Arrivals

Howdy!

Defiant Gaming have come through again.  In the evening of Wednesday, I put in an order for Lowie and myself.  This morning at the post office, TA DA! it was waiting for me...

This is the order: Lowie's PanO stuff (Military Orders starter) to the side there, along with a mini for his new Shadowrun character; mine is centre and left (Ariadna and Haqqislam starters; Halqa, Foxtrot Ranger sniper and S.A.S. blisters).  I put together the minis in the blisters almost immediately, and was quite impressed with the quality.  No flash except at injection points, hardly any mould lines either (and where they were there, they were along places where they were barely visible anyway).  The Halqa chick was the most difficult to put together - her weapon arm and supporting arm are two pieces, so a little manoeuvring was needed to get them to fit the body.  I'll probably use some of the GW Liquid Greenstuff to fill the small gaps that remain.  The other slightly tricksy model was the S.A.S. guy.  His knife blade is very thin, and there was a good tag on it from the mould, which I had to carve off.  With a lot of care, however, it all went well.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to do the boxed figures tonight, but no promises.  I'm also holding Lowie's minis prisoner until tomorrow.  So there.

And I'm very much looking forward to testing out this game.  If you've played the game before, how are the Quick Start Rules?  Useful?  Or a waste of time?

Until next time, cheers!

New Aliens on the block

    I've always liked the Infinity range of miniatures, with their distinctive flavour and animated poses.  So when Cohen and Lowie mentioned how they were getting into it, I jumped at the chance to join in.  As a long time player of Warhammer 40,000, my forrays into other game systems has been somewhat limited.  So with a limited knowledge of the rules, I set about choosing my list with the main focus being on what I thought looked awesome.

   

 I decided on a Combined Army, specifically a Morat Aggression Force.  Something about the Morat and their totally blunt, aggressive nature spoke to me.  These guys are unashamed in the brutal way they conduct war, and always play to win.

The Kurgat with Autocannon miniature leapt out at my instantly.  What more could any self-respecting soldier want then a firearm bigger then himself that fire explosive ammunition?

    Because we were starting small at 150 points, taking the Autocannon limited my choices of Lieutenant somewhat.  I decided to go with a Yaogat Lieutenant with Combi-rifle, along with a Yaogat armed with a Boarding Shotgun.  The intimidation factor of a shotgun always inspires confidence in me, so now with what I perceived as a strong core, I decided to fill out my starting list with some grunts.

    Three Morat Vanguard Infantry with Combi-rifles will help boost my numbers and stop me being swarmed by my opponents.  I look forward to expanding my list with some HMG totting Morats in the coming months, but for now am ready to start assembling my beginning force, time to wait at the mailbox.

Reconstructive Surgery

Alright.  It's begun.  I dug up a mini I'd previously acquired for AE: Bounty, but never really got around to painting: an Ariadnan Scout, with an Ojótnik rifle and E/Mauler (I still really have very little idea what either of those items are at the moment, but we'll get there!).

Sadly, when I got the mini out, the E/Mauler arm was gone, presumed snapped off.  My models tend to get a good working over through my kids, my son in particular being fond of checking out the latest and greatest.  I assume that is what happened here.

I spent some minutes looking through my various bitz boxes, and although I found some very interesting stuff, the arm was lost.  What to do?  In my searchings, I'd found an extra arm from a Cygnaran Ranger, which was holding a astrolabe or some sort navigational/telescopic device.  With a little clipping, I managed to cut it down to look like a smaller version of (what I remember) the E/Mauler (to be).

Here's what it looked like after the hobby knife attack:

Not particularly pretty, but functional.  May also double as a Forward Observer, once I work out what one of those does!  After a quick re-application of the undercoat (since the pink cloak is hideous!), the mini was looking a little more respectable:

With the Olympics playing in the background, I was able to work for about an hour and a bit on the mini, and on the whole I'm happy with the result.  I need to do some further work on the face (which is a common problem I have when I'm painting) and on the camo of the cloak (not too sure about the grey spots; maybe they could be smaller?).

