I plan to pick it up on release tomorrow and host a game for the kids and a couple of their friends on Sunday. We will be facing the swarms bugs of Hivefleet Haemorrhoid again. Some of my Imperial Forces faced the horde back in February, but this time the Hivefleet has invaded an Exodite world with ties to the Thaestalyrdaes Craftworld and the Biel-Tim fleet.
In preparation for this Apocalyptic battle I've been making myself a few custom saboted movement trays....
I decided to make them myself because... well... I'm a cheap bastard.. Also, I like making things... and I liked the idea of making them match the basing of my miniatures... and I could make them a little asymmetrical and each on a little different... AND I could make custom ones to fit specific units!
Like this Guaiacan Commando Sniper Squad
Or my Tallarn infantry - as each squad incorporates a missile launcher team.
I had meant to make a tray for the command squad, but I made it with five holes and then realized the command team only has FOUR in it!?
I made these by cutting holes in 1/8" mdf cutting it out with a jigsaw, gluing the upper to another solid piece of MDF, and then cutting that to fit the contour of the upper.
A Battalion Detachment of Amanda's Drukhari Wyches.
The plastic bases fit a bit snugger than my minis that are based on metal washers. So tight were they that I've decided to leave them in the movement tray for the time being. If we play a regular game of 40K and need to take them out, I'll worry about it then. I think putting them in and taking them out constantly, could potentially damage the paint on the plastic bases.
Conveniently, Amanda has a lot of storage space in her drawers, so these can easily be accommodated.
that's not so much an option for me...
Being a bit of a moron, I didn't give much though to how I was going to store these until I was putting on the tufts and static grass and realized if I just piled them all in to a box, all that pretty static grass and tufts would likely get squashed flat... I'm going to have to find a box that I can store them sort of vertically - perhaps with a small foam space in between each one?
My Wraithguard.
I was kind of torn about units like this... I actually have six Wraithguard. While I CAN field all six in 40K if playing open play or building a matched play force with points, the standard size in Apocalypse (and 40K if you're just using Power Level) is five. I went with five for now. I may make one with six and just go ahead and use it in apocalypse. It doesn't REALLY matter exactly how many you have on the base - as long as everyone knows I'm using it as a unit of five and not a unit of ten (which would have additional attacks and wounds)!
Keira's Harlequins - this could be fielded as a Battalion Detachment. If she finished up the other two Death Jesters she has, they could be two detachments - the Troupe Master, three Troupes, and Solitaire as a maneuver/assault element (that would often get Assault orders), and the Shadowseer and the three Death Jesters as a fire support element (that could be given Aimed Fire orders)
More of Keira's minis - Jain Zar leading a Vanguard Detachment of Howling Banshees. Not sure if the "Rule of Three" applies in Apocalypse? If it does they could simply be fielded as one unit of ten and two units of five.
Some of these are custom make for her Aspect Warriors. She's put the exarchs of some of her Aspect Warrior units on different sized bases - to differentiate them from the rest of the Aspect Warriors in the unit - so I've made a few trays with four holes of one size for the regular troops and one, slightly larger, hole for the exarch.
Swooping Hawks! Another custom base, and another case of how many do I make this for. She HAS six Swooping Hawks.... but I made this for only five -as that's the standard size for the unit. I may make a special Swooping Hawk base just for these guys... well... unit she buys MORE Swooping Hawks and has a full unit of ten!
Keira's Rangers.
This last base was one of the first ones I made, it places the minis a bit closer together and has less space around the outside - I tried it this was first, thinking it would be best to economize on the space they took up on the tabletop... but a few of them broke as I was cutting them (drill bits and jigsaw!) so I made the rest a bit further apart and with a touch more space around the edges. On the plus side, it gives me more space to put more tufts and grass and potentially add some dioramic elements!?
Our first planned Apocalypse game in on SUNDAY! I'm not sure I'm going to get anymore of these done by then... but I'd say the experiment was successful and I am planning on making a BUNCH more - as I'm expecting The new Apocalypse rules may become our go-to set of rules for playing larger 40K battles for the foreseeable future!
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
APOCALYPSE!!
Posts
Do tell: how does Apocalypse get around the problem of alpha smite?
ReplyDeleteBTW, nice work on the sabot bases. I'm think I might want to create some of my own.
During a turn players alternate activating detachments and carry out orders (based on orders that were issued to the detachment in the order phase - in the form of a face down token). They will move and/or shoot and/or engage in melee. Attacks are standard to hit rolls followed by a simplified wound roll, which, if successful, generates blast markers. Blast markers applied just follow that unit around as it does stuff during the turn. At the END of a turn - after EVERYONE has been activated - damage from those blast markers are worked out (save rolls made, damage applied if unsuccessful). So EVERYONE gets to do stuff during a turn if they started that turn alive and on the table. It looks pretty sweet.
DeleteVery nice work on the movement trays! Very handy to have for battles and for varying unit sizes and being able to pull off individual figures as needed, depending on games. Lots of cool minis, too.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
DeleteHa! I have to admit, I don't like the look of movement trays with empty spaces. Just a thing that irks me for some bizarre reason!? I only plan to use these for Apocalypse because the entire unit is there on the table, or it's gone. No empty spots from things being removed. I think Black Powder was like that...!?
You could create blank bases to sit in the hole for when a figure is removed. If you extra or broken minis you could create casualty figures to occupy the blanks.
DeleteI have actually thought of that, and probably will if I end up ever using them for a game where casualties are removed. Some of these were cut with a hole saw and I kept the cut-out bits for that exact purpose!
DeleteCheers!
These look really good, and I'm sure they'll speed games along nicely.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteThe way those bases pull your units together is almost magical. It's how I always imagined they should look.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cory!
DeleteI feel the urge to do more dioramic elements on future ones - these ones I kind of cranked out quickly - just to see if they'd work. I have to admit I took a lot of inspiration from Curt Campbell (http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com/) especially some of his Italian Wars units! (https://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com/2016/02/entry-15-to-ahpc-16th-century-gendarmes.html)
Great looking movement trays! Nice and organic!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks, Iain!
DeleteGreat work on these Tim...I have to say, my ideal movement tray is the one you don't see (which is weird, because I like to have models based in groups in other game systems, like "Black Powder"), but the hobby skill here is top-shelf. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Greg!
Delete