This time I have gone for another elite unit that has a more traditional style of leadership for the Ascalabotes – a military warlord. I have also attempted to demonstrate how the rules allow you to personalise your units and leaders to create your own back story.
“Tathruk” is not from the military elite, but has come up through the ranks from his days as a lowly officer cadet to now where is leadership, authority, and military prowess are second to none. He bears many scars from his leadership from the front, where he can be found where the fighting is the thickest inspiring his men with his bravery and ferocity.
Tathruk
The squad not only includes Tathruk but “Krok” who carries Tathruck’s personal banner – that of the old rebel alliance. In order to command the Tonitrua there is also “Qrolto” whose bugle allows Tathruk to order and control the primitive Tonitrua without the use of psychic skills.
The unit otherwise fights like any other Elite squad.
Krok
The standard pole comes from the Bolt Action Japanese Infantry sprue.
As Tathruk has no psychic powers, he is unable to control an Alveare Domini, so they cannot be included in an army under his leadership. The military elite would not consider serving under an “academy graduate” not “born to lead” so they cannot be used either.
Qrolto
The bugle comes from the Bolt Action Japanese Infantry sprue.
The army must also include more “Tonitrua” than traditional military units as the military elite are jealous of his victories and do not allocate a large portion of standard military resources to him. The Tonitrua are beloved by him and flock to fight for him as he treats them as “true” Ascalabotes, and not primitive savages.
To give you an example how to represent a war leader like “Tathruk using Xenos Rampart the following is just an idea:
you could give the unit assault doctine (3+ to hit enemy) 2pts;
Close quarters doctrine (reduces shooting to 4+/12″) -1pts;
high powered blades (reduces enemy armour by 1) 1pt;
and the Xeno trait of inspirational leadership for 2pts.
This makes them close combat demons with an inspirational leader, but at the high cost of 10pts.
4th member of the Squad with rocket launcher
After consideration I will change this figure as one with a close combat weapon would be more suitable.
5th member of the squad with assault machine gun.
Tathruk should also roll on the Warlord commander Trait table and given his history can re-roll once. Even if the second roll makes him “Craven” or a “Runt’ it must be kept as then is has drunk too much Ascalabotian blood wine the night before!
Helmet made by just cutting the lizard frills of one of the heads.
The large planet of Tonitrua Lacertis has the largest but also the most primitive population. Living in small tribes the primitives are protected from predators by the “Alveare Domini”, a large predator that roams the surface in search of prey, but seems to have a psychic link to the Tonitrua.
The Crocosaur comes as a pair of adversaries from Zombicide with its opponent being the Abominape. See post on this.
Just a quick post today as I have been quite busy with new house building activities. I have finished the four remaining elite figures for that squad. I apologise for also being a bit later than normal in posting.
Regular readers will be aware that I hate putting together multi-part plastic figures. They do, however, have one great advantage and that is for “kit bashing”. I had an idea and bought a box of of Wargames Atlantic Lizardmen.
I had received a whole lot of sprue freebies with purchases and magazines over the years and would use these for the kit bashing I required. What I needed was a back story to base the army on, and so this post was born.
Travels with my Father
The year is 2073 and it is three months since we have left the fringes of the Interplanetary Alliance’s control. The planetary system of “Ascalabotes” looms large ahead of us. The system consists of a major planet with a number of moons all habitable, covered with jungles and large waterways.
The largest moon, “Civitas Lacerta” is almost totally covered by a sprawling metropolis with large jungle parks, waterways criss-crossing the city and a very high tech industrial area, known galaxy wide for its production of specialist high-end military hardware.
It is this moon that we are headed for and in particular to the space port closest to the Interplanetary Alliance’s Embassy. As usual we are to be hosted by the ambassador.
Father has indicated that we will be here for only a few days but I will need to entertain myself as we will be busy away from the embassy. I always felt it strange that as a “Political Adviser” for the Interplanetary Alliance he seemed to spend very little time in the embassies when on planet.
The planetary system of “Ascalabotes is an ideal place to see the evolution of species in action. Once thought to be totally different species the inhabitants of the system have since been found to be the same species, but at various stages of their evolutionary life cycle.
In a passing discussion with the ambassador he indicated that the Ascalabotian army was an ideal place to observe a microcosm of the evolutionary process in action. Showing me to a passageway with photos of the Ascalabotian army. He indicated that the various evolutionary stages all had significant advantages should the right role be found for them.
I was intrigued at his suggestion that higher lifeforms could be attracted to military service, which seemed to be opposite to the empirical evidence!
The large planet of Tonitrua Lacertis has the largest but also the most primitive population. Living in small tribes the primitives are protected from predators by the “Alveare Domini”, a large predator that roams the surface in search of prey, but seems to have a psychic link to the Tonitrua.
