Initially, I had planned to put together two small forces to use in games. Mainly, to save on the overall cost of the project, but also to leave room for expansion as I went along. Then I went looking for lots of miniatures online, Bartertown mostly, and ended up with a lot of Southern Gears (and about twice as many Northern). This was troublesome, as I was leaning towards Leagueless and PRDF. While Leagueless can use both, it was recommended that I start with a non-Leagueless force, as they are set up mostly for experienced players due to how you can customize the Army. At one point, it was suggested I put what I had together into a Southern force of some sort.
I had wanted to do a Mekong Dominion unit. I liked the idea of Bushido-based "marshals" in gears, not to mention the Vibro Katanas (I mean, come on... big stompy robots with katanas, might as well go big or go home). Problem is, when I was originally looking at this I was using the Locked and Loaded rulebook as my guide (which would of worked). After getting a look in Forged in Fire (The Southern Leagues sourcebook), running Mekong would require that I buy almost all of my core units... counter-productive to turning a box of extras into a playable force. It was not that I did not have enough units to run a Southern force of some sort, the models are mostly the same between factions, but special rules favor some units over others depending on who you play. To make the most of those rules, I would have to buy entirely different squads (cadres), or a variety of parts to modify what I did have. It was not going to work.
That was when I took a look at some of the guides on the Dream Pod 9 forum and noticed the ESE. To quote Korochun:
"Finally, we have the Eastern Sun Emirates, or the ESE, or the feudal hellhole of Terra Nova. While nominally in the AST Domain, and while their current Patriarch, Nigel Shirow is a much better dude than the former one, the Eastern Sun Emirates are still run like a feudal state. Meaning that there are thirty-something major feudal lords (or Emirs) which are more or less kings in their own territory, as well as hundreds of minor ones. Their allegiances tend to…differ. As in, they run the gamut of everything from AST to CEF to the North. This is quite possibly the most diverse faction you can play, as they can use units from any faction on Terra Nova and beyond, and even use some of their special rules. They can also field Iguanas and Basilisks galore, because they have a massive industrial base and Territorial Arms sold them rights to these designs. They can also swap any Black Mamba to a Gila, which makes for a very scary, very smashy army.
On the downside, ESE is generally one of the most backward places on Terra Nova, to the point where even the Dominionites, who have institutionalized slavery, consider them generally barbaric. The society is very stratified with peasants, or shajahalin, at the very bottom, several castes of middle managers, and Emirs at the top. Before Nigel Shirow’s rise to power, the country’s most popular past time was televised bloodsports of any kind imaginable, and even though that has waned considerably since Shirow won his rebellion, many Emirs are still loyal to the old values and treat their population like dirt. Ah. So good to end this section on a cheerful note."
Sounds like it could be fun. Seriously though, the fluff aside, their Army is versitile, which was the key for me. The ESE has alliances based on the specific Emirate, which seem to be vague in the books (a good thing, being undefined like that), but can add in squads from just about every other faction in the game (on Terra Nova, at least). So, I could add in Northern units, PRDF units, or Leagueless units (which are the ultimate in using whatever you have on hand). Alternately, I could add in Mekong rules as well if I wanted.
I spent a few hours looking at the rules, comparing it to the list of figures I had on hand, and settling on a list. Drew it up, posted it on the forum for review, got feedback, revised the list, posted, feedback, revised, and finally settled on this:
ESE OpFor S_GEAR, Gear Regiment ESEG.
800 TV, PL 2, 3 SPs, 6 CPs
Ruleset: Gear Up 5 Threat Values
OpFor list for demo games - ESE with option for other factions
Veteran Line Strike Cadre (Specialist) [Army Command Group] 420TV
Allow Tankhunter upgrade
It makes good use of the mass of Jagers I had from the starter boxes and the lots (most common gear = everyone has a ton of the things), as well as the pair of odd models here and there that I had also picked up (DP9 sells most gears in box sets of 5 gears, and single packs of 2 gears.. but I am noticing that for some cadres you need THREE of any given gear for the composition... hmm....).
