Twenty more Xenos Rampant Cultists

Here are my next two groups of Cultists for my Xenos Rampant ongoing project;

I've tried to keep some colours common across all three units, hence the red hoods and purple trousers on this second group. These are armed for a more long range shooting role than the first set and are led by a figure without a hood and carrying a spear, as well as some kind of energy pistol. He also has a shield. My idea with him is that he represents a kind of Prophet/force commander for the cult, maybe even with psychic powers that he can transmit via his spear, which is really a kind of psychic energy weapon or beacon. I think that these are probably more suited to being a unit of Light Infantry, as they lack the armour of the previous lot. They probably ought to have the Guerillas characteristic to boost their armour value when in cover.

Now, my third unit;

These keep the overall "red hoods" theme but are mainly dressed in grey, again linking them to the unit above, colourwise. I think that these are also suited to a Light Infantry role, possibly with an upgrade to having Heavy Weapons, seeing as one has a rocket launcher and a couple have what look like heavier support weapons too. The guy on second front left with the backpack is wearing what looks like a pilot's helmet and is carrying a comms device. He is an alternative force commander figure if I decide I don't want a psychic force commander.

So, there we have it. Three units of Cultists who will form the core of a force which follows some strange occult belief system, perhaps worshipping strange Alien Gods or powerful xenomorphic beings, or maybe just dedicated to destruction and death for its own sake. Who knows?

Next, I'll be working on a couple of units of disciplined fighters who can represent the military of an Empire, Republic or Dictatorship or maybe just a well-armed and equipped Planetary Defence Force.

Some Cultists for Xenos Rampant

Here is my first group of 10 figures to use as Cultists in Xenos Rampant;

These are all based on the Frostgrave Cultists plastic box set with weapons from the Stargrave Troopers and Mercenaries boxes. I'm a big fan of the plastic cultists set and they work well as members of some kind of weird sci fi cult or as space pirates who want to keep their identities secret. This group are clearly wearing some kind of body armour and half of them have pistols and blades so could be used for troops with the Assault Doctrine characteristic or maybe as Berserk Troops. The flamer being carried by the guy on the front right seems well-suited to close combat and assaults.

I've given them a purple-based colour palette so they could be used with the Cultist figures I painted ages ago (back in 2019) for Saga: Age of Magic, who would definitely be Berserkers or Primitives as they have no shooting capability. I like the idea of a Xenos Rampant force that has fanatic troops who just want to get close up and personal with sharp or pointy objects. I could also use some of my daemonic figures, based on Ghost Archipelago Snake Men as Lesser Xenomorphs. They could be given a ranged attack based on spitting toxins. I've not played Saga: AoM in ages, so it would be nice to see them on the table again.

I've got 20 more of these guys to show you, but I'll put them up separately in two more posts, in a day or so.

Frostgrave Reaver Wights.

This is a fun coincidence. Yesterday North Star Military Figures posted this  piece on Facebook. It relates to the forthcoming Perilous Dark Nickstarter and discusses a new undead nasty, the Reaver Wight.

If you read the article it explains all about Reaver Wights and suggests ways of portraying them in  our games of Frostgrave.

Funnily enough, a few weeks ago I put four figures together from the last sprue of Frostgrave plastic cultists I had left over from my Saga: Age of Magic Otherworld project, and here they are;

Now, I reckon that they fit the bill perfectly, being pretty similar to one of the North Star illustrations of how to represent the creatures using existing Frostgrave sets of figures, so it seems that my desire to use up a few odds and ends has chimed perfectly with the next chapter in the development of the Frostgrave universe. This makes me very happy.

Saga: Age of Magic - my Otherworld army gets a run out

Yesterday at the club, we had one of our occasional all-day sessions. This was a great opportunity to get my daemonic Otherworld warband (made mainly from Frostgrave figures, with Alternative Armies Creatures) on the table for some Saga: Age of Magic. This was going to be a learning experience as I'n not played with this faction before. I fell into the trap of thinking of this as an impact army which did me no good against my first opponents, Clive's Undead.

These Undead are a terrific-looking army, with an Ancient Egyptian theme.

Unfortunately, for me anyway, they are also a very shooty army, with lots of bow-equipped warriors.

I plunged ahead, trying to get my best killy units into combat, with the Hunters leading the way. They didn't last long, succumbing to a lot of accurate shooting. Still, I had high hopes for my Creatures.

I used Portal to get my Hearthguard into a position to charge. Two powerful units ready to bust the Undead line apart. What could possibly go wrong?

Ha! What could go wrong was getting shot at. My Behemoth and the Creatures were targeted first.

By the time the Creatures had taken a lot of Fatigue, they were easy meat for some Undead Warriors.

My Behemoth and Warlord were the next targets to suffer.

Also, the sad failure of my Hearthguard, who despite gaining Resilience via Astral Bond and were still unable to take out the Undead archers.

With the Behemoth gone, again due to shooting, my Warlord was the next one to fall.

We called time on the game. I had virtually no Saga dice left.  We set up a second game. This time I was opposed by Clive's High Elf Great Kingdom army, led by Matt, who was new to the game, with assistance from Clive.

I learnt from my mistakes and set up with all my troops in the cover of woods.

I waited to see how things would develop. Not only did the Elves have bows, they also had a Dragon and a Hero on a Pegasus.