“Alveare Domini”
The figure is that of a part-painted Zombicide Crocosaur. She will be painted and based in due course. The Crocosaur will be used as a Greater Xenomorph. I have some toy crocodiles, which are still large for 28mm, that will do as lesser Xenomorphs if needed.
The Tonitrua communicate in primitive grunts and signs. It seems that the military elite, from whom the army leaders are chosen, have developed and evolved into psychic beings who can communicate with both the Tonitrua primitives and the Alveare Domini. The Alveare seems to have a hive control over these primitives. If controlled by either a Psychic leader or the Alveare Domini they could provide hordes of fierce and fanatical warriors.
I think this is a CP Models figure from their alien range. Looks like a nice “lizardy” psychic to me!
Leaders can become a separate unit, but are normally chosen as part of a squad.
I have painted up one figure of each unit as a sample. Here is a primitive Tonitrua.
These are classed as primitive Infantry and can be upgraded from a squad of five to ten or even fifteen. I have put together fifteen as they are quite vulnerable. They could also be used as Berserk Infantry as an alternative.
Some Tonitrua had progressed further along the evolutionary lifecycle and had developed the use of the common language and with their innate hunting skills were excellent scouts and recon units.
They can use primitive firearms.
The population of Second and largest moon “Lacertae Secondus” are significantly more advanced than the Tonitrua. The moon has begun to develop economically and provides excellent light infantry. There is little difference between the more advanced infantry generally only separated by their economic and scientific advancement and larger brains.
Secundian Light Infantry
Light Infantry can be fielded in groups of five or ten. I have chosen to have the option of two five man units or one ten man.
Showing me a picture of a soldier in heavy armour the Ambassador said “Gravibus Lacertae, the third and last moon has developedpressurized heavy army that it supplies to all of its citizen soldiers’.
These are you stock standard infantry. These have been equipped with missile launchers representing their “Heavy weapon” ability. Note the squad has this ability not just the figure as they are just representative of the units skills and equipment. Again they can be fielded in squads of five or ten.
The ambassador then started to describe the Elite Infantry that have the best of all equipment and training available. He said “these are not the best in the Acalabotian Army, they are the best in the Galaxy”!There role is to protect the Military Elite and to break through the enemy defences when others have failed.
Just as he finished the door thrust open and some of these “best in the galaxy” threw my father at the feet of the ambassador. “This spy says he has diplomatic immunity from the Interplanetary Alliance! Is this correct” said what appeared to be their leader. The Ambassador declared that he had and showed them documentary evidence as proof. “Then have him leave NOW and never return”.
The Elite come only in units of five.
As they are Elites I have given them really BIG guns!
With that we were bundled off to the launch bay and quickly departed. After several minutes of uncomfortable silence Father turned to me and said, “My daughter I suppose you need an explanation………….”
There are fifty figures and the Crocosaur of which only the handful you have seen are painted. I will get these finished in between the WW2 Australians.
I was going to title this “New Years Resolutions” but that seems to imply that there is some ownership and commitment to complete them. My recent history has shown that the only person I am kidding is myself.
There are some projects on the other hand that I really want to finish. I will keep this to my top 5 only.
Do the army of “Ascalabotes” for “Xenos Rampart”. More on this in a few days.
Finish Sea Lion/VBCW/Wierd War project as it has been going on for a few years now;
Paint the rest of my Dr Who figures. I recently picked up the figures I didn’t have and wanted during the Warlords Dr Who closing down sale, so have a few more coming when the postman knocks a few more than twice;
Complete the Bolt Action Japanese Army. I have most of the vehicles completed, but with the one hundred odd infantry and support weapons it is still a large project.;
Re-base the ECW Lowland Scots army recently purchased to match my Montrose one.
You will note this doesn’t include the British Commando/SAS army. This one is almost finished so is imminently doable. Still there is a lot of trucks and vehicles to put together and paint. Nor does it include the rest of my Australian WW2 army. Although there are only a dozen figures to complete the Jungle Division, I still have a tank company to complete the infantry for and some commandos and militia.
Both of these have not been included as they are started, and now that I am playing a bit of Bolt Action it would be great to finish figures that have been in the dungeon for a long. long, long time.
That’s it! That is all I am committing to and even then I am using that “C” word advisedly.
Guru says, “If one believes in predestination then New Years resolutions will resolve themselves”.
When painting up figures for “The U.N.I.T.” in Doctor Who the problem is which uniform do you choose?
The traditional greens and khaki beret – a bit (olive?) drab.
Colonel Walsh in black/dark blue uniform and red beret – yuck not a favourite.
Major Wyland-Jones in Greens and a red beret – very SAS.
