The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

- by Iain Wilson

A good collection of trees is handy for fleshing out your battlefields, but commercially-made trees made specifically for scale modeling can be expensive. I've shared a few different ideas in the past for making your own foliage, including using aquarium plants, expanding foam, and Christmas baubles covered in hot glue.

Over the years, one of the more common budget tree ideas I've come across is to use pine cones painted green. They have the advantage of being vaguely tree-shaped and inexpensive if you have pine trees nearby, but tend to wind up just looking like pine cones painted green. I thought I would see if I could come up with an easy and cheap way of improving on this idea a little, with this result:




To get started, I collected a bunch of pine cones in assorted sizes, preferably as close to fully opened up as possible.



I took an old, large paintbrush and painted the outside of each pine cone with a generous layer of PVA glue.



Then while the glue was still nice and wet, I dipped the cones in a tub of green flock, rolling them around to get the flock covering all of the glued areas.



I don't normally use sawdust flock for modeling, as for its primary use (for grassed areas) I don't like how it looks, although I have used a finer flock in the past for making hedges. But I had a big tub of this stuff that someone gave to me years ago, and this seemed like a good use for it.

The flocked pine cones:



To finish up, I gave the trees a light spray from above using Army Painter Army Green. This dulled down the bright green of the flock and gave it some depth. I then used hot glue to attach the trees to some circular plywood bases. At this point, they can be put on the table as single trees, placed on top of a shaped terrain piece to make a forest base, or fitted to a textured base board. For the latter, you can glue the trees directly to the base board instead of using the circles, or texture around the circles so that the trees are removable, making for easier storage or the ability to remove trees when they are in the way for model movement.



The end result, to be honest, still looks somewhat like pine cones painted green, although the illusion works a little better from above at normal playing height. For a little more work, you can also prune away the pieces from the base of the pine cone to create a trunk protruding from the bottom, like this:



Or, to get even further away from the pine cone look, you can use a slightly more liberal coat of glue and cover the whole thing in landscaping foliage, like this:





Once you have your forest of pine-scented doom, head on over to the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here, to pick up an army to run around in it!

What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. And while you're there, grab a copy of the Maelstrom's Edge V2 Beta rules!

Armed with some of the most powerful weapons in the Karist arsenal, Heavy Weapon troopers can be added to an existing Karist Trooper squad, or can form a Karist Trooper Heavy Squad capable of taking out even the most fearsome enemies.

Originally released in resin, Karist Heavy Troopers are now available to purchase as STL files for 3D printing.



The Heavy Weapon Trooper digital pack includes both a supported and unsupported set of files, with Cybel Lance, Ripper Heavy Grenade Launcher and Ravager Pulse Cannon options to equip your troopers.


The included parts.

In Maelstrom's Edge games, the Karist Heavy Troopers are fielded on 25mm bases, available here, and can accompany Karist Trooper squads or form Karist Trooper Heavy squads.


Resin production model and a 3D printed example, painted to a tabletop-ready standard - printed on an Anycubic Photon using Siraya Tech Fast resin at 50μm using Lychee slicer.

Printing results will vary depending on your printer, resin and settings.



Start building your secretive cult of digital doom by grabbing the Karist Heavy Troopers from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here - or if you would prefer the resin version, you can find it in the store here!

On the Maelstrom's Edge website, we have a huge (and ever-growing) collection of miniature and terrain related hobby articles, both specific to the Maelstrom's Edge game and general modeling tips, techniques and ideas that can be used for any of your gaming projects.




The 'Hobby Basics' section is aimed at beginners to the world of miniature modeling, and includes a series of articles covering some useful information on tools and techniques to get you started.



In the 'Tips & Techniques" section you will find articles on different modeling or painting techniques that can be applied to all sorts of different hobby projects.



The "Modeling Articles" section covers articles that take a closer look at the Maelstrom's Edge model range, or detail different modeling projects using Maelstrom's Edge models or kitbashes borrowed from other ranges of miniatures.



Iain's favourite, the "Terrain Building Articles" section contains a wide range of articles detailing different wargaming terrain projects. Many of these use the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues and found objects (storage containers, plumbing supplies, assorted bits of trash) or foamed PVC or foamcore sheets to create buildings and other structures for your gaming tables. There are also kitbashes of 3rd party terrain kits, scratchbuilding ideas for alien forests, and much more.



