USARF "Speed Painting", Part 3

Considering my pace of painting the miniatures is far from fast I should change the name of these articles, but I am committed to consistency! This "third step" was not part of my initial plan, it came out of necessity to get some of my USARF models done to the very basic tournament standard to look decent on the table from distance. 

I was very undecided what to do with the bases. First I wanted to make them match my Caledonia so I could use them all as a vanilla force and they would have the same bases, but then decided to go with a very simple desert bases instead. Mainly because I didn't have much time to paint them before the Northern Open 8. I will be adding some more terrain to the bases so they are less flat but I am happy with the colour, I think it goes well with the green.

Which is another thing I am undecided on. I still haven't figured out how to break apart the green, it feels like it is too much. After I am done with all the other colours, I think I will do some subtle camouflage on trousers and perhaps other cloth too, just so the only flat green are armour panels.  Though I will admit that when I played with them it didn't look as bad, that they are all mainly green.

As you can see from the photos, the miniatures are still very much work in progress and in the pre-washes stage. I would like to get all the base colours done before doing the washes for shadows and then highlights. That should very much improve on how the minis will look. I only had time to do some of the other colours, like metallic silver and flesh, which is why you don't see many browns or grey yet, and why everyone's hair are still green.

Before the tournament I have also picked up a new unit to proxy for Traktor Muls as I wanted something different for my USARF. These models are from Anvil Industry game Afterlife, they are called Unity Council Bastion Support Platforms. Their website sells them with more weapon options but I bought them on a wargaming show and they only had the missile launchers. I have also found on their website unit called Republic Taurus Gun Tractors Mk.II, which looks closer to the Traktor Muls so I might get those instead later. 

Army List Tactica 5: USARF Grunt Horde

This was the army that I have used in Norther Open 8. I ended up 9th out of 22 people with this army but as you can read in my NO8 report, I think it was mostly due to not using the army correctly. There is room for improvement (as always) but I am happy with this army overall.

To open this list in Infinity Army, click here.

Overview

As the name would imply the biggest focus of this list are good old Grunts. They stand out above all other Line (Garrison) Troops of Availability Total (unlimited) because of their Armour 3 and Shock Immunity which makes them one of the most, if not the most, survivable units in the game in terms of value for points. The basic Grunt with Rifle is only 10 points! With that in mind, and because I ended up with lots of Grunt models, I wanted to make a list based around them.

This list has total of nine Grunts, six of which can form a Fireteam and three are Inferior Infiltrators with Heavy Flamers. The overall idea behind the list is to maximize the number of Orders with cheap yet effective units, and use Specialist troops to accomplish objectives. I did made this list for Objective based ITS missions and have no experience yet using it in killing missions. There are eight Specialists in total, though in effect only five of them I think of as units go for the objectives 

Units

The Unknown Ranger - Personally I really like the Ranger for his versatility and Chain of Command (CoC). I think of him as one of the main attack units and Specialists but if I am perfectly honest I have not come across many situations where his extra skills were needed to justify the high cost, which could be my fault for not using him correctly. CoC is the main reason I like taking him.

Grunts - As I already mentioned, these guys are the backbone of the list. I went with three special weapons, two Lt options and a Paramedic. The main idea behind them is to be a strong defensive Fireteam. With two Sniper Rifles and a HMG you have enough long range weapons to cover large parts of the boards. I went for two Lt options because I didn't want to make it easy for my opponent to guess who the Lt is, the Light Grenade Launcher was mainly chosen because I had the points. The Paramedic is there to give me a backup Specialist and to try heal unconscious units if the 112 Doctor can't. I also went with six Grunts so I can make Fireteam of five if one dies. I liked the idea of two Snipers because I thought sometime I could deploy the second one separately and make use of the Marksmanship X which is not as useful in a Fireteam because it makes your Sniper Rifle Burst 1.

Grunt Infiltrators -These guys are one of the main reasons why I love playing USARF. They are not very reliable to pass their Inferior Infiltration roll (you need 8 or less) but that is why I have three, on average at least one does make it. For only 11pts and 0.5 SWC these guys are really good at harassing enemy units close to their deployment zone, or just lie in waiting somewhere near objectives. Heavy Flamers can be quite deadly, Damage 14 and large template, not even Heavy Infantry wants to be hit by those because they can burn to death with one hit.

Marauders - This is another unit I find really good value for points. As a Specialist with WIP 13 and Forward Deployment they can start closer to objectives and are good at taking them. Then you have a Rifle to put them on Suppressive Fire and with ARM 3 and Courage (thanks to Dogged) they do have good survivability to hold the line. On top of that you get Stealth and Heavy Flamer. Which allows you to sneak up on enemy units. Dogged is also good option to have if you need them to stay alive until end of a turn. Their downside is being slow so not the best option to advance across the board.

WarCor - I firmly believe a WarCor should be every possible list and it is the best 3pts you can spend. He is amazing at harassing the enemy units with Flash Pulse and with Aerocam (gives him 360 line of sight) he does make a good ARO piece against enemy AD troops and flankers to warn your other units. The only downside is that he is Irregular and USARF does not have a way of making him Regular.

Foxtrots - These guys are very standard Infiltrating Specialists with Camouflage. None of their skills or equipment sets them apart much but for 18 points they are cheap and do exactly what you need them to do. One thing I tend to forget is that they do come with mines so they can help with defending objectives or just make it harder for your opponent to move around the board. I like to combo them with another unit (like the Ranger or Marauders) to protect objectives as the Foxtrots can also go on Suppressive Fire.

