Star Wars Legion Landspeeder proxy

 o/ 

Once the leader of Rebel armies on the tabletop, this poor guy has been reduced to a mere taxi driver. 

Cutting a not-so-wide berth around the local wildlife. 

I sold my last landspeeder after a bit of an early rage-quit of the game about a year ago. This came after saying up front that I am really new to the game and being faced with a meta-optimized leaf blower list. Clubbing baby seals is not how you grow a gaming community. 

If the model above doesn't look too familiar, you can see the vehicle it is based off of here, between the Millenium Falcon and the X-Wing.

However, I have since found a small group of opponents who are fun to play with, which makes Legion much more appealing. Like 40K, SWL has its own 'that guy' population, which since the rage-quit game mentioned above, I have avoided. It just takes a bit to figure out who to play, and who not to. 

The rifle gunner adds a negligible amount of additional firepower, but she only costs 1 point, so why not?

There is some room alongside the astromech in the back in case I find a spare rocket launcher gunner at some point.

As such, I started looking around for a landspeeder replacement. At the time the speeder was/is? out of print, getting ready for the new box art, updated cards, more or less same sculpt and higher price tag (the GW tendencies of Legion is one of the issues I have with the game).  

What the hell? Lady, do you mind?!?

There were a few things I did not like about my old speeder too, the basing, I put a big, multi-frond fern directly under the speeder which made it barely visible. Also, the stencils didn't work out too well, being meant for airbrushing vs. a rattle can (or maybe just me with a rattle can...). 

A better view of the dashboard. 

This 3D printed Hoth hanger skiff came with the trailer which I have used as a terrain piece. The skiff with trailer, the base and shipping costs (from 2 different sellers) altogether were about $20. I picked up the old rebel specialists set for about $30 with shipping, with the old officer and astromech being added to the skiff as crew. The rifle gunner came out of one of my old sculpt rebel trooper squads. 

ol' Bluey may not look all that unhinged, but looks can be deceiving...

I'll just count the two forward guns as a Mk II medium blaster. Being more of a on-base taxi that a proper speeder, I figure I will only make compulsory moves with this, leaving the other two actions for aiming and shooting. The only additional movement may be coming out of the unhinged astromech shenanigans, though I am much more likely to use that for an extra round of shooting. 

Running the Empire into the ground.

Tuesday night I lead my Empire forces into yet another doomed battle. This time my Imperial army vs. Tom's Rebels which I have heard about but only faced now for this first time. Up to this point I have yet to beat Tom who is also new to the game, but also only plays Legion, and plays more regularly than I. That said, he is a blast to play with, and I thoroughly enjoy our games, regardless of my abysmal record. 

Here are a few highlights:

My army. Notably, the Scout on the tactical log was serving as an Imperial agent with his basic pistol only, and the Spaceballs would be Pykes as mentioned in my previous post. 

The only overall photo of the battlefield. My Storm Troopers, Scouts and Spaceballs have already suffered heavy casualties by this point. The speeder bikes were already dead because that is their job. Apparently.

*On the Record*, the Spaceballs are being blamed for the Empire's loss, as none were left alive to defend themselves. That's the points of mercenaries, isn't it? To purchase a fall guy?

One Scout was in combat with a squad of veterans, much to the annoyance of my Shoretrooper Mortar gunner. In the backfield, my Agent and his log had just charged and finished off the Veteran's support gunner (who was already wounded and suppressed into oblivion). Standing atop said log, he is looking for his next quarry.

As much as I loathe (and suck at) painting Shore Troopers, and despite their inability to actually move anywhere, these fuckers deserve to be painted. They used long shot to put three wounds on a very surprised Princess Leia (and Tom who thought she was safely out of range). Were it not for an excellent cover roll, she would likely have died. In the following turn, they gunned down two Taun-Taun riders who had yet to even be shot at!

Running amuck in the backfield, my Agent, despite having taken a few wounds himself, charges Leia reducing her to her last wound (were it not for her dodges he'd have killed her). Following this, she would withdraw from combat and...

...a heavily wounded and enraged Chewbacca ripped his arms out of their sockets. At this point the game was over. While my scouts as a whole were true to form and showed up and died, this guy should also be painted. 