To get started building up your own little corner of the Maelstrom's Edge universe, you can pick up the entire Maelstrom's Edge range from the webstore here.

What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

Remember to also grab a copy of the Maelstrom's Edge V2 Beta rules so you can get into the action!

- by Iain Wilson

I've been fascinated for a while now by the various designs floating around for coffee tables and the like that 'float' with some clever cable design making it look like they have no actual support. In a moment of whimsy this week, I thought it might be fun to recreate this sort of design for the gaming table. And so... this happened:




The main part of the structure is made from various bits and pieces from the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues. The circular windows on the bottom of the platform have a piece of thin plasticard behind them with a hole drilled through the centre. This allowed me to feed some clear fishing line through the holes and glue it onto the back of the plasticard. Once everything was painted and assembled, this would (I hoped!) securely hold the fishing line in place.



The base for the piece was made from a sheet of 2mm foamed PVC and some 6mm foamcore, with a few more bits from the terrain sprues for the support piece. I drilled holes in the base piece matching up to the holes on the platform corners, and made an indent beside each hole on the bottom of the base. This would allow the fishing line, when glued in place, to sit in the indents leaving the bottom of the base nice and flat.



Everything needed to be painted before final assembly, to avoid getting paint on the fishing line - I wanted the line to remain as unobtrusive as possible.



I glued the fishing line into the window ports and glued those in place on the bottom of the platform, and then glued the central support line in place. The it was just a matter of pulling the corner lines through the base holes until everything was sitting square and secure, and gluing the ends of the lines in place on the bottom of the base. There was a bit of breath-holding when I turned it over, and much rejoicing when it turned out to work as intended!







It's a bit of an odd piece for gaming terrain, but sometimes it's fun to make something just to find out if you can!



To build your own generator platform of floating doom, you can pick up the terrain sprues along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the webstore here.

What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. And while you're there, grab a copy of the Maelstrom's Edge V2 Beta rules!

- by Iain Wilson

Fences can provide an interesting extra dimension to miniature battlefields, as they block movement without necessarily also blocking line of site. This can force some tactical decisions around model placement and movement around the table. In this week's article, I'm sharing a quick and easy way to make some fences for your table.




I came across these Lego-compatible fence pieces on AliExpress completely by accident, and thought they seemed ideal for gaming. They come as a pack of fence sections, and join together with separate clip pieces, and they're a nice, dark metallic grey colour. So for the really quick and easy version, you could just take these, clip a bunch of them together and plonk them on the table as-is and call the job a good-un.



I wanted to fit them in with my existing terrain a little better, though, so I grabbed a couple of Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues and set to work. I started by trimming up some reinforcing struts to about the same height as the fence panels by cutting off the top and bottom segments.



Then I took some 3mm foamed PVC and cut strips the same height as the struts, with about 4mm extra width either side - as a happy coincidence, this was the same width as two of the struts, so laying the struts side-by-side on the PVC served as a handy cutting guide.



I glued the struts in place on either side of the PVC strips to form reinforced fence posts, and then cut some shorter strips to serve as bases for the posts. The bottom segment removed from the struts, cut in half diagonally, made some perfect supports to strengthen the attachment between post and base.



With everything glued together, the clips for the fence pieces slot snugly onto the PVC and it all stands up nicely.



I made a bunch of posts, and for good measure cut one of the fence segments in half and attached some more reinforcing struts on the inner sections to make a two-part gate. The whole thing slots together and by twisting the holding clips can go around corners into whatever configuration is needed.



With a quick coat of rusty paint (Vallejo Beasty Brown spray with some splotchy spray of Tamiya Pure Orange and a light drybrush with Army Painter Fire Lizard) and some grey for the PVC parts (Army Painter Uniform Grey with a drybrush of white and some Vallejo Beasty Brown drybrushed into the creases) the fence is ready for the table!





To build your own fence of chainlinked doom, you can pick up the terrain sprues along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the webstore here.

What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. And while you're there, grab a copy of the Maelstrom's Edge V2 Beta rules!

Marsays are not naturally gifted fighters, nor are they a particularly good shot. With their long limbs, clumsy gait and large bulbous eyes, Marsays don't seem a threat. Disguised behind those eyes, however, is their remarkable ability to influence the mind of others.

The Marsayan Hypnotist is the second model from our resin range to make the transition to digital release for 3D printing.



The Marsayan Hypnotist digital pack includes a single piece Marsayan Hypnotist STL file, and a pre-supported version to make printing a little easier.