Dozer and Traktor Muls - As my mate James likes to put it, for 24pts you get three Regular Orders and a Specialist. That makes it 8pts per Order which is a very good value for points. The downside of the Muls is their large base, it can make them hard to hide and without weapons they are only good for Orders and Alert! reaction. Though do keep in mind they have Minesweeper if your opponent gets cheeky with deployable weapons; you can try take them over. The Dozer himself is a decent unit (in Ariadna) with Courage and BS 11 so worth not discarding him either, which is a mistake that I make.

112 - I use the Doctor mostly to revive unconscious Snipers, which does sometime feel as a waste as he spends my games Prone on roofs. He can be surprisingly deadly with his Light Shotgun and Courage if you use him to take Objectives. For me it is almost always auto-include. He is only 12pts for a useful Specialist.

Hardcase - This is another unit that I consider another auto-include and great value for points. They are Irregular, which is their only downside. However, unlike the WarCor, these guys will be always using their Irregular Order so it is not a problem. For as cheap as 12pts you get an Infiltrator with Ambush Camouflage (you get two markers instead of one) and a Light Shotgun. This allows you to deploy half way up the board (or even further if you want to take risk of rolling 10 or less), get close to the enemy as a camo marker and then Surprise Shot them with a shotgun. Do not underestimate how deadly this is. You can go as high as BS 17, and your opponent will have up to -9 modifier (-3 camo, -3 surprise, -3 cover) so you can easily stack the advantage in your favour. If your opponent makes the mistake of leaving (or deploying) his units in a group, Hardcase is your way of punishing that. The bow might not be something you will use often but it is good to keep in mind it has the Silent trait and Double Action ammunition.

What worked

I have used the phrase "good value for points" often and I do think it is one of the strengths of USARF as a whole. There are many units that are relatively cheap and good at what they suppose to do. You could say it is also a downside because they might not be good at much else but because they are cheap, you can easily have enough units for different tasks. Versatility is one of the main things I believe worked well with this lists, it gives you enough tools to be able to adapt to what is happening on the battlefield and also gives you multiple ways of attack.

You can shoot from distance with full Fireteam support bonuses, you can set up defenses in the middle with good armoured units or get aggressive with infiltrators. Whatever your opponent has on the board, you should have an answer for it and enough Order to do it. Which might be kind of obvious considering it is a 20 man list, but I think it is worth mentioning this list doesn't really have many "useless" cheerleaders to get you those Orders. Only the Muls are there to simply give Orders, everything else has some utility. For example, even if the Infiltrator Grunts fail their roll (which is likely) you still have a Heavy Flamer and a Light Shotgun defending your back-line against Airborne Deployment troops and flankers.

What I found very useful in every game so far was having the six Grunts that can form a Fireteam. The Snipers and HMG are a big threat so they will be a high target for you opponent. You have to count on them dying at some point but having that one extra Grunt to fill the gap when one of the Snipers died helped to keep them a threat for longer. The more Orders your opponent is forced to deal with them, the less they are focusing on the mission.

What didn't work

In hindsight I think the main thing I would change is The Unknown Ranger, especially if you would use this list for Objective Missions. The CoC for me never came to play as my opponents had enough to deal with and did not even consider hunting the Lt. I do think he is a good unit but I also feel his role on the field could have been accomplished by Minutemen Specialist just as well. My mate James suggested I should change him for Van Zant and I could definitely see the benefit of that. This list already gives you enough Specialists and with Van Zant you could cause even more problems for your opponent if they leave an opening in their back-line.

Which brings me to the next thing I found lacking. This list doesn't give you any elite units. The Ranger and Marauders are the only units with BS 12 or higher (outside of Fireteam support bonus) so if the Grunt Fireteam is not effective, you have no back up. I do not think it is a big problem because you can overwhelm your opponent with numbers and between Flamers, Mines and Shotguns you should have enough tools to kill enemy elite units. Though it definitely makes this list harder to play as you can't rely on your elites to do everything.

Most of this army is also slow, 11 models are 4-2 MOV, which can make it difficult to move on the battlefield should you need to move long distances. However, this downside can be minimized by good deployment. You can spread your forces so they don't have to walk far to help in different parts of the board, and deploy them as close to their objective as possible. The difficulty I faced in my games was that I deployed most of the Grunts on top of buildings, which did give them good lines of fire but also make it very hard for them do get anywhere else. I was just entrenched too much to make proper use of them later in the game. For example, in three games during Norther Open 8 I never used the Grenade Launcher or the Grunts with Rifles because they were always hiding and after Snipers and HMG died, they were kind of useless in those positions.

The one tool I really missed during my games was Smoke. This list has no Smoke Grenades, which can be easily solved by adding a unit that does have them. In all of the games there was always a situation where I felt Smoke would have made a massive difference in terms of moving my units into tactically better post.

Suggestions for improvement

As mentioned in the segment above, I think the easiest way to improvise this list would be to switch Van Zant for The Unknown Ranger. If nothing else, just to give you the option to attack from any angle with BS 13 AP Rifle or Heavy Pistol.