*****

Following the game, I bought the Separatist starter box, chosen as it had the most appealing models of all four factions. The Rebel box has Wookies, the models for which I do not like, commandos who suck (but could just be used as regular Rebels), and Luke in the clothes he wore to get a medal, but never in combat. A curious choice. The empire box has an admittedly cool looking Vader mini, 2 squads of Stormtroopers, and 3 squads of Scouts who (again) always show up and just die. I suppose it is fluffy, but it's kinda boring,

I do not have any clones and honestly that army's only real appeal to me is the multiple generic Jedi options. It's really an army for all the folks who watched all of the animated Clone wars series (which I haven't). Most of their vehicles are kinda ugly too, also more Wookies. 

I didn't much care for the prequels, but I did like this army. Especially the hordes of comical and idiotic B1 Battle Droids. 

So, I opted for the endless horde of Roger Rogers which, as an old Iggy player appeals to me greatly. Including all support weapon options, I now have 58 B1 battle droids! I expect to have them all painted sometime around: never.  

TELL THEM TO COMB THE DESERT! DO YOU HEAR ME? COMB THE DESERT!

 

And...I did my best to show that on their bases.

I am using these as Pyke Syndicate mercs for Star Wars Legion. Obviously, they will only be fielded with my Empire army (the Rebels & droids wouldn't put up with these schmucks). I didn't have an officer model, so I painted one in officer's colors to use as a Capo. 

I got these on Etsy and cannot recommend the purchase. They were cheap and I got what I wanted out of it more or less (a proxy unit for the Pykes). However I bought 14 minis, all tossed in a baggy which was then wrapped in bubble wrap. By the time these crossed from Utah to South Carolina, 6 guys had broken guns and Dark Helmet's paper-thin helm was broken. 

My purchase also included what I presume was Micheal Winslow's radar operator character in a chair. I had no idea what I was going to do with that mini, but that concern was rendered moot once I realized that his arms lacked elbows. Excellent quality control. 

Like I said, they were cheap, and sometimes you get what you pay for. 

A glimpse of the olden days…

 o/

Ah, the good ol' days...

Despite the yellowed pages, it looks to be in good condition.

I spotted this half-buried relic at the FLGS and bought it for a mere $3 last night. I haven’t had the chance to look peruse its pages yet but am sure it will be a very nostalgic read. This one came out in 1989, so it predates my entry into the realm of 40K by 5 years!

The Grim-Dark equivalent of Fed-Ex?

 o/

The Mass Conveyer Mercogliano, somewhere in the Segmentum Solar.

I got this mini late last year from 0-hr.com as one of my random 'just for the hell of it' purchases. I liked the fact that it looked rather Battlefleet Gothic-esque. I also live in a port city and see container ships whenever I head towards downtown, so that made this all the more attractive. Indeed, I painted the containers in a random array of colors much like those we see on the container ships and at the ports. 

A bit too much purple paint blooped out of the container which is why the ship itself is trimmed in this color. Conveniently, it is also my favorite color. 

This originally came with 2 dorsal cranes, the centers of which are intact, though the booms were quite frail and I broke them with my sausage fingers. I did add some weapons because grim-dark. To the right and left of the bridge are point defense guns with an anti-starfighter missile launcher. The prow's dorsal point defense turret can rotate, though is doubtful its traverse speed could keep up with any actual fighters, bombers or boarding shuttles. 

Painting all of the containers in different colors was both fun and surprisingly easy.

All of those little decals however, not so much. Two containers on this side, towards the front actually have two decals apiece on them! You can see from the logos, that in addition to Imperial goods, there is a fair bit of Votann cargo onboard as well. 

Ventrally on the prow is its only capital class weapon, a lance. Comparable to the kind found on an Imperial Firestorm Frigate. Like the Firestorm, the limited range of traverse means you basically have to aim it with the ship. Unlike a Firestorm, this ship does not maneuver like a frigate. Hell, it probably makes battleships (which are comparable in size) look nimble. 

The flat bottom means that this may possibly be capable of landing on a planet, maybe...

The bottom is as colorful as the other sides. 

Thus, they are more like emotional support weapons than effective defenses. Take away the hab-block sized containers, and this ship is a seriously frail vessel; this would only ply the safest portions of the Imperium and yet would still need a heavy escort. This is a Brute Ramship's wet dream! One of those could easily punch straight through, scattering all 624 cargo containers out in all directions which, I would imagine, would amuse orks to no end.

Ironically, this now occupies a space in my display case right next to my two Ork Kroozers.