The included STL models.

In Maelstrom's Edge games, the Marsayan Hypnotist is fielded on a 25mm base, available here, and accompanies Broken Rabble, Assault and Fire Support units.


Table-ready resin production model and a 3D printed (and mirrored) example - printed on an Anycubic Photon using Siraya Tech Fast resin at 50μm using Lychee slicer.

Printing results will vary depending on your printer, resin and settings.



Get started with your rebel force of digital doom by grabbing the Marsayan Hypnotist from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here - or if you would prefer the resin version, you can find it in the store here!

- by Iain Wilson

This week, we're taking a look at the multi-part, poseable plastic kit for the Epirian Foundation's feared security bot.

Scarecrows are area patrol units, designed to provide security to various types of property ranging from industrial perimeters to agricultural and terraforming facilities. Equipped with an advanced suite of thermal and motion tracking sensors, the Scarecrow is designed to detect and deter any non-authorized biological or technological intrusion into its designated patrol area.




The Scarecrow kit is designed to build a couple of different variants of this farming-bot-turned-military-asset, which lets you field the regular Scarecrow Sniper in a Hammer slot, or the Command Array-equipped Command Scarecrow leading an all-bot force. These can be armed with a shoulder mounted railrifle, and either a clingfire sprayer or chemtek sprayer on one arm.



If you 'borrow' a second clingfire sprayer (leftover from building a chemtek variant, obviously!) you can also build the twin-flaming Subjugator variant that often accompanies Contractor Suppression Teams.



The best part of the Scarecrow kit is its extreme flexibility. With separate ankle, knee, elbow and shoulder joints, the Scarecrow is our most poseable kit, and being plastic is a fantastic base for adding alternate parts and mixing things up even further.



To build your own implacable robot of avian-frightening Doom, pick up the plastic Scarecrows in a pack of two from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore!





While you're there, you can download the Maelstrom's Edge V2 rules from the Trial Rules section of the website here. The Beta rules documents contain all of the rules for playing V2 games, but keep in mind that these are just 'preview' documents - some rules may be revised based on feedback, and the final layout including background material for the factions and the Maelstrom's Edge universe, artwork and other 'flavor' material is missing.

For other modeling ideas, tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

We've been working away on the second edition of the Maelstrom's Edge rules for quite some time now, and the plan had been for a release in the first half of this year. Unfortunately, this has become one more casualty of the ongoing disruption to planning, production and distribution that has been affecting so much of the hobby over the past couple of years. We want the V2 book to be as good as it can be, so while the delay is frustrating, we're confident that the end result will be worth the wait.


Sample pages from the V2 rulebook

The original rulebook was a small, softcover affair designed to fit into the Battle for Zycanthus boxed set that launched the Maelstrom's Edge game. With the game having grown into four (soon to be five!) factions, rather than putting together another all-in-one starter box locked into two factions, we will be releasing the rulebook separately, as both a 256-page hardcover book and a PDF for those who prefer the digital option. This will be joined by individual faction boxes including a number of plastic kits and tokens to get you started with your force.

The rulebook itself will build on what we started with the first one, including the updated rules for playing the game and a 'Maelstrom's Edge Universe' section describing the state of the galaxy at large and expanded sections for each faction including their backgrounds, various colour scheme ideas amd rules pages (replacing the V1 unit cards) for all of their available units.


Sample pages from the V2 rulebook

While you're waiting for the finished book (which we're hoping to have out in the next couple of months!) you can try out the Beta version of the V2 rules by downloading the PDF from here, and grab your models from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

You can also find a series of articles looking at different aspects of the V2 game here.

If you have any questions on the V2 rules, the model range, or any other aspect of the Maelstrom's Edge game, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.

- by Iain Wilson

With the release of the STL files for the Broken Gnolti last week, I found myself painting up another couple of these wee beasties, and along the way I found a quick and easy way to paint their horns that I thought was worth sharing. This would work for any model with ridged or otherwise rough-textured horns.

For this tutorial, I used Army Painter paints. You could substitute any similar acrylic colours for a similar result.




Start out with a white basecoat.



Add a coat of Skeleton Bone over the whole bone area.



Starting with one face of the horn at a time, paint on some Leather Brown, around half to two-thirds of the way down to the base of the horn, depending on how dark overall you want the final result to be.



While the Leather Brown is still wet, go back over with some more Skeleton Bone, blending the two colours together to create a gradient. This doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, as the final step will tie it all back together.



