Highlander Cateran Sniper

This will be a quick update for my Ariadna force. Currently I'm in the middle of a huge project and this one was a breath of fresh air for me. In my opinion, this little guy is one of the coolest miniatures in Ariadna product range with that fancy scenic base and whatnot.


I tried to replicate the studio paint with this one. The only part I improvised was the boots actually as I found the original painting on the boots too much green. Most of the painting was done with airbrush, masking the finished parts with tack-it. I must say I am getting very comfortable with my new airbrush, Badger Sotar 20/20.


Enjoys...

Kitbashed Ariadna Traktor Mul

After the Dozer reported for duty, it was time to rush the Traktor to the action. Today's post will be a little longer than usual, as I did quite some custom job on this one. But don't worry, there are still photos to keep you entertained...

The idea for this project was first sparked in my mind after... well after I saw the price tag of these remotes: A couple of them for 41,95€ was a bit steep for me and I only needed one really. As soon as I decided to take on this project, I started looking for some suitable models to be the basis for this conversion. I looked into the opportunity to use old WH40k Orks tanks at the early stages; but I quickly moved away from that idea because they were too big to sit on a 40mm round base and most probably they were off scale.

The solution found me during one of my routine eBay searches. I think most of you would know Micro Arts Studio, the Polish mini designer company which have a beautiful product line of scenery and accessories in "Designed for Infinity". Well, it turned out that they also have a product line called Iron Brotherhood and one of those resin miniatures was the perfect fit for me. I quickly ordered one and it was what I based this conversion on.

This figure was used as the basis

I assembled the chassis and the tracks of this Iron Brotherhood before diving into my bitz box. I found the "head" within my Abyssal Dwarf leftovers, while I also used bits from Warhammer Dwarf kits.

In the club, we have an urban themed scenery elements to play Infinity. So I decided to create a base that would hopefully fit to the theme. I laid some cork on the base for the road and some balsa for the sidewalk. I carved the cork a little to look like drain. After that, I placed the mini on the base and attached the head bit to its place. At the front , I drilled a couple of holes to place a piece of paperclip which will support the lights.

Early stage

I was also busy with the other decorative bits like the traffic sign, the baggage bits and the lights. Traffic sign was scratch-built from tea stirrer and some plastic sheeet. The baggage bits were from a Warhammer Dwarf kit. I just glued them in couples to place them at the back of the mini. The lights were from another dwarf kit's bit. I tore that bit apart to get into a shape which could be used as lights.

Various bits & pieces I used

After getting all the pieces I wanted, I put them together to see if they looked ok together.

At that point, only the weapon arms were missing. I wanted this mini to have missile launchers. Even though I could have done them from scratch, I learned from the 40k players that there was something called "Havoc Launcher". After checking those bits, I felt that that might work and went for them. However, my friend who was supposed to bring them to me was some 2 months late :) My would-be traktor sit on my desk idly all that time.

Anyways, at the end I got the havocs and saw that all those 6 barrels are tad too big for this beauty. I had to cut them down to 4 barrels and attached them to the sides. It was time for painting.

Even though the original paint job did not have any camo pattern, I wanted to try a 3-color NATO camo design. I started with dark brown base on black undercoat then masked it with Tack-It before spraying the green paint.

Ready for green

After laying down the greens, I removed the masks and did blacks of the camo with regular brush. I forgot to take photos after that point so I have to jump to the conclusion now :)

While I was just about to finish, I thought that it would be a nice idea to add a a piece of urban trash somewhere and did the tiny McDonald's cup. I also tried to do a smoke plume out of green tufts and did the minor freehands on the weapon arms: The Ariadna faction logo and a "2" in a digital font, which happened to be its name :)

Well, that was pretty much it and I think it is damn close to the original figure (minus my painting ofc). Hope you enjoyed it. Comments are welcome as always...

Ariadna Dozer with Akrylat-Kanone

Recently, there has been some updates in ITS, Infinity Tournament System. One of the most important among them was the definition of the "specialist troops". Some missions in ITS requires specialist troops like hackers, doctors, engineers and such for certain actions. In previous ITS rules, Lieutenants, the leader of the strike team, used to be considered as a specialist troop. Well, no more... That hurts the Ariadna forces since we do NOT have any hacker in our list, our doctors can't treat flu properly and so on. That's why until now I have been counting on the lieutenant to do the crucial work.