However, on equal measure you can drop The Unknown Ranger / Van Zant entirely and make your army slightly bigger. I would also change the Grunt with LGL to a regular Rifle Grunt, saving you extra 4pts. This would give you enough spare Points to add Minutemen Forward Observer and a Maverick with Light Rocket Launcher. Both of these are good attack units, one of them is Specialist and Maverick gives you Smoke. The WarCor would have to go into a third combat group on his own as you'd have 21 troops. Click here to open this suggestion list in Infinity Army.

Another small change could be adding Airborne Range if you like having AD troops (instead of the Minutemen for example). Those guys can also be Specialists. After that you can always do some big changes to the main Fireteam, which I think really comes down to your preferred unit and the models you have available. You could have a very similar list based around Marauders or Minutemen as your Core Fireteam, though with those you might end up with less than 20 men as they cost more than Grunts.

I know I named this list the Grunt Horde, but what I see as the main composition of this list is the second combat group; the Infiltrators, 112 and Dozer with Muls. This group is only 117pts and 1.5 SWC (120pts if you count the WarCor) which does leave you with enough Points to form an attack group of your liking.

Marauders Box Set

Recently someone shared pictures of the new Marauder Box Set in the Ariadna Facebook group. Remember those Marauders we have converted earlier this years? Soon we'll be able to put them to good use! Marauders, the 5307th Ranger Unit, are one of my favourite troops in USARF. In my opinion they are very reasonably priced and have lots of utility, especially in the American sectorial. I thought I'd share some ideas about the Fireteams I am thinking about using.

First though, let briefly look at the new models and the current Marauder profile.

In the new box set we'll get Boarding Shotgun, Heavy Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifle and Molotok. No basic Rifle option though, so still worth converting those. First thing I noticed, and little disappointed by, is that there are no female Marauders. Don't know if its a fluff thing or something but in most box sets they give you a mix. Maybe they will do a blister of female Marauder with a Rifle at some point.

At least two of the minis are in action poses, which is cool but I prefer my converted version of Boarding Shotgun. The other three I like though.

The stat line for Marauder is what you would expect from a Medium Infantry unit. Everything beside MOV and ARM is one higher from a Grunt Line Trooper. What makes them very good though, are the special Skills. Marauders get Forward Deployment, Stealth, Dogged, Fireteam: Core and also Fireteam: Haris. Plus quite few weapon options and Specialist option, so there are plenty of different ways to utilize them.

Forward Deployment is very self-explanatory, lets you deploy outside of your Deployment Zone which can always be helpful. Especially for Missions where the objectives are just outside of your DZ.

Stealth I think is something people underestimate but I would highly recommend to always keep it in mind. It can help you get around enemy units as they can't react to your movements outside of their LoF and inside of the Zone of Control. Nothing says surprise like a Heavy Flamer to the back!

Dogged is also a good tool to have. If you really need to hold the line or keep advancing, it will keep them alive for a bit longer, either making your opponent spend more Orders or giving you more time to use them in Active Turn. But it can be hard to decide if you want to active Dogged or not, if you have Doctor or Paramedic nearby, since they will die at the end of that Turn and can't be healed from that.

The 4-2 MOV I used to think is a downside, and I did write about 4-2 vs 4-4 before, but it isn't as bad when you plan for it. If you focus Marauders on objectives in your half of the board and use faster units for anything over the middle line, it shouldn't be much of a downside. It can certainly be worked around and in Ariadna, you shouldn't struggle for Orders.

Fireteam: Core

If you are thinking about going for a Core Fireteam, its worth to decide if you want attack or defense. Marauder AVA is only 5 so if you are going for a full Fireteam of 5 (which you always should in my opinion), you won't get any more Marauders.

For defense I would definitely put in the Sniper and Heavy Rocket Launcher, at least one of each. It gives you decent long range AROs and the have MSV Lv1, which is not as good as Lv2 but it does make it easier to take care of Camouflaged units. Personally I would probably put in two Paramedics and a Boarding Shotgun. You will have a chance to bring people back to the fight and Heavy Flamers plus Mines will make it hard for your opponent to take out your Link from close range.

When it comes to attack, I personally really like Molotok because of the high Burst. In Caledonia it worked well for me in most games. In full Fireteam you should be on BS15 most of the time and with Burst 5 and AP ammo, even TAGs can be taken out. I would also put in the Heavy Rocket Launcher. Since its good range is 16" to 32", so you don't have to keep distance too much. Then I'd probably throw in two Medics and Shotgun again, I think its a good combo to cover your flanks.

If you have the Points to spare, having a Haris unit could be a good idea if you have other units in your army that have Fireteam: Core, like Grunts. Once you have only three Marauders left, you can change them to Haris and link a different unit as Core. This tends to burn your Command Tokens quick but it can surprise your opponent and give you advantage where needed.

Fireteam: Haris

This Fireteam option is great if you want something else to be your five-man Fireteam Core, or simply just activating three troops as one. It still gives you +1 Burst so it can be used for a small defense squad, like having a Haris unit, Paramedic and Sniper or Heavy Rocket Launcher. They can sit back, get the extra Burst in ARO and advance when needed.

Three-man combo like that is not a bad attack squad either, you will have at least one Heavy Flamers plus either Special Weapons and/or Specialist. I would recommend to have Paramedic in all Fireteams. Not only because of the healing option but because Specialist
s that can move while you are advancing with Special Weapons are always useful.

Before this box came out I used to run Haris, Paramedic and Boarding Shotgun. Make it a more close range unit, which I think is better for defense or sweeping enemy units that got to close to your DZ.

