Q13 AAR: Snake in the Space Dog's Shadow

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It had been ages since I’d last played Quadrant 13, the company-sized sci-fi game using the basic IABSM engine that I wrote for the Lardies, so it was great to be able to take advantage of a day’s holiday and take the Astagar (space snakes) and Protolene Khanate (space dogs) for a ride.

Click on the pic below to see the whole report.

The majority of both armies originally come from Critical Mass Games, with the Khanate being one of the original races available and the Astagar added vis a Kickstarter campaign.

Unfortunately, CMG closed down, but the infantry figures (not the vehicles, just the infantry) are available from Ral Patha Europe.

Incidentally, one thing I missed out on Astagar-wise was the SP artillery. If anyone does have any that they don’t want any more, the snakeheads could do with a bit of support. E-mail me at admin@vislardica.com if you have some to sell.

And just for completeness, once I start collecting one particular category of sci-fi race, I have to have every variant possible…so my core Protolene Khanate space dogs are augmented by a platoon of Garrhul from Dark Star and a platoon of Raug from Khuarasan. If you are after dog-men, you have the choice of three different manufacturers or, like me, all three!

Garrhul from Darkest Star Games

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A quick dip into the lead mountain and a chance to paint the Garrhul 15mm dog-men from Darkest Star Games. I already have Critical Mass’ Protolene Khanate and Khurasan’s Raug, so it was a natural fit for me to add the Garrhul.

This is currently a small range, but very nicely sculpted. I particularly like the way they have done the helmets: not anthromorphic like the Khanate but sensibly shaped helmets for troops with a snout!

The range consists of helmeted or unhelmeted infantry, available in packs of ten. Each pack contains a good variety of poses and a chap carrying a squad support weapon. In command you have a Garrhul merchant Prince plus bodyguards, and a sniper figure is also available. I particularly like the Merchant Prince’s pose: standing looking out at the battlefield with his arms crossed. Finally, and newly released, the Garrhul have some two-seater grav rafts: like Jeeps.

The Garrhul are proper 15mm figures, so match perfectly with the Khanate. They are a size different to the Raug, who are (like a lot of Khurasan’s 15mm figures) more like 20mm miniatures. The heads of the Raug and Garrhul are sculpted very similarly, however, and they carry the same sort of equipment, so it’s easy to believe that they are two branches of the same genome.

All in all, these are great figures, and I look forward to the range expanding in the future.

Garrhul (left) and Raug (right)

Raug from Khurasan

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As the last bit of painting was a “main project” piece (ECW cavalry) it was time to delve into the lead mountain again and see what I could find. Somewhere on the lower slopes, I discovered a plastic box with about a platoon’s worth of werewolf-like sci-fi infantry.

I couldn’t remember where they came from, and was about to hit the ‘net to see if I could search them down, when I happened to turn one over and notice that the manufacturer had kindly stamped their name into the bases!

It was Khurasan Miniatures, and a quick scan of their site revealed that what I had in my hand was a platoon of Raug, a subject race of the Soriog.

From the Khurasan site:

The Soriogs rule over a vast interstellar empire, ruling many alien species, some of whom provide soldiers for the empire – in fact, the most commonly encountered Imperial soldier is not a Soriog at all, but rather the Raug Ceepay (soldier) who serve in their tens of millions. These are brave and tenacious, and come from a warlike predatory culture that makes them pefect rank and file soldiers. A section of Raug is made up of four triads, each of three Raug (two with an autogun and one with a heavy support weapon). Two such sections typically make up a platoon, commanded by two Soriogs, and usually accompanies by a Windhowler (a Raug mystic with healing powers) and between two and four Soriog Gundogs, which provide the platoon heavier organic fire support.

“I am 15mm, I am!”

These looked ideal candidates for GW Contrast Paints, and so it proved. Painting them was a matter of three colours only: the green, the brown, the black (for the guns). I did the whole platoon in a couple of hours: in fact, the basing took longer than the actual painting.

