The Horde

I've taken delivery of Xanders force for Salute. Gratifyingly both forces fit in a single case, which is a little surprising given the size of this one.

I love this force. At a distance it looks like some sort of  Viking army,

but the closer you get

the

weirder

it

gets...

I love it! combined with Xanders painting, it's a beautiful force.

I've also managed to point it up.

We were slightly worried that the Coalition force would outstrip it in size, but nothing like that has happened. Even stripped down to basically men and equipment, the horde significantly outpoints the coalition. I'm hoping that this will provide an opportunity to fine tune the points values for firearms.

The horde is composed of elite troops. If they don't have the numbers or experience to cross the battlefield without getting cut apart then I know we have a  problem.

Nomad WiP

The WiPs

The nomads muster

I'm here too!
Sorry.  The last few months have been mad... but the nomads (mark I army, pending mammoths at a later date) are getting there. I  have another 20 or so part finished in the work bench, but the current plan is to get everything finished by the end of the weekend.
Alas, you won't be seeing me at Salute as I am likely to be moving house that day.
Still, enough of that...

Here is the painted force as it currently stands - 3 squads, a cannon and most of a command squad... still on the paint desk are another squads worth (a bit more multicultural with a few nods and winks on the shield designs ), the warlord, the rest of the command squad and a sniper team...

Group shot

A quick group shot for your delectation

Manchester Cavalry

The final component for my Manchester force are these dragoons.

I don't know where the figures are from, but they're originally Mexican-American war Mexican cavalry that Xander kindly forced on me, possibly to make me write cavalry rules.

The bases are, perhaps, a little too large, but I think they look good.

Flying Squad officers often wear non-standard uniforms, mostly because they can.

Probably my favourite. The paint job on the horse really stands out here.

The Flying Squad (or, The Lancers) are not a formal part of the Manchester Guard. Early in the city's history a fast mobile unit was put together to counter bandits and generally keep order among outlying settlements. At first this was little more than a posse of well armed busybodies who threw their weight around outside the walls of the citadel. As time went on they developed their own tradition and history but began to deploy regularly alongside or in support of the Guard proper.

Technically any man can join the Flying squad; the only requirements being that he must provide his own horse. In practice this limits membership to rich sons of the Houses or other prosperous individuals. Additionally the use of the male pronoun throughout the Book of Rules, the governing document that describes the responsibilities and privileges of the Flying Squad has been used to limit membership to men only. This reading of the document has been upheld at least once, making this one of the few roles in Manchester from which women are formally barred.

The preponderance of thrill seeking rich among the Flying Squad has, inevitably, created a hostile relationship with the Guard, who know them by a number of insalubrious names. In fact, while their value in providing a visible presence for Manchester's satellite communities is respected by the leaders of Manchester, their actual utility in battle is still debatable. While they commemorate a number of "great victories" their detractors are quick to point out that these were attained against what amounts to disorganised bandits and disgruntled farmers. The armies of the Karn, by comparison, are like nothing they have faced before.

Manchester Guard Weapons Team

Here are some photos of the Guard's HMG, probably the single most potent weapon on our future battlefield (unless you count mammoths...)

Manchester Guard Infantry

I was going to post some background for the City of Manchester, as it exists in our game-world, with this post, but it's late and I've got to get up early tomorrow so, for now, here are some pictures of the completed Manchester infantry.

I'm reasonably happy with how they turned out in the end. Granted they are the drabbest forces I have ever painted, including my 15mm paras in camo! They don't really scream post apocalyptic either, but that's ok as again, Manchester is supposed to be a visionary re-inventor city state. They have the textile industry to clothe their troops identically and the logistical capacity to standardize their weaponry.

In order to escape the curse of true uniformity, I tried to mix headgear up a little, adding WWII helmets, and - as shown in the forefront in the photo above - a greenstuff sculpted helmet.

I tried adding a little colour in the bases as I've been experimenting wit meadow flowers. They are a bitch to get stuck down, and the solitary bloom I put on the Highland Spring Water Traders has already fallen off. I'm probably applying them incorrectly.

The miniature above will serve as an NCO and probably my command figure for the game, unless I can find the time to put some more HQ figures together.

Manchester Guard Veterans

More regular that Thing A Week, it's another squad of troops from the anti-nomad coalition!

The men below are the elite of the Manchester Guard, the small professional army created to defend the City of Manchester from external threats. Have some pics:

From the front

From behind

I'm actually very pleased with the way they turned out. At first, I thought the squares on their cloaks were going to drive me insane, but they seem to have paid off.

These men are drawn from among the longer serving members of the "Mud and Bloods" (I'll provide fluff for both Manchester and the Guards soon enough) and keep many of their operating procedures and weapons from before "the reorganisation".

These men are armed with SMG's, while their sergeant has an assault rifle. One of them carries a Rocket Launcher, Single Shot, Disposable, Mammoth, For the purpose of hunting.

Beneath their cloaks they are wearing the "new" uniform of the Manchester Guard. Persistent legend has it that their cloaks are made by, or bought with the last pennies of their wives or sweethearts, and there is even a song to this end, however, this is mostly untrue. While they provide their own cloaks, as with all non-standard issue equipment, they are usually not bought by doomed lovers. Veteran troops are extremely possessive of their signature look, and many regular soldier has got the boot in when innocently trying to emulate them.

