Horizon Wars and Polyversal stuff

Inspired by pictures in the Horizon Wars rulebook I decided to try out some of the new 6mm companies out there. Well, new since I last played any 6mm S/F game at least.

First I jumped onboard an order my mates Håkan and Mats placed to Vanguard Miniatures, sampling a couple of different ranges they carry. I ordered some vehicles and walkers from the Defeat in Detail range.

Top: Novan Scout buggies: Bottom Cybershadows Warcrabs.

I ordered some acrylic explosions and an MDF landing pad as well, but I don't have any good pictures of them yet.

In Horizon Wars the crabs will be P1 Mechs and the scout buggies will be Light Cavalry and Recon.

Size comparison with an EM-4 Mech

I then also placed a small order from Brigade Models to try out their stuff. I chose units from the Pacific Federation and the South African Confederation factions, because they looked very distinct from eachother. The PacFed uses gravtanks while the SAC uses lots of wheeled vehicles. I also ordered generic powered armour infantry.

PacFed infantry, 24 models, 6 diffrerent poses.

Power Armour infantry, 24 models, four different poses.

PacFed Cougar gravtank, Tanami SPG and Kakadu Rocket Artillery

SAC Wildebeest APC's. The middle has an AA turret and will function as a HQ element.

A closer shot of the Wildebeests.

If you compare the Defeat in Detail miniatures with the Brigade Models stuff, Defeat in Detail has more detailed sculpts. Yet I'm not sure that's a good thing, since it's 6mm after all and I want the models to be quick to paint. Lots of details will take more time. On the other hand, good relief will take washes better so it's a fine line to walk. But if we look at the wheels for example, I thought the Brigade Models APC's looked a bit boring with their smooth tires, but then I realised that at this scale you shouldn't be able to pick out any thread details. The scout cars also has a finely sculpted rear door with hinges and locks and stuff, but they are attached to the sprue right on that door, making it impossible to cut them loose from the sprue without damaging the details on the door.

Size comparisons. The Tamami gravtank is on a 40mm base, while the Warcrab is on a 60mm base!

By coincidence, right after I placed these orders the new Polyversal Kickstarter came live, and one of the battlegroups featured in the Kickstarter game uses models from the PacFed faction, but not any of the ones I ordered. The powered infantry is the same though, but that's ok, I was probably going to order more someday anyway.

One of the battlegroups in the Polyversal Kickstarter. Anything look familiar?

 Furthermore, a couple of freebies exclusive to the kickstarter are small walkers not yet relased from Brigade Models, and a Spaceport terrain piece that will go along nicely with the landing pad I ordered... it's almost as if I'm psychic.

A nice big chunk of resin... excellent. Looks big enough to hide a mech behind too!

I'm glad to say the kickstarter has funded now, so I will be able to slot those models right into my existing collection when they arrive sometime next year. (And if I don't like the game I can use the miniatures for Horizon Wars.)

Go check it out if you haven't done so yet, at the time of writing it's eight days left so plenty of time to throw some money at it. What are you waiting for?

EM4 cheap-ass mechs and spaceships

Inspired by Horizon Wars I decided to get some battlemechs to try out the rules. As I wrote in my previous post I have ordered some cheap plastic mechs from EM-4 miniatures. They are molded in a hard silvery plastic on two sprues. The plastic takes ordinary model glue fine and five 25mm round slottabases are included.

The first sprue

The second sprue. The two standing mechs are identical to the first sprue.

To summarize the parts there are two identical smaller bodies, two identical slightly larger bodies, and a large body with large hind legs. Weapon-wise we get two right arms, two left arms, a pair of double lasercannons, three autocannons and two missile pods. I thought the missile pods were a bit large, but otherwise the designs are nice.

A quick dry-fit of weapons and bodies. All arms fit all mechs, but some look better on certain bodies.

What I really fancy is some real Battletech figures since I played the boardgame a lot during the early 90-ies. The best looking mechs were those that really were copies of the Robotech anime designs; The Marauder, Warhammer, Rifleman and others I can't remember anymore. Unfortunately the metal Mechs are quite costly and -- I think -- that the classic designs are no longer available due to the blatant copyright infringement. But in the mean time five mechs for the princely sum of £2.55 will do nicely.

The cheap Spaceships/Flyers.

Twelve different sculpts, quite impressive.

Along the same vein, you can get 12 different spaceships and/or flyers for £2.55. Also included are 12 flight stands, which is insanely good value since often just flight stands cost more than that if you buy them separately. Not all designs look like airplanes, some look more like the spaceships they are sold as, but hey, at 21 pence a pop who's complaining?

EM-4 I'm told are mainly doing pieces for boardgames, and you can buy a lot of dice, counters and other accessories on their site. These models were originally designed for boardgames, but they will do nicely for Horizon Wars or Polyversal. 

To summarise I give EM-4 Mechs and Flyers 4 out of 5 heat-seeking nuklear missile salvos.

Sure they look cheap, but they are even cheaper. For the price you can afford to sacrifice the occasional odd model or iffy sculpt to the bits box. Check them out.

Some thoughts about Horizon Wars

Horizon Wars by Robey Jenkins is the new set of wargames rules from Osprey publishing. This time it's all about big stompy robots and tanks in a not all too distant future -- albeit in 6mm or 1:285 scale. The game is designed to be generic which means you can use all the 6mm S/F stuff you already have, be it Battletech or Epic40k stuff, or maybe even Hammer's Slammers or other figures. [Edit: as someone pointed out you can use 10 or 15mm troops too!] There's a setting and a background included for those of us who need a little bit of inspiration for our games. It's quite funny actually. There's a Youtube video explaining how to play via a short battle report, I'm sure you can find it if you search on Youtube.

The pre-release blurb from Osprey

Before I go into the my thoughts about the game, lets take a detour shall we.