Today's update is about an Engineer troop, a Dozer with Akrylat-Kanone. I tried to stay true to the original painting to the best of my ability, only playing with the base a little. Also I am using a new background for the photos. Let me know how you feel about that.

Enjoy...

Death from Above: Ariadna Para-Commando

Although all those pretty Infinity scenery items are still on my desk, I managed to find time to paint a single model to add to my current force. This saturday, we will be running a small tournament at our local club. When writing the rules, we decided to keep the leash tight for proxies and all of a sudden, I found myself short of a Para-Commando guy. Luckily, I have been thinking ahead, since I bought these Starship Marines figures from Black Tree beforehand to use as a proxy for Para-Commando with HMG.


Why you might ask. Why buy some ancient models when there are those beautiful Infinity models. Well, first of all, Black Tree minis were dirt cheap. With the promotions back when I bought them, they cost me 70p each. Moreover, there were no stores which were selling Infinity miniatures in my country. The latter is about to change now though, fingers crossed. Price was the real factor here; but to be honest, the original figure is not the best among the Infinity range.

The figure came in 3 parts: Guy, bag and the ammo belt. After building it up quickly, I went on and filed the star off of the beret. I started with a blue base coat, then laid down the ochre color of the bag before putting the airbrush away. The rest was brush work.

So, my tourney army is ready for the weekend. Hope I can finish some more scenery until then. Enjoy...

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Infinity Battle Report - A Few Good Men Part 3

This post will be the third and the last part of the battle report between Ariadna vs Nomads. In case you missed the previous posts, you can read them here: Part1, Part2.

ARIADNA TURN 2

My advance is hampered by Suppression Fire

I had 5 regular, 1 irregular and 1 lieutenant order at the start of this turn. 

I moved to set up the Antipode assault. Since they were affected by the Chain Rifle shot the previous turn, they had lost their camouflage; but since they were out of enemy's LoF, they used their irregular order to camouflage themselves again.

With the first regular order, Antipode Controller tried to smoke the area to cover Antipodes' advance. She botched it and the grenade landed on the building nearby. I ordered her to try that again and this time she succeeded. Smoke is considered to be dispersed once the player turn ends.

Antipode Controller obscures the
area for the Antipodes to advance

Antipodes used up another order to perform Cautious Movement through the obscured area towards the rightmost building. They were in a decent position now; but I wanted them to advance further so I let them rush to the enemy by spending one more order. However, their movement was in a Moderator's LoF, who managed to pass the discover roll to render one of the Antipodes visible again.

With my fifth and last order, I ordered the Veteran Kazak to fall back and take cover deeper behind the silo to put some distance between him and the advancing Morlock.

Antipodes are after Reverend Moira

Burak: I must say I've never used smoke grenades this extensively before. Even though I spent a couple orders for that, smoking the area allowed me to block the Suppression Fire zone and Morlock's LoF. Taking advantage of that, I managed to advance with the Antipodes to a point that they would threaten Reverend Moira. Also, I moved the Antipodes in such a way that once it is Alkım's turn, they will have LoF to the Morlock. This will provide the Antipodes an ARO chance during Morlock's impetuous order. I will use it to close in on Reverend Moira.

Alkım: Smoke grenades prevented me from AROing effectively. Antipodes are too close; but I think I can take them down with the Moderators.

NOMAD TURN 2

Morlock is closing in on
Veteran Kazak through the smoke

With his impetuous order, Morlock had to run towards the silo. Veteran Kazak was hiding behind it. Witnessing Morlock's movement, the Antipodes ARO-moved and continued their advance towards the Reverend Moira.

Morlock decided to use his own irregular order to throw a smoke grenade in a fashion that it would cover Vetern Kazak as well as himself. Antipode Controller failed to kill the Morlock with her ARO; but Antipodes used their chance again to move again. This move took them a leap distance from Reverend Moira.


By spending 2 more orders, Morlock came into base contact with Veteran Kazak. In order to perform a Close Combat (CC) attack, the model must move to base contact with the enemy. Then and only then it can issue a CC order. Morlock was counting on his extraordinary CC value (17) and his Martial Arts Lvl2 ability. He was superior to Veteran Kazak in CC; but he failed the CC roll by rolling 18 and Veteran Kazak killed him.

