP squads. I may go back and redo the bases in a slightly darker earthier color (dwarf flesh? I'll check that out this friday at the FLGS) but the obnoxiously bright base does bring attention to the models. As the only HG player locally (except for one guy who has models but hasn't played yet), I don't mind if the bases attract the eyes as people may then ask me about the game and models. Next up on the plate for this week are my 6 Cobras (3 striking, 3 support). I'm hoping that by the end of this weekend they'll be done as I have to buy another pot of the flesh wash friday (my rate limiting factor at the moment).

ancientsociety wrote:Awesome! I'm just starting into HG: Arena, so this is right up my alley.

Any Basilisks planned? They're my favorite Southern gear since they look so similar to VOTOMs.

I did give serious consideration to some bazooka wielding scope dogs!! Unfortunately, the Basilisk is technically a downgrade of the Iguana and isn't available in the SRA faction that I've switched to build my army solely from. You can field tons of them (in fact, an entire army of them!) in an ESE force and a more limited number of them in a MILICIA army. How do you like the arena rules? How do they differ from normal HG?

LeBaron wrote:I like that much better then the two test guys you first showed off. The darker colors just look better, IMO. The bases aren't bad being that light. There are plenty of dark camos that are used in light colored environments so it doesn't really bother me much. Keep us updated!

Thanks and will do. I plan to get the brown parts done on my cobras tonight. Did you end up buying any HG models for your CSM force?

ancientsociety wrote:Arena is pretty cool. It's a little similar to Necromunda in that you can get all sorts of perks, bonuses, new weapons, etc. in the post-game sequence. The combo move charts are interesting and definitely add to the excitement of the fight. My favorite perk are the Arena Clowns, which are essentially unarmed Gears and, if your opponent goes after them and misses, causes the crowd to lean towards your side! I'm trying to get a cheapo Gear to paint up for my Clown right now.

I might eventually get into that game as it seems like the customization and lower entry point might appeal to some of the local gamers. For now, it looks like I might have found another opponent. The guy who had his gears in his car (described earlier in the blog) actually started painting up some of them over the past three weeks since I last saw him. We chatted for a bit and I showed him how to incorporate Razorbacks (his favorite gear) into a Northern army so he placed an order for some of the dice/markers and a couple of razorbacks. He seems to be leaning towards an army similar to mine (a few GP squads with a pair of fire support squads to back them up) as a start point... hopefully people seeing painted armies duking it out will encourage some more play locally. I also got a look at his mini-sized rulebooks and I definitely think they're preferable. Balance, I don't know if you're still following this blog but, if you are, put in a good word to the higher ups about selling a two pack of the mini-me rulebooks separately please!

precinctomega wrote:Great plog! I need to find time to sit down and read it properly (mainly looked at the pics this time), as I'd love to get into a mech combat game and so far HG is the front runner.

R.

Thanks! The text is mainly me typing out my mental machinations about how to construct an army to rule Terra Nova. Don't be surprised if it puts you to sleep! Are you able to buy HG in the UK easily now? The announcement of a UK distributor for DP9 stuff was big news a couple months back on their forums.

LeBaron wrote:I haven't bought much of anything in about six months or so. You know how the times are. I have looked and, while they are a bit pricey, I don't think they're as bad as GW stuff... bloody money hungry bastards and they 'Fine Cast'. 'Fine Cast' my ass.

Yeah, I saw my first finecast minis (no capitals/proper noun deserved for that, just like with the GW "H"obby) yesterday and it was quite ho-hum. The Astorath had a decent sized bubble (bigger than his nose) at the top of his head but was otherwise fine while the space librarian was bent but without any obvious defects (although I could only see the top layer of sprues in the packs). Definitely not the best minis EVAR!! that GW was claiming they'd be although they will be easier to convert. As for DP9 stuff, the gears themselves are cheaper than likesized 40k models; the elite gears like the Jaguar and Black Mamba are about the same size as a SM terminator and cost $9 each in the two packs. They do price the larger resin kits like tanks and larger strider robots at a definite premium though so I wouldn't plan an army with them if cost is the number 1 consideration.