In either case, going for Haris lets you have two more Marauders which you can use on different parts of the board, like a Lieutenant in safe area or a lone Sniper covering a flank. 

Also do not underestimate the power of three Heavy Flamers in ARO. That is six templates, let that sink in. If you need to hold a building or some other close quarter area (hello Objective Room missions), your opponent will not want to run into that. Even Heavy Infantry and TAGs can't just risk it, few bad ARM saves and they burn to crisp. If you want to go really crazy, you can even go five Heavy Flamers (ten ARO templates!!) as a Core Fireteam!

USARF "Speed Painting", Part 2

Continuing with my (not so much) "speed painting" of USARF, I have completed the next step. Which, as I have predicted in the previous article, has taken much longer than the first step. For my USARF I have decided to go with black on weapons, pistol holsters, straps, boots and chest vests.

The difficulty of this step was making sure everything is painted neatly and the black isn't all over the place. So I ended up spending lots of time with my super small detail brush on the straps which were not always easy to reach. Weapons and boots were the easiest, most of the surface was done with a larger brush and then detail brush again on the surface near hands and other parts of the mini. Chest vests were fifty-fifty, some miniatures has them mostly accessible while with few others they had arms and guns going across them.

I am not sure yet what will be the next step because so far I have not decided on the end result, as in I am not sure about the final colour theme. Mostly likely I will do metallic silver to finish the guns and then flesh, so the minis look playable. I can then do the bases to complete the "table top" look. I do want to add grey and brown to the mix as well. I did try to add a different shade of green of armor plates but not sure if it works. Might need to complete one miniatures to decide.

USARF "Speed Painting", Part 1

Carrying from my USARF conversions, the next natural step is to paint the army! I bet many of you are like me and ended up with too many armies too quick, and don't have enough time to paint them all. Since I do not have an airbrush yet, I decided to try "speed paint" with just a paintbrush. From what I understand with airbrush people are able to undercoat an army with some highlights quite quick and then pick out the details with a paintbrush; which is the idea behind this.

The plan is to get all of the models undercoated with green, dry brushed for some highlights and washed with dark colour for some shadows. Then I will follow it up painting the straps, skin, weapons and other details in different colours. I might also do some camouflage, haven't decided yet.

Inspiration for my USARF army was taken from this image, where the uniforms are green camo and more or less everything else is black. I want my USARF army to be very uniform in their look, so they look more like a regular army.

The first step was to get everything green (well, all but the K-9 Antipode, the wolf will be mostly grey so I will do that one differently). I have used The Army Painter "Army Green" spray for undercoat, then Games Workshop "Rotting Flesh" (old name for the colour, it is very light green, like if you mixed little bit of bright green into white) for dry brush and finished it with Games Workshop "Nuln Oil" (black) wash. I think the result is quite nice, even completely green the details have definition thanks for the darker shades and brighter edge highlights.

The whole process didn't take long either and I have done around 30 minis this way. Though I am fairly certain the next step will take lot longer as I will be painting all the straps and weapons black, plus some of the pouches.

USARF Conversions Part 3 - Girl Grunts

In this third article about USARF conversion I'll talk about female Grunts. Reason for making these was that I wanted five female Grunts to make girl power Link Team but all in different poses.

Part 1 - Marauders
Part 2 - Foxtrots
Part 3 - Girl Grunts
Part 4 - Grunts with Heavy Flamers

Girl Grunts

These twos gals are Sniper and Paramedic (she can also be any generic Grunt with a Rifle). I liked how on the Grunts from SWC Boxset they have an extra pocket (or pouch) on the back, which the Grunts from Starter Set do not have. I thought it would make a great item for painting Red Cross on it to make it stand out as a Paramedic.

Bits used:
- Ariadna Sniper Rifle

Everything else in this conversion is a straight arm swap. As you can see on the photos below, the Grunt on the right has arms and weapon from the Grunt on the left. The arm with the gun fit easy and didn't need any greenstuff later. The other arm with the ammo clip I wanted to be close to the gun so there was a gap to fill afterwards like with most of these USARF conversions.

The Sniper Girl was bit more tricky. The arms are from the Grunt on the right, originally she was holding Rifle with Light Grenade Launcher. First I changed the Rifle for the old Ariadna Sniper. I thought I could see the whole rifle stock but I had to cut most of it off to make it fit, the Grunt's breasts were in the way. After that, first time I glued the arms on, I made the Sniper to be on the side, facing forward from the hip and the other arm was also on her hip. Then I realized I could put the second arm onto to the scope.

It did require lots of greenstuff afterwards. The arms were glued on just by sides so lots of shoulder space to fill and then I also greenstuffed top of the stock so it was visible. Heads were kept the same for both, no swaps there.

USARF Conversions Part 2 - Foxtrots

This article will cover my conversions of the Foxtrots. To see other articles in this series, click on the links below:

Part 1 - Marauders
Part 2 - Foxtrots
Part 3 - Girl Grunts
Part 4 - Grunts with Heavy Flamers

Foxtrots

You'll notice two of the Foxtrots are actually Ariadna Scouts bodies. This is because I had them left over from another conversion I was doing for my Caledonia army and had no other use for them. They do not have the Foxtrot hat but I think they work just as well.

Bits used:
- Ariadna Scout bodies
- Shotgun and Rifle arms from 45th Highlander

The one thing that all of these guys shared were gaps between shoulder and body. Because the miniatures are metal I didn't want to spend too much time re-positioning the arms, so they were glued to look right and the gaps were filled with greenstuff. The gaps are more obvious from behind.

