Biker Röknauts

I’m taking these days to dive into smaller projects, the kind that let you see results and keep the momentum going. And among them, I’ve had my eye on the Röknauts bikers from Ontos Games for quite a while now. 2nd Ed. looking not-Squats, a bullet I thought I’d dodge, but which has ended up hitting me... and I’m quite happy about it! I painted a squad some time ago and left it at that, but over time I’ve felt the need to expand the force. Five Squats won’t get me very far! And that’s how I ended up picking up this bike unit.

There's not much to say in fact, as I just followed the very same colour scheme.

Most definitely not White Scars, though I get the misunderstanding

The models are sweet, just out from early 90's Games Workshop, highly enjoyable. Well cast and fitting perfectly. A true pleasure, trust me. As you can see, I used the same markings and insignia I painted on my previous squad:

I could (and maybe should) have been more original with the banner, but it's staying that way

I admit it, he has a slight resemblance to Jagathai Khan

I feared it all was too white, specially on the leader, the Rökthane. It cannot be seen well in the pic above, but the winged helmet was quite a lot. However, I decided to keep it that way.

Vrooom, vrooom

Well, with these my Squats look a little bit more ready to rock the galaxy! This is all I got painted:

The small core of a force

I still have another infantry unit, so this is not the last you've seen of my Squats (Sorry, I guess I should call them Votann?) But in the meantime I guess I can show some other stuff...

Coming soon! 

 

Röknauts

 A short project today, kind of a palette cleanser before I get back to larger stuff.

I was a proud backer of Curis' Röknauts Kickstarter, which has brought Squats back to the front line in the most classic way imaginable. It is funny, I never was a big fan of Squats back in the day, and never collected them. But there was something in these minis that called my attention so bad that I had no real decision to make, I really wanted a bunch of Space Dwarfs.

 In terms of design they are somewhere past the Rogue Trader days and into the Red Era vibe, and maybe that's what caught my eye, as I feel quite comfortable with that stuff. Of course I wanted them to look in that fashion, so no dull colours nor earthy tones. 90's glory FTW!

The thing is that I got so excited that I forgot to take pics of the main part of the painting process!

Of course there was no point in even trying to mimic Curis' paintjob or emulate his skills, so I chose my own path. I primed them white (bold move!) and chose white for the armour and a light turquoise for the flak vest.

I first remembered to take pics when I had gone this far

White can be challenging! The shade is a mix of Ice Blue and Grey, and there are kind of seven to a thousand layers of increasing white to the mix in order to get a convincing 'false white'. Of course the pics are burnt and nothing can be seen, but I have inner peace, and that's all that counts.

I had to do the bases before I glued the minis on them!

I guess you can immediately see the problem with these. They are too white! Too empty! My horror vacui didn't allow me to leave them so immaculate. So how could I make them look like the vertically challenged space Vikings they are supposed to be?

Easy. By painting fake Viking stuff

I wanted that to be a crow's head and a symbolic lightning or something. Depending on the viewer it can be an eagle or maybe a monitor lizard. Still uncertain

I don't know a thing about runes. Lagu Ingwaz. They live next to a lake or something. Hence the turquoise

If you are wondering, yes, of course I'm making this up as I paint.

So this is taking shape

I didn't want to repeat the animal theme on the other half of the helmet, so I tried a different approach:

Yellow... stain. Not particularly taking risks, I'd say

Oh. But why. Why am I doing this to myself

Biggs Darklighter called. He wants his spare helmets back

I don't think I've ever highlighted such small checkers before, but it's not Oldhammer without them, it is law!

So here you have them finished!

The Röknauts rock!

The tattoo on the temple was also unnecessary. But you know. It was a little necessary

One side

The other

How do these fellas scale up with other minis?

Alongside the Universal Unit of Measurement

That Commissar is looking at them with some eagerness

Oh, even the Bombots are taller!!

Who would have said that I would start collecting Squats at my age! Yet here they are. I believe they are a one-shot project, at least for now. Future will tell, but now I still have many more projects calling for my attention. I hope I'll be showing some of them soon!

Playing Epic. Ultramarines vs. Squats

I managed to play an Epic Game. Horaay! I still have my tanks half painted, but my pal KeyanSark offered me the chance to play and, due to our respective schedules, last monday was our only common window of opportunity. So let it happen!

