Get outta mah swamp!

 

The last game of the year takes us back to the american civil war for a small skirmish in the deep marshes of Florida

Raising high their flags the rebs come out of the forest to engage the bluebellies

Who march confidently under the stars and stripes

Both sides hug cover and fire at each other with rifle and cannon

And soon americans of all sides are running for their lives

But little by little the confederates gain the upper hand

And force the federals to retreat

Republic ATRT

 

Since their first appearance in Revenge of the Sith I've always liked the ATRT walker. A smaller predecessor of the imperial ATST, these vehicles were used by the Advanced Reconnaissance Troopers of the clone army to scout ahead of their comrades. In SW Legion that play instead like a fire support vehicle, blasting tanks or infantry with a wide array of weaponry. My clones were lacking in some firepower until now, but with the inclusion of this little fellow they will have new tools to deal with the separatist menace and their hordes of clankers.

Clone were known to personalize heavily their gear, so I've converted the ATRT with extra bits giving it more armour and a camo blanket

Te eagle eyed among you will have recognized that the pilot is in fact an imperial scout trooper since this vehicle is a second hand rescue, however the ATRT trooper wore a very similar helmet (below), so it checks out. In addition I painted the pilot in camo instead of the traditional white since he's an scout.

A tip when painting camouflage patterns: if you do not want it to look like cow spots, paint one of the colours in long strips overlapping the rest in places 

Wasteland Workshop: the Big Foot

 

Mad Max: Fury Road is one of my favourite movies of all time, this high octane thriller was the best of 2015 in my opinion, and back then I painted some epic scale vehicles to look like those of the movie. Despite all this I think that the setting of Necromunda is much more fitting for the kind of action shown in Frank Miller's production, and after watching the movie for the umpteenth time I bought some vehicles to bring it to life on our campaigns. 

The first is a toy car inspired by the Big Foot (above), a cheap vehicle kitted out with spare bits

The hardest part of this conversion was covering the windows from the inside with cardboard. Then I gave it a machinegun from the leman russ kit, new headlamps cropped from scout bikes, a LR proteus hatch and two flags made with toothpicks and scout bike streamers

The car is pretty big as you can see

Paintjob was quite easy: a silver drybrush over Vallejo gunmetal and another of dark grey for the big wheels, the final touch was some dusting made with a light brown on the lower part of the hull

Cyberpunk cops (and doors)

 

Life can be tough in the year 2074 living in a morally corrupt society filled with crime and poverty, but fear not, for the strong arm of the law is always there, ready to serve and protect the corporate interests

Futuristic police are a must in any cyberpunk RPG, and these excellent Papsikels models fit the bill for the low level beat cops that the players will meet when they fall on the wrong side of the law

I went for a classic blue boys paintjob with black body armour, following the style of the NCPD shown in the videogame, thankfully for the players these guys won't be as lethal as those of Night City

I painted the cables, buttons and cameras in different tones to provide some contrast, adding the discarded weapons of some unfortunate gangers to their bases as a final touch

I also needed some doors to separate the different rooms during the games, and I found these in yeggi

Cyberpunk nomad

One of my players wanted to be a gypsy gunslinger in my RPG campaign, so after browsing through the Papsikels designs I found this shady character, quite a contrast with the flashy types of the big city!

While I wanted him dressed in black I gave him some splashes of colour with magenta SMG and cyan flasks, some gold details and the lenses complete this well known "cyberpunk trio" of tones

A hard bitten survivalist, this guy lives in a van and always carries a backpack full of ropes, lockpics and assorted gear, basically a ranger from other RPG settings

 

Ruins of Jardlan map

 

Map for the latest Necromunda supplement

Underlined names mark places where an underhive scenario is played, the rest are ash wastes

And here's the blank version

Cyber Geralt

The next member of our merry band of cyberpunk adventurers in none other than Geralt, a homage to the Witcher games that built the foundations of CDR project red and who plays as a vetaran solo merc in our RPG sessions. Naturally he's a war veteran from the soviet occupied Poland that fought in the Unification War and works as a gun for hire in peacetime to ear some edis to maintain his family

I went as close to the video game as possible for his paint scheme, with only the sneaker as a cyberpunk concession to his black and leather outfit

In our group he's played by my father, a rather venerable player like Geralt himself!