Going from left to right, the first model was the most straight forward. I gave him arms from the Foxtrot that comes in the USARF starter box. The second miniature was also fairly easy, main difficulty was that I couldn't get his left arm connect so it required the most greenstuff.

The hardest was the third miniature. The rifle is very close to his chest and to make it fit I had to cut off some of the breast pockets but the arms still didn't connect well. Though I was able to glue them on in a decent place and greenstuff concealed the gaps well.

It might have been easier to give this guy the shotgun but I quite liked the pose with the rifle. 

USARF Conversions Part 1 - Marauders

Recently I have expanded my USAriadna collection by dozen models or so and as the range for USA models isnt that big yet, all of those were duplicate of models I already had. Personally I dont like to play two models that look identical so I have decided to do several weapon swap.

In this series of articles I will talk about the conversion I have done and do my best to describe how I have done it so if you are looking to do weapon swaps yourself, you can use this as a guide.

Part 1 - Marauders
Part 2 - Foxtrots
Part 3 - Girl Grunts
Part 4 - Grunts with Heavy Flamers

There will be some sculpting involved but I don't think any of these were complicated, myself I have only basic sculpting skills and all I used were mostly "standard" tools. So without further ago, lets get started.

Marauders 

This unit has the option to form Haris Link Team so I wanted to have three guys with different weapons; Heavy Flamer, Shotgun and Rifle to be specific. The current only available model comes with the Heavy Flamer and fortunately is in a such a position where weapon swapping is relatively easy. Basically all I had to do was cut away the flamer and then attach a new gun.

Bits used:
- Shotgun from 45th Highlanders
- Rifle from USA Grunt

First off, you want to cut away the Heavy Flamer carefully so you can use it later but if you dont care about it, you can just chop it off. But if you do want to use it later, first make sure to use your clippers to cut the bottom handle but leave enough under the hand so you can tell he is holding something.

Then I have used a small saw, but a knife/scalpel should work too, to cut the weapon in half. You don't have to cut all the way through, you can just cut in a bit and then gently bend the weapon few times and it should "snap" where you made the cut. If you have a small filer, I recommend smoothing the cut. On the image below I have cut where the red lines are:

Then you'll need to cut the weapons you are swapping. It doesn't matter as much where you cut them, the goal is to cut away the back part with the handle and arm. In my case, I was able to cut the rifle and have enough left it connected straight to the remains of the flamer but the shotgun wasn't long enough.

I did not do any positioning of the Marauder's left arm but if you want to spend more time on it, you easily could get the shotgun connect. 

 

I solved the gap by placing a small rectangle of plastic (cut away from a left over sprue) in there and then filling the whole gap with greenstuff. You could probably do it with greenstuff straight away. 

The same thing was done on the rifle as well, but there was barely any gap to fill. If you want you can also add some small details with the greenstuff to make it less obvious the weapon was swapped.

The gap filling is the only use of greenstuff on these guys. This is my end result:

 

All three of them are in the same position but I don't mind, its a very action front line pose and I like that.

USARF Blackjacks and the Unknown Ranger - First Thoughts

With the upcoming Human Sphere N3 book, Corvus Belli started to gives us a taste of what is coming. For the first time recently they gave us profiles of the long awaited USAriadna units, the Blackjacks and The Unknown Ranger.

The profiles are quite interesting and I wanted to get my thoughts down before we get the books.

Blackjacks

I seen people calling this the first true Ariadna Heavy Infantry (HI), but I don't really see it that way. To me "normal" HI in Infinity has 2 Wounds, Blackjacks have 1 Wound per profile. Which is pretty interesting on its own! Not many units in Infinity have two profiles, unless you play Tohaa. At first glance this reminds of the Yu Jing unit that can transform but this seems more like Tohaa Symbiont, it gets worse after taking damage.

V: Courage is not new, but Lo-Tech A and Heavyweight is. I am guessing the Lo-Tech A is the rule that makes it downgrade after taking a wound because it is not in the second profile and Bostria said something along those lines in the Beasts of War video. It would be nice if this rule always kicked in, even if you go straight to dead, so you could never be taken out too quick but I doubt it would be that badass. Harder to guess what Heavyweight could do, no mechanics comes to mind where being heavy would affect it. Maybe you can jump on people and cause damage?

I do like the statline though, BS13 is always nice to see and it has ARM 5, after taking a wound it goes to BS12 and ARM 4 which isn't too shabby either. It is a slow HI unit, which was kinda expected but I am guessing it will be more of a sit back and deal gunishment unit. With AP HMG or T2 Sniper Rifle, you are not going to be charging forward, but they do have Chest Mines and SMG or DEP, which are pretty good at keeping people from getting too close.

Sadly it is Hackable though, which I am not fan of as Ariadna was always famous for not being Hackable but we can't have everything I suppose.

Both weapon options are 36pts, with only SWC being different. Personally I think I'd see myself going for the HMG option because I have enough Snipers in my USA but the 2 SWC cost might be bit high so it'll depend on the rest of the army, but I'd be happy with either to be honest. There is a potential for both, or more, since in USARF sectorial I expect the AVA to be higher.