We played NetEpic, a version of the game I am not familiar with, but Keyan is. I used my Ultramarines and a couple of Titans and Keyan used his recently painted Squats.

The battlefield, with objective points all over

Keyan's army

Each turn you roll for the initiative. Each detachment receives an order (first shoot, advance or charge), which is represented by a token, kept secret until you activate the unit. Activation is alternate, so the game is quite fluid; seriously, an IGOUGO system would totally kill a game like this. This is all about adapting youself to the adversary as they move their troops.

Secret orders!

Small blue Rhinos advancing

The clash is imminent

Onwards! To battle!

End of movement phase. Now shooting!

But first, this pic. Just because it's cool.

Keyan's giant cannon shot over me with some pretty devastating effects...

Four infantry units and two Land Raiders just evaporated

The Colossus opened fire against my Rhinos

This pic is just for the dramatic effect

End of turn 1. Let's go for round 2!

Turn 2 would be quite decisive, as we were going to fight for the center of the board.

Remember Jurassic Park, the scene with the glass of water? I think something big is coming...

Oooops, this is gonna be fun...

I made the mistake of not disembarking the troops from the Rhinos. Have a bad feeling about them...

Now for the good stuff... Titans!

Leman Russes shot on my Reaver first, then Keyan's Reaver

You wouldn't expect this game to happen without tables and charts, right?

 My Reaver got an impact on the head and another one on the hip. Fortunately the tech support guys would manage later on to repair both locations and recover all the shields.

General overview of turn 2

The Colossus, the Gyrocopter and the Warlord all opened fire against my infantry...

No comments. Having a bad day

-All of you! Hold the position! Follow me! -Ehh, Brother Captain, it's just us...

Hmm. Bad day to be a Vindicator crew...

Rhinos and Vindicators are wiped out

Seriously, guys, at this distance... you only kill two out of six bikes??

My Warlord (left) shoots the building on the right across the battlefield. Four units killed and the building itself on the edge of collapsing. I love Epic

This town ain't big enough for both of us

Keyan's Reaver managed to destroy my right arm (well, the Reaver's right arm!), so no close combat weapon. I managed to repair the rest of the damage inflicted and recover most of my shields.

End of turn 2!

So Keyan was decimating my ranks! However, at the moment we kept the same number of objetives. Turn 3 would be the decisive one then!!

On my right flank, Squat bikes had surrounded my only Rhino left. All was lost. All? No! Then we heard a 'Vooooosh' 'Vroooom' 'Hshhhhh' Reinforcements had arrived!

Of course I made all those sounds. It's essential to the game.

A little bit crowded suddenly!

This game justifies itself just by pics like this.

 

Keyan just shot me with anything he had. My Titan finally fell down when the reactor core was damaged beyond any reparation (at the end of the turn I made the required roll and at least it didn't explode causing more mayhem!)

 

Dramatic cinematic effects needed

Well, it looks like the battle was pretty much decided. Anyway, this was so much fun!

 

 

We were just for the final combats...o

The Titans and the Thunderhawk melee

Ouuuuch!

The final combat went from this...

 

...to this

So three turns and this was how it looked like in the end!

Pretty different from the first pic!

Well, so this is it. Victory for the Squats! Quite an enjoyable game, I must say, even if Keyan totally overwhelmed me in the end. As you can see, my approach here was totally wrong, I played WH40K instead of Epic, and that lead my troops to the disaster. I guess I played it like an Ork, haha, charging and facing such an artillery oriented adversary. But hey, this was my first game of Epic since... 2000? 2001? And that was with another ruleset, so this actually was my first game.

My main lesson learned is that this is not WH40K; not only about gaming, but about painting and organizing my forces. I had two Codex Astartes Companies and that doesn't work for Epic. Well, if you think that the game was conceived for the Horus Heresy, i.e., not for Chapters, but Legions with such a different organization, that makes much more sense. So I have to repaint some of my infantry to adapt my army to the game. I'm still painting my tanks, so this game helps me to know how to paint them too! (Yes, I'm ashamed of having played with half-painted minis, my bad...)

I'm really excited about games this size, specially after so much time having not played the scale. I'll show you my Space Marines army when finished and then I'll put my hands on my other armies. Hopefully I'll manage to grab some more battles!!