+ inload: Gates of Antares 2 +

+ Going Beyond +

+ Well, lots going on in the world of wargaming. Squats are back in 40k, a new  edition of the Horus Heresy-themed Age of Darkness game, and after a long delay, we've got the second edition of Beyond the Gates of Antares. +

+ The sad news is that Warlord Games have decided not to support it further – not entirely unexpected, but disappointing. The good news, however, is threefold: 

• The models will continue to be produced, via a third party
• The game will continue to be supported by Tim Bancroft and Rick Priestley
• The rules are largely the same, but laid out a bit more clearly – and they're also completely free!

You can read more about Antares 2 on the new Nexus [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], which is where you can download the rules and army lists, and also read about the universe and factions. +

+++

+ Off to Bootcamp +

+ To celebrate the launch, Tim Bancroft has organised a bootcamp event, which I'll be heading over to with fellow PCRC member, TrojanNinja, who's picked up some Ghar (don't worry, there's a cream for that). +

+ This seemed a perfect chance to finally field my Isorians – Karba's Huntsmen [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] – and learn how to play the new rules. Having gone through the new armylist, it looks like I've got around an 80pt list from which to pick. I don't yet know what we'll need to bring to the event, but I'm fairly confident that'll be more than enough. +

+ There are a couple of tweaks – Tsan Ra (above) are now fielded as standard in fours, rather than threes, for example. There is an option to drop a model, but since I have a couple of spares, I'll likely paint up the additional members to field four-member squads. +

+ Support weapon teams are now accompanied by batter drones (these project a protective force-field), so I'll convert and paint up a couple of those, too. +

+ ...and while I'm planning, I also got my new transport sprayed and ready for paint. It'd be nice to take a vehicle along, so I can learn how tanks and fighting vehicles work – plus it's a cool model! +

+++

+ inload: Project completion +

+ Showcase: Isorian 8854th Kleisoura: Karba's Huntsmen +

+ Karba's Huntsmen +

+ 'What is the sound of one hand clapping?' 'What should you do if you meet the Buddha on the road?' To these immortal koans, we might* safely add 'Is the army complete?' +

* On consideration, let's not.

+++

+ The shelf of shame and the cupboard of opportunity +

+ Finished or not, I've painted all the models of my Isorian force, so thought I'd pop 'em up for a little showcase. + This army came about through little more than giving the garage a tidy-up and stumbling over some C3 sprues, bought long ago and sat in a box since. On a whim, I pulled them out, built them and got them painted. Something as simple as 'finishing' an old kit that had sat there for years made me really pleased. As a Christmas treat to myself, I bought a few Isorian kits in a Warlord sale, and set myself the challenge of painting them all over the Christmas break. As you can see from the date, I rather missed that deadline – but that's part of the pleasure of a hobby: you set your own expectations. My advice? Set them so that it's a continual reward, not another pressing duty. +

+++

+ Part of the pleasure of collecting is knowing that your collection can expand – but that can become malignant and counter-productive, and leave you feeling like you've got a mountain to climb – the proverbial 'shelf of shame'. +

+ Regular inloaders will have seen previous finished forces pop up every so  often. These range from little groups, like my Astral Claws Kill Team or my Blood Bowl team, Chaunterwick Unathletic, all the way up to entire armies of Iron Warriors or more 'high concept' stuff like my retrohammer Blood Angels.  However, it's only in the past few years that I've jumped over to considering things complete. Previous forces, like my Ultramarines or Imperial Guard, for example, I've never seen them as 'done' in the same way. I think that's comes down to little more than a bit of a shift in priorities; and a realisation that I quite like having a stage where something is finished (even if temporarily). +