My only gripe, and it is a common gripe with Khurasan, is the matter of scale creep. These are lovely figures, no doubt about that, but they aren’t really 15mm at all: they are easily 20mm from base to eyeline, and more like 25mm tall to the top of the heads.

Now I have no objection in theory to large-ish 15mm sci-fi figures, but to look at a lot of the Khurasan ranges (especially the Thrainite space dwarves) you’d think that humans were the shortest race in the entire galaxy!

That may indeed be the case (who knows!) but I do think that 15mm figures should at least try and be 15mm in size.

Anyway, nice figures, and another unit cleared from the lead mountain.

Q13: 15mm spaceship from Ravenstar Studios

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Back in May, Ravenstar Studios had a 30% off sale and, as I'm trying to build up the aerial side of my sci-fi armies, I decided to indulge and pick up a couple of models.

First up was a small flyer for my Protolene Khanate force. This is the Stinger Flyer from Ravenstar's Land Core range (the same range as the Horrid).

Lovely model that glues together really easily. I undercoated in grey, then got out my roll of masking tape and carefully cut a number of squiggly strips out of it and stuck them in place. I then sprayed again in green, peeled off the masking tape, and achieved not a bad camouflage pattern.

A quick wash, a few bits of red paint, some decals left over from the WW2 Italians, and the little craft was done.

Unfortunately, as you can probably see, I did have a little bit of a problem with the finish. For some reason everything came out quite dark and dusty. 

Still, not a bad little model and now the Protolenes have some air support. Cost of the Stinger is only $14...which used to be quite cheap!

Big Men for the Protolenes

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Originally posted 24th December 2013

I'm trying not to start any more sci-fi armies for the moment, concentrating on completing the many that I have already.

This is actually harder than it sounds, as some of them don't actually come from complete ranges and have to be filled in as and when I come across something appropriate. For example, Khurasan's ambulatory plants, the Vornid, are lovely, but the 'range' only consists of a few infantry poses. I've already added Hydra's Slishians as command figures, and am now waiting for a package from Ravenstar with some 'Horrids' to add bio-vehicles.

Anyway, first up in the gap-filling are some command figures for Critical Mass's Protolene Khanates:

More Protolenes!

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Originally posted 4th August 2011

A couple more units added: a second platoon of Hunter infantry; the Predator Communications/Electronic Warfare Ayame battlesuit variant; and a squad of Predator Ayame Assault battlesuits: the one's with the big jet engines on their backs!

Protolene Hunter Infantry from Critical Mass Games

Gallery: The Protolene Khanate from CMG

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Originally posted 10th July 2011

With Critical Mass Games producing a whole load of new Protolene Khanate Ayame walkers, I've re-vamped the Khan's gallery page and started adding more units.

First up are the Ayame Mortar Assault walkers: a departure from the rest of the Ayame range as they aren't assigned to any of the three "branches" of the Khan army: the Hunters, Scouts or Predators. 

These are, however, great figures, and provide a much needed indirect fire support capacity for the Khan. As they are "branch-less", I decided to paint them up in grey, but couldn't resist making their claw hand the same colour as my predator models...perhaps as if they had been fitted from spare parts left over after a particularly bloody battle!

Gallery: The Protolene Khanate

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Originally posted 29th August 2010

I haven't had a chance to do much gaming in the last month or so:  holidays, work, real life etc! I have, however, been able to do a little painting: here are the first pictures of the Protolene Khanate, Critical Mass Games' excellent range of dog-headed sci-fi infantry and walkers. 

To give you some idea of how large the medium walkers are, the infantry below are mounted on 20p plastic tokens, the medium walkers on large FOW bases...

Can't wait to try them out on the table!

Scout Snipers

Scout Marrock

GYFTOOMF: Protolene Khanate

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Originally posted 30th March 2010

I've added details for Critical Mass Games' Marrok Walkers: medium walkers to support the Protolene Khanate infantry.

The image below doesn't really do justice to the size of this thing, but a 15mm infantryman comes in at under the walker's knee height!