While they are the veterans of many battles with raider groups and smaller settlements, they have never faced a foe as large, as experienced or as cohesive as the Karns horde.

Highland Spring Water Clansmen

Happy New Year readers! While most of my time has been hoovered up by various parties and the 150 pages of prereading that I need to do for my next module, all my spare time is now being dedicated to the ATR project and I can happily report that I have my first unit completed, with the other now completely built and awaiting paint.

Here are some pictures of the Highland Spring Water Clan, otherwise known as the Highland Spring Tranders.

Basic Musketeers

The standard bearer - front and centre - still has to have his banner added. I've made the flag, I just need to get it to a printer. As it turns out, I am simply not good enough to paint intricate design.

Some more colourful figures

The second photo contains some of the "characters" of the group. At the far left is the squads LMG gunner and to his right, with the ornament on his turban is the squads 0 Leadership leader. The figure behind and between the two is the NCO for the Clan detachment.

The Highland Spring Water Clan came together when I envisioned a more post-nuclear setting for our game. They were pulling double duty as a stand in for Clean Water Cartel/Generic civilised wastelanders for Dariwns World. As the setting for our game become more unspecified, generic human die-back their mode of dress became rather odd, but I do have an in-story handwave for that.

In all honesty, I probably should have given these guys a desert wasteland basing, rather than a generic wasteland basing.

Ahem

The Highland Spring Water Clan

Soon after The Fall, the families of the Highland Spring group took refuge at their bottling plant in the Brecon Beacons National Park. The isolated location afforded safety and an abundance of game. It soon came to their attention that there were plenty of concentrations of people without access to sufficient quantities of clean drinking water. Soon they were back in business producing and transporting bottled water. As people learned to deal with the new realities of the world, the bottom quickly fell out of the water market, but by then, the Highland Spring Traders had an established network of contacts and clients and began to trade in other commodities.

Their idiosyncratic mode of dress was established early in their history. During a period they refer to as "The Burning Years" they came to believe that increased solar activity was a major threat - due to whatever reason, global warming, use of nuclear weapons in other parts of the world - and began to dress accordingly. They claim that this threat has now passed, but by then the new style of dress had become cultural. In reality, this paranoia was provoked by a series of nasty sunburns suffered by their children during an unusually cloudless summer in the higher altitudes of the Welsh Mountains.

Membership of the Highland Spring Water Clan is restricted to family members, thus the Clan part of their name. Everyone currently in the Clan is related, at least by marriage to the original families who took shelter in the bottling plant. This proved problematic during their initial expansion as manpower was constantly stretched and resulted in a rash of adult adoptions, arranged marriages and rumoured bride and groom kidnappings. Now the Clan's presence has stabilised, reaching from Manchester to London.

Their northern interests have been severely damaged by the presence of the marauding Northern Nomads and it was the Highland Spring Water Clan that first truly realised the threat posed by these new, powerful raiders, and proposed the idea of a multi faction coalition to the Mayor of Manchester. While they incessantly promote the coalition as a cosmopolitan group, the majority of the forces involved belong to Manchester, with the Clan itself providing a distant second. Unfortunately, the Clans warriors are little more than caravan guards and have never fought anything like a pitched battle. They are desperately unready to face the seasoned raiders of the Karns forces.

Inspiration behind the Northern Nomads

I just wanted to share some of the visual inspiration behind my Northern Nomad raiders. The initial idea and basic description of nomadic mammoth herders in chain mail and fur came from the World of Mortal Engines series of books, and my mental image was always of Cossacky-Vikings (or maybe even Vikingy-Cossacks, it's hard to  tell!) - all baggy trousers, tunics, beards and long hair. Luckily that description pretty much perfectly fits 'Rus'/Eastern vikings, so they sort of became my baseline. I was also partially influenced by memories of National Geographic style anthropological photos of nomadic reindeer herders (Both Sami and their asiatic cousins). 

I was also always really impressed with Dalaupporor's 'Baltic heathen' army ( Check it out here) and at the back of my mind I'd always fancied doing something similar, so that sort of fitted in too

-Xander

WiP: Northern Nomads

A few WiP snaps from my desk - please ignore the part painted Valkyrie crew and the horde of  grey-primed dark-ages types on the paint station in the background!

-Xander

 From L: A scav/archeotechologist, nomad warrior, Carn Ikea Torsson, a selection of pack mules and part of a hunting dog. The building in the background will be the 'traders hut' in the display game... Yes, it does have a sofa and a washing machine outside it. No... I don't know why either!

From L; Hunting dogs, light cannon 1 (Warlord Frame gun), light cannon 2 (Boot Hill 'come take it' gun), 2 part-converted Warlord gun crew (ECW Scots -> Northern Nomads) & a part built cart as scatter for the village in the display game.
The gun crewman hunched over will be getting a slung shield and will have some GSing done on his coat. The chap leaning forward with the fuse needs some work done on his trousers, and may well get a belt...

Assorted part painted Northern Nomads
(Note: angry northern lady!)

More assorted part painted nomads....

Close-up of Carn Ikea Torsson, my commander for the display game
(Ancestral shotgun for the win!)