+ How you pursue and exercise your hobby is down to you. I know a lot of people get a great deal of pleasure in cataloguing and drafting spreadsheets to plan their work, while others are far more instinctive in what they do. For myself, I find painting most relaxing when I vary things. Sometimes building for a deadline is exhilarating; other times I find the idea paralysing. Sometimes recording everything and sharing it is fun; other projects I keep to myself. The important lesson, I guess, is to try to keep things interesting for yourself, and ensure that you see your leisure time as enjoyable rather than another pressure or duty. Having an ambition – even something as simple as 'I want to have these models painted and take a picture of them all' – might help you change your attitude to those kits and materials hanging around: they shouldn't be a burden on you. If you feel they are, why not start chipping away at them with a small and achievable project like the C3 squad? If you enjoy that, chip away further – or if it sparks your imagination, like mine did, then why not enjoy that collecting. Just make sure you get it painted! :) +

+++

+ Last touches +

+ The past few inloads have concentrated on this Isorian force, but if you've missed them, I'd just finished the X-howitzer (that's the big organic-looking gun at the back left of the shot above) and the spotter drones (the floating eyeballs). New in this shot are the  Tsan Ra command squad troopers. + 

+ These are amongst my favourite sculpts in the entire Beyond the Gates of Antares range – you can read the inload on building the kit here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] – and they were an equal pleasure to paint.  With hindsight, I'm glad I left them 'til last, as it meant that I'd had the experience of experimenting a little more on the Tsan Ra Phase Troopers (the basic troops). These warriors have already given me some idea for expansion. I'm going to see if I can order some of the Tsan Ra Phase Trooper heads to replace the more ornate Command Squad ones. That will allow me to get some more variety in poses, by using these Command Squad troopers in standard squads (and vice versa). +

+ As a point of comparison, here's one of the normal Tsan Ra Troopers (normal being a relative term for these eight-limbed aliens!) Besides the helm, there's very little difference, allowing for some greater variety through simple kitbashing rather than conversion work. That's been important for this project. It's easy to go down rabbit holes with this hobby, and I've certainly been guilty of converting for the sake of converting in the past. Sometimes it's good to build as intended and get to painting. As always, follow your own muse and inclinations!+

+ I do hope that the previewed new Isorian sculpts – and the second edition of Beyond the Gates of Antares – comes out at some point soon. I'm really hoping to get to a couple of gaming events this year, and I'd love to get Karba's Huntsmen on the field. +

+ That's not to knock the existing sculpts, of course. The Phase Troopers above were a really peculiar experience to paint – modern and unfamiliar, but nostalgic. I'm surprised that the running squad (pictured above) seems to have been withdrawn from sale – perhaps a victim of too many stock-keeping units for shops? – but at least they are still available from Warlord directly. +

+  One thing that I never used to do was varnish figures – but I think these will get a protective coat as soon as the weather warms up a bit to help them stand up to the rigours of gaming. +

+ All the above having been said, I hope that finishing a project comes with a sense of achievement rather than relief. This force certainly has; it's spurred me on to my next projects, and I've already got plans for how this force could expand. Apart from anything else, it seems odd not to have Karba – apparently famous enough to have lent their moniker as a regimental nickname – represented. I'll have to have a think of how I can create him or her. +

+ In the immediate future, however, I have a copy of Strike on Kara Nine, the beginner-friendly starter set, to unpack... Keep your dials attuned to this signal if you'd like to follow along with opening it up. +

+++

+ inload: Antares army lists +

+ Isorian army – writing a list +

‘Some sort of event, or angle? I don’t think the Izzies have festivals like some crank feral worlders, but who knows what those creepsack-wearing crazies are capable of? All I know is that the night lit up with star-flares from the sentries on the night of the moon-conjunction, and we woke up to see waves of them pouring across the field like so many beads of quicksilver. IMTel alone knows how, but they’d bypassed the nano-probe net…’

<Records of Omu, day 88>

+ Polished off the remaining Phase Squad infantry – that is, the panhuman soldiers. Being really quite pleased with how they've come out, I pulled out a gaming mat and got a few pictures before packing up. +

+ Nar Vesh +

+ Relatively quick but effective, I think this force has enough pop and contrast to stand out well on the table. It's been really nice to work on metal models again. Not something that I always enjoy, but the medium just seems to make painting fun somehow. Maybe it's simply nostalgia. +

+ But enough of nostalgia – let's take a look into the murky future of the game... Tim Bancroft from Warlord shared a few snippets on the IMTel Facebook group recently; the first being this extract from the 2nd edition army structure:

+ The Phase Squad name is seemingly being updated to 'Nar Vesh' for the new edition; an in-universe term for the squad. I'm a bit on the fence about changes like this – while it's great for immersion once you're familiar with the names, jargon can be a bit off-putting for new players. It's a difficult balancing act, because without such character, the game would have less depth – and perhaps lose appeal to a different group. +

+ By the looks of things (from the small previews we've seen thus far) there seems to be a good balance of restricting the jargon to the unit names, and weapons and individuals are still referred to by common and easily-understandable names (troopers, plasma carbine, etc.) + 

+ Pleasingly, there also seems to be a glossary – again a preview on the IMTel Facebook group, which is a nice (and welcome!) touch. +

+ There's a few things you can extrapolate from this – that the Pulse Bike Squad are likely going to be renamed Takhanra; and that the Isorian term for the IMTel-native evolved posthumans previously called 'Nuhu' will be called 'Vanra'... but stuff like that's guesswork. Interesting to see, and since I really enjoy linguistics, a lot of fun to see how the different elements link up. +

‘Tsan Vesh. The most common Drummers we encountered on Omu. Like all of the alien ganks, they were big; twice the height of us at the shoulder, and with what amounted to an entire extra body at the back. What evolution had intended with all those limbs wasn’t clear – I’d had a temp graft myself for a couple turnyan (who hadn’t, as a childer?) – but as we found out, even with two arms occupied holding a rifle, and four bracing the body, turns out they still had two left to club anyone unwise enough to get near.’

+ My first squad of Tsan Ra Phase Squad – soon to be called the 'Tsan Vesh' – are also finished. I haven't polished off the rest of the Tsan command squad (perhaps soon to be the Tsan Va?), so thought I'd post him/her/it with their underlings. + 

+ A group shot of everything finished thus far. It's all looking nice and uniform, and also quite alien to me. Importantly for playability, things like the squad leaders can be picked out easily at tabletop distance – they're the ones with more white and yellow masks. +

‘Instance Ck’htr knew best. Her commands were consistent and incisive. We obeyed through discipline and proclivity.’

<Omu Defence Logs T-3>

+ Still to come on here are some grass tufts to add a bit of interest to the bases. I've picked up a range, and will have a little play around – but likely when the opportunity comes round to do the whole army. +

+++

+ Taking stock: writing an Isorian army list +

+ Anyway, let's talk building an army list. The Beyond the Gates of Antares army lists are available for free from The Antares Nexus [+noophericexloadlink embedded+] website. I didn't deliberately avoid writing an army list, but whenever I thought 'right, let's work out what I've got', I just kept getting distracted by the articles on background and painting that are also up on the Nexus – watch out; it's very easy to get absorbed! +

+ The army-building system in Antares is clear, simple and fairly traditional. You establish a points limit for your army based on the size of game (referred to as 'Combat Level'), then buy units until you run out of points. It'll be immediately familiar to anyone who's played tabletop wargaming before. +

+ Additional options are available for your squads, such as adding extra soldiers, or buying specialist equipment. There is also a small menu of army upgrades, which are generally one-off bonuses to allow you to re-roll a unit's shooting, or play around with the order dice mechanic. +

+ In terms of restrictions, units are split between four categories. Tactical choices are your regular troops; Support things like mobile light support weapons (machine guns and the like) and elite troops; Strategic is your big guns and weird things: tanks, howitzers etc.; and Auxiliary choices are mostly drones. The latter are mostly things to enhance the rest of your army, rather than fight in their own right. +

+ Depending on the Combat Level (i.e. the size of the game) and the army itself (some factions require more basic troops than others, for example), the forces have different restrictions. For a 1,000pt list, Isorians have the following requirements and limits:

• Tactical: 4–6
• Support: 1–4
• Strategic: 0–1
• Auxiliary: 0–2

+ There are some subtleties – certain choices might preclude others, or units might be noted as 'limited', requiring other units to be taken in greater numbers. The limits for the Isorians are:

• No more than 1 in 4 (25%) of units can be Limited Choices
• You can spend up to 10% of your points on Army Options
• Your force cannot include any more Tsan Ra units in any combat level than it includes non-Tsan Ra units in that level.

