The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

Entries tagged [army]

Army Spotlight: Marten's 90 point Karists


Posted on Tuesday Feb 14, 2023 at 05:00pm in The Karist Enclave


The armoured troops of the Karist Enclave exist to provide a gloved fist for those situations where skilled oratory and social destabilization prove insufficient. This week, we're taking a look at a small Karist force put together for V1 by Marten, one of the members of our Maelstrom's Edge development team.




About his force, Marten says: "This is my 90pt Karist force. It's fairly small, which I find convenient for trying out new rules at first. I'm a fan of 'regular guys' in my forces. Hence there is no mature Angel, but two full sized squads of troopers, four Tempest Elites carrying the force's big guns and two Praetorians because they're cool. A Shadow Walker and a full complement of Minnows make up the fast element of the force, led by a Kaddar Nova.

The colour scheme was inspired by the painted examples on the Maelstrom's Edge kickstarter of 2015, combined with then new-to-me Warcolours paints which had a nice 5 tone 'blue grey' set.


The Kaddar Nova overlooks his force, accompanied by his Praetorian escort.



Karist Troopers, including a Heavy Trooper equipped with a devastating Cybel Lance.



The second unit of Troopers, with a Ripper Heavy Grenade Launcher, and the deadly, teleporting Shadow Walker.



Tempest Elites are implacable fire support for Karist forces.



Though comparatively small, Minnows are no less ferocious than older Angels.




To get started on your own army of over-zealous doom, pick up the Karist models, or any of the rest of the 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!

Army Spotlight: Marten's 90 point Epirians


Posted on Wednesday Dec 14, 2022 at 05:00pm in Models


Epirian forces cut a distinctive figure on the table, with their militia forces backed up by a range of specialised robot troops. This week, we're sharing a look at a small Epirian force put together a while back by Marten, one of the members of our Maelstrom's Edge development team.




Built to fit on the table in 90 points for the V1 rules, Marten's force leans heavily into the various bot options. Contractors are all well and good, but accompanying them with chaingun-equipped support bots is even better!


Contractors wisely ensconced in cover.


Fireflies are comparatively fragile compared to most other Epirian bots, but are superb when you need to get some firepower across the battlefield in a hurry.


A Journeyman Bot Handler directs his Firefly cohort onto the battlefield.


Spider Drones are handy for decimating enemy troops, coming equipped with twin machine guns or flakk guns, and also excel at digging into cover to avoid enemy fire.


A unit of Spider Drones with their Apprentice Handler move up the centre under the watchful targeting lens of a Scarecrow bot.


A Scarecrow Sniper is a much more fearsome presence than its gangly frame might imply, capable of pummeling the toughest enemies at range with its shoulder mounted Maglock Railgun, or repelling closer foes with clingfire or chemical spray.


A second Scarecrow Sniper stands overwatch at the rear of the deployment.




To get started on your own army of robotic doom you can pick up these models, or any of the rest of the Epirian 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!

Modeling Spotlight: 120-point Epirian SecDef Force


Posted on Monday Jul 16, 2018 at 05:00pm in Models


- by Iain Wilson

With this week's article, I'm continuing the SecDef love because, well, they're awesome!

As nice as it is to include some elite supertroops in amongst the Epirian bots and contractors, I thought it would be fun to build an entire SecDef force. Obviously, with only a single Hammer option currently in the official rules, this required a bit of creativity, but two mocked-up new unit cards and a bunch of sprues later, my first 120 points were assembled and ready for painting.



To build even a bare-bones force within the army selection rules for Maelstrom's Edge, a Command unit is required. While there will no-doubt be a SecDef officer option released down the track, I'm far too impatient to wait for that, so I ran up an unofficial unit card for a lower-level officer, a Lieutenant, to command smaller SecDef strike forces. The aim was to create a commander on about the same level as the Journeyman Bot Handler, and one that could be built from existing parts with minimal conversion required. So I took a bare bones SecDef trooper built from the sprue, on the assumption that SecDef field officers would likely look little different to their troops, and just swapped his rifle for a pair of pistols taken from the Contractor sprue.



To allow for a viable force, the Lieutenant has the 'SecDef Commander' rule, which allows him to take up to two SecDef Tactical Teams as Core choices instead of in their usual Hammer slots. In the interests of fielding as many big guns as possible (because the SecDef heavy weapons look cool) I choose to give each of the Core teams two LM14 Machine Guns, and added two extra warm bodies to each to bring them up to full strength.





The models throughout the force are assembled largely straight off the sprue with minimal conversion. I switched around some of the leg pairs (as explained in last week's Modeling Spotlight) and changed around the left hands on the unit Sergeants to add some variety to their poses without having them all holding their rifles twp-handed like their troops, to help them stand out a little.

With the two available Core options filled, I decided to include a sniper unit in the Hammer slot (because why wouldn't you?). To keep them extra sneaky and to stay within my chosen 120 points, I went with the base unit of three, and gave the two troopers each a sniper rifle.



There was clearly not enough firepower on the table here yet, which called for some Chainguns! Rather than fill up my last remaining Hammer slot for the detachment, I made use of the Tactical Team rule that causes teams equipped with two CG100 Chainguns to become Anvil selections, and built up two five-man units accordingly.





To round out the detachment, I liked the idea of a SecDef force having access to a light vehicle that would serve as an advance scout, and potentially as a beacon to guide in teams arriving by Aerial Insertion. After some searching online, I found the Heron Light Battlewalker, a resin kit from Hexy-Shop. This is a small walker with an enclosed cockpit but a detailed interior, which allowed me to cut away the roof and part of the sides to create an open cockpit.



I replaced the Heron's original weapons with a pair of CG100 Chainguns glued together side-by-side, and added a driver by cutting up a pair of SecDef legs, re-assembling them in place in the seat and then filling in the resulting gaps with 'green stuff' putty.



There were no controls in the Heron's cockpit other than a screen down between the driver's feet, so I added a control loom made from a leftover resin piece and the pistol grip from a SecDef assault rifle. I also added some roll bars on the sides of the cockpit (these pieces normally go on the platform on the rear of the Heron), but these are only sticky-tacked in place so I can take them off for painting - this should make it easier to get into the nooks and crannies in the cockpit.



The final touch was to shorten the legs slightly, as the Heron turned out to be a bit taller than I had expected and wanted it to be. This was done by cutting out the lowest section of the legs and reattaching the legs to the ankle ball-joint.



All up, with an 11-point Lieutenant and 12-point walker, the above force comes in at 119 points - perfect for getting started, and ready to be taken as a detachment in a larger Epirian force or fleshed out later if and when more SecDef units are added to the roster. If you would like to build something similar, you can find the unit cards for the Lieutenant and the walker in the Force Builder section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

Next week - Painting!



To start assembling your own SecDef force, you can pick up the Secdef sprue, or any of the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range, from the webstore here.

As always, feel free to pop along and share your work, or ask any Maelstrom's Edge- or hobby-related questions on the Comm Guild Facebook page!

For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the article roundup here.