As far as the model, I am expecting it to be a suit of armour rather than a robot-style. The current Ariadna HI do not actually have that many armour plates so would be cool to see this being either armoured from head to toe, or like a battle-mech suit. With Silhouette 5, its gonna be big either way. If it was S6 I would guess it might be a Dog Warrior with lots of armour, which would be epic. I hope they make two models box set so you have a full power version and a damaged version, it has lots of potential to look awesome.

The Unknown Ranger

The Unknown Ranger is definitely either Chuck Norris or Rambo, or mix of both! Will see when the model comes out who was the inspiration. It is a quite costly unit at 41pts or 47pts +1.5 SWC but it does seem worth it and most of things in USARF is cheap. If I am honest I was expecting more of a Camo+Infiltration loner unit with close range weapons, D-charges and such but this profile seems to be more of elite commander.

The Ranger looks very beasty in CC, not only he has Natural Born Warrior to negate enemy Martial Arms but he also has CC22, Kinematica and T2 CCW, thats insane! Though because of the price tag, he might not be in CC that often. It tends to be safer to shoot people still.

Scavenger and NWI are also pretty useful. I think this makes the Rifle option much more appealing than the Molotok. You get Chain of Command so you don't have to worry about your Lt as much and after you kill someone, you can take their weapon most of the time so you can easily grab yourself a HMG or Sniper Rifle and go on a killing spree from long range.

The Chain of Command also has some decent combo potential in both vanilla and USARF. In vanilla the new Lt unit is coming out with Strategos Lv2 which is fun and you wont have to worry about obvious Lt.

In USARF though, you can get your first Lt killed, this guy becomes Lt, then drop in Van Zant with Executive Orders so he becomes the Lt and has the Lt Order for use and when he dies, the Ranger is Lt again! Fun times.

I think I will often try to find a place in my army for this guy. Hopefully the mini will look as badass as the profile is.

Ride or Die! (updated)

Corvus Belli has released videos and images of the new Desperadoes models and personally I think they look pretty badass. We have already seen concept art for these guys so the bikes look quite as expected, a stripped down version of the USAriadna military bike. I like how each bike looks different, its a nice touch. The riders are also very individual but they seem to fit the overall USAriadna theme very well. I am definitely gonna get a boxset when they are released for sale.

Same as last time (with the Airborne Ranger release), I wanna take a guess at their rules and profile!
Update; it was pointed out to me on Facebook Ariadna group that I have overlooked some available information! Thanks Nick and Casper.

Image from http://www.beastsofwar.com

So, what do we know so far? The models shown have Boarding Shotgun and a Heavy Pistol. The CB's 360 video says 2 Heavy Pistols so that might either be a standard equipment or an option to have two, I am guessing they will all come with one. The same model is also carrying what looks like SMG on his back, but it could be a Rifle. It is a SMG according to concept art. I would think most of their weapon options will be more close to mid-range, since the Maverick cover the bike option with long range firepower.

I will also guess the bikes will come with the standard Smoke Light Grenade Launcher. It might be a wishful thinking, but considering the availability of Light and Heavy Flamers in USAriadna, I think these guys might have the option to have them too. Which would be so cool! If not Flamers, they might get Chain Rifles at least. Chain Rifle does show up on the concept art and int he USA book, so flamers were likely really just wishful thinking! The art also shows normal Smoke Grenades which could be useful as they can Dodge with those and use them if they dismount the bike.

As far as special skills, they will likely have Extreme Impetuous. According to the USA book, they appear to have normal Impetuous but Irregular training.

Its hard to say what else they might have, maybe Berserk to help them in CC? I don't think they will have MSV Lv1 like the Maverick does. It would be cool if they had something like Booty Lv1, it would fit their fluff. Speaking of fluff though, they might have Forward Deployment or Mechanized Deployment. That would be super rad.

My guess at their profile:
MOV 8-4,  CC 16, BS 11, PH 13, WIP 13, ARM 3, BTS 0, W 1, S 4, AVA 2/5*

As far as cost, probably between 18 - 28 Points.
My guess for cost seems to be too high, the USA booklet sample armies show Chain Rifle option is 11pts and 13pts for SMG.

* 2 for Ariadna, 5 for USARF sectorial.
I am also wrong about the AVA for Sectorial, USA book says they will be AVA 6!

I am skeptical of them having a Specialist Option, but almost everything in USAriadna does so they might have Forward Observer or Paramedic option.

6th Airborne Ranger - November Release Predictions

Soon we'll be able to buy the new blister of the 6th Airborne Ranger, which I think is great! Been waiting for these guys since USAriadna release. Corvus Belli hasn't release the rules yet so I want to take some guesses and see if I was right when the rules are released.

The blister comes with SMG and AP CCW, which I would assume will be more or less the standard weapons for the Airborne Rangers, plus a Rifle or Shotgun option. Considering the French Para-Commando, these guys will likely have Sniper Rifle option too. They might have a HMG option but I would guess Heavy/Light Flamethrower is more likely. As they have a CCW weapon, I think they will be more close up orientated.

In that regard, I think they will have Martial Art Lv1 or Lv2, plus Kinematica Lv1 and high CC. I'd say 19 like S.A.S. For the rest of the statline, I think it will be similar to Van Zant but lower.

My guess: MOV 4-4,  CC 19, BS 12, PH 13, WIP 13, ARM 1, BTS 0, W 1, S 2, AVA 2/4*

As far as cost, probably between 20 - 30 Points.

* 2 for Ariadna, 4 for USARF sectorial.