+ Starting with what I have painted seems like the best approach to planning. It gives me three panhuman Phase Squads as the core of my force. Aside from one being six strong, they're identical:

• [135] Senatex Phase Squad (115) with a spotter drone (10), plasma grenades (5 x 2) and with one of the trooper's carbine swapped out for a plasma lance (3). 

• [157] Senatex Phase Squad (115) with a spotter drone (10), plasma grenades (6 x 2), plasma lance (3) and additional trooper. 

• [135] Senatex Phase Squad (115) with a spotter drone (10), plasma grenades (5 x 2) and plasma lance (3). 

I still need one more Tactical choice to be legal, so let's include a Tsan Ra Phase Squad:

• [138] Tsan Ra Phase Squad (93) with a spotter drone (10), plasma grenades (4 x 2) and and additional trooper (27). 

+ This gives me a nice core group of Tactical choices costing 565pts, leaving me plenty of space for some harder-hitting material. I need to paint up three more drones and one more Tsan Ra trooper to get these done. With a bit of juditious trimming (losing the extra troopers and grenades from one squad), it fits into a 500pt list, too. +

+++

+ To expand, I'll paint up what I have remaining, which is:

• [198] Tsan Ra Command Squad (131) with a spotter drone (10), medi-drone (20), plasma grenades (4 x 2) and and additional trooper (29)
• This is a limited Tactical choice.
• [100] Senatex Support Team (40) with plasma cannon (35), spotter drone (10) and additional crew member (15)
• This is a Support choice.
• [110] Heavy Support Team (110) with X-howitzer (free)
• This is a Strategic choice.

+ That's an additional 408pts, taking me to 973pts in total. That leaves me with just enough to get some Army Options like 'Superior Shard' or 'Block', or perhaps to add a couple of extra models here and there. I'll leave the final decisions 'til a little later. +

+ It's not a hyper-competitive force, but it does have the right sort of 'feel' to me. By dropping a few upgrades, I might be able to pick up an x-howitzer or something, to get the proportion of Support choices up a bit. I think of 'soft' choices – those that don't necessarily require representation on the models, like grenades, ammunition upgrades or army options – are much easier to cut in favour of more cool models. I'm sure time and experience will teach me! +

+ If you've any thoughts or questions, let me know. +

+ inload: Karba's Huntsmen +

+ Painting Karba's Huntsmen +

+ The colours of Isorian 8854th Kleisoura +

+ Still firmly WIP, but coming along nicely. Can you tell I'm enthused yet? The Isorian Senatex – indeed, the broader setting of Beyond the Gates of Antares – has really caught my imagination, as it combines lots of aspects of slightly harder sci-fi than my usual gaming, and also brings in Pulp and historical appeal. +

+ The work-in-progress force as it currently stands. +

+ Not pictured are the painted Phase Squad and Tsan Ra Commander (you can see him in the pic below), and also missing are half a dozen spotter drones (like the little eyeball in the front here), and the X-Howitzer and crew, which are simply undercoated. Seemed a bit pointless to photograph, so they'll be up in a future inload. +

+++

+ Painting the Isorian 8854th +

+ Slightly earlier stage, to show what a difference an evening's painting makes. +

+ In general, I'm pleased with how they're coming along. I did slightly regret painting them so like the official scheme, but as the force builds, they're starting to look a bit more distinct – so I think the overall balance is working. I particularly like how the white faceplates are working, so I'm glad I reserved the yellow ones for squad leaders. +

+ I haven't made any notes on how I'm painting these, but as I've got into the swing of things it's starting to fall into place. Unless noted, the paints are all from the Citadel colour range:

