Beyond the Gates of Antares: Making My Own Little Corner of the Universe

One of the things that appeals to me about Beyond the Gates of Antares is how wide open the galaxy is.  Listening to some of the earlier episodes of the Freeborn Shard, I heard about the Antares Initiative which showcased just how much you could shape your experience anyway that you wanted.  To that end I decided to focus on a few worlds near each other in the Determinate for my armies.  This lets me create a narrative for my forces and also helps me focus on specific types of terrain which is always a plus in my book.  To that end, here's a brief introduction to my little corner of Antares.

The Algoryn World of Yadrolla

Roughly half of the surface of Yadrolla is covered with water while most of the landmasses a choked with dense swamps along the coasts that give way to thick rainforests as you travel inland. Originally settled by a Freeborn group much earlier in the seventh age, the colony managed to survive for a time until their monthly supply drop stopped coming.  It's not clear why this happened but without the supplies, order within the colony started to erode with the humans ultimately abandoning the settlements and reverting to being little more than savages.

More recently the Algoryn arrived and set up several outposts to act as a monitoring station for Ghar activity within the system, although they are also doing research into the local flora for possible medical applications.  While they are aware of ruined Freeborn settlements, they have had little need to investigate more and have left them and the survivors from the original colony largely untouched.

Several Freeborn houses have also been in contact with the Algoryn and have set up some tentative trading arraignments, though in some cases the Freeborn have also been covertly "recruiting" feral troops from the ruins.  Its not clear whether the Algoryn are aware of this activity at this time but if they are, they are choosing not to address it with their trading partners yet.  Only time will tell if this remains the case.

The first of my armies are the Algoryn.  My focus with this army is going to be infantry units and eventually some Intruders and possibly an Avenger or two for support.  Since this world is mostly a dense swamp, I want to stay away from most of the larger transports and tanks.  Let's be honest though, I'll probably wind up grabbing some eventually.

For my paint scheme, I wanted to move away from the typical red armor and do something different.  Since Yadrolla is a swamp/rainforest, I thought that a dark green would fit the bill but I must admit that I'm not sure.  I've added some reds, oranges, and yellow to them as almost tribal markings but I'm still trying to decide if its what I'm looking for.

The Concord World of Bastion

Located on the edge of an isolated pocket of Concord territory in the Determine, Bastion maintains a strong military force to repel any invaders that might threaten their shard.  While ships from the main body of the Concord still travel to their space, Bastion largely depends on trade with several nearby Freeborn houses.  Currently there is an uneasy peace with the Algoryn Protectorate although their recent occupation of Yadrolla has some ranking members of the C3 concerned about future expansion by the Algoryn.  C3 training has been stepped up and the shard is building its forces to deal with this threat to the Concord.

The next army is the Concord.  I really like the Ghar but I want to make sure that I started with some more basic armies to be able to show people the game.  While the Ghar look good, it seems like there are lots of exceptions to the rules with them so I think that Concord is a better fit for demos.

Unlike the Algoryn, my Concord scheme was very easy to decide on.  I'd seen a Concord force on Facebook that someone did using Star Wars Imperial colors and it really struck a cord with me.  I've settled on light grey instead of white but I really like the stark look to them.  The Concord sounds like a clean and orderly society so I think this scheme captures that feel well.  I also want to quickly expand this force to include several transports to make them more of a rapid strike unit.

 

Traahiri Mercenaries
(sci-fi reptile minis from an unknown manu)

The Traahiri are a race of warm blooded reptiles that have been contracted and supplied by Bastion to supplement their own forces.  They are not as advanced as most races and do not benefit from the nanosphere so C3 have supplied them with more basic mag weapons instead of plasma weapons.  The Traahiri have been quick to learn how these work and they have been used quite effectively for a number of military and policing actions by the C3.  Given the humid and swampy nature of Yadrolla, the C3 are hopeful that their "allies" will be helpful in dealing with the new Algoryn threat.

I had originally plan on buying both of the starters for Gates of Antares so that I would have a solid core for the Algoryn, Concord, and the Ghar.  Unfortunately real life intervened so its hard to justify dropping the money for the Battle of Xilos set right now which left me short handed for the C3.  Before the summer sprue sale I'd dug around and found some minis that I could make use of to supplement what I had.

These particular minis are sci-fi lizard men but I must admit that I have no idea who the manufacturer was.  There was what looked like a company name on their bases but my Google-Fu didn't turn up any definite hits.  Thankfully I've got enough to field a couple of squads as Freeborn mercenaries, so between these and the extra Concord troops I grabbed in the sale I've got a pretty respectable C3 force in the works.

As for paint scheme, I'm going to go with you basic lizard man greens but I'm going to paint their equipment in the same scheme as the Concord.  I think that this will give them a nice contrast and ties them in with the rest of the army as well.

Sulia Mercenaries
(Skinnie minis formerly by Mongoose Publishing)

The Sulia are an alien race from the arid world of Trora.  It is not clear if this is their native homeworld but they have a strong presence there, including a good sized standing army.  While the Sulia have developed their own versions of some of the more common weapons (such as mag and plasma weapons), they routinely trade with several of the Freeborn houses and typically use some of the more common devices including various types of drones such as spotters and even the T7 transporter.