The most important I'd say will be if they have a Specialist option, which I am assuming they will have at least Forward Observer, and what Level of Airborne Deployment they will have. I think, well hope, they will have Level 2 Airborne Infiltration but Level 1 Parachutist might be more likely. It would make sense they could deploy with Van Zant wherever needed instead of deciding during Deployment.

Well, will see how much I guessed correctly soon enough! I am sure to get at least one when they are for sale.

4-4 vs 4-2

In Caledonia only two units have MOV 4-2, which I find very slow and it is the main thing that stops me from taking the Scots Guard or the Mormaers. My play style with Caledonia is a lot about their speed so I do feel out of my comfort zone playing USAriadna where 4-2 is found more often since their Line Troops are Medium Infantry. So far I only played USAriadna in smaller games (around 200pts) so I had to chose between what to field more than in 300pts army. I spent some time deciding between Marauder who is 4-2 and Minuteman that has 4-4, as their cost for Specialist is the same and they fulfill more or less the same role.

I decided on Marauder because I am big fan of being able to deploy outside of your Deployment Zone and I thought deploying extra 4" forward would give him a speed boost. After the game though I thought about it some more and wasn't so sure I made the right choice. I realized that it takes only two orders for Minuteman to catch up and after that Marauder will always be behind, further and further with another Order. I made this image to demonstrate:

Background picture from http://www.toposolitario.com/workshop/index.html

So as you can see, Marauder gets to 28" in two orders (16+6+6) and it is the same for Minuteman (12+8+8). The only time Marauder gets bit further is the first order. I guess it is simple math in the end but math is not generally something I think about too much before the game, and of course you never really move always in a straight line during the game.

I think 4-2 with Forward Deployment is good to set up your defenses quicker, but in long term 4-4 will get you lot further. So if you are using either of these two for their Specialist profile, I would go with Minuteman as an objective grabber because his faster speed will also let you attack with him more efficiently. Marauder would be better if the objective is just outside of your deployment zone or to use one of his other profiles and as defensive unit.

USAriadna Expedition Force, Game 1

Recently we have started a campaign with couple of friends just to try it out and give us something else to play between tournaments. The basic starting point was: "On a routine deep space undercover survey one of your expedition forces stumbles across a distress beacon on what was thought to be an abandoned outpost on planet Emerald:B2-64." From there the story develops as go along. We have four active players (with maybe fifth) and the factions are FRRM (the French), USAriadna, Hassasin Barhaim and Steel Phalanx. I'd be only guessing where the story will go but I going to post updates as we play more games.

First mission was Emergency Transmission, 200 pts, only two Command Token and no Lieutenant. I have decided to play USAriadna because I won't play them much otherwise, and I really want to but Caledonia is my tournament army for now. My army list was:

1st Combat Group:
5x Grunt (Sniper, HMG, Paramedic, Forward Observer, Heavy Flamethrower)
1x Dozer
1x Foxtrot (FO)
1x Maverick (FO)
1x Marauder (Paramedic)
1x Hardcase

2nd Combat Group:
1x Warcor
1x Van Zant

(Bare metal unfortunately as my USAriadna is unlikely to be painted soon, Caledonia is priority for now.)

I planned to write a more detailed battle report but I been too busy and writing this like a week later so my memory isn't so great. I'll do better in the future. I was facing off against the French. I deployed my link team on left side of the board, almost everyone else on the right side and my Foxtrot was near the middle objective, waiting for the right time to take it.

I went first in this game and the first order I spent was Maverick's Imperious Order. She got glued down by an enemy Dozer. I had my own Dozer very close but there was an objective close too and I had to get at least two of them the first turn so I went for the objective instead. On the other side of my DZ the link team first took care of some long range ARO threats. I was surprised how effective the Sniper Rifle was, the Shock ammunition was quite deadly. Though one enemy kept surviving so my own HMG had to step in and put him unconscious with one round of shots. With the path clear the specialists were able to grab a second objective and everyone set up for the next turn.

My opponent tried to attack the link team but Sniper Rifle prevailed and scored another kill. My only casualty was my Dozer who even in suppression was unlucky. It made one of my secured objectives vulnerable but my link team still had LoF to it so my opponent didn't push for it. In my second turn the link team advanced to take a third objective and set up around and on a platform to basically have LoF almost everywhere on that side of the board. I also brought in Van Zant, which my opponent didn't expect so his DZ wasn't covered. He was able to walk on without being seen and quickly killed a Moblot with a Panzerfaust from behind. The shots were fired in ZoC of the enemy Dozer that glued my Maverick, so she was able to turn around but then she got shot with a Heavy Pistol on BS16 and died. Van Zant then took out Alguacil mercenary for good measure and went into cover with last available order.

In his second turn, my opponent was able to take out Van Zant by moving Moblot back towards his DZ. I didn't roll well with Van Zant that time. The second Game Turn ended with my opponent having one Objective and I had three, but he was in range of getting two more. I should have pressed my link team further to get fourth objective but I played defensive in my last turn. My Foxtrot managed to get the main objective in the middle. I was set up in a way that I covered the objectives my opponent needed but he'd have to do suicide runs as he couldn't deal with the link team. He did end up running for the objectives and while his troops did die, he managed to roll well and ended up with four objectives. At this point I was still winning and he had one order left, so he decided to shoot my Foxtrot. If he died, I'd lose 2 Victory Points and we'd draw but my Dodge succeeded and Foxtrot won the day for USA.