• Prime brown (Halford's camo brown).
• Paint the whole model with a flat coat of Incubi Darkness.
• Drybrush the whole model with a 50:50 mix of Incubi Darkness and Cabalite Green.
• Paint the base – a base coat of Scorched Brown followed by successively lighter drybrushes of Skrag Brown, Desert Yellow (Tallarn Sand is the modern equivalent, I think), and Desert Yellow with Vallejo Off-White.
• Paint the 'carapace' around the shoulders and the gun with Charadon Granite.
• Add the first washes: Nuln Oil over the carapace and Coelia Greenshade over the rest.
• At this point, I paint the face. Here's a link to a tutorial for human faces [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], as it's a fairly small stage for these models.
• Paint the mask – I paint this with Vallejo Off-White, then paint Apothecary White over it. Once dry, I emphasise the highlights with more Vallejo Off-White before picking out the eyes/lenses with Abaddon Black followed by Fire Dragon Bright (or a similar saturated orange paint).

+ Halfway through and game-ready +

+ They'll look like the picture above at this point. Why do I do the face at this point? Well, the simple answer is that it gives me a bit of punctuation. I find bashing through a big batch very wearing, so having the opportunity to get the figures 'done' to a certain standard is a relief. While I would prefer to get them more developed than this, I think that they're certainly table-ready. If you're aiming to get things done for an event, focussing on the faces and bases, and leaving the rest as neat and clean base layers is a good way to go. +

+ Moving on, it's time for detailing.

• Highlight the grey hard armour and gun with a mix of Charadon Granite and Warpaints Mummy Robes, followed by a second smaller highlight with the addition of Vallejo Off-White. I don't go pure white for this, as I think it looks too stark.
• Highlight the green soft armour with Kabalite Green, and a second smaller highlight of a mix of Kabalite Green and Vallejo Off-White.

+ Pictured prior to the wash – the highlights are too bright and clear. +

• Now we wash both areas: the grey carapace with Agrax Earthshade, and the green areas with Coelia Greenshade. You can do both of these simultaneously for speed. Try to keep the washes separate, but don't worry too much if they merge a bit.
• Once dry, re-establish the highlights with the lighter-tinted mixes. Keep these fine and sharp at this stage to avoid the effect being chalky and washed-out.
• Use Off-White to paint the plasma coils and any details you want orange, then paint with Gryph-Hound Orange contrast paint. You can use pretty much any orange here – in fact, a brighter orange ink would probably work better: GHO is simply what I had to hand.
• For the organic coils in the suits, I've used a variety of approaches, and haven't quite decided which I like best. At the moment I'm using Emperor's Children pink, washing with Druchii Violet, then using Vallejo Off-White to highlight before washing it again. However, this is a bit of a faff, and I think I'd like it to pop a bit more, so I may experiment further.
• Tidy up any other bits. The Tsan Ra have bits on their forearms that I've interpreted as fabric, which I've painted as leather in a similar way to my Rogue Trader model here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] – basically lots of layers of increasingly light browns with washes of Agrax Earthshade then Seraphim Sepia. The 'teeth' that pop up on lots of the models I've layered up from Skrag brown to Vallejo Off-White.

+ Not quite finished, but nearly there. This picture's a good example of how I often hop from one area to another – as might happen if I have lots of a particular mix and don't want to waste it. This figure hasn't had his skin highlighted yet – though a bit of skin coloration variety might not hurt anyway. +

+++

+ The future's bright + 

+ Since getting into the game, I've been listening to The Freeborn Shard podcast (available wherever good podcasts are found) while painting, which has been very enjoyable. There's only a certain level of understanding you can pick up from reading the rulebook, and hearing other gamers discuss the practicalities of the game has clarified a few things for me – even if a lot remains slightly baffling! +

+  For obvious reasons, the Podcast has been largely on hiatus for the past couple of years, but the material there is still fun to listen to – particularly if you're new to the setting, as I am. +

+ Why do I mention it? Well, the Freeborn Shard mentions the second edition of Beyond the Gates of Antares a number of times. It was, apparently, planned for 2019, and is still bubbling under. The game as a whole seems to have lain fallow for a number of years, with no new releases, so the more cynical part of me would suspect that means it's largely 'vapourware'. A lot of that can be chalked up to the pandemic, of course, but I do get the impression that something is happening – perhaps not in the immediate future, but at some point this year. +

