Self Isolation Project Part 5: Karn Form Warrior and Klansman

 Hi!

I've been slowly chipping away at my old Havok box and have finished the Karn Form Warrior who will eventually accompany my Karn Battle Form:

Karn Form Warrior

The Karn Form Warrior is a great little figure and I was going to originally match the purple bodysuit that the old paintjob had but the black looks more menacing and give me a bit of a Harkonnen vibe, especially when combined with his red hair. His stubby blaster pistols do kind of remind me of a powerdrill but all in all, I'm really pleased with how he turned out!

Next up, the box I got via Ebay had a couple of extra figures in it and while I was supposed to be concentrating on painting the Karn Battle Form, I couldn't resist painting this guy:

Chudley Chunderson III

He's a Karn Klanner that got added to the lot and as soon as I looked at him, a name sprang into my head and I had to paint him. From his ridiculous wargear to purple curled quiff and shades, Chudley Chunderson the third demanded to be pained and incorporated into a campaign.

Chudley is a dude from a long line of dudes who travels the frontier of the Imperium collecting bounties and drinking copious beers. Armed with a plasma carbine and knife carved from the adamantine of his homeworld of Chunderson's Rest, Chudley adorns his armour with trinkets, doodads and mementoes of his travels, be they a rad medallion he found in an abandoned Pharon tomb or the skull of a particularly gnarly foe, Chudley, or Chud to his friends (of which he doesn't really have any) is loud, garish and quite annoying to be stuck in a lift with.

As you can possibly tell, the miniature has character and I had great fun painting him up, even if some of the elements of the figure make no sense, such as the cloth wrapping his blade. Needless to say, expect Chudely to make a fairly regular appearance in future games!

With these additions, this gives me five Karn troopers which is plenty for a small skirmish game such as Planet 28 and I'll be keeping my eye out for some suitable additions in the coming months and now just need to get the Battle Form painted and do something with the rather tragic scenery from the box and I'll be ready to play a game of Havok.

 

I absolutely recommend grabbing some of the Havok range if you can find them cheaply as underneath the rather poor prepainting and soft plastic, theres some really nice figures sculpted by Bob Naismith which fit perfectly with the older Rogue Trader range and can add some great personality to your collection and while it can take a bit of effort to get the most out of them, its totally worth it!

In other news, I've also got photos of a bunch of other bits and bobs I've been painting over the last week or so but will post them up on a separate post tomorrow as I've blathered on long enough for today!

Until then, All the best! 

Self Isolation Project Part 4: Karn Darkest Suns

 Hi!

Another quick post today to update my Self Isolation Project! I'm back at work and feeling a lot better but wanted to finish the project, especially as it's such a small and easily completed one so have been chipping away at the Karn faction of the original Havok boxed set.

Karn Darkest Suns

I decided to try and go for a brighter look than my Nexus Rebellion forces so ended up giving them a bright yellow armour and quite like how they turned out.

Unsurprisingly these figures took a lot more effort to paint up than the Nexus ones as they suffered from having more noticeable mould lines and the soft plastic they're made from means cleaning them properly is nigh on impossible but I persevered and think that they're pretty nice figures to add to my collection.

Again they're sculpted by Bob Naismith so have loads of character and would fit in nicely with any Rogue Trader era figures and their power armour, bolt pistol and hand flamer make for some nice assault troops!

I've only got the Karn Form Warrior and Battleform left to do along with trying to fix up the scenery and the whole set will be complete which is really exciting as it will be another boxed set that I'll have completed to go along with my Deadloque set which I completed a couple of years back now. It appears that this sort of mini project is a good way to keep focussed and chip away at small collections of figures and actually get them all painted up so I'll have to keep it up!

In other news, I spotted that Modiphius is having a bit of a clearance of their Mutant Chronicles RPG so I picked up the complete pdf collection for £5.00 so will be having a bit of a read through to see if I can gather some ideas for a future Planet 28 project.

Interestingly (not to mention super temptingly!), they're also having a big sale on their Siege of the Citadel boardgame with the core and all supplements available for £120. I must admit that I'm sorely tempted to pick it up as even if I don't end up playing the game, the big stack of figures and tiles would come in super handy but its £120 which is still an awful lot of money to splurge on my hobby...

