New Maelstrom's Edge

I'm pretty psyched about this.  Should be available today.  I haven't been able to play a lot of Maelstrom's Edge, namely because there are a very limited number of players out there.  I'm basically maintaining all of the rules and models and talk people into playing every so often.  It's a fun game and it's nice to see new things coming out.

From Spiral Arms Studios directly...

"This sprue is packed with parts to allow you to build Epirian Contractor Suppression Teams, Karist Praetorians equipped with Cybel Glaives, Cybel Mine equipped Shadow Walkers, Karist Trooper Assault Squads, and loads of new detailing elements like new arm poses, grenades, and more. Here's a sneak preview of the contents of the sprue, broken down by faction (Pink=Karist, Blue=Epirian):"

Here is the full story: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/what-have-spiral-arm-studios

More MEdge

I was able to get a little more modelling hobby work done yesterday.  I started with a command Scarecrow model.  These guys are actually pretty cool.  They're on 25mm bases and are a little taller than a Space Marine, but noticeably thinner.  The amazing part is that this guy is FOURTEEN pieces.  I know that I went with a pretty static pose, but these guys are actually VERY pose-able.

Here are some of his friends.

Also, I have jury duty tomorrow.  It's for a special criminal trial that may take up to 5 weeks.  Solid fun.

Quartermaster App

For those of you who don't know, Quartermaster is an absolutely fantastic army list builder for iOS.  If you're not familiar with it, check it out.

The news item for today is that I'm in the middle of creating a Quartermaster template for Maelstrom's Edge.  I've got the Karist side of things almost done.  As soon as I have the Epirian stuff done, I'll post an update with the files.

Here's a sneak peak showing that I'm not full of crap.

Maelstrom's Edge!

My Maelstrom's Edge pledge finally came in.  I'm planning on doing some work on it over the weekend.  Here are a couple of pictures to show how much stuff is in the box as well as one assembled Angel and some Minnows.

What's all in here?  Bubble wrap!  I'll post more pics of the individual components soon.

I assembled the Angel stuff.  You can see how big the Angel is below next to a Soul Drinkers Marine.  It's a pretty decent size.

Maelstrom's Edge Final Model Pics

I'm pretty excited by the final studio pics for Maelstrom's Edge.  I have really high hopes for this game.  It looks like they're on track to deliver at some point in December, so it's likely I'll consider this a Christmas gift for myself whenever it arrives.

Karist Faction

Epirian Faction

Maelstrom's Edge adds a ton of models...

They released the Hunter model pics!  This isn't artwork.  It's a painted, production model.  They're supposed to be the same size as a Tau Crisis Suit.  I'm seeing incredible conversion potential here.  The more I see of the Epirean faction, the more I think they'll make perfect Tau Human Aux.

Head on over and check out the Maelstrom's Edge Kickstarter.  I'm excited to see this one come to fruition.

Tau Empire Drone Turrets/Sentry Towers WIP

I have a quick update today with ACTUAL HOBBY CONTENT (TM)!

I did a little work on those Tau Empire Drone Turrets I duped a while back.  They'll most likely see action as either objective markers, random scatter terrain, Drone Turrets or Drone Sentry Towers.  In any case, I think I'll get a lot of use out of these things.

The blue tubes are actually "party shot glasses" from the local dollar store.  It's amazing what you can find that goes well into terrain.  The blue tubes won't be glued in, which will make these more flexible AND easier to transport and store.

You can see three more Drone Turrets in the background.  They're mostly painted, but still have highlighting and detailing to be done.  I think I'll need to make up a couple more if I'm going to use these as objective markers.  The discs on the top can be flipped over with numbers on the bottom to represent the various markers.

In other news, the Maelstrom's Edge Kickstarter is up to 29,040 USD.  The first stretch goal is at 30k, so I'm expecting that we'll see it at some point tomorrow.  The momentum has certainly slowed down, but that's normal for a Kickstarter campaign this long.

Short and Sweet

This one is going to be short, sweet and to the point.  Tomorrow is my buddy's birthday as well as a full day of work and I have a TON of stuff to do between now and then.