Repeat the above two steps for each face of the horns.



Finally, go over the whole thing with a light drybrush of white, or white mixed with a little bone.



The finished Gnolti, ready to rampage!





Paint up your own Behemoth of Horned Doom by grabbing the Gnolti from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore!

While you're there, you can download the Maelstrom's Edge V2 rules from the Trial Rules section of the website here. The Beta rules documents contain all of the rules for playing V2 games, but keep in mind that these are just 'preview' documents - some rules may be revised based on feedback, and the final layout including background material for the factions and the Maelstrom's Edge universe, artwork and other 'flavor' material is missing.

If you have any feedbacks on the new rules, our model range, or the tutorial above, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group and share your thoughts!

Amongst the ragtag forces of the Broken, the gigantic Gnolti strides imposingly across the battlefield, massive, energised shields blocking enemy fire as it clears a path for its more fragile Rabble brethren.

The resin Gnolti is one of our most popular resin kits. This month it makes the leap into the digital domain, with the release of an STL pack that you can use to print your own rampaging alien behemoth!



With 3D printing becoming ever more accessible as an option for producing table-top quality miniatures, it seemed like a good time to start offering some DIY options for digital hobbyists to add to their collections. As such, the Gnolti is the first of an ongoing release series, as we will be gradually working to make STL packs for all of our current resin models.


Table-ready resin production model and a 3D printed example - printed on an Anycubic Photon using Anycubic Grey resin at 50μm using Lychee slicer.

Printing results will vary depending on your printer, resin and settings.

The Gnolti digital pack includes the following:

• Single-piece Gnolti model, unsupported
• Single-piece Gnolti model, supported
• Split Gnolti model parts, matching the resin production version

Included STL components

In Maelstrom's Edge games, the Gnolti is fielded on a 54mm base, available here.

Get started with your rebel force of digital doom by grabbing the Gnolti digital file pack from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here!

- by Iain Wilson

My adventures with Army Painter Speedpaints continued this week, as I'm slowly piecing together a force from various miniatures to run as an Imperial Guard army in 2nd edition Warhammmer 40000. This week's addition was a plastic (and slightly converted) Karist Kaddar Nova!




This model uses mostly the standard Kaddar Nova parts, although I added in a right hand, glaive and pistol from the Faction Expansion sprue, as this chap will be fielded as an Inquisitor Lord armed with a force rod and hand flamer.

As per normal for Speedpaint work, I started with a white spray basecoat. The armour is Zealot Yellow, hung upside down to dry so that the paint would pool into upper recesses. For the skin, my initial tests with Crusader Skin straight over white were not what I wanted, so this time around I tried an experiment. Starting with a coat of Skeleton Bone, I applied a very light drybrush of Matt White and then the Crusader Skin, and was quite happy with the result. The eyes are a thin strip of white with some black dots in the middle, and then any mess around the edges cleaned up with some more Skeleton Bone and Crusader Skin.



Proper curing time is still something of a mystery with Speedpaint, and in certain conditions the paint can reactivate when painted over if it is not completely cured, so I have taken to applying a light coat of Anti-Shine varnish over the first, main colour and then applying any white touchups and subsequent Speedpaint colours over that, and this seems to do the trick.

I used Grim Black for the black parts on his tabard and arms, and Gravelord Grey for exposed metal parts. The grey gives a good metal stand-in without actually being metallic, and there's enough of a contrast between the grey and black for the two to wind up looking sufficiently different.



The blades on the glaive and the various glowy blue bits were painted with Highlord Blue with accents of Matt White, while the handle of the glaive is Hardened Leather.



The tabard is Blood Red, applied in two layers - one for the initial colour, and then after that dried, some additional red dabbed into the deeper creases for some extra shading. Then, with all of the colours in place, I added some highlights wherever seemed appropriate on the model with a little Matt White.

Finally, I painted the base with a coat of Dark Wood, drybrushing when it was dry with a little Skeleton Bone, and then added Matt Black around the rim.



So, that's one squad and a character down, and the rest of the force in progress.



Stay tuned for more!

To build your own Psychic Lord of Proxied Doom, pick up the plastic Kaddar Nova kit from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore!

While you're there, you can download the V2 rules from the Trial Rules section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. The Beta rules documents contain all of the rules for playing V2 games, but keep in mind that these are just 'preview' documents - some rules may be revised based on feedback, and the final layout including background material for the factions and the Maelstrom's Edge universe, artwork and other 'flavor' material is missing.