The Elven Hearthguard was in two groups of four. My Sorcerer soon managed to get one group reduced to two figures, using a combination of Rift and the Bolt and Drain Life spells.

My Hunters were getting shot at by Elven bow Levies. So, I charged them, with predictable results. 

One Hunter left. I advanced some Warrior Cultists through the woods.

I used Portal to move my Creatures behind the Elven line, threatening the weak Hearthguard unit.

Elsewhere, the other Hearthguard led the Warlord and Sorcerer into the attack. My Warriors in the woods were having success with Abyssal Breath to shoot at the bow levies.

After some manoeuvres, Matt managed to move his weakened Hearthguard out of charge range, so I used Portal again to bring my Creatures back across the table. The green jewels indicate that they are sheltering behind the Elemental Barrier spell.

I'd given up worrying about the Dragon marooned out on my left, but I really needed to charge those bow Levies with my Creatures.

With clever use of the board, the Levies moved out of the way, and the Elven Lion Creatures charged my Creatures, utterly obliterating them.

Things went from bad to worse and eventually, I threw everything into a reckless attack, which was spectacularly unsuccessful. Another loss for the Otherworldly Daemons.

However, it wasn't all bad. My Sorcerer was really effective, using Drain Life with a fair amount of success, but, more importantly to use the spell to remove fatigue. I think, also, that I am beginning to learn how to play with this faction. More games are required.

My Saga: Age of Magic Otherworld warband is complete.

As mentioned in an earlier post, here I decided that most of my Warriors would be made from the North Star plastic Frostgrave Cultists box set. Well, I finally finished them off over the weekend just gone, and here they are;

As you can see, there are two groups of eight, all wearing a red/purple/lavender theme, with hooded faces. They are not all equipped the same, some have spears, others swords, axes and clubs. Some are carrying shields. Most of the shields are from the Cultist box, but there are also a couple of oblong shields from the Ghost Archipelago Snake Men set and also one or two small targets from the Perry plastic late mediaeval European Mercenaries box. I wanted these guys to have an almost uniform appearance but also have a degree of individuality, and I think that I have succeeded in this aim.

So, now they will have to make an appearance on the tabletop, and their first outing will be this coming Sunday at the club.

Demons .........................

...........or maybe Daemons.

I suppose it all depends on how you prefer to spell it. Personally, I prefer the latter spelling. Anyway, with the arrival of Saga: Age of Magic, I suddenly have a need for daemonic entities from a parallel universe, because the faction that I want to play is the Otherworld one. I really like the idea of entities from another dimension emerging from a portal into the world of mortals (which includes goblins, orcs, dwarves, elves and whatever else takes your fancy, including the no-longer living, recently-buried and not-exactly dead) to wreak death, destruction and evil designs upon the locals.

It took me a while to work out exactly what I wanted the force to look like, but I liked the idea of there being a human component, obviously members of a Cult dedicated to the worship of dark deities who need willing acolytes to open portals through which they can gain access to entry no normal space and time. Yes, I've been a huge fan of the works of H.P Lovecraft since my teens.

So, I need cult members to act as footsoldiers, lesser daemons, dread creatures, a monster, a sorcerer and a daemonic warlord.

I looked at a lot of possibilities, but kept on coming back to the Frostgrave plastic cultists box set, mainly on the grounds of cost, but also because they look really good. I love the hooded figures in their tattered robes, just the thing for arcane summoning rituals on a blasted heath somewhere, no doubt accompanied by the eerie cries of whippoorwills.

I've also decided that the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago plastic Snakemen would work really well as lesser daemon troops, especially as I want to take a unit of Warriors upgraded to Hunters. Snakemen with shields or with heavy weapons would also make good Hearthguard.

While looking through the available monsters in the Frostgrave Bestiary on the North Star website I found a couple of figures I really liked and I bought them, together with the already-mentioned plastic box sets.

While working on my Bad Squiddo Dwarf Warrior, I also got working on a couple of major figures for my Daemonic Otherword warband.

First, the Warlord.

I did consider using him as a Behemoth (one of the Monster classes) but he isn't really big enough for that, but I reckon that he looks like a pretty good Warlord, and that sword definitely qualifies as a Heavy Weapon. He's clearly got the muscles to wave it about in a menacing manner, as his back shows. He's absolutely ripped;

The other creature that took my fancy was the Ghost Archipelago Hemata, a kind of Snakeman with four arms and a snake body instead of legs.

Now, he (or maybe she, it isn't easy to tell, really) could quite easily be the Warlord, but I also need a Sorcerer and I've decided that a snake daemon sorcerer would fit in well with the Snakemen component of the army, so this is going to be my warband's Magic user. Here is the rear view.

I am going to stick with a red-based colour palette for the daemonic part of the force, with the cultists in grey robes with some red bits to tie it all together. 

My warband is going to have a fairly standard composition;

Warlord

Sorcerer

6 Hearthguard

1 Behemoth

3 Creatures

2 groups of 8 Warriors

1 group of Hunters

It is the same line-up as the Black Dwarves of Neggaruth warband in the rulebook in terms of groups and individuals.

I have ideas for the creatures and the behemoth, which will be revealed in due course.

I'll also be able to use both of these in games of Frostgrave too, so it is a win-win for me.