This weekend I finished off the bread and butter of my two planned Fire Support squads. The 6 Cobras (three bazooka-wielding Striking variants and three mini-gun Support models) are still awaiting their combat squad leaders (the sergeant equivalents) though as I'm trying to do similar models as a group. The first pic is with the main details done brown on the shoulders and feet, boltgun/brass on the engines and weapons, and a few other details picked off with the same colors. The Cobras do have a style feature that isn't present on the previous Jaegers I did (the horns on their shoulders) so I decided to do them with the same color I will eventually use on the rocket tips and base. I'm still trying to do decent tabletop quality paintjobs with minimum time/effort so my 5 color rule still is in effect! Also, I put a certain RPG under them in ancientsociety's honor.



I did a few conversions with the Cobras that differentiate them from the "stock" models. The support cobras (with the mini-guns and artillery gun on the back) had some of their pieces switched around but nothing new added. Maybe I've played 40k too long but it just seemed that the junglemower minigun was massive enough to need a front support to properly wield it so I used the back strut that was supposed to support the artillery gun and used it as a handle instead (with a quick cut and reposition on the hand to hold it). I only had two of the arms needed to do this (you need the left arm that would normally be open faced to do the conversion) so I had to mangle a normal one for the third one. As my greenstuff-fu is weak, I molded the area with glue and then filed it down a bit. If you zoom in real close it looks ugly but otherwise doesn't look too awkward with a normal inspection. The back artillery gun is repositioned in the center of the V-engine and pinned at a different angle to keep it more secure now that the support strut is gone. Normally, I try to position and glue bits that are sticking out with two points of contact with bigger ones but that wasn't possible with this so I just pinned it instead. (That's also why you'll see some of the chainswords touching arms and torsos via their handle and shoulder rocket packs touching the engines as I wanted them glued in two spots... they fall off easily!) Here's a stock support Cobra pic from the DP9 website to compare them to.



The striking cobras have a small WWII panzerschreck inspired shield added to their bazookas from my 40k bits box and chainswords added but are otherwise standard variants. The army variant I'm using can upgrade one squad to full chainswords from the little vibro-daggers that are normally carried. HG really isn't a close-combat heavy game but I thought that since the Cobras were central to the look/theme I was going for that they'd look cool mounted on them. The bits would probably be more effective in game on units that are meant to get very close to the enemy but I like the idea of the big boys carrying the chainswords... maybe it's another remnant from playing 40k lol!

Since I ran out of flesh wash with the Jaegers, I brought the minis with me to my FLGS for the weekly Deathwatch game as I intended to buy and use the wash right away (and let them dry while RP'ing). Today, I touched up some of the smaller details that need bright colors (so I can't do them prior to the wash) like the rocket tips and eye sensors. After that, it was off to the overcoat station (with a fan going to help them dry quicker between coats) with the eagle decal placed inbetween coats. With that, my second batch of Southern minis are done. Eagle-eyed dakkites can even spot which class of minis I'll be working on next! As usual with the dakka gallery, the pics are zoom-in capable once you click on them.



I initially hoped to have the whole army done in a couple of weeks but I'm already running behind on that schedule. At this point, I think I'll revise my personal and blog timetable to a more realistic "one class of minis done a week" schedule. That should get me done with the core of this army (2 GP, 2 fire support, 1 recon, and 2 strike squads) by the end of the month.

Balance wrote:

warboss wrote: Balance, I don't know if you're still following this blog but, if you are, put in a good word to the higher ups about selling a two pack of the mini-me rulebooks separately please!

I am, and will suggest it. It might be a DP9 Online Store only thing, as the guys are a little concerned about too many items for sale.
(In the old HG Tac era, most Gears were 1 to a blister and there was a blister for most variants, so there were a lot of blisters for the line even though it had a lot of holes... And retailers and distributors complained. So now despite being a lot closer to '100%' (there's a few options without models, such as Caprice ATVs/ORVs) there's a much more concise product line.)

I mainly skipped the tactical era but did notice tons of blisters (with alot of duelist type special character gears IIRC) on the racks from that time. I do like the switch though to 2 packs with one of most of the upgrades included in the blister. Thanks for putting in the good word about the smaller books. I actually posted a thread on the DP9 forums but from the response I may not be in the majority regarding this unfortunately.