I had 2 VPs for activating the main objective, and 2 VPs for having a Specialists in contact with it. My opponent had 2 VPs for having more of the other consoles. 

Campaign kill count (Dead/Unconscious):
Drew, Sniper Grunt:  3/0
Van Zant: 2/1
Frank, Heavy Flamer Grunt: 1/0
Thomas, HMG Grunt: 0/1

First thoughts on USAriadna

Recently I played my first game with USAriadna. It went well for me (I won) and I quite enjoyed playing them but I can see straight away they will play very different to my usual Caledonia. Gameplay-wise, I am used to having minimum of three camo tokens, lots of smoke grenades and fast moving units. USA is almost the opposite of that. They have only two units that have smoke grenades, also only two units that have some level of camo and they mode medium-slow speed (at least that is the impression I have for now). I am going to write about this sectorial lot more in the future in more details as I plan to play them on tournaments next year but for now I'll break it down by the units I have used and my first thoughts on them.

In the list I had: Van Zant, Grunts, Foxtrot, Hardcase, Maverick and a Marauder. I also had a Dozer and a WarCor but I'll talk about those some other time as they aren't USA specific.

Van Zant - This guy worked pretty much as expected. Walked him up to the board in my opponent's Deployment Zone (DZ) out of sight of his troops and then proceeded to shoot them in the back. With BS 13 he can be very devastating since it is so easy for him to jump on people outside of cover and do unopposed attack, three shots at BS 16 is deadly. AP rounds with his rifle is just a cherry on top. If you get too close, you can use the Heavy Pistol instead and it is awesome, Damage 14 with Shock? Yes please! Great thing about Van Zant is also that he is 4-4 Move, can Dodge or Engage an extra 1 Inch and is very good in Close Combat. He has Martial Lv2, CC value of 22 and AP Close Combat Weapon. Basically you are going to wreck things in CC. His drawbacks are Dodged and no Silent weapon, plus quite high cost, 38 or 39 pts. But I think the points are worth all the things he can do and Dodged is better than nothing, keeps him alive until end of the turn if you need it. Lack of Silent weapon, like a knife, is likely because it would just make him broken. I am sure I'll write a full article about him later, he is awesome and I love him.

Grunts - These guys are different to every other line infantry by being Medium Infantry (MI). They are your cheerleaders, but they are lot more useful than just generating orders. 10 pts is the cheapest option and it gives you Armour 3, Shock Immunity and BS 11. They downside is Movement of 4-2 because they are MI. But! The weapon options are so cool. From Caledonia I am used to having very limited options but these guys can take HMG, Sniper Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower, Forward Observer (FO) and Paramedic. Plus the best line troop option ever, Inferior Infiltration and Heavy Flamethrower! If you land even one of those near your opponent's deployment, they are in hella trouble. I run my guys in a link team of Sniper, HMG, two Rifles (Paramedic and FO) and Heavy Flamethrower. In my game they dominated the part of the board they were on. These guys are tough to kill because most of the time, they will have Armour 6 in cover, which is really high for line troops. I also loved the Shock Ammo for the Sniper, that really made it lot more deadly in a five-man link team. I did end up spending lots of orders to move them across the board because of their slower speed but they were well worth it. 

Foxtrot - Pretty much your standard Camo Infiltrator, every army has them. To me what makes him different is that he is relatively cheap, 17pts basic or 18pts for a specialist, and he has Antipersonnel Mines, something that I don't have access to in Caledonia. I use FO S.A.S. all the time so this unit is auto-include for me.

Hardcase - Personally I really like this unit but its hard to say if they better than Foxtrots. They don't have specialist option so they can't compete over that spot but they do have Camo and Infiltration. Their camo is Ambush though, which I think is lots of fun (it allows you to place down a fake camo marker). They have standard BS 11 and Rifle or Light Shotgun option, but also they come with a Tactical Bow which definitely shouldn't be dismissed. Its Damage 13 (because of his Physical) so same as the other weapons, but it is Double Action (DA) and Silent. They are best at close range, or at least only up to 16" but with DA, a decent ARO weapon if you need to use it. Though I think he will be best suited for attacking from camo, or destroying objectives with his bow. In my game I haven't really used him so just theorizing for now. Points wise these guys are cheap so for me they will find a place in most of my army lists.

Maverick - Same as for the Hardcase, I only have theories for this unit. In my game she got glued down in the first turn and haven't done anything else. But in short, they are fast and have specialist option, plus cheap on Points so I think I will run her in all my lists.

Marauder - Another Medium Infantry unit, which is double the points of a Grunt but has some fun options. I really like they have Forward Deployment so they can deploy outside of your 12" Deployment Zone, Stealth and specialist option, and most options come with a Heavy Flamethrower. Plus he is BS 12. Downside is that he is only Movement 4-2 and currently, as with many other units, there is only one model. I hope they will release a box set of four soon because these guys can be either a regular link or a second link team Haris. In my game he also didn't do much because Grunts ate all the Orders but I foresee he will see lot more action in the future. Overall I think this unit is well worth the points.

In conclusion, for me USAriadna is very different to what I usually play and so far I am very happy with the troop options they have. I do look forward to playing them more and try the other units (Minutemen and Devil Dog Team).

The other thing I like about USAriadna is their look, they are these almost 21st century looking troops but they still fit with the Infinity universe well; its what I love about Ariadna in general.

The USAriadna army box.