The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

This morning on the Maelstrom's Edge: Comm Guild facebook community group, Christopher Wailes‎ posted these fantastic dig site objectives. We wanted to share them widely, immediately as they are really good!

We've previously covered the aquisition of resources with interstellar hydrogen harvesting and mining ships, but those raw resources need to go somewhere! Refining such a large volume of material can be done at any scale, but the largest and most stable fleets of craft have dedicated ships for the purpose.

The refinery ship is a very energy intensive craft, capable of processing extreme volumes of materials. Traditionally, they were used to maximise delivery speeds when moving materials from one world to another, but post-Maelstrom, they are used by the richest and most powerful groups as part of their great nation fleets. Most commonly seen amongst Epirian franchise HQ fleets, refinery ships grant almost unlimited range within the galaxy, and therefore represent that most precious commodity - long term safety.

- by Iain Wilson

The new Faction Expansion Sprue saw the addition of new units to the game for both the Karist and Epirian factions, with extra components to add to the original plastic kits. This seemed like a great chance to expore the versatility of these kits, by looking at different ways to build the new units.


We've already had a look at the Epirian Suppression Team, so this time around I'm having a play with the Karist Praetorians. These veteran warriors are immediately recognisable with their massive Cybel Glaives, or the smaller but deadly Cybel Blade.



The sprue comes with an open hand for holding the Cybel Glaive in a single-handed grip. For the other arm, you can use the arm with clenched fist from the Karist trooper sprue, or the pointing arm from the Expansion sprue, as in the studio images above and below.



With a little cutting and gluing, though, you can use the rifle support hand from the Epirian Contractor sprue on one of the Karist left arms to create a two-handed grip like this:



The left hand will look slightly different to the right, as the Karists have a flat plate on the backs of their gloves which the Epirian hand will lack, but painted up like the other glove it won't be particularly noticable.

Both the Cybel Glaive and the Cyble Blade can be glued to the models' backs, to leave hands free for ranged weapons.



For Cybel Blade-equipped models, you can use the clenched fists which can be found on the Karist Trooper sprue or the Expansion Sprue to hold the sword, by cutting the hand grip off the sword and gluing to the top of the fist, and gluing the bottom of the hand grip to the bottom of the fist. You need to trim off a little of the grip to correspond to the part that would be in the model's hand, otherwise you wind up with a very long handle. You may find it sits better if you sand or file down the top of the fist a little to make sure you have a flat surface to glue the sword onto.



You can achieve some slightly more dynamic posing and make your Praetorians stand out a little more from regular Troopers by using Shadow Walker legs, as below:



It's possible to equip a Praetorian with both a rifle (including a Ripper Grenade Launcher or Radwave Emitter) and a Cybel Blade. If you would like to avoid having to sling one of the weapons on the model's back, you can always combine them both into a single pole-arm:



This was made by cutting away part of the fore-grip on the grenade launcher, trimming the handle off a Cybel Blade and gluing it in place. I then sliced off the back of the grenade launcher directly behind the drum magazine, and attached the shaft of a Cybel Glaive.

For an alternate take on the iconic Cybel Glaive, I tried going the other way and removing the shaft. The blades were attached to the model's forearms, and the power unit glued onto the model's back:



There are plenty of other possibilities for personalising your units from this sprue, or for creating new unit options for your own home-brew rules, like this model armed with a Cybel Halberd, made by flipping the Glaive's blade upside down, and Energy Shield taken from a Kaddar Nova's backpack:



...or this Angel Keeper, built from Kaddar Nova legs, a Shadow Walker torso, Karist Trooper arms and the shaft of a Cybel Glaive, with a mask made by trimming down a Kaddar Nova's crown.



(We'll be looking at Angel Keepers in a little more depth, and sharing a tutorial for building your own, in an upcoming article very soon...)

And finally, if overkill is your thing, here's a Kaddar Nova who clearly favours getting in close and personal with his enemies:






Why not have a try and see what you can come up with yourself? You can pick up the Faction Expansion Sprue in a handy 3-pack in the Maelstrom's Edge Online Store here.

You'll also need the Karist Trooper Sprue (here) for the standard Praetorian builds, or the Shadow Walker (here) or Kaddar Nova (here) sprues for the more adventurous conversions.

Feel free to share your creations on the Comm Guild Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/MaelstromsEdge) - We would love to see what you do with your Praetorian units!

Time for us to share our first teaser from The Broken faction.