The idea is that you have one really tooled up Veteran cadre, likely a portion of the Emir's household guard, and then two General Purpose (GP) Cadres that are there as an escort. At PL2 I had two Veteran slots open, so I guess one Cadre is simply better at surviving than the other. Made use of the models I had on hand, required a minimum of assembly for the rest of it, and I did not have to spend more than $5 on parts to finish it off.
I would speculate on how I am going to expand it later, but that might be for another post, as I am sure it will change later on. So, without further delay, here are my work in progress photos of this unit.
I am running into some snags with getting pictures from my phone, onto photobucket, then having that open so I can link here (and on the forums). Generally, I prefer Google Drive, but direct linking is not as easy. If I can get my photos from the phone to the computer, I can upload directly from there.. but I digress.
As of today, I have 4 gears in the final stages of completion (arms/weapons) and one more I need to base. I also have a few alternates that are available, if I wanted to use different loadouts. That is not even counting the PRDF/Leagueless/Northern squad that I could add, if necessary.
Once I have the whole unit taken care of, I will post the pictures up.
Future plans for this include stripping the paint off of the painted minis, reassembling and basing those, then the painting begins. Other than going with a desert/urban theme (the plasticard on the bases will be painted like concrete/stone slabs with sand/rocks around them), I am not entirely sure how I want to do the paint jobs. Quick and easy, but this is also a great opportunity to try new things. If they turn out horrible, hey, its an OpFor army anyway, so no worries. A multicam-like scheme is being considered, as well as some more generic desert patterns. I do not want the green/grey like the cadre above, I know that. I could also attempt solid colors with some blacklining. I may go that route, so I can get some experience with it.
More to follow!
I had wanted to do a Mekong Dominion unit. I liked the idea of Bushido-based "marshals" in gears, not to mention the Vibro Katanas (I mean, come on... big stompy robots with katanas, might as well go big or go home). Problem is, when I was originally looking at this I was using the Locked and Loaded rulebook as my guide (which would of worked). After getting a look in Forged in Fire (The Southern Leagues sourcebook), running Mekong would require that I buy almost all of my core units... counter-productive to turning a box of extras into a playable force. It was not that I did not have enough units to run a Southern force of some sort, the models are mostly the same between factions, but special rules favor some units over others depending on who you play. To make the most of those rules, I would have to buy entirely different squads (cadres), or a variety of parts to modify what I did have. It was not going to work.
That was when I took a look at some of the guides on the Dream Pod 9 forum and noticed the ESE. To quote Korochun:
"Finally, we have the Eastern Sun Emirates, or the ESE, or the feudal hellhole of Terra Nova. While nominally in the AST Domain, and while their current Patriarch, Nigel Shirow is a much better dude than the former one, the Eastern Sun Emirates are still run like a feudal state. Meaning that there are thirty-something major feudal lords (or Emirs) which are more or less kings in their own territory, as well as hundreds of minor ones. Their allegiances tend to…differ. As in, they run the gamut of everything from AST to CEF to the North. This is quite possibly the most diverse faction you can play, as they can use units from any faction on Terra Nova and beyond, and even use some of their special rules. They can also field Iguanas and Basilisks galore, because they have a massive industrial base and Territorial Arms sold them rights to these designs. They can also swap any Black Mamba to a Gila, which makes for a very scary, very smashy army.
On the downside, ESE is generally one of the most backward places on Terra Nova, to the point where even the Dominionites, who have institutionalized slavery, consider them generally barbaric. The society is very stratified with peasants, or shajahalin, at the very bottom, several castes of middle managers, and Emirs at the top. Before Nigel Shirow’s rise to power, the country’s most popular past time was televised bloodsports of any kind imaginable, and even though that has waned considerably since Shirow won his rebellion, many Emirs are still loyal to the old values and treat their population like dirt. Ah. So good to end this section on a cheerful note."
Sounds like it could be fun. Seriously though, the fluff aside, their Army is versitile, which was the key for me. The ESE has alliances based on the specific Emirate, which seem to be vague in the books (a good thing, being undefined like that), but can add in squads from just about every other faction in the game (on Terra Nova, at least). So, I could add in Northern units, PRDF units, or Leagueless units (which are the ultimate in using whatever you have on hand). Alternately, I could add in Mekong rules as well if I wanted.