With the kickstarter for Warzone Eternal on hold, I may end up picking it up as it would give me seven different warbands and a host of villains to populate a campaign with but I'll have to have a good think about it before spending so much cash...

In the meantime, I've also got a load of other bits and bobs I've been painting my way through and will post another update in the next few days so All the best!

Self Isolation Project Part 3: Nexus Hundred Battle Form

 Hi!

Well I've managed to complete the Nexus Rebellion forces from the Havok starter set! Here's the Hundred Warrior and Battle Form:

I went for a fairly simple paint scheme with him with different greens and greys and quite like how he turned out and while I could have gone for a more battered and combat worn finish, I rather like the smoother style as its rather in keeping with the comic book art from the box.

I may go back to him at some point to give hims some extra details such as nameplate, kill tags, numbers or whatnot but he's done for now!

The Hundred Warrior has a lot of fond memories for me as he was a core member of my old 2nd edition Imperial Guard force and I was really pleased to get him back into my collection and painted up to a decent standard.

Here's a picture of the entire force:

I'm rather pleased to have them all finished and done and have now begun work on the Karn troops but suspect they're going to take a bit longer to get finished as they're pretty detailed and their more dynamic poses have given me some headaches to get them cleaned and painting is a rather slow process so I doubt I'll get the Darkest Suns trio finished tomorrow but we shall see how I get on!

In the meantime, All the best!

Self Isolation Project Part 2: Havok Nexus Rebellion 47th Line

 Hi!

Well it's day two of my self isolation and along with the cough, I seem to have now lost my sense of taste and got pins and needles in my ring finger and pinkie on each hand which is yet another of the seemingly endless symptoms but enough of my moaning! Here's the progress I've made on my Havok mini project:

Nexus Rebellion 47th Line

I've really enjoyed painting up these chaps and they make excellent Imperial Guard proxies and as I tend to play small scale skirmish games, having a trio of hardbitten veterans is really handy.

The figures themselves scale pretty well with Rogue Trader era figures and the detail on them is actually pretty great but cleaning off the mold lines on them is a total pain. The only weak part of the figures is the rifles which have decidedly soft details on them but do look alright with a decent coat of paint.

I've been working away through the remainder of the Nexus Rebellion forces today and hope to have them finished tomorrow before making a start on the Khan Empire contingent.

In the meantime, All the best!

Self Isolation Project Part 1: Havok Repaint and Repair

 Hi!

Well I suppose it would happen eventually as I seem to have caught Covid so am having to spend a few days self isolating and while I'm feeling pretty grotty, I do want to do something useful with this enforced break and looking at my box of Havok gubbins that just arrived, I figure it might be a fun mini project to have a bash until I get the all clear.

First up, lets have a look at the figures I'll be working on. The boxed set came with two small skirmish forces, the Nexus Rebellion and the Karn Empire. 

Nexus Rebels

The Nexus rebels consist of three of the 47th Line, described as perhaps the most famous regiment in the Nexus Rebellion, the 47th Line is always to be found in the vanguard, their motto and warcry 'Die Hard! Die Hard!'. 

The 47th Line is backed up by a Hundred Battle Form and Hundred Warrior. During the first centuries of conflict with the Karn the Nexus managed to capture a small number of Battle Forms, One hundred were eventually amassed into a single formation that has since become known as 'The Hundred'. The Warriors of The Hundred are chosen not only for their skill and courage but also their genetic makeup. Only those suitable may join with and fight alongside, one of the precious Battle Forms of The Hundred.

Next up there's the evil Karn Empire!

Karn Empire

The Karn force consists of a trio of Darkest Suns. Even those hardened to a lifetime of conflict know and fear the Darkest Suns. They are the Emperor's chosen. Theirs is an endless war of conquest in the name of their father.

Backing them up is a Form Warrior and Battle Form. The Battle Forms of Karn are each held in honour by a single family. The Form Warrior fights along side his Battle Form and are supreme warriors, revered by Nexus and Karn alike. For countless generations the Battle Forms have won the most desperate of battles for the Karn Empire. The Battle Form is a living machine constructed of super hard material that makes them virtually indestructible. 

So we have two small rival warbands to paint up, what else comes in the box?