Just finished up my Mambas last night for my two planned strike squads. I took me a while to make a decision about their configurations (the rest of the army was a no-brainer for me) as well as actually getting the bits. Each squad of four gears will have 3 Mambas, two of which will be the gattling-laser Blazing variety and another with the Razorfang Brawler loadout with the final gear being a Black Adder snub-gun tank hunter. For non-southern player blog readers, the fluff for tank-hunting squads in the South usually has the laser Mambas sniping off smaller turrets and systems to disable a tank while the Black Adders close in for the ultimate kill. I added in the Command and Control variant of the Mamba to help regenerate command points for free rerolls (the off-white sensor pod on the shoulder is a satellite uplink) as well as to stun bigger enemies with its heavy grenade launcher prior to the laser/snub attack by the squad mates. While its not very easily seen on the pic, I did add a thick cable connecting the gun to a port on the engine as the laser is slowly recharged in the fluff via the method. Next up for the week are my four iguanas! I'm hoping to get in a full sized game tonight so we'll see if that happens (my possible opponent wasn't sure if he was going to be able to make it last week).



After the Iggies are done, I'll take my first group picture! I still have another 6 gears planned for my initial 2,000pt army (2 more Jaeger variants with no upgrades allowing me to field my GP squads as non-veterans, 2 Sidewinders to act as commanders of my fire support squads, and 2 Black Adders for my strike squads). After that, I've got some ideas cooking for a OpSec stealth team (which will need a different paint scheme as they're stealth teams) and a paratrooper gear cadre to round out the force.

Santobell wrote:Mamba is win, I remember messing about with HG mini's years ago and always loved the Black Mamba,King Cobra and Grizzly.

Definitely agree that there are some pretty gears in the line. As an old Northern player, I have a fondness for their angles but I'm warming up to the curvy lines of the South now that I've switched over. The Support Cobra and Kodiak were always my favorites back in the 1st edition RAFM minis days.

Balance wrote:Nice looking Mambas! I've always wondered if the laser-armed variants are too many TV in one basket and would love to hear how they play.

I'm hopefully putting up an article next week showing how to assemble these guys:

The laser Mambas are actually cheaper than the stock model as they're a 5pt downgrade. While the laser is nice, the fact that it is the ONLY weapon on an elite gear and can run out of ammo on your first roll (as well as the loss of the indirect fire capable rockets) I guess necessitates the points return. I do like their stats and uses on paper though (no experience with them yet) and they do give my army an intrinsic anti-aircraft defense that it wouldn't otherwise have.

As for the caprice models, they're definitely the ones I like the most from the "new" crop of HG designs that weren't around back in the days of 1st edition. I'm not a fan of the golems and armigers of the other factions but the Caprice walkers have a neat look that says different planet. If I were to start another army, I'd probably be picking between CEF and Caprice so as to get a different looking and playstyle army for the second one. For now, I've still got plenty of Southern minis still to go and even a recently acquired Black Talon force to work on. Since it seems I may have an opponent for HG locally, I may end up selling or trading away the Talons (hopefully locally to generate another player).

So, unfortunately my opponent for HG was a no-show yesterday (he was 50/50 to begin with last week when we talked) but I got in some different games as well as painted the base colors of my iguanas for a while. By the end of the weekend, my four little scouts should be ready for their debut. I did notice when painting them that even my new basecoat on them went on a little bit gritty but not even close to the disaster that was the black primer at the beginning of this blog. We'll have to see how they turn out!

In order to meet my initial goal of finishing my 2000TV army in a month and in preparation for a hopeful game tomorrow, I put the nose to the grindstone (or in this case my painting desk) and got two squads worth of guys over the past week.

First up are the scout gears in my veteran Recon Squad. The paint job is pretty much the same as the previous versions except that their chests turned out to have more bumps and handles modelled onto them than previous gear types and I'm not really happy with how the decals turned out. I used softener on them to get them to cover better but it ended up distorting them a bit. After I get a few games under my belt with the whole army, I might come back and redo these guys after a wash in the stripping solution.



