I have been working on various projects to help support the releases of my own games on the Wargame Vault. Today, I am focusing on creating adversaries for my game Under the Martian Yoke. It is a survival horror game set after the Martian Invasion of the Orson Wells' broadcast. The game is designed to be a solo/co-op/versus experience as the survivor's of the Martian attack struggle to escape Martian territory and to freedom.