The box set also contains a bunch of Havok dice, something I'm really pleased to get my hands on more of, a small full colour rulebook, measuring rulers, unit cards and some really poor scenery.

The set I got also contained two extra Karn figures, the first being a Karn Trooper while the second is a Klan Warrior. If I get the chance I'll have a bash at painting them too but they're not the priority for this project!

Lastly, there's the scenery. I remember having this back in the day and even then thinking it was pretty poor quality. It's pretty much just random pieces thrown together without much, if any forethought but I will see if I can repair it and put it to use as well so I can play a game or two to see what its like.

As I mentioned in my last post, the figures are sculpted by Bob Naismith and are readily identifiable as his work which I love. Made from somewhat rubbery plastic the detail on the figures is surprisingly good and the hard plastic Battle Forms are actually fantastic and I'm rather excited to get started on the project and will update daily here so folks can see how I get on. 

I'm debating on keeping the bases the originals or replacing them with my more usual lipped bases but we shall see what I end up going for over the next day or two.

In the meantime, All the best!

Blast From the Past: Havok

 Hi!

While I've been rather busy at work and the hobby time has been severely limited over the last few weeks, I did find myself perusing the interwebs for a quick mini project that I could put together cheaply and quickly and remembered Havok, the miniature skirmish game released by Bluebird Toys back in 1996/7.

The game lasted all of about a month before Bluebird went bust but I do remember picking up a Skirmish Battle Box from either Woolworths or Argos as I quite liked the look of the figures, which incidentally were sculpted by GW legend Bob Naismith as they looked pretty Rogue Tradery.

Sadly over the years I got rid of pretty much everything apart from the Kharn Battleform and the dice, both of which I still use today but with a bit of ebaying, I managed to grab a grubby boxed set which seems to be complete for under a tenner and plan on painting up the figures and having a bash with the rules, which if memory serves, were super simple.

I doubt I'll use Havok rules as is but I have bodged elements of them into a Space Crusade, DIY hybrid which worked out pretty well and allowed for a quick sci-fi dungeon crawl which was actually quite fun and if nothing else, I will use the dice and figures in regular gaming sessions of Planet 28 as the Kharn Empire are actually an interesting concept, being they are a militaristic bunch who hopped through dimensions to take over the Havok one.

Looking at the figures themselves, there's some real Rogue Trader vibes to them, hardly surprising as Bob was one of the key sculptors of early era 40k and his Cobalt-1 Miniatures, produced in about 2011 would fit right in too (annoyingly the company who currently produces them seems to be on an eternal hiatus!) 

I suppose this is another incident of me obsessing over a game that is out of production and nobody plays but that's pretty much part of the course for me so I'll post the odd update as I work through the ten infantry and two vehicles before posting up a battle report and may incorporate elements of the setting, such as there are into my own alternative Imperium!

In the meantime, All the best!

Battle Report: Unexpected Encounter in Freeport City

 Hi!

As promised, I managed to play another game last night featuring Inquisitor Fisher and her loyal retainer Geralt the Wolfbane who encountered some old foes in the slums of Freeport City!

The Background

Inquisitor Fisher has heard rumours of more Orks than usual being sighted in the rundown slums of the capitol of Farpoint, Freeport City and has decided to investigate. While it is not uncommon to see several of the more 'civilised' clans such as Bloodaxes, Badmoons or even Deathskulls, the rumours identify the Orks as Goffs and such warlike Xenos infiltrating the Orkish enclaves no doubt is a sign of trouble to come.

While heading to meet with a local Ork representative in one of the less salubrious parts of town, Fisher spots furtive movement and as the Inquisitor and Geralt draw their weapons, a group of Goff Boys burst into view, their ambush spoiled by Fishers keen eye and charge forward bellowing warcrys and firing wildly.

The Forces

As I am using a bit of a hodgepodge of rules, I put together a sample of the forces stats and feats that they can carry out by using Hero Points. 

Inquisitor Fisher is accompanied as always by Geralt the Wolfbane while the Ork force consists of four Goff Boyz all armed with bolt pistols and axes.

The Setup 

The game takes place in one of the slums of Freeport City. It is a warren of dark alleyways, buildings constructed from a plethora of materials ranging from adobe to plascrete and scrap. The street, such as it is, is littered with junk and smells vaguely of boiled cabbage, a sure sign of Orkish inhabitation.