For other modeling ideas, tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

- by Iain Wilson

I've been having some fun experimenting with Army Painter's Speedpaints, to see what can be done with them. This week, I'd like to share this simple method that I stumbled upon for painting a camouflage pattern using just a trio of Speedpaints!




Step 1 - Basecoat the model with white spray.



Step 2 - Go over the camouflage area with a generous coat of Malignant Green.



Step 3 - While the Malignant Green is still wet, dab on dots of Camo Cloak. Make these dots about half the size you want them, as they will spread out. Try to mix up the spacing of the dots as you go, so they don't wind up forming a regular pattern. Doing this while the first green is still wet allows the second colour to spread organically, creating irregular, random shapes.



Step 4 - While those first two colours are still wet, go back over with slightly smaller dots of Dark Wood. This will spread across and through the other two colours, creating the layered camo effect.



Step 5 - Let it all dry. It can help if you can lay the camouflage surface as flat as possible, to avoid the wet colours from running downwards.

The completed model - the rest of the model was also painted with Speedpaint, mostly Camo Cloak, Dark Wood and Grim Black.





To have a go yourself, pick up the plastic Broken Sniper kit from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore!

While you're there, you can download the V2 rules from the Trial Rules section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. The Beta rules documents contain all of the rules for playing V2 games, but keep in mind that these are just 'preview' documents - some rules may be revised based on feedback, and the final layout including background material for the factions and the Maelstrom's Edge universe, artwork and other 'flavor' material is missing.

For other modeling ideas, tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

To play a game of Maelstrom's Edge, each player needs to select a force from one of the game's factions. The number of models in the force depends on the points limit selected for the game, and can vary between factions. A Remnant fire team, for example, might contain as few as five or six specialised battlesuits, facing off against a Broken horde of between 40 and 60 models. Let's take a brief look at what is involved in setting up a force.



In the V2 rulebook*, each unit available to a force has a Unit Page, which includes the unit's composition, equipment and special rules. This page also contain all the information you need to select your force for a game, like the unit's points cost and unit type.

*The unit pages from the rulebook are also available in a free PDF download on the Maelstrom's Edge website, which will also include any future units as they are released.



Games are typically played using a points limit that is agreed upon between both sides before forces are selected. You are always free to field a force whose point total is less than or equal to the agreed upon limit, but never one that exceeds it, not even by a single point! Any units included in a force must be noted on a force roster, detailing the point total of each unit chosen and including any options selected for that unit.

If you’re unsure about what points limit to use for your games, the following guidelines can help you decide. However, you should also feel free to experiment playing games with both higher or lower points limits than those suggested:

90 Points: This is a small, quick game that will typically last around 90 minutes to 2 hours once both players are familiar with the rules.

120 Points: This is the suggested points limit to provide players with ample decisions when selecting their forces, while not taking too long to complete. This size game will typically last around 2-3 hours.

(For those coming from the first edition of the Maelstrom's Edge rules, these suggested limits are lower than they were for V1, as many unit costs have been decreased in the new rules. The size of the forces for a 120 point V2 game will in most cases be fairly close to what it was for the 150 point standard in V1.)



Your force is selected as one or more detachments, led by a Command model. Some units types are optional while others are mandatory, with a minimum number of those units you must select. For example, most commanders require you to take at least one Core unit selection in your force, while also allowing you the choice of a number of Vanguard, Hammer or Anvil units. Once you have satisfied any mandatory unit requirements, you can select other units up to the maximum allowed by that commander (or to the points limit for the game) or take another commander for a new detachment, following the same selection process.


A 120 point Epirian Force

To get you started, we've created some sample rosters for different forces, which can be found on the website here!

You can try out the Beta version of the V2 rules by downloading the PDF from here, and grab your models from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

If you have any questions on force selection, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.

Remnant Lorican Armor is a marvel of engineering in its own right. Over time, Champions will customize their suits to boost their combat ability even further. This month's release is a new plastic sprue with a range of upgrade options!



This sprue has components to represent various upgrades on your suits, including three each of the following:

• Prime/Pathfinder Array
• Defensive Countermeasures
• Enhanced Targeter
• Target Tracker
• Mark Of the Initiate badge
• Prime Sigil
• Veteran Prime Sigil

These parts are designed to fit on any of the Remnant suits, where relevant to their unit rules.