+ First and foremost, the models below were previewed and are currently unreleased. As I understand things, these will be the first new releases for a good couple of years. +

+ The new sculpts, reportedly resin, have a similar but distinct aesthetic, and I'm already thinking of how I'd integrate them into the army. A couple of thoughts:

• An elite unit (in background terms), picked out by a largely red paint scheme.
• A shard from a different Isorian world – while there are common aesthetics across the Isorian Senatex, there's still room for a little variation: isolated shards might well develop functionally identical equipment in a visually different way.
• The giant machine that is Antares goes through periodic collapses, and gates occasionally descend beneath the photosphere and become unreachable, stranding the system. With the pandemic having spoiled everyone's wargaming fun for the past couple of years, it'd be neat to nod to that in-universe through a blurb like that.

+ Other second edition Gates of Antares rumours +

+ For anyone interested in the game, but hesitating to get involved with a dormant ruleset, I thought I'd gather the extant info on second edition:

• As mentioned on the Freeborn Shard (tFS), the Vorl were in development in 2019, with Rick Priestley talking about the biology and – I believe – some test sculpts or prototypes being produced.
• The second edition has been stated to be a tidy-up rather than a complete ground-up rebuild.
• The rules in the update and FAQ [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] are explicitly the current playtest rules; and likely the template for second edition.
• Both Isorians and Boromites were mentioned in passing as difficult to produce in plastic, so perhaps resin is Warlord's answer for these factions?

+ Tim Bancroft of The Freeborn Shard, and Warlord's Anatares co-ordinator shared this preview on the IMTel Facebook group [+noopshericexloadlink embedded+]:

+ What can we take from this? +

• Simplified points costs system – many of the options like grenades seem to 'baked into' the entry, and costs are reduced across the board by a factor of 10 – a unit that cost 115pts is now 11, for example.
• The addition of a movement stat is new – and perhaps heralds changes to the rules for Slow and Fast.
• The naming has altered – things are now presented with more in-universe terminology. The 'Nar Vesh Phase Monitor' was previously a 'Isorian Phase Squad Leader', for example.
• New weapons – you'll see the new sharpshooter has a previously unknown plasma rifle.
• A few tweaks to the Unit/Force restrictions; though I'm not familiar enough to really understand the implications here.
• The terminology around drones seems to have been tidied up, with the 'spotter buddy' hopefully clearing up potential confusion around Buddy drones being treated differently to Probes (currently they're the same models and stats, but fielded in different ways).

+ One final thing to note is that a sort of Antares-style Kill Team supplement called Incision Shard quietly emerged on 10th December last year. The full rules are free to download from the IMTel site on Warlord Games here [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. They looked fun, but you can also put 2 and 2 together when you spot the following detail in the weapons entry (page 37 of the document):

Phase Rifle Direct Fire 20 30 80 1×SV2 – Exploit SV4
Phased 10 20 60 3×SV1 – Phased Fire, Exploit SV3

+ Those are some neat new rules; perhaps heralding how the plasma rifle above works? The names are different, but perhaps that's simply a playtesting thing? Anyway, perhaps it's all a bit tinfoil hat, but in case it's of interest, here's the relevant rules text. Perhaps you can test it out in your own 1st edition games?

Phased Fire
[...]The weapon temporarily phases out the trooper and itself from normal space so the trooper experiences time slower than others on the battlefield. Some firepower and range is lost due to the phasing. 

Phased Fire can only be used on a Fire order and allows the trooper to fire multiple shots without being classed as shooting in RF mode – so suffers no RF penalty and allows the use of Sniper and Marksman skills on the shots. The shots can be spread across one, two or three targets, but all must be within 1” of each other. Phased Fire cannot be used in any other situation, even on a Reaction.

Exploit SVx 

Exploit is given to Isorian plasma rifles that fire a carrier wave alongside the plasma beams. The wave attempts to infiltrate whatever hardware it comes up against: though typically ineffective against hardened machines, armour and the like, other equipment can be vulnerable. 

Any hit by an Exploit weapon against enemy equipment, buddy drones or probes is counted as having the SV ‘n’ specified. 

+++