Fisher and Geralt begin the game on the southern edge of the board whilst the Orks begin at the north. The Inquisitor needs to survive the encounter and if possible exit the board's northern edge. The Orks are out for blood and must kill Fisher but will settle for Geralt if the opportunity allows it.

The Game

As I already mentioned, I am using a bit of a random mix of gaming elements, some of which may get bodged further as I play.

Each turn begins with a dice roll to see if any Hero Points are generated using my old Space Crusade dice with the red dice being the Hero's and the white the Villains. These points can be used to perform feats, be they impressive attacks, extra moves or in the case of Fisher, glaring.

Turn one begins with Fisher seizing the initiative and moving confidently forward towards the approaching Orks, snapping off a shot at the distant figures with her las pistol but failing to hit the leering xenos. As the Orks move towards the Imperial agents, Geralt uses his Move It! feat to sprint forward towards one of the Boyz who has foolishly split away from the rest of his companions.

Turn two sees no Hero Points rolled and the Orks take the initiative with the lone boy on the flank rushing towards Geralt firing wildly with his pistol but failing to damage the Wolfbane. In return, Geralt bellows his clan's warcry and charges the Ork.

A stellar couple of dice rolls sees the surprised Ork badly wounded by Geralt's blistering attack and things may be looking up for the Imperials.

The second Ork, seeing the approaching Inquisitor, opens fire with its bolt pistol and despite her armour, Fisher takes a point of damage.

 

Cursing as blood begins to trickle from the graze on her cheek caused by the shell exploding on her shoulder pad and hearing Geralt's warcry, Fisher activates her power sword and lunges at the Ork who fired upon her. Unfortunately, she fails to damage the Ork who nimbly ducks under the glowing red blades swing and loses the spike from the top of his helmet instead of his head.

The remaining two Orks rush down the alley on the western flank, determined to get behind Fishers party and attack from the rear.

The Imperials win initiative in turn three and roll a Hero Point too and Geralt runs his blade through the Ork he had been fighting. As he kicks the corpse of the greenskin off his blade, he hears hobnailed boots pounding down a nearby alleyway and hurries towards Fisher, aware that she's about to be outflanked.

Fisher uses a Hero Point to perform her Imperious Glare feat on the Ork as it tries to swing at her and her piercing ice blue eye makes contact with the red of the Goff and he quails under the judging stare (he had rolled a really good attack dice and the re-roll resulted in him rolling poorly!) Taking advantage of the creatures momentary pause, Fisher sweeps her power blade and sends the beasts head flying from its shoulders.

Unfortunately Fisher doesn't get chance to savour her victory as the two remaining Orks burst out of the alley behind her and one opens fire with his pistol at her unprotected back and sends the Inquisitor sprawling. Bellowing in victory, the greenskin rushes forward to finish the job brandishing its axe but is surprised to find the supposedly deceased Fisher pull herself to her feet and meet his charge with a curse.

The second Ork, sees Geralt emerging from the other end of the alley, covered in green blood from the Ork he slew and opens fire but Geralt avoids the shells and they scream past his head before ricocheting off a nearby wall. 

Turn four begins and once again no Hero Points are rolled. Inquisitor Fisher and the Goff in melee with her exchange a flurry of blows but fail to find their marks but Fisher is keenly aware of the fact that the shot to the back has pierced her armour and she is bleeding pretty badly.

Geralt rushes the Ork that fired on him and in another brutal attack wounds the beast, driving it backwards with a flurry of swings with his punisher sword. In response, the Ork fails to damage the Wolfbane.

Turn five one again sees a decided lack of Hero Points and the swirling melee that continues sees Geralt stagger as the wounded and now throughly enraged Ork smash his axe into Geralt's side, cutting through his armour and into his flesh. Grunting in pain, Geralt swipes at the beast, failing to damage it but driving it back somewhat.

Things are looking equally grim for Fisher as the Ork fighting her proves that a wounded Ork is a dangerous Ork as it scores another wound on her and she fights down the pain and snarls at the beast, determined to wipe the sneer off its face if its the last thing she does.