All in all, a reasonable night's work, and a pretty good vanguard for the rest of the force, which should be arriving mid-week.

Cheers!

PS: The iPad 3 has a great camera!  It's close-up pictures are really pretty good, all in all.  Props to Mrs Cohen for holding the second light-source and to Eric Hill for Spot books.  You guys rock!

Aloha from the sunny shores of Sarsfield. Now that i have sorted out access issues I, Lowie, can give a rundown of my reasoning behind my choice of faction....the Pan Oceania. Basically I just fell in love with the future Knightly Orders and their beautiful sculpts. I may have to also merge into Yu Jing as there are a lot in that range that is irresistible to any wargamer. To start off with i will be playing with a Military Orders starter and will work from there, possibly adding the Dragoon T.A.G in the future. Who knows. In the mean time i shall continue counting my chickens and waiting for Aussie post to deliver my new bundle of joy. Until then....Keep Watching the Ski's! 

The more, the merrier

Hey there!

While we continue to battle the authoring/adminning process here at Newab men Alesra'e, I'd like to welcome another contributor to this blog: Skorpious. He's a good friend of Lowie and I, and will be firing up the Combined Army. I'm sure he'll be on at some point to give you his reasons for choosing the alien menace.

Til then, cheers!

Factions Attack!

Alright then!

I told you all I would be posting in a little mo detail about my choice of faction(s) and the reasons for choosing the way I did. I've just received word that the order of all the minis (Lowie and I ordered together to save on postage through Defiant Gaming. Worked out to be free! Woot!) is actually on its way, which means, knowing the mob there, that the minis will be here mid-next week or so.

I've been using Defiant Gaming for a long while now, ever since I finished up with my 40K armies (Eldar and vanilla Space Marines) and switched to Warmachine (Cygnar and then Retribution) and Hordes (Trollbloods). They've always been really good to work with.

Maybe another time I'll answer the question made famous by the guys at the d6 Generation: "Are you now, or have you ever been, a gamer?" But that's a bit off-topic for this evening!

The game of Infinity has been around a while - I've always liked the look of it, but was scared off from trying it because a friend of mine had said it was too complex. It still looks quite complex, to the point where my beloved wouldn't touch it, but I think with a fellow gamer to learn the rules with, it will work out fine.

And the minis are gorgeous. Seriously, they're wonderful. So much variety, so many different visual styles. That's one of the things that made choosing a faction so difficult. Where do you start? Fortunately, despite its anime tendencies, I'm not a fan of scantily-clad female warriors, nor ones in tight-fitting figure-hugging garb. So this cut down my options a little. Ariadna seem to be quite sensibly clothed, which is a relief, and the Scottish vibe resonated with me (especially after seeing Brave!). The other two factions that called to me were Combined Army, whom I originally looked at them for a crew for AE:Bounty, a game put out by Darkson Designs, and Haqqislam, who are also quite modestly and functionally dressed!

Really, all the factions have their share of amazing models. The Cutter TAGs for the PanOceania are nice, the bots for the Nomads, etc. those three factions, however, really were my short list.

That done, I enlisted the aid of Mrs Cohen to choose the final one. She liked the look of the Ariadna and the Haqqislam, so that narrowed it some more. I couldn't give up the urge to get TAGs though, which Ariadna don't have. Thus, the Haqqislamites it was. I did in the end cave and get both though. Oops. Double the painting, double the work.

That will do for now. Hopefully we'll have the kinks worked out for Lowie to join us soon.

Cheers!

An Opening must be Grand!

...But alas, it's not.

Greetings! This blog will serve as a record for Lowie and I as we explore some new gaming possibilities, especially Infinity the Game. We've just in the last couple of days chosen which factions we will be playing, Lowie the Pan-Oceanic, and for me, Ariadna and Haqqislam.

Lowie will get around to posting soon, I'm sure. And later I will write my thoughts about the models and my choices regarding which factions to take. The following blog will show our progress painting, chronicle some of the battles that take place, and also track our progress in the game.

But for now, welcome.

Cheers,
Cohen