The Broken consist of 'everybody else' in the universe who is desperately trying to flee. Their weapons are often jury rigged and consist of all manner of interesting base parts. This first preview is of the Harpoon that can be used as a special weapon:

The story 'Scraps', coming in next week's book release (Tales from The Edge: Emergence) features the use of an EMP boosted Harpoon in the hands of The Broken. Be sure to check it out when it is released!

Across our range of fiction, there have been a number of foodstuffs unique to the Maelstrom's Edge universe noted. We'll highlight some of them here so that anyone who wants to make some labels on terrain, their own fiction, or their own vending machines have some canon options!

• Betelbark - Traded spice.
  
• Carnglen - Good brand of whisky, Epirian/general worlds.
  
• Fungal Root - Karist food onboard an Ark, has a 'tang'.
  
• Kulquat Fruit - Egg shaped fruit known to Phelon IV residents with inward-growing pips on its skin.
  
• Pareto - Coffee like drink, caffeine source.
  
• Ragleaf - Tobacco like plant, smoked and chewed.
  
• Spinifex - Grass like plant (chewed, not eaten). Mild relaxant.
  

A hearty handshake to the first person to make a Pareto dispenser in scale!

This week's photo is of a nice, light blue colourscheme for the Epirians. A lot brighter and less military drab than most of our other palettes, this scheme uses a classic blue/orange colour combo to good effect. The model has also been assembled with stuff underfoot, changing the default pose of the Epirian Contractor.

We don't have any robots painted up in this colourscheme yet, but would love to see some if anyone out there wants to have a go!

Today we share some nice buildings made by Alex and his son over at Lead Balloony

These nice, simple buildings make great use of the computer terminals and small doors, along with some additional decorative elements on the other faces of the buildings. All affixed to some olive pots of all things!

Today we thought we'd share a nice, independent review of our game from Wayland Games' reviewer Roderick Brown.

He took the time to really get to know the game and models, built and painted both factions and played the game to a good degree as well. The final conclusion of his series of articles can be found here

There are three additional articles to check out as well:
Unboxing Battle for Zycanthus
To War (this is the article with the most painted models visible)
Mustering the Troops

Our thanks to Roderick for such a comprehensive review!

Karists often have to get as close to a world as possible without being seen to allow their forces to build up free from the view of those in power. A fleet of spacecraft is easily seen from across a system so is not the ideal way for an insurrection to establish itself on a world. Instead, the Karists use huge, natural asteroids, hollowing them out and installing a spaceship inside. These are known as Karist Arks. Small points are fitted to the exterior to allow cybel shielding, enabling transit of the cybel network, though arks will always try to leave the network before the final gate, spending months and even years travelling silently through deep space to get to their target unseen.

The image above shows the interior of one such Karist Ark, with a commune ceremony occurring as some of the populace go about their daily lives. The blend of natural and organic architecture gives Karist Arks a much more human feel than most other spacecraft, though this benefit is tapered by it being frequently dim and dark due to the requirements of low energy usage and low energy wastage over long periods of secretive travel towards a destination.

- by Iain Wilson

The new Faction Expansion Sprue saw the addition of new units to the game for both the Karist and Epirian factions, with additional components to add to the original plastic kits. This seemed like a great opportunity to expore the versatility of these kits, by looking at different ways to build the new units.

So to kick things off, we'll be looking at the Epirian Suppression Team. These doughty warriors take the field armed with the standard Epirian Maglock weapons, but also have the option to replace either pistol or rifle with a Shock Baton or Shock Maul.



The studio models shown above were assembled with the Shock weapons slung on the models' backs, which is the easiest and quickest way to assemble them, particularly if you want to arm them with their rifles. This is simply a matter of gluing the Baton or Maul straight to the Contractors' back plates. We would assume that they're held there with a magnetic latch system, or some similar thing.



An easy alternative is to use one of the Contractor rifle arms to hold the Shock weapon. Several of the rifle arms have the trigger finger fairly close to the other fingers, and so they don't look too out of place holding the Shock weapon handle. You can also gently bend the trigger finger in to reduce the gap even further (The Shock Baton does have a chunkier grip than the Maul, so if you're having trouble getting it to fit, you can shave down the sides of the grip a little).



You can slice the arms at the wrist and/or just under the rolled sleeves on the upper arm and reposition to give some more interesting poses. On the Maul-equipped model below, the right arm has been swivelled just under the rolled sleeve to move the hand outwards from the body, and on the other model one of the rifle support arms has been used with the hand rolled at the wrist to give him an 'at-rest' pose with the baton resting on the ground.