After they were done (this weekend actually since I ended up mostly painting them on Friday), I moved on the filler gears for my army. Most of these guys are comprised of the only "upgrade" gears outside the 4 standard variants (Jaeger, Cobra, Iguana, Black Mamba) that the SRA is allowed to take. The two sidewinders (guys with fins on their heads) are a good choice for combat group leaders in my Fire Support squads as they have detect 3 which will allow them to defeat the most basic stealth upgrades available as well as moderate concealment. At only 5pts more than the standard Jaeger you start with, they also have an added punch in case I decide to split my fire and not use coordinated attack for the squad leader's action. The two with tiny heads are Black Adders which will be attached to my two Strike squads. The weapons they wield (snub guns) are the premiere antitank weapons at close range and I hope to use them for the final knockout punch after the BBEG target is softened/weakened by the Strike CGL's heavy grenade launcher and coordinated actions as well as peppering shots from the gatling laser Mambas. Finally, the two Jaegers are the stock variants that I plan to use in my two GP squads when I'm playing lower PL games where I can't afford to make them veteran. They'll replace the paratrooper-rifle Jaegers for a rebate of a few points and a veteran slot each.




Over the past month, I've pretty much been avoiding the television and trying to get in an hour of painting a day. During one of my sessions, my cousin stopped by and caught me in the middle of painting my little army men. When I explained that they were for a new game I was getting into set on a desert world, she decided to make a nice desert themed playmat for me as a surprise. Yesterday, she came by again with my present in time for my group shot the next day. My obnoxious base color sticks out a fair bit but I think the actual gears and sand basing fit well with the colors (keep in mind that the dakka autocorrect image loading features do change the colors somewhat and that the mat is actually lighter in person).



And, without further adieu, here is my month's effort... my 2000pts SRA army painted and based!



These two pics have a Fire Support Squad and Strike squad each. The Strike cadres are identical but one FS is filled with Striking Cobras while the other has Support Cobras.





Here is the head and body of my army, the two GP squads and the recon squad that'll contain my army commander.



As usual, you can zoom in as needed by click on the pic to get to dakka's gallery. I've still got another 2000pts unbuilt/NIB but I think I'll try and get some games under my belt before I start adding more to the force. It's not a real army until they cut their teeth on the field of battle!

ancientsociety wrote:Warboss, they look excellent, as always. Are those Gatling Laser Cannons in the 2nd Support Squad (the ones attached to a single arm, not the double-handed ones)?

Also, any idea how exact DP9 is with the 1:144 scale of the infantry/vehicles? I found a bunch of great Japanese model railroad scenery in 1:150 scale on Ebay...

Thanks! You are indeed looking at gatling lasers in the strike squad (the support squad has the bigger termie bases Cobras). I liked how the the single one I originally had worked in the game (on a Mamba they're accurate enough to almost guarantee a box of damage) so I tried to get some more through trading and purchases. They're also rulewise the only thing I found in my southern list that could reliably take down incoming airstrikes. I haven't actually played using those rules but I wasn't keen on the idea that there was nothing I could do about it, lol.

I don't know how close to 1:144 scale they truely are. I know that they use railroad scale terrain for some of their older pics and can't see scenery being much out of place at 1:150. Scenery should be ok but I'd probably stay away from infantry at that scale, though. For my demo games, I've been using the true 25mm LOTR ruins and whatever 15mm stuff I can borrow from the FoW gamers at the FLGS.

Earthbeard wrote:Great looking force - recently puchased a strike cadre for some demo games I'm hopefully going to be running.

I'm a North Guy myself.

The north is definitely cool (I'm a reformed Revisionist Northern collector)! One thing I'd recommend for the demo is to not take the long shots you may be used to in other games like 40k. If you don't have at least equal modifier to the defender, just maneuver closer or to a better firing zone instead of taking the shot. In my first game, nothing happened because the two sides just hung back and kept taking shots at long range through cover (the attack was rolling 2d6 at -2 or -3 while the defender was just a straight 2d6 roll). Also, read up on the coordinated action, crossfire, indirect fire, and stun rules as the ability to give defenders penalties on their roll is key to making the shot count.

Balance wrote:Working the modifiers is definitely a key 'skill' for playing HGB. I was extremely happy during a demo at GenCon when one player had pretty much nothign left and rolled a maxed-out (2d6, both 6s, which equates to a 7...) Snub Cannon shot at point-blank range on an enemy, who was stationary (-1 to defend) and proceeded to roll something like a 2.

Which means that an enemy Jaeger was made very, very dead. Also made the demo exciting as it went from a massacre to an almost even combat.