Ages ago I ran demos for the Starship Troopers mini game by Mongoose Publishing.  While that game went the way of the dodo, I still have a lot of the minis from the line, including thirty of the Skinnie soldiers.  These sets included some heavy weapons mixed in with them but I figure I should be able to field a few squads of them with a command unit as well.  I have the Skinnie dictator mini that I can sub in for the Captain but luckily Rebel Miniatures have picked up a number of molds from this line so I have some options there if I want to add some more units to their forces.

As for drones and transports, I'll probably just use the generic drones from the Freeborn/Concord since these seem to be more easily accessible to others, plus it will make it easy for anyone to identify what they are as well.

For their paint scheme, I had done a gold and red which I think I'll probably keep.  Looking over most of my collection, I must admit that tend to prefer on greens and reds so it just seems to make sense to run with it.

And there you have it, at least for now anyway.  I've still got a number of Ghar battle suits on the sideline waiting to get painted up but I want to focus on the main forces first.  As always the trick is finding time but I'm finally making steps towards having a small hobby space instead of occupying the kitchen table.  This should let me make more consistent headway instead of the sporadic bursts that I've been working through.

A Pause for a Moment of Silence

I normally try to keep real life out of my blog but I wanted to let people know that there won't be an update this week.  One of my daughter's sensei's passed away last week so it has been a week focusing on healing and supporting the members of our dojo family in their time of need. Thanks for understanding and I will have more next week.

Workbench: From Watchtower to... Well, Assorted Bits

As I started going through all of the assorted stuff I've accumulated, I found something with a lot of potential.  Mattel used to make various DC action figures including the Watchtower.  I'd actually picked this up years ago to make a crashed spaceship but never got very far with it.  Looking at it now, I can see some potential for various bits of Antares scenery instead of just one large piece.  After all, a crashed ship would be cool and all but it would get kind of redundant.  "Sarge, we are we fighting next to another crashed ship?"  "Don't ask questions Private!  Just make sure you use the transmat instead of a shuttle and you'll be fine!"

The Watchtower in all its glory... minus a few bits... with really bad lighting.

I decided to break it down into pieces to see what I can do with them.  To be honest I was surprised with how easily I was able to disassemble it into some very usable bits.  The interior has a transparent orange tube which made me think of the kinetic wall terrain pieces I'd seen on the Warlord site. 

Here is one of the orange tube thingees

Between those and the coloration of the rest of the pieces I think that this can actually be fielded just about fielded as is, at least for the time being.

Some kind of a shelter on the left and I'm thinking maybe a quantum gravity generator on the right.

Of course I also need to figure out a way to store it.  Currently I have three totes full of terrain (one for vegetation, one for hard structures, and one for Frostgrave specific pieces) so I'm thinking that I'll scrounge up another for Gates of Antares pieces and try to stop there.  There's only so much room in the house after all.

And the largest piece which I'm thinking it could be a mining rig of some kind.

In addition to the Watchtower, I also found some random sci-fi reptilian minis and I'm going to base them up as another small mercenary contingent.  Think this takes me up to four different sets of minis that I'm looking at to field as random mercs and alien troops, not to mention assorted critters that I can fit in for various alien fauna.  At least they're going to get used for something, right?

I was also able to get some of my new minis assembled, specifically the Concord and Algoryn targeters, plus the Nuhu Mandarin and her nano drone.  All of these went to together quite easily and I was really impressed with how clean the minis are right out of the blister, how easily they went together, and the level of detail as well.  These were the first metal minis I'd worked with for Antares and I'm very happy with them.  I love how crisp the mandarin looks especially and I can't wait to get some paint on her.

Gates of Antares: Reinforcements For Bastion!

My order from the Warlord summer clearance sale arrived! Now I have enough Concord strike squads for days (which translates roughly into six squads), plus a NuHu Mandarin to act as a commander, and a targeter probe shard.

The might of Bastion assemble!  No, really, glue yourselves together, will you?

In addition to filling out my Concord, I also grabbed a targeter shard for my Algoryn and a bunch of Ghar assault suits and a bomber suit as well.  This helps round out the core of my Algoryn force and gave me one heck of a jump on starting a Ghar Empire force.

The Ghar shall reign supreme!  As soon as I get some more of them anyway...

Now I've just got to get some more assembling and painting done, then I can start hitting the game store.  Currently I don't think that there is anyone seriously playing Gates of Antares locally but there is a strong Bolt Action crowd so I'm hoping that I might be able to get some people interested.  I might pick up a support team for the Algoryn and possibly a T7 just to have on hand as well but one step at a time.

Unrelated to GoA, my family and I are still trying to settle into our new home as there were boxes and boxes and still more boxes full of... well, crap mostly it seems like.  It's amazing how much we hold onto that just is meaningless in lots of ways.  Dead games from publishers that closed their doors years ago because I might want to play it again someday.  Seemed like a good idea at the time but now... well not so much.  Maybe just in the insight we gain from getting old but there is only so much time in the day for everything so why include the other random bits of detritus that just add clutter to our lives?

So why this sudden serious note in my blog?  Well, I've decided that its time to lighten the load and finish the things that need to be done.  By the end of the month I plan on getting some of the random stuff that I've got laying around onto Ebay.  I figure I might as well try to send some of these things to people that are going to get some use out of them before I consign them to the scrap heap.  If some of it sells, great!  More more to invest into GoA and other projects that I'm currently working on and not things that I might have a use for someday if the moon is in the right phase... well, you get the picture.