You can also use the open Karist hand on the Expansion sprue to replace one of the rifle hands. On the model below, I've used that hand for the Shock Baton, and swapped the pointing hand off the Karist arm on the sprue onto one of the Epirian rifle arms. The end result is a model wearing Karist gloves, but with the Epirian arms they still look quite distinct from the Karist models.



The team members' ranged weapons can be dealt with several different ways. For models equipped with pistols, you can use the pistols and weapon arms from the Contractor sprue, of course. However, if you've used the right arm for the Shock weapon, an easy alternative is to glue the pistol onto the model's belt, or to use the legs from the Bot Handler sprue and hang the pistol off the strapped pouch on the thigh. For either of these, it's a good idea to cut off the revolver drum on the side of the pistol that will attach to the model, to allow it to sit more flush against the leg.



For rifle-equipped models, you can reverse the idea from the studio models, and mag-lock the rifle to the model's back. Or you can use the rifle support arms to balance the rifle against the model's hip, as below.



With the rifle safely stowed on the model's back, you can use the rifle arms to create a two-handed grip on the Shock weapons, as below. Depending on the specific arm pairing you go for, a little wrist-repositioning can be necessary to get these sitting just right.



For a slightly more out-of-the-box alternative, the below model was assembled using the arms from the Bot Handler sprue, instead of Contractor arms. For the Shock Baton, I cut off the Handler's underslung grenade launcher, chopped the heatsink part off the back of the Baton, and glued it in place running along the forearm. This can be positioned pointing forwards for an 'Active' pose, or reversed for a 'Standby' or 'At-Rest' pose.



You can pick up the Faction Expansion Sprue in the Maelstrom's Edge Online Store here.

You'll also need the Epirian Contractor Sprue (here) or for the arm-mounted conversion, the Bot Handler Sprue (here)

As you can see, there are a lot of possibilities with these models, thanks to the ease of assembly and conversion with the plastic models. I've only just scratched the surface with the builds shown here. Feel free to share what you come up with on the Comm Guild Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/MaelstromsEdge) - it's always great to see how others put their own spin on the model range!

Next up, I'll be taking a look at the Cybel Glaive-equipped Karist Praetorians. Stay tuned!

Last week we showed the Epirian Master Handler for the first time. This week, we'll share a few more snippets of information about the model.

The master handler has been sculpted, but is still quite a while away from production as it will be in a plastic tool with some other models that are still in development. As such, everything is subject to change until the metal is cut and the rules cards printed.

The model can be equipped with a claw arm, or two drone-type weapons, along with sensor array and missile pod options. We are playtesting rules for it at the moment. The arms can be posed dynamically, with the robotic arm elements having two ball joints and one flat joint, allowing a huge range of motion in the arm/weapon direction, while maintaining the cool, heavy look of the model.

The Epirians do everything they can to reward risky endeavours. Anyone who can find a valuable world or mining resource towards the fringes of the galaxy is rewarded with a share of the wealth for as long as things are harvested. As a result of this long standing policy, large numbers of Epirian Prospectors have existed for generations.

Individuals as tough as nails, from human to alien, anyone with enough grit and the willingness to risk it all in deep space can register as a prospector and head to the rim of the galaxy, far beyond the reach of the cybel network.

Isolation, alien attack, system failures and simple betrayal cause the number of failed prospectors to vastly surpass the few successes, but with the winners purchasing entire systems with their newfound wealth, the call to the unknown is loud.

These dark blue-grey Karists are one of our studio army colourschemes, so we'll have a fair few units to show in this scheme over time. The muted colour palette along with the great spot colours on the weapons and contrasting red on the faceplate immediately made this one of our favourites. The only points against it are that the dark scheme requires a lot of light to photograph well, so in full scale battle shots it can be quite challenging to capture! We usually have these guys with us at Salute if you ever want to see them in the flesh though!

After last week's in depth walkthrough of the terrain sprue, we thought we'd take things back a notch and just share a nice simple image of a storage container built using components from the sprue along with a tiny bit of filler card.

Simple, and effective battlefield terrain with minimal effort.

For our third week of converted Angel images in a row, here's a great lunging Angel from Dakka user SexierThanYou13

There's also a great Kaddar Nova that has massive presence when mounted on some cork

Along with some nicely posed Scarecrows

The Comm Guild's community spotlight focuses on sharing something from the Maelstrom's Edge community each week, if you have anything you'd like to get in to the queue, please get in touch with us via the Maelstrom's Edge website