Are you going to GenCon this year? Make sure you take some pics and recruit some players in the SE United States! And, yes, snub cannons make for a definite *splat* if the rolls favor the shooter even just a bit! I've already maxed out on them for my gears unfortunately with two Black Adders. I have two Vipers unbuilt still but, despite having a variant in the fluff with snubs, you can't outfit them with it in the actual minis game. :(

ancientsociety wrote: I require more updates!

Lol, good to know I'm missed. I was pretty much sitting down for a dedicated hour or two of painting every day for the month I was redoing my army posted above, trying to accomplish a single task on all the gears in a sitting (for instance, doing all the chainmail colors on all the gears in one squad sequentally). I burnt out for a bit with the painting and trying to get the force done so that I could run some demos.

My last two weeks worth of efforts were fruitless (I usually try to demo HG before Deathwatch games and the RPG fell apart last minute for the past 2 weeks) but I've got another attempt today set up hopefully. I haven't heard back from the guy with the Northern army (he works nights and tends to game midday weekends which don't work for me) so I started posting on another local-ish (60 miles away each way) store's forum to see if there were players there. I've gotten in contact with two of them and will try to head up there around the end of July for a game. *fingers crossed*

At this point, I'm starting to get the modelling itch again but am having a bit of trouble deciding what to put together next. Initially, I had planned to finish up my Gear Squads (or cadres as they're called in my army) with a stealth OpSec Cadre and a Paratrooper gear cadre left in my *to do* box. On one of my failed trips to the FLGS to get in a game, a friend from the Deathwatch game saw my painted minis and asked to look through the book. He was very surprised to see that the game had tanks as he thought (probably from my initial selection of minis and the name of the game itself) you ONLY used little anime robots. That got me thinking that I might have to also work on the combined arms minis (tanks, striders, infantry) before adding more gears to the mix so people who see my army don't pigeonhole the game as just mechs.

I'm not anxious to start working on the itty bitty infantry to be totally honest as I don't have much experience at that scale so that leaves striders and tanks. I've got a single Naga (which is partly miscast... see the beginning of the blog) and a Fire Dragon but would prefer to have a unit of 3 (one big, two small) if I'm going to start work on them. I'd have to order another Naga from the FLGS and get the replacement torso for my original Naga to get the mojo of the cadre where I want it. The other option I've been entertaining recently is to try and dig out my old Battletech/Robotech officer battle pods as stand in's for two additional Nagas. Its been a while since I looked at them (and I doubt that they're complete parts-wise after all this time) but it would be nifty to have three of those types of walkers if I could get them looking right together. I'll probably take some pics of them tomorrow blue-tac'ed together to see if the sizes work together and if i've got the necessary bits. The final and most likely option would be to work on the tank squadron. Like with the striders, I'd like to have two small and one large tank in the cadre and that's already the case since I have a single Visigoth and a two-pack of Huns. More info tomorrow (and hopefully pics of my battle pods as well as tonight's possible game) but I'm obviously open to suggestions in the meantime.

Balance wrote:I need to take some pics of my Caprice force... i think they're all built now.

And, then, start painting. 14 Mounts and 80 Infantry!

80 bases or 80 infantry?? That's still alot either way. You could always start a blog here on dakka with them; that way, I wouldn't have to be the only HG one! My HG game last week was unfortunately a bust as my opponent came late and left early despite actually appearing to have alot of fun playing (and kicking my butt at the same time). At least I got a single round in on my new playmat.. grumble...grumble..

ancientsociety wrote:This P&M brought me to the dark side, broke down and bought a PRDF GP Squad and the 2-player starter kit.

You ruined me.

Glad I could help a fellow Chicagoan! (albeit displaced in my current case) What do you plan on doing with the North/South minis in the starter? I'm also jealous of your smaller sized rulebooks. Still no luck in scheduling a full HG game down here unfortunately. I'm hoping I can get one in when I travel across town to visit another store and meet with 2 potential players there but that won't be happening for another 2-3 weeks. To be honest, the lack of actually getting a full game in has soured me a fair bit on building more. I'm not considering selling them or anything drastic of the sorts but I'd be lying if I said the inability to actually play the game wasn't a big downer.

ancientsociety wrote:
Sorry to hear your struggles...

I have a few extra Jagers, so I might combine them into a Southern GP squad. The Hunters are destined for the Arena.

