Space Marine: the Boardgame - prep & eval

The only thing better than a buncha 'Nids...

...is a horda 'Nids!

I was able to get into a groove and clean, assemble, prep and prime all 20 Termagants and the two ripper swarms from SM:tB. Shortly thereafter I sorted out, cleaned and primed the bases. Ultimately, I went with a medium grey on the bases, despite the game board being a rich brown color. I felt this went better with ash wastes, cityscapes, shipboard scenes, e.g. Space Hulk, caves, and even a future project - snow scapes [the idea being to put bits of white felt on the grey bases].

Above: T-gants getting primed...

Below: Warriors getting primed...

Below: three Ultramarines from the "Doomsday Countdown" boardgame getting primed. Great figures, and the entire game is well done and easy to tweak - highly recommended!

It took a couple weeks later, but I did get Lt. Titus assembled and primed. Great skirmish model, dynamic and clearly focused on thrashing a buncha 'Nids!

"AAARGH!  I got my two eyes and scarface on you, ugly bug!"

The Figures from Doomsday Countdown I really like - I did trim off a bunch of the silly excess from the figs, some of which just got in the way all the time, or caught on other spikey bits from the other models. Also, the little spikes are almost sharp, so off they went! Aside from some of the sculpting theme over-indulgence, they are a great little set of figs, perfect for almost any skirmish game setting as "bad guys".

The three Ultramarine SMs from "Doomsday Countdown" are equally nice.  Good poses, perfect skirmish / RPG figs.  Can't wait to paint them up.

What's really impressive is how good these Chaos Cultists look *together*. The pose variety, the pose sensibility, it's just excellent. I was on: The leader is clearly looking ahead and "leading", then two are shooting, and the not-50-cal even has an ammo bearer. The GL could be poised to aim, or [depending on aiming mechanism] firing. Then there's a guy loading his lasrifle and another dude throwing a grenade in - gasp - a pretty believable pose for a short-distance toss. Looking forward to these fellows painted and on the table, or board.

And here's the scene from SM:tB rules - Lt Titus surrounded by 'nids!

20:1, that's Rorke's Drift odds! But I'm guessing the 'Nids are overall more lethal...

Even against a larger SM, these Warriors stand well over his head!

With significant progress on my "Space Marine: the Boardgame" Termagants, I felt free to order a bit more to flesh out the force for narrative purposes. This is mainly to play out some of my favorite 40K story lines from Ciaphus Caine, who epitomizes to me the REAL Rogue Trader early days of 40K, when it took itself less seriously.

This involved me grabbing some used models from Warriors [above] from Fb Marketplace [infinitely better than eBay] and tossing them onto the priming board as well. I also wanted some more "little hordes" and grabbed a sprue of 11 Neurogants:

These size up nicely against Termagants as "smaller bugs" which is what I wanted.

Next is another "bigger bug" a Tyranid prime, who is about the size of a Warrior. I'm undecided about the wings, which give more bulk but look a bit silly, I think.

Finally, a "great big smart bug" which every bug force needs! Below is a psychophage, whatever the h--k that means, but it will be either an objective [as in it is a leader caste bug, or egg-laying queen] or a dangerous large opponent.

These were all acquired from Heisey Gaming at eBay which I am happy to support as they had reasonable prices and excellent service.

Below, I have some comparisons of style etc. To left is a new Chaos Cultist from "Doomsday Countdown" and to right is a classic metal Steel Legion fig. While they are around the same height, they are in very different styles, with the SL fellow having more bulk and the Cultist having leaner proportions similar to us humans.

Below, comparison of "Fireteam" boardgame SM, "Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons" SM, and finally, a classic 1998 Necron Warrior.

Clearly there has been some scale creep there!

This is even easier to see with Lt Titus, "Fireteam" Marine, Labyrinth Marine, 90s Marine, and an old SM from probably the 80s. 

Titus compared to Termagant from same box - He's taller, but the 'nid is quite bulky:

Even the Ripper Swarm looks sizeable next to a large Titus.

Altho in height, Titus towers over them, they look pretty sizeable due to their bulky style and "mass". Nice doggies!  I gotta milkbone here for ya...

Showing relative heights, Titus towers but the 'nid looks super solid.

There you have the project where it's at!  

Next up, figuring out the painting scheme for the 'nids... give you a hint... 

"Winter is coming"!