Test of Honour: Final Battle

After quite a long gap of playing Test of Honour we picked up the last game of the linked scenarios in the main rulebook.

This saw my victorious forces searching a village for the wounded brother of my leader. The darstedly monks started with half their forces on the table with the rest coming on in support.

In order to make the most of the advantage in numbers my hero and his companions rushed up the board and started to beat back the enemy. Despite landing good hits they couldn't convert those into kills and instead managed to inflict a few light wounds instead.

This left them somewhat open to a counter and for a while they held their own with the monks generally swinging and missing.

Then it all went wrong very quickly with first one companion falling and then the next. Soon after my hero who already had a serious head wound was also felled and defeat fell upon my brave troops.

To balance that out I did manage to bring home another 1st place from South Ox, this time in their Deadzone event. So just need a 2nd in something to round out the collection.

Marauders: Dropping In

Marauders in Firefight have a couple of ways of moving troops quickly about the board in Mule and Hornet transports but sometimes you want to just put a unit down in a gap.

This is where the Skyscrapers come in with the aerial deployment ability. They don't pack much in the way of heavy equipment but do have 2 wounds each so could stick around longer than expected. You could also use them as a first turn scouting unit to jump on an objective early doors.

This doesn't come cheap though with a unit of 4 basic Marauders coming in at 110 points. I've built a couple of heavy weapon options to go along with the basic shotgun chaps in case I ever want to field them.

Marauder Goblins

Goblins don't make up a large part of the Marauder force but Mantic do offer some nice sculps on the Vault so I got a few printed up to paint.

Here we have a couple of snipers who can be fielded in Firefight as 'bodyguards' for the Commando Captain or in Deadzone. At 20 points each for one shoot dice in Firefight they seem rather an expensive option to me.

The Goblins have a darker skin tone than their larger cousins.

I've also completed a couple more Rainmakers and a couple of Maulers just in case I ever need to field some.

Marauders: Let it Rain

I'm sure we would all agree that some rain would be most welcome at present but unfortunately for fans of being cool these chaps only make it rain bullets.

The Rainmaker is the model that originally drew me to Marauders and Mantic now have a new plastic version which is still in the style of the old one. They also have STL's for the arms on the Vault which makes putting them together nice and easy.

I've decided to pair the Rainmaker's up with Ripper Warlord's to make a (hopefully) powerful unit that not only gives out commands but can also throw out a considerable amount of firepower. The Rainmakers have three ranges weapons and as long as they are all in range they can all fire each turn. The addition of Targeting Systems to the unit also means that you can split that fire across two targets which could useful.

I've painted up two of these command units to use in my initial 1500 point list.

I've also got a few extra models to be used as required, including a leader and a grenadier.

Marauder Brawlers

Whilst shooting things is fun, sometimes you just need to get in their and give it a good kicking. That's where the Marauder Brawlers come in. Throwing out 3 dice per model in melee you don't have to field huge numbers to put some pain out. 

Their natural home would seem to be moving about in a Mule to the critical spot and then jumping out to charge in against an enemy pinned by the Mule. I have a couple of Mules printed out from the Vault and ready to paint up.

As the Mule can carry six models I have painted up an extra Brawler but the squad's are pointed up at five models at present.

We've also been playing a bit of Deadzone on Friday's in preparation to going back over to South Oxfordshire for their latest Deadzone event with me switching around lists to give Mr T some exposure to different opponents. I will be back onto the Marauders in the final run-up though.

Marauders: Commando Platoon

The third and final 10 Marauder section has been completed this week to make a total of thirty Commando's ready to see action. Being an old historical wargamer I do like to see a proper platoon of infantry on the table making up the backbone of a force, even a sci-fi one.

The Marauders are naturally quite good in melee with 2 dice per model and I've bumped up the ranged threat with the addition of a HMG and Missile Launcher to the squad. The HMG automatically adds Pinning to the squads fire output and the Missile Launcher has AA & AT capabilities and can (if required) fire at a different target to the rest of the squad.

Painting up the models has been a bit of a chore as despite this being a new hard plastic kit the sides of the models have almost no detail on them so you end up having to guess where the detail is and try to paint it on. The heads have also been cast in such a way that they have the seem down the middle of the face. Fortunately I had some resin heads printed off which did not have this issue. The one plus was that the arms for the weapons go together really well so I had none of the faff often associated with weapons being held by two hands.

The whole gang painted so far including my Deadzone Strike Team

Marauders: First Squad

A good backbone of solid infantry is (in my view) the best place to start any army so here is the first of three planned Commando squads which will make up core of my Marauder force.

This is a 'new' sprue released a couple of years ago to replace the old restic models which made up my first Marauders strike team. TBH I much preferred the style of the old Marauders and having gotten hold of the hard plastic kit the detail isn't great. Especially on the sides of the models the detail is really poor and almost needs to be painted on as it doesn't exist. The 3d printed versions I've already painted up aren't much better but at least you don't need to guess at details on them.

But, I've got one squad done and I've gone for two different heavy weapons in the squad to add some flexibility. The HMG adds Pinning in and the Missile Launcher gives some AT/AA threat to my basic unit.