I'm actually thinking of joining the Pod Squad and demo'ing the game, both at my FLGS and Adepticon.

I'm actually working on a short article for the Aurora fanzine to make the stock Hunters/Jaegers a bit better when fielded straight out of the box without model swaps. Which store is your FLGS? I know that Games Plus used to have a fledgeling HG scene years back but that died down after one of the edition changes so you may want to try there if its not already your store.

ancientsociety wrote:Very cool.

I live in the city so GP is a little far right now. I generally game at [url+http://blacksungameschicago.com/]Black Sun Games[/url], though I'm also close to Dice Dojo

Yeah, I've heard about them but haven't visited. Chicago has ZERO games stores when I left within the city limits that you could actually play in; I used to buy my stuff at the Hancock Gamers Paradise but that closed down even before I left. Its good to know that you don't have to travel 20 miles like I used to just to get in a game!

Balance wrote:

warboss wrote: Its good to know that you don't have to travel 20 miles like I used to just to get in a game!

In the snow, uphill both ways, I presume?

In the snow both ways? Frequently. Uphill? No, lol. The only hill in the chicagoland area of any note is the old garbage dump in Northbrook that they built a subdivision and golf course on. (not kidding!)

It's been a while since my last update but I finally started up on the last two squads I have left and planned for the army. I decided to share the wealth and traded/sold off the non-gears in the force as frankly I didn't think I'd ever use them in a game. Most games tend to use around 3-4 squads in Heavy Gear as that is the sweet spot (any more and the game tends to bog down a bit and/or take too long) so my eventual nine squads of gears should be plenty (especially since I'll have at least one of every gear cadre type the SRA can actually take without relying on MILICIA or Talons). Secondly, I simply haven't gotten a local scene started and it's a bit of a bummer. The closest local store (about 25 miles away) only has one other customer with any minis and I tried for a few months to get together with him but no luck (he works nights and evenings are generally when I'm free). The other 40k players just thought the game was too different and preferred to just stick with the familiar 40k scene instead. At the next closest store with any HG players (65 miles), I got in contact with three people who own minis but never played but only one of them ever came to the demo and not much came of it when the other players didn't materialize.

So, in a nutshell, my Cobra Commander (pun intended), Paratrooper squad, and OpSec squads are the remaining pieces to my HG puzzle. I decided to start up again with the commander and the paratroopers assembly first. I decided to go with my original idea of a army commander in a Brahmin Razorfang Cobra with a medium Bazooka, vibro rapier, and ECM/ECCM upgrade. Since he'll be the one passing down most command points, the built in ECCM will help in making sure I can break through any interuption by opposing players. With all the "upgrades", he actually loses all but a single main weapon (the bazooka) but frankly that should be enough. With the satellite uplink, he may instead choose to regenerate a command point if there are no viable shots available during his activation. He'll be painted pretty much to match the existing army as already shown in this thread.



As for the Paratrooper squad, I decided to go with a Long Fang Mamba with linked MRPs as the CGL, two hunter paras with LGM upgrades, and two Commando Iguanas for a bit of extra punch. I modelled them with folded tarps on their buttplates (which you sadly can't see below) as part of their parachuting method of insertion. I've decided to try a two-tone spray camo paint scheme that is similar to Israeli Air Force patterns. If you look at the picture, you might notice the blue tac under the Mamba's foot as the minis aren't glued yet to the bases. I'll spray them from below with light grey and then use the normal sand camo the rest of the army uses from above. I'll wash the top with my usual Ogryn Flesh and the bottom with some thinned down blue wash. Hopefully my poor man's technique of just using the spray cans will give me a nice variation between the two colors although I expect the edges between the two colors to not be as defined as in the example pic below. Fingers crossed!

All finished with the Paratroop Cadre for my Heavy Gear Southern force. The two tone paint scheme came out ok but took a while with the overly complex method I used (see below) and probably would have looked the same if I had simply painted it with a brush. I basically primed the whole model grey and then washed the entire model with watered down blue wash. I then covered up the parts to remain blue grey with some blue tac (no pun intended) and sprayed the rest with my sand color and washed the uncovered parts with ogryn flesh (my previous scheme). I think it gives the model the general look that I was hoping for but yet again isn't anything particularly astounding... if I ever do something like that again, I'll simply paint it on! They've got the blue grey on the inside of their legs and the underside of the arms as well as on the rolled up parachute on their buttplate (basically anything that would be visible from below when they're parachuting in was the idea). Here's the Long Fang Black Mamba (who costs enough points to practically force the army commander to that squad when fielded!!), two Jaeger paratroopers upgraded with Light Guided Mortars (I don't think they'll use it too much but it looked cool on their backs and I was already going with looks over practicality with the squad commander), and two Iguana Commandos (the only point cost effective upgrade to the squad!).