Turn six begins with no Hero Points being rolled once again but Imperial pluck wins out as focusing all her rage into a well timed thrust, Fisher runs the sneering Ork through and disembowels the greenskin. Pausing to kick the dying creature in the head, she staggers towards the Wolfbane who is bleeding like a stuck pig as the Ork he is fighting scores another hit, breaking his sword arm. 

Before the creature can celebrate, Geralt lifts his pistol and sends an explosive bolt into it's head sending it sprawling to the ground, skull shattered and quite dead.

Conclusion

Geralt slumps and groans, not sure where hurts more, his cracked and broken ribs or his badly mangled arm but sees an equally bloody Fisher glaring down at him. "Come on Geralt, there's no time to lie around feeling sorry for yourself. I'm sure there are more of them out there so suck it up". Sighing, the Wolfbane pulls himself to his feet and painfully follows his boss towards the safety of a local agents compound wondering if he can have a day off after this and plaintively wishing for a drink or ten.

So there we go! Fisher and Geralt have avoided an ambush but what are the Orks motives? Is this a simple attack of opportunity or is there more at work than it appears. Hopefully once they've both been patched up, the Inquisitorial team will be able to get to the bottom of it!

The bodged rules went pretty well and it was a good fun game with the two heroes fighting off a group of goons and my only regret was I didn't get enough hero points to perform any really powerful attacks but I had great fun playing the game and will need to play another soon!

I'm really enjoying playing games with only a handful of figures a side as I can get a game in quickly and don't have to paint too much to get a new force into play either which is a definite bonus.

I've got today off and have a vague plan of playing a game of Planet 28, one of Song of Blasters and one of Brutal Quest which will give me lots to post about in the coming days so watch this space but until then, All the best!

Havok Meets Space Crusade

 Hi!

Just a quick post today as I've been really busy at work but did manage to play out a game or two!

I've been bodging together some really simple rules based on Space Crusade and Havok to allow me to play a super quick skirmish and gave it a bit of a try through the other night featuring Inquisitor Fisher and Geralt the Wolfbane encountering some marauding Orks in the slums of Freeport City.

For those who don't remember Havok, it was briefly released in the mid 90's by Blubird Toys in the UK and had a selection of prepainted miniatures and the odd vehicle. While the rules were super light, I did love the artwork which was very 2000AD and the figures themselves are rather good and sculpted by Bob Naismith no less so have a real Oldhammer vibe to them and I really need to pick up a few more at some point!

Using the Kommander's Manual (or rules leaflet) along with a selection of dice I've had lying around from various games, I quickly statted up a couple of characters and had a bash!

Essentially each character had two actions and to shoot or fight and perform armour saves had to roll a number of Havok dice to see how effective their action was. It's a super simple mechanic but worked fairly well but I decided to add a bit of oomph to it by rolling a red Space Crusade dice with the resulting number being Hero Points that allowed the good guys to add an extra Havok dice to their roll.

It was a really fun game but I need to work on giving each character some more individuality as at present they all have the same abilities. I eventually started rolling an old Sustained Fire dice from 2nd edition 40k when the heroes used a Hero Point with the resulting roll giving them 1,2 or 3 extra dice and the possibility of a fumble which removed one of their dice to spice it up further and it really worked well with Inquisitor Fisher blasting one Ork boy with a fusillade of Las Pistol Fire and allows for some really brutal close combat.

The further addition of a white Space Crusade dice to give the bad guys Villain Points gave them the opportunity to do some unexpected stuff themselves and resulted in Geralt getting badly beaten up by the Ork Boss.

Sadly my phone was running low on charge and I only managed to get a couple of photos but I plan on playing another session this evening and recording the results as well as posting the draft rules so folks can have a bash themselves it they like.

I'm planning on keeping playing around with the dice mechanics and rules themselves so the battle report may turn into a bit of a ramble into playtesting but we shall see how we get on!

In other news, I have a Chronopia post that I've been working on over the last few days following the release of the latest images that have been making the rounds on Facebook but am unsure if I should post it as I may be being a bit too critical. While I was super excited to hear that Chronopia was making a comeback, the more I see, the less I feel it's a viable project and that it's clearly a fan project with a bit of funding rather than a professional product.

If folks do want to know more, let me know and I'll try to reduce the wailing and gnashing of teeth and post my opinion on what we've seen thus far but in the meantime, All the best!