I spent a few hours looking at the rules, comparing it to the list of figures I had on hand, and settling on a list. Drew it up, posted it on the forum for review, got feedback, revised the list, posted, feedback, revised, and finally settled on this:
ESE OpFor S_GEAR, Gear Regiment ESEG.
800 TV, PL 2, 3 SPs, 6 CPs
Ruleset: Gear Up 5 Threat Values
OpFor list for demo games - ESE with option for other factions
Veteran Line Strike Cadre (Specialist) [Army Command Group] 420TV
Allow Tankhunter upgrade
- Black Box Iguana [3/4/3/4] (14/42 LHC) LAC MPZF VB CGL, ArmyCmdr (8 options) 105TV
- Long Fang Black Mamba [3/3/1/0] (17/51 LHC) MAC MRP/36 MRP/36 HG VB (2 options) 100TV
- Blazing Mamba [3/3/1/0] (17/51 LHC) HGLC APGL APGL HG VB (2 options) 65TV
- Black Adder [3/3/1/0] (16/64 SLHC) SC MRP/36 VB (3 options) 74TV
- Black Adder [3/3/1/0] (16/64 SLHC) SC MRP/36 VB (3 options) 74TV
- Command Jager [2/2/1/1] (15/60 SLHC) LAC LRP/24 APGL HG VB CGL 35TV
- Brawler Jager [2/2/1/0] (15/60 SLHC) LAC LGL LRP/24 APGL HG VB (1 options) 44TV
- Brawler Jager [2/2/1/0] (15/60 SLHC) LAC LGL LRP/24 APGL HG VB (1 options) 44TV
- Striking Jager [2/2/1/0] (15/60 SLHC) LBZK LRP/24 APGL HG VB 38TV
- Striking Jager [2/2/1/0] (15/60 SLHC) LBZK LRP/24 APGL HG VB 38TV
- Command Jager [2/2/1/1] (15/60 SLHC) LAC LRP/24 APGL HG VB CGL 35TV
- Jager [2/2/1/0] (15/60 SLHC) LAC LRP/24 APGL HG VB 34TV
- Jager [2/2/1/0] (15/60 SLHC) LAC LRP/24 APGL HG VB 34TV
- Striking Jager [2/2/1/0] (15/60 SLHC) LBZK LRP/24 APGL HG VB 38TV
- Striking Jager [2/2/1/0] (15/60 SLHC) LBZK LRP/24 APGL HG VB 38TV
It makes good use of the mass of Jagers I had from the starter boxes and the lots (most common gear = everyone has a ton of the things), as well as the pair of odd models here and there that I had also picked up (DP9 sells most gears in box sets of 5 gears, and single packs of 2 gears.. but I am noticing that for some cadres you need THREE of any given gear for the composition... hmm....).
The idea is that you have one really tooled up Veteran cadre, likely a portion of the Emir's household guard, and then two General Purpose (GP) Cadres that are there as an escort. At PL2 I had two Veteran slots open, so I guess one Cadre is simply better at surviving than the other. Made use of the models I had on hand, required a minimum of assembly for the rest of it, and I did not have to spend more than $5 on parts to finish it off.
I would speculate on how I am going to expand it later, but that might be for another post, as I am sure it will change later on. So, without further delay, here are my work in progress photos of this unit.
 |
| Southern GP Cadre (bought painted) |
 |
| Start of second GP Cadre |
 |
| Close up showing basing |
As of today, I have 4 gears in the final stages of completion (arms/weapons) and one more I need to base. I also have a few alternates that are available, if I wanted to use different loadouts. That is not even counting the PRDF/Leagueless/Northern squad that I could add, if necessary.
Once I have the whole unit taken care of, I will post the pictures up.
Future plans for this include stripping the paint off of the painted minis, reassembling and basing those, then the painting begins. Other than going with a desert/urban theme (the plasticard on the bases will be painted like concrete/stone slabs with sand/rocks around them), I am not entirely sure how I want to do the paint jobs. Quick and easy, but this is also a great opportunity to try new things. If they turn out horrible, hey, its an OpFor army anyway, so no worries. A multicam-like scheme is being considered, as well as some more generic desert patterns. I do not want the green/grey like the cadre above, I know that. I could also attempt solid colors with some blacklining. I may go that route, so I can get some experience with it.
More to follow!