Brigadier Bambera in greens with a light camo and blue United Nations type Beret. Not bad.
I have finally chosen the Major Wyland-Jones in greens and a red beret option.
I am not sure where I bought the figures from but they are overly tall and gangly. They look very similar to Black Tree Designs or the ones being pawned off by Warlord Games as one of their end of range incentives as they are no longer renewing their BBC license as of the start of 2023.
Despite this, they fit in well with the rest of the other Dr Who range.
Here they are along side a variety of human and alien types.
Each 5 man section has an NCO with SMG and 4 operatives with BAR.
Operative 1 with BAR
Operative 2 with BAR
Operative 3 with BAR
Operative 4 with BAR
NCO with SMG
Tomorrow another Unified Intelligence Taskforce Section
I just wanted to share with you what projects i really liked completing this year. Some because the models were cool, other because they were just a bit of fun to do or I really liked the result I achieved. I learned a lot of new painting techniques this year thanks to all of you who gave me the hints. I decided to provide a link to the actual post they were introduced so that I did not have to provide a lot of detail. Either look them up or not. Many equally good projects like the Seebattalion and lots of zombie projects have not been included.
Reaper yeti models have really stood the test of time. These have been included as I had to learn how I wanted to paint the fur. After several tries I am really happy with the outcome.
All of these village and terrain projects were finished because I just like really cool terrain to play on yet is practical in terms of moving figures. They have been cluttered to make the photos look more “realistic” but work equally well “dumbed down” for gaming.
This is one of those boring posts which is written more as a motivator for me than for you to read.
A summary of the Monthly Highlights for this year:
January – Napoleonic Brunswick army finished, A low light was the Free Folk army started with a bang but ended with a whisper with no more being worked on for the rest of the year.
February – not much outstanding but a lot of Napoleonics re-based, flocked and touched up.
March – French Napoleonics re-based, flocked and touched up, Striking Scorpions completed, and some post apocalyptic trucks and ruined vehicles finished. The mouse village was also finished.
April – BA10 Armoured Car finished for Finnish army, the House Targaryen army was completed, and the majority of the Roman township done as well. The French Partisan WW2 army commenced.
May – An eclectic month with some Halo Spartans, Char B1 tank, Rad Ghouls, Giant squid and the rest of the Roman village and port completed,
June – Seebattalion, small pier, rat storms, pulp heroes, French for Silver bayonet, Jungle village and my most popular post for the year on the Empress Miniatures U-Boat was finished. A bunch of Aliens were also painted.
July – Cherry Tarts for VBCW, Night of the Living Dead box set and Zombicide Season 1 miniatures finished. Also the French Partisans, Phantoms Jungle Patrol, Crystal cove and Ghostbusters ghosts finalised.
August – Zombicide Season 1 Angry neighbours finished. Alternative armies Zombie Dogs and Obadiah’s deserter finished. Zombie dogs, crew for the U-Boat, and the Season of scenery Challenge were also completed. The later consisted of the Skull Cave, Skull mountain and the internal Skull “cave” residence for the Phantom. Some Vampires and their acolytes were also finished. A very productive month.
September – Abominape, Werewolves, Apocalypse ape, Lizard Nazis, WW2 British Zombie hunters, pumpkin scarecrows, Skull Throne, Sanna Annie unit from Alternative Armies, and a Yeti tribe were all completed.
October – Nazi hacks, grave diggers, Nun Nazi spies, scorpions, ghosts skull markers, Japanese tanks, Bolt Action markers, stag vignette, werebear, stone golem, spiders, and some Aliens were completed.
November – more Japanese Tanks, Churchill AVRE tank, start of the Australian WW2 Jungle Division, monks, Obadiah’s Artillery from Alternate Armies, Necromunda Ratskins, WW2 Matilda tanks, Post Apocalyptic survivors, WW2 Chaplain and some more British Commandos were all done.
December – Concentrated on Australian WW2 jungle Division and the Pacific Village.
I wanted to review at least 12 books which I more than doubled and to write a number of thought provoking posts. I hope I achieved this.
From a post perspective the number of visitors for the year rose from 7,000 in 2021 to nearly 12,000 in 2022, not much compared with some of you but shows that a few of you out there like what I write. The most popular post was on the Empress Miniatures U-boat. Likes and comments were nearly the same for the first time and about half the people who visited made a comment, which I am really pleased about as it shows that people are engaged in the post. My objective of posting every day for the year was achieved and with a total of 450 posts in total for the year I was really stoked.
I am pleased with how the blog has been a motivator to get things finished. Not what I thought I would as some project were dropped through lack of interest and others started, but I certainly achieved far more than I had expected. This year who knows.
I have enjoyed writing, and reading your comments and posts and look forward to another year.