Next up will be the OpSec stealth squad composed of two Snakeye Black Mambas and two Chameleons with medium sniper rifles. I wasn't sure about the paint scheme so I posted on the DP9 forums and got a very nice idea. Initially, I wasn't sure if I was going to use the traditional stealth scheme with them (black base with some metallic weapon colors and the occasional edge highlighting) or go with making them look as close to the sand I base with as possible (basically, just the sand spray color and watered down ogryn flesh wash to outline a few details). Feor suggested just taking the normal scheme I use and darkening it one large step (so the brown I currently use for the shoulders will be the base color with black as the shoulder/foot color.. along with some darkened metallics). The idea keeps my original scheme of earthtones but adds a definite stealth feel to it and I like it.

Well, my final squad of Southies is done and in my foam carrying case. My OpSec stealth gear squad of two Snakeye Black Mambas and two rifle toting sniper Chameleons painted up in a quasi-stealth scheme of the same brown as I use on my army's shoulders and feet. I'm not too happy with how the decals turned out (especially on the standing Mamba) after my attempt to darken the regimental symbol to match the stealth. I've since darkened that particular mamba's decal yet again but that doesn't fix the way the overcoat crumpled the design a bit. The flash on the camera does tend to exaggerate the issue a bit but its still visible with the naked eye regardless.



Now that I'm done with these guys, I've only got two gears left in the army to work on, both of which are Cobra chassis that I plan to use as my army commander when fielded. The first is an electronic warfare variant Razorfang Brahmin Cobra (whoo.. that's a mouthful!) and a King Cobra upgraded to carrying a Light Laser Cannon. Other than that, I've also started assembling some of my left over bits from various game systems to make a pair of bunkers with turret tops. More info on those with the next update in a few days as the glue is drying on those bunkers and the King Cobra...

Well, it only took me a couple of months but I've got another two figs done for the army. The theme for the army figure-wise was always that it would be a Cobra heavy force with the commander in a Cobra variant of some sort. Since I'm playing SRA, that actually is a bit harder than it sounds since the rules for where the army commander goes depends on which squad is the most expensive with a Black Mamba. In the end, I decided to use my last two planned minis for the army as my alternate commanders (or in really large games.. the commander and political officer). Both are equiped with vibrorapiers and have upgrades suitable for their ranks. The Brahmin Razorfang Support Cobra is probably the best choice mechanically as it has almost all of the armor and survivability of the King Cobra but also has much needed electronic warfare upgrades (as modelled with the dish on the back and satellite uplink on the left shoulder). The political officer (which grants a reroll once per turn to any unit nearby) will usually occupy the King Cobra as its more of a front line in your face type fig. Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job of cleaning the model and only noticed the mold line on the chest after applying the wash.



This actually finishes up the army that I started over a year ago for the most part as I only have two figs left to paint (two Vipers). Unfortunately, the variant of the viper I'd like to use (the one with the snub cannon) isn't available in my army faction so I don't see myself putting together those figs at this time. If this changes with the next army book (fingers crossed), i'd gladly put them together and add them to my strike squads. On a whim, I also started working on my quick and easy support turrets for the army and might have some pics of those in the next couple of days/weeks/months (hey, gotta be realistic!) as well as a new army pic of the whole force.

Not a big update but I had to rearrange my carrying case for HG to accommodate the new models and that, of course, necessitated an updated group shot! As always, click on the pic to get to Dakka's zoomable gallery.

Forged in Flames.. a partial review of the new Southern army book.