Burak: Yet another lucky moment for me... Alkım did everything right; but after he failed the CC roll everything went down the drain. Actually, there was something we played wrong here. The details are at the end of the report...

Alkım: Some things must start being damned by now...

Moderators' pilgrimage

Next orders were spent by Moderators. They decided to come out of the building they were in and tried to cross the entire battlefield horizontally with an attempt to save the Reverend Moira from the Antipode assault.

The Moderators entered inside the LoF of one of the Line Kazaks on the way and tried to shoot him down. Alkım managed to score hits with all of his 5 burst; but I managed to nullify 3 of them with my dodge roll and passed the ARM rolls for the remaining 2 hits. After this scare, the Line Kazak decided that it was enough for him and took cover deeper in the building. Antipodes were also quick to declare their ARO to Moderators' pilgrimage. They ARO-moved again to leap down on Reverend Moira and got into base contact with her.

Linked team used their last order to get in base contact with one of the Antipodes who had ganged up on Reverend Moira. In CC, every model who is involved in CC provides a +3 bonus. Since the Moderators had 4 models in base contact, their CC value was boosted to 25 thanks to the +12 bonus. When the number needed to roll exceeds 20, it is considered to be an auto-success but it also increases the critical success range. Here, there needed roll was 25, so the critical range must be a 5 point margin, which is 16-20. Alkım rolled 14 for CC roll. A success, but not a critical one. Since the CC is not the Moderators' best use, Antipode succeeded at an easy ARM save and survived.

Burak: This was the biggest CC I've ever seen in a game of Infinity. There were 8 models in the same CC! It took some time to read and interpret the rules and calculate the numbers we needed to roll; but in the end we managed to play the CC more or less the correct way.

Alkım: Sometimes things just don't go your way. I underestimated the Antipodes and tried to close in on the Veteran Kazak with Morlock. After failing that, I tried to bring down the Antipodes with the Moderators. I think they were both correct moves but I should have executed them in reverse order. Moderators should have acted first and tried to bring down at least one of the Antipodes. I made the last moves now and just hope that Reverend Moira survives...

ARIADNA TURN 3

Order count: 5 regular, 1 lieutenant, 1 irregular.

First thing I did was to attack the Reverend Moira with Antipodes. According to the CC rules, 3 Antipodes had a juicy +9 bonus vs Reverend Moira whereas the linked leader had an +15 bonus against the Antipode he was in base contact with. In the end, it turned out to be as expected: Antipodes ate up Reverend Moira, losing one of their kind in the process. They managed to make the "go bananas" roll though and stayed under my command. After this CC, Nomad force was in Retreat since they had lost %60 of their starting points.

Burak: Finally! Killing Reverend Moira was the only thing I was after. Killing her was important by itself; but it meant more because losing her put the Nomad force in Retreat situation.

Relieved, I used my remaining orders to hide my models, ordering the Line Kazaks to go prone and covering the Antipodes in smoke again.

NOMAD TURN 3

Once a force loses 60% of its starting points, it goes in Retreat situation. In this case, all the models must perform an impetuous move towards their deployment zone. Also, the linked teams are broken and lieutenant order is no more. As a result of the Retreat situation, Alkım had to make 5 impetuous order and after that he would have 5 regular orders.

Alkım spent his impetuous moves with a Coordinated Order, in hopes to minimize the AROs from the surviving Antipodes. This time, things go his way and he managed to get rid of the Antipodes.

Paramedic Moderator tried to climb to the building where the unconscious Sin-Eater was lying; but his physical abilities let him down. Yes, in Infinity, there are troops who have paramedic and doctor qualities. Such troops have the ability to stabilize unconscious troops. There are also engineers, who can "heal" the machines more or less the same way.

ARIADNA TURN 4

After a very brief Nomad turn due to Retreat and lesser number of models, Veteran Kazak put an end to the by taking down one Moderator a time.

Veteran Kazak is having a field day

Alkım: I think both players used their troops according to their initial plan. Morlocks and Antipodes reached to the enemy to distract them. Hard hitters played their roles or died trying. I think I lost the game on second turn by overlooking Antipodes' AROs and letting them too close to Reverend Moira.