Grab the sprue from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here!

On the battlefields of the Edge, troops fight with a wide array of different weapons. In Maelstrom's Edge V2, we've changed the way shooting works to streamline the process, and to give your units some more tactical choices during your games. Read on for details!



Shooting in Maelstrom's Edge is, rather unsurprisingly, intended primarily to destroy enemy units, but there are now some other useful tricks available to you.

During their activation, a unit can choose a 'Fire' action, which lets them make a regular attack with their ranged weapons. After selecting a target and checking line of sight and range (see the previous article on Line of Sight here!), each model rolls a number of dice equal to the SHO (Shots) characteristic of their weapon, aiming to equal or exceed the EVS (Evasion) characteristic of the target. Dice rolling a 6 are 'Critical Hits' and can confer some additional bonuses on the shot.

Models can then use their SKL (Skill) characteristic to modify these rolls, with each point of SKL allowing a die score to be increased by 1.

Here's an example:

Danielle’s unit of Spider Drones is performing a Fire action and she has nominated Matt’s unit of Karist Troopers as their target. Danielle first checks that the Troopers are within line of sight of her squad leader (the Apprentice Handler) and that they are only 15” away, well within the standard 18” range of her Drone Class Machine Guns and the 24” range of her Apprentice Handler’s Maglock Dominator Pistol.

Drone Class Machine Guns are SHO 2, and therefore she will roll 2 dice to hit for each model in her unit, 8 (white) dice in total. Whereas the Maglock Dominator Pistol is only SHO 1, and therefore only adds 1 more (red) die. The targeted Troopers have EVS 4, which means she must roll 4+ to score hits. For the 8 Machine Gun shots she rolls: ‘1’, ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘5’ and ‘6’ and for the Dominator Pistol, she rolls a ‘6’. So 3 hits for the Machine Guns and 1 for the Dominator Pistol. However, Spider Drones have SKL 2, which means Danielle has 2 dice flips available to her. She decides the best way to utilize them in this situation is to flip the two rolls of ‘3’ up to ‘4’s, thereby giving her a new total of 5 Machine Gun hits.



The target unit will then roll to defend against the incoming fire, rolling the successful hits and attempting to equal or exceed the PEN (Penetration) value of the shot. In a similar fashion to the attack rolls, the defender can use their unit's AV (Armor Value) to modify these rolls.

Any hits that are not successfully blocked result in a casualty. The unit will also gain suppression, going up one level due to being hit by enemy fire, and another if they suffered any casualties. (For more detail on suppression, check out the article here.)

Suppressive Fire

In Maelstrom's Edge V2, suppression has a major effect on how units function, as it impacts their ability to attack enemies, and also how well they can utilise cover. Players can capitalise on this by weakening strong or heavily fortified units by chipping away at them with multiple attacks and slowly adding suppression levels, but we wanted to give players a way to use this more effectively.

As a result, instead of making a regular shooting attack, a player can elect to have their unit make a 'Suppressive Fire' action. This works differently to a regular attack. Instead of using the weapon's SHO value and the unit's SKL, each model in the firing unit rolls a die in an attempt to equal or beat the SUP (Suppression) characteristic of their weapon. For each successful roll, the target must make a WP (Willpower) test. They will gain a suppression level automatically for being the target of suppressive fire, and another level for each failed WP test.

In this way, a shrewd attacker can potentially force a large amount of suppression onto a unit in a single action.



A note on weapon ranges on Maelstrom's Edge: Weapons have a listed RNG (Range) characteristic, which defines the maximum effective range of that weapon. Projectiles don't tend to just stop at an arbitrary range, however, and in general actual maximum weapon ranges would in most cases fall way outside the dimensions of a gaming table. As such, most weapons can be fire past their listed RNG, with this being considered a long range shot. Models making long range shots are Wild Firing, which means they count the target as having EVS 6.



Check out the Beta version of the V2 rules, which you can download from the Trial Rules section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. The Beta rules documents contain all of the rules for playing V2 games, but keep in mind that these are just 'preview' documents - some rules may be revised based on feedback, and the final layout including background material for the factions and the Maelstrom's Edge universe, artwork and other 'flavor' material is missing.

If you have any thoughts on the new rules, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group, or start up a thread in the Maelstrom's Edge section on the Dakka Dakka forums. We welcome any feedback, and would love to hear how everyone's forces stack up in the new rules!