It's been a while since my last update (and unfortunately still no one to play against locally) but I haven't given up hope yet. The new Southern army book (Forged in Fire.. referred to as FiF below) was just released in PDF form and I recieved a copy of the pdf and the delayed hard copy as a Christmas present. At first I wasn't planning on getting the hard copy myself and was going to wait a bit on the pdf but I have to say I got a bit excited when I recieved the gift. I'll comment a bit on the overall style of the book first (working off of the PDF as the hardcopy is delayed till sometime in January) and then go through some of the army mechanic changes as they pertain to the squads that I've built over the course of this blog.

The overall style is quite nice and harkens to in parts to an earlier 1st edition style of artwork while still retaining the newer artist's style as well in others. In the old days of the RPG, the technical entries for the gears that contained the game stats had a very anime inspired black and white line art style with additional white text on black background. The 2nd edition of the RPG switched over to more of a realistic technical look to the gear pictures but maintained the line art style. The technical parts of the new book harken partly to that style with red text and anime line art on a black background along with variants shown on the next page in the more static frontal 2nd edition RPG look. The picture below (spliced via web pics and cell phone images) shows the old styles on the top with the new ones shown in technical/crunch areas of the book below.



Character art has also changed significantly from the previous Locked and Loaded entries. The older book primarily used the Barbe style art taken from the RPG whereas the new book eschews it largely in favor of the talents of newer artists. While I do like the new more realistic character styles, the old fogey purist in me would be lying if I said I didn't miss the older exaggerated anime art at least somewhat. Luckily, the return of the line drawings largely satiates that appetite. I'm very behind on my HG timeline so I actually haven't read much of the fluff regarding the world setting in the PDF yet. Unlike 40k, the timeline in HG advances roughly parallel to ours in years so I'm missing much of the recent going ons that occured in the War of the Alliance books as well as NuCoal.

While I don't have the physical book in my hands to judge the actual print quality, I do have some comments about the released info about it. Normally, DP9 has come out with over the years two versions of each book, a full color deluxe (but still softcover) version for a premium price and a black and white entry level version at a discount. Unfortunately, they've decided to stop this practice apparently with the last book (NuCoal) and the FiF book is only available in the full priced and full color $60 version. In addition, the new starter packs for the south and NuCoal don't include the "mini" version of the book but instead contain a coupon for the pdf. While only a fool wouldn't admit that digital is the wave of the future for RPG products, I don't think we're there just yet. As mentioned in the first paragraph, I actually decided *NOT* to buy myself the dead-tree version of the book and was instead frankly waiting for the pdf to go on sale before buying it. I don't have any opponents to play against currently so there is no rush for me to get a copy of the rules. The full color book isn't a good value IMO (this is not limited to DP9's product offering but my general view on gaming books including the switch to a more expensive and full color 40k series of codices as well) and I'm still not confident that it will fit in my foam carrying case (GW standard case) without crushing my models. A perfect hardcopy fit for me would have been a minibook version and I would have bought a starter set if it had come with that without any qualms; I'd sell or trade the minis and keep the mini-books for my gaming copies. DP9 is rightfully criticized as pricier than most of the competition when you compare apples to apples (which fanboys generally don't when they cherry pick Inifinity models/books to compare them to) and I think that increasing the entry point into the game for players (which the hardcover book does) is a bad move for a game which doesn't have a large following to begin with. I haven't been able to convince anyone in my large metro area to play the game beyond a single demo and a more expensive army book (which 9 out of 10 gamers use in my area instead of digitial ones) that eschews the previous tradition of multiple quality and price SKUs certainly won't help in that regard.

On a technical note, the PDF is nice but also suffers from the lack of a "light" version. The file comes in at over 100mb for the army book and frequently chugs on my new Kindle Fire HD. While I like the detailed artwork that you can zoom in 400% and still be impressed by the clarity of, a significantly compressed portable version that doesn't overwork portable devices would be much appreciated. On the forums, this issue has been partly address in that DP9 staff has said part of the digital bloat is due to the pdf being compatibly all the way back to Adobe 4.0 and that they'll be releasing a version that is compatible only with more modern reader programs (lowering the size to around 80mb). I'd say that going even further for a portable version would probably be best if they're going through the trouble already to change it. Also, I'm not the most perceptive person when it comes to finding typos in books but I've found around a half dozen mistakes with another couple dozen found by others and collated into a thread on the DP9 forums. Luckily for fans, the hard copy was delayed so that there is a good chance that these typos and issues may be resolved prior to the first printing of the hardcopy book.