Spiral Arms Studios (the good folks at DakkaDakka) launched their Kickstarter and it funded on day one.  It looks pretty cool.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medge/maelstroms-edge-a-next-gen-sci-fi-miniatures-warga?ref=category_newest

It funded the first day, but is making slow progress now.  This is more or less what I expected.  Hitting stretch goals will be nice as it will allow for more things in the starter box, but this isn't going to be one of those "millions of kickstarter exclusive add-ons" kind of campaigns.  I'll be buying into this, but haven't yet.  I want to make sure they don't futz around with the pledge levels.

And here is what's in the box for now...

As well as a photo from Salute of the Scarecrow models that will end up as Epirian units...

I like these quite a bit.  They are a little static in this picture, but evidently the arms and legs both move at the elbows/knees, so the modes should be quite poseable.

I'll be playing a game using my Skitarii units tomorrow.  I'll post on Wednesday letting everyone know how it went.  I definitely don't play often enough and am trying to get some more table time.

Maelstrom's Edge Kickstarter

The Kickstarter date has been announced as Friday, 4/24.  I'm pretty excited by this.  Partly I'm excited because these guys...

...will make perfect Tau Gue'vesa models.  I'm never really been happy with using slightly converted Astra Militarum dudes.  These guys will work with just a head swap and maybe a Fire Warrior should pad on the one shoulder.  The should pads they come with look almost exactly like the pads on the smaller arm of the Fire Warriors.  The drones will be nice to use as Gue'vesa Gun Drones.

The other Faction is also looking pretty sweet...

The intention is to have a total of 6 units available per faction at the end of the Kickstarter.  The above pics show 3 each, so half are yet to be unlocked.  Below is some artwork from the Maelstrom's Edge website.  I'm particularly interested in the bulkier of the two robots.  This is supposed to be entirely plastic, so I'm expecting some nice poseability.  This should hopefully be perfect for a Gue'vesa Broadside or Crisis Suit, depending on the size.  There are more pics on their site.  I don't want to steal all the thunder.

Maelstrom's Edge - A New Game from DakkaDakka

There have been lots of cool things going on in the industry lately.  The latest is that the always popular gaming forum, DakkaDakka, is making a 28mm Scifi Skirmish game.  Not only making, but it appears that they're quite a but into it.

The game is called Maelstrom's Edge.  I'll provide a couple of links towards the bottom so that you can check out a little more.

The nice thing about this game is that I think it has a lot of potential.  I can't imagine a better scenario in terms of community engagement.  We're talking about people with a proven track record of maintaining a well moderated and fairly large community of gamers...  not the easiest crew to make behave.

I'm very optimistic.  They already have a ton of background written and have actually put out two novels to coincide with the game announcement.  I've started the first.  Links to the novels are on the Maelstrom's Edge site.

The background seems to be that there was some sort of explosion in the center of the galaxy that is propagating through the faster than light travel system.  The resulting storm is called the Maelstrom.  Anyone who is in the path of said storm is said to be on The Edge...  hence, The Maelstrom's Edge.

The artwork they've put up shows ruined cities with the purple tinged Maelstrom in the sky.

But...  you want to hear about models!

You cam see more on their site.  What they've put up so far is pretty promising.  Not only do they look nice, but...

...they're made from HIPS plastic on sprues!  This is basically like what Games Workshop uses.  No resin or metal nonsense for this game.  This is really good news for me.  These will be easy to work with, convert and repose.

It also looks like they'll be putting out some cool looking robots and little spider walkers at some point.  This excites me.

My current understanding is that they'll be doing a Kickstarter, starting around the end of April and going into the beginning of June.  This is longer than the normal 30 days, but I think they'll be able to pull it off.  I'm imagining that the "sweet spot" containing rules and a starter army will be around 100 USD.  I might be wrong, but that seems to be roughly normal for these sorts of things.  I will definitely be buying into this if for no other reason than to support my favorite gaming forum.  Buying into this will be my way of "paying where you're playing".

Again, I'm very, very optimistic that they'll get this right.  I'll post again on this topic when the Kickstarter comes out or as more interesting information is released.

Linkies...

Main Site
http://www.maelstromsedge.com/

Forum with lots of updates
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/644194.page

Book 1
Maelstrom's Edge: Faith

Book 2
Maelstrom's Edge: Sacrifice