Okay, prepare for the flood - I got several battalions finally finished over the weekend, and took photos. So let's start with the standing army of Hos-Hostigos ;)
I've always liked the Standing Guard paintscheme - nice and clean and simple, and a great break from messy schemes like the FRR's. I had a number of minis which were only going to fit into Early Republic or later periods, and this was a great way to bring them together. Finally, the choice of the Skye garrison - well, it's a major industrial world in the Republic, is certainly going to be well-funded, and it lets me exercise that small, repressed bit of my psyche that is forever Steiner.
So let's take the grand tour, starting with the Battle Company. Note - I chose to organise the RotSSG in combined-arms units, and have had advice suggesting that this was entirely the right approach for these chaps.
The Battle Company consists of three platoons in two elements:
The Assault Lance is made up of an AS7-K2 Atlas, KGC-008B King Crab, ZEU-9WD Zeus-X, and BLR-M3 Battlemaster. Heavy metal! The Atlas is kitbashed from an Intro Box nuplastic to resemble a "horny dog" MW:DA Atlas in some ways; the King Crab is modded from the metal DA version to something a little more sensible from my perspective; the Zeus is kitbashed from the stock IWM Zeus-X to meet the stats for the shotgun model, and the Beemer is a Intro plastic modded to a C3M carrier. Only the KC has a slave in this lance, but ... Next up, the Battle Group.
The core of the battle group is a platoon of Manteuffel omnitanks - A, C, and a pair of the ultimate IFVs, the D. All C3-linked via the master in the A. Then there's their little friends ... the Ds each carry two squads of Kopis 'Dark Alleys' internally, and each has a squad of Kopis 'anti-infantry' as tank-riders. The 'Mechs poke a hole, the tanks roll through it, and the BA ensure hilarity ensues ...
Now, the Strike Group.
These are the "rapid responders" - a typical Steiner hi-lo mix. The Yashas function as scouts, but scouts with 15-point headcappers thanks to the underslung Heavy PPCs.
The 'Mech lance is a flexible and powerful fast unit - GRF-3M Griffin, Stalking Spider II, HSN-10G Hellspawn, and HBK-6S Hunchback (the fast-mover, in a suitably fast-moving pose. Love the plastics for that!) The Stalking Spider II - okay, it is a little out of its time period, but I've been wanting to make one for ages, and decided "sod it! It goes in!". On a standard Stalking spider, I used the turret sides from a DA Morningstar, and a turret built from a DA Cizin laser & dual SRM packs off a JES I.
Finally, the Recon Company:
The 'Mech element - well, not totally optimised, but a great bunch of minis.
BLD-XL Blade, LCT-5W2 Locust, Arbalest, and MLR-B2 Mjolnir. All stock IWM minis, all a pleasure to assemble & paint (even if the "stacks" on the back of the Blade were a bit of a pain ;) ) Then there's the recon platoon:
For those who were present for Worktroll over America in 2014, I picked these up at that excellent game store - Scimitar IIs. Actually found them quite painful to assemble & paint, but have ended up really liking the look of them now that they're done. And finally, what's a Republic era unit without more BA ...
The vehicular core is a pair of Tamerlanes, and a pair of Bandit Hs in the Recon Support platoon. Each Bandit carries a pair of Angerona Recon squads internally, while each vehicle has a squad of Infiltrator Mk II "Pumas" in Sensor config on the outside. These aren't the typical "roll out & bump into the enemy" recon units - these are the "get them there first, and spread out", or "winkle through the urban area" troopers.
All in all, I had a lot of fun and a little frustration building this unit. I'm really happy with the end results, one of the lesser known but still iconic units of that era. One can't help but want the Republic to fall messily (to the reborn FWL, of course O0 ), but one can feel for those who just wanted to keep civilisation standing on their homeworlds.
Comments, questions, avant-gard poetry all welcomed :)
Cheers,
W.