Burak: During deployment, Alkım had a huge advantage by placing Sin-Eater to eagle's nestand pinned most of my troops to their spots. Because of that threat, I couldn't move Veteran Kazak and Antipodes. When I lost TankHunter, I thought the game was over for me; but after that incident, my luck turned. Veteran Kazak's critical hit on the Sin-Eater and my overly successful dodge/ARM rolls kept my troops alive. After Sin-Eater was down, my only aim was to get the Antipodes to Reverend Moira. Thanks to the ARO-moves, they managed to get there and did their job.

Man of The Match: Veteran Kazak really shined here. He just didn't die, saving hits one after another. He also took down Sin-Eater with a crit and a Morlock in CC before shooting down Moderators to finish the game.

After the game's over, we noticed that we made some mistakes during the game. The most dire of those happened during Veteran Kazak vs Morlock combat. Alkım declared that Morlock's CC was 17; but we found out that it is 18 which means he had scored a crit on Veteran Kazak in that CC. Probably he forgot to check his ability scores among all that smoke, otherwise he would have slain Veteran Kazak and put me in retreat instead.

It was a very tiring game for us. We had to take notes and shoot photos regularly during the game in order to remember the game afterwards. A big congratz goes to Alkım, who pulled all the notes together to form this battle report. I hope you enjoyed reading it...

Infinity Battle Report - A Few Good Men Part 2

Welcome to the second part of Ariadna vs Nomads battle report. In case you missed it, you can the first part by clicking this link.

Onward to the game...

ARIADNA TURN 1

TankHunter trying to take
down Sin-Eater

I started the game. I had 6 regular, 1 irregular and 1 lieutenant orders.

My first move was to reveal one of the camo markers to shoot down the Sin-Eater. Revealed model was the TankHunter with Autocannon. This model is one of the few options the Ariadnians have against the heavily armored enemies.

Sin-Eater opted to shoot back as his ARO. The Morlocks who had LoF to the TankHunter decided to move towards my lines. Normally, if the actions affect each other like exchanging gunfires, the dice rolls would be face to face rolls. However, since TankHunter was coming out of camouflage here, he had a chance to surprise the enemy and make a normal roll to hit instead of FtF. Sin-Eater would only be able to return fire if he would survive...

TankHunter managed to hit with one of his two shots. Due to the explosive ammunition of Autocannon, Sin-Eater would have to make 3 armor saves now instead of 1. He needed 12+ to save the wounds and he managed to make all three of them, surviving TankHunter's attack. Since he survived, he was able to return fire. Although he needed 10- to hit TankHunter, he managed to score hits with both of his bursts. It was TankHunter's turn to roll for armor saves; but he only managed to make one of them and was knocked unconscious.

First order, first dead: The game was on...

Burak: What an unlucky start! The TankHunter had the surprise advantage and did his part, scoring a hit on the enemy. Too bad that Alkım managed to make all 3 rolls. To add insult to the injury, I lost TankHunter to return fire... I am at a huge disadvantage now. I am behind in points, I lost one of mt heavy hitters and also, I have no option to save Veteran Kazak from the wrath of Sin-Eater

With my second order, I ordered Antipode Controller to move to the right hand side of the building. Moderator link leader BS ARO'ed that but missed both his shots. Since the Morlocks also had LoF to her, they ARO-moved towards me again. With her second short skill she fired her Smoke Grenade Launcher to cover Veteran Kazak's advance. She failed to land the smoke grenade where she wanted but I spent another order to make it happen.

Burak: The only option I had left to move Veteran Kazak without him getting shot to bits by Sin-Eater was to block his vision with smoke grenade. Even though I succeeded in this attempt, I already spent too many orders with no gain. To make the matters worse, my actions gave many ARO chances to Morlocks and they used those chances to move towards my deployment zone.

I used my fourth order to move the Veteran Kazak among the smoke and take cover behind the silo nearby. With the next order, I tried my chances with Veteran Kazak this time to take down Sin-Eater. After the FtF roll, Sin-Eater scored a hit on Veteran Kazak; but I managed to make the ARM save.