 

Cyberpunk corpos

The world of cyberpunk is controlled by big business and executives who often find themselves short of edis for their startups and must stoop to shady underworld deals to keep afloat. Waihingen is one of such men, a corpo with ties to Arasaka that has become entangled in merc work to open a distribution network for his burgeoning bitcoin business. 

His company may be small but this corpo knows how to dress for business, with a flashy golden jacket and a slick haircut that makes him stand out from the unwashed masses

Exec work in the world of cyberpunk is a dangerous line of work, and Waihingen has hired a professional bodyguard to watch his back from gangers and the competition, with a cover job as his assistant she can watch his back during deals and handle the heat when a deal goes wrong

 

Netrunner

I'm starting a cyberpunk red RPG and the first step is painting up all the player's caracthers. The first is a rather stylish hacker ready to connect into an enemy mainframe. The model itself is a 3D print from Papsikels painted in contrasting reds and blues. The tech bits are mostly 40K leftover including arbites cables and a screen from the proteus land raider crew

 

Austerlitz 1805

 

Last wednesday I went to see the napoleon film, which if not at all an accurate history portrayal of his life, its nonetheless an appealing and enjoyable movie. Needless to say it motivated me to put some napolenics on the wargaming table again, and given that we had never played Austerlitz before I thought that it would bee a cool battle to refight

The battle starts at 4:00 A.M. with a massive column of austrorussian troops marching on the french left

Solidly entrenched in the villages of Sokolnitz and Tellnitz waiting for Davout's reinforcements

Napoleon himself takes a central position to control his troops

The game begins with the allies, who get the initiative and reform in attack columns

On the other side of the battlefield Lichtenstein unleashes a massive cavalry charge supported by the russian imperial guard

The french answer by attacking with their own riders led by Murat

And soon the first charges smash into the imperial troops

Only to be met by deadly canister fire and an infantry square

Both sides cuirassiers clash in the left with the russians pushed back

Meanwhile, in the center the frenchmen have crossed the Goldback and taken Puntowitz

Murat's charge mets with its first success when his dragoons run down some russian backline guns

Below the Pratzen heights the allies form in line and advance on the enemy village

With the enemy flank on the back foot the Old Guard moves into the fray

Easily repelling the assault of the enemy uhlans while Bagration's division reaches the field

Not so much combat on the right, where the allies are keeping back from the fortified villages

It is now 8:00 and the soleil d'Austerlitz shines on the battlefield removing the fog, time for the big guns to play their lethal music

Ravaged by musketry and impaled on the guard's bayonets the uhlans beat the retreat

An auspicious sign for Napoleon, who sees Davout arrive now on the field with his divisions and decides that it's time for the offence

In a rapid series of movements the french proceed to wipe out most of the opposition starting by the russian guard, caught in square and bayoneted by the veteran grognards

The russians try to stem the tide by charging over the Goldback only to be beaten back

Even the cuirassiers fall to the fusillades of the valiant Guard

Davout and his men soon join this slaughter by cutting to pieces an isolated austrian division

With most of the enemy right destroyed Napoleon proceeds to turn the flank and pushes the allies towards the iced ponds

No place is safe for the allies, french shots fall all over killing a cavalry division next to the Tsar

Davout by from right and Napoleon from the left make a pincer move against their trapped foes

Running down two artillery batteries

Only Bagration still stands firm, but outnumbered by the foe his fate is certain

With this last act of futile defiance battle comes to an end

And the outcome is a marvelous napoleonic victory, with 45.000+ dead allies for no french loss