Scenery: MDF Landing Pad

After a shaky start a few months back I have since fallen in love with the increasingly popular range of MDF scenery that is now available out there. It is quick to build, easily painted and eminently more affordable than it's plastic counterparts all of which are key selling points for me. The other bonus is that it isn't covered in stupid little skulls like all of GW's 40k terrain which means that I can use it in a diverse range of settings.

Fallout 4: NCR Patrol Rangers

The completion of my Brotherhood of Steel Squad from last week has really re-ignited my interest in Fallout again and so I have now returned to a project that I initially started a few months back but for a variety of reasons ended up being pushed back on my priority list.

Regular readers of this blog will know that my most frequent gaming partner is my dedicated girlfriend and some time ago when I expressed an interest in playing some Fallout themed games she was more than happy to support this foray into the post-apocalyptic world. After scouring the genre's background she settled on commanding the New California Republic's soldiery and so I set about building her a force of the formidable NCR Rangers. 

The Rangers first appeared as part of a side quest in Fallout 2 back in 1998 but they were substantially expanded on in in 2010's Fallout: New Vegas. As such I have based her force on this later game's extensive imagery for the faction.

In New Vegas the Rangers seem to have three distinct sub-commands which are civilian rangers for urban police duties, elite veteran rangers for hardcore combat and patrol rangers that fall somewhere in the middle.

 I have already made a squad of veteran rangers (Veteran Rangers) and a squad of civilian rangers (Civilian Rangers) so all that remained for me to do was a squad of patrol rangers in order to balance out the force.

Fallout 4: Brotherhood of Steel Knights in Combat Armour

It's been a while since I did anything Fallout related so I thought I would get back on the band wagon by painting up some Brotherhood of Steel Knights in Combat Armour to support my Power Armoured Paladins. 

Now I know most people associate BoS Knights with Power Armour (particularly those gamers who were only introduced to the franchise by Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas) but there is a strong precedent for Knights clad in Combat Armour. In fact in Fallout 1 all of the Knights situated in the Lost Hills bunker wore Combat Armour whilst only Paladins were given the honour of wearing suits of T-51b Powered Infantry Armour.

In-game screen shots from Fallout 4 showing the new 'orange and metal' look for Brotherhood of Steel Knights

The latest game in the series (Fallout 4) has gone back to these classic roots and now we frequently see Brotherhood soldiers wandering the wasteland dressed in Combat Armour... However it's appearance has been substantially altered compared to that seen in the Lost Hills Bunker back in 1997.

One thing Bethesda did do in this installment of the universe was to create a new Brotherhood uniform for the Knights to wear under their Combat Armour; strangely however they chose to colour this garment orange. Originally I had my misgivings about this unique colouration as I didn't feel that it was very militaristic... however over time it has grown on me and now I'm rather partial to it. 

In addition to the orange undergarment you'll be pleased to hear that faction specific Brotherhood Combat Armour is also available and this has a rusted metal appearance supplemented with leather straps and the BoS symbol emblazoned on the chest.

My 10 completed BoS Knights prepare to venture forth into the Wasteland

Rogue Trader - Aquila Down, Campaign Mission - Part II (The Battle)

So the time has come for the brave Inquisitor Athena to fight the next battle in her ongoing campaign to liberate the world of Logan's Bluff from the grip of an insidious genestealer cult. The mission brief can be found in my last post (Mission Brief) and this outlined the background and current situation so you may want to give that a quick read before continuing.

Briefly, The Inquisitor was on her way to try and link up with a cadre of Battle Sisters that she was hoping to recruit in order to assist her operations on the planet. However mid way through the journey her Aquila pattern shuttle was targeted and hit by enemy fire and has now been downed in the wilderness.

We join the noble Inquisitor as her retinue emerge from the wreckage of the shuttle; her limited force now consists of two battle sisters, five storm troopers and two shuttle crew. As if things couldn't get any worse her armour's in-built auspex starts to beep as hostile lifeforms are detected on the periphery of the battleground.

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Rogue Trader - Aquila Down, Campaign Mission - Part I (The briefing)

Following Inquisitor Athena's brave intervention at the Battle Sisters' preceptory in the last mission of our ongoing campaign she has now consolidated her position in this facility and will be using it as a staging post for future tasks.

Athena has been able to gather around her the few survivors of the last encounter along with a small number of reinforcements who have joined her from her starship in orbit, these include Inquisitorial Operative XV98 who was wounded and forced into a coma way back in mission one.

Here is the latest briefing issued to the Inquisitor in preparation for her next mission to engage and destroy the genestealer cult operating on the world of Logan's Bluff... Battle Report to follow shortly!