Veteran Kazak decided to use up yet another order to shoot Sin-Eater and this time he managed to score a critical hit, knocking him unconsious. If you managed to roll exactly the same number you need to succeed at an action, it is considered a critical success. A critical success nullifies enemy's non-critical rolls when making FtF rolls. In case of an attack, a critical hit denies the enemy from making the ARM roll to save the wound.

Burak: Just in time! Even though it was pure luck, I got rid of Sin-Eater who has been pinning all my models to their spots. Now, I can advance from my right hand side with Veteran Kazak and Antipodes.

Alkım: Damn critical!

I used Antipodes' irregular order to move them inside the obscured area. With my last order, I tried to take down the Morlock on my right hand side, who had already advanced too much with AROs. Even though he failed to dodge Antipode Controller's shot, he managed to make the ARM roll and took cover.

In my turn, both sides had important casualties. One of the Morlocks was dangerously close to my Veteran Kazak and Antipodes.

NOMAD TURN 1

Alkım had more orders than me: 6 regular, 2 impetuous, 2 irregular, 1 lieutenant orders.

The models with Impetuous rule (like Morlocks) must move towards the closest enemy model at the start of player turn. They may shoot or use any other short skill after this; but the first short skill must always be move.

Morlock on Alkım's left moved forward and shoot his Chain Rifle. The template affected 2 camo markers as well as Veteran Kazak. I had many AROs to declare now. Veteran Kazak returned fire with, well, actual fire: Flame Thrower... Antipodes tried to scurry around to dodge Morlock's shot whereas Antipode Controller also tried to shoot down the Morlock from a safe distance.

Normally, you cannot shoot a camo marker without discovering it first; but since Veteran Kazak is a valid target for the Morlock to shoot, Alkım placed the template in a fashion that it would also affect the camo markers. As a result of this, all 3 Antipodes were revealed and they were to make a dodge roll with -6 penalty (template weapon rule). Unbelievably, all 3 Antipodes succeeded their dodges and Veteran Kazak effortlessly made his ARM save. Morlock was not as lucky though. He was scorched by Veteran Kazak's flamer and dropped dead. Had I lost an Antipode to this attack, the game could have developed very differently.

The other Morlock moved to the center of the table with his impetuous order and took cover there.

Burak: Advancing with the Antipodes like that turned out to be a rookie mistake from my side. I misinterpreted the camouflage rules and assumed that the Morlock would need to perform an Intuitive Shot in order to target the Antipodes with the Chain Rifle blast. In that case, I might be able to take him down with Veteran Kazak and Antipode Controller's AROs. However, since Alkım placed the template in a way that would affect the Veteran Kazak, who was a valid target, allowing him to keep the Antipodes under the blast effect. Thankfully, my luck saved me once again while I managed to succeed all 3 dodge rolls despite the -6 template weapon penalty. It was unbelievable

Alkım: Damn those 3 dodges!

Suppression Fire zone

With the first regular order, Reverend Moira moved to shoot down Veteran Kazak, who was posing
the biggest threat to Nomads. Even though he failed to dodge the shots, he passed the ARM rolls unscathed.

Surviving Morlock decided to perform two Cautious Moves to get close to the Veteran Kazak.

To prevent Veteran Kazak and Antipodes from advancing, Moderator link leader declared a Suppression Fire order. This order would allow the link leader to fire all of his bursts in his reactive turn should this zone be breached.

With his last couple of orders, Alkım tried his chances to bring Veteran Kazak down with Reverend Moira. In her shots, Moira used Armor Piercing ammo (halves the ARM value) followed by a Double Action (forces 2 ARM saves per hit) salvo. Veteran Kazak failed to dodge them too; but since he managed to pass most of the ARM rolls, he only suffered 1 wound and stayed alive thanks to his No Wound Incapacitation ability.

Burak: If nobody's dead from my team in the reactive turn, it must be good. I was extremely lucky in this turn. Actually, Alkım did his best to punish the mistakes I had made during my turn; but Lady Luck was on my side. I managed to pass all rolls I made save one. The most important thing for me was not losing any of the Antipodes until now.

Alkım: Have I said damn!? Jokes aside, I had a bad turn. Losing Sin-Eater the previous turn was not a big deal since he played his part. But failing to kill the important models of Burak's forces and losing a Morlock on top of this cost me the advantage I gained the previous turn.

First turn is over now. You can read the rest of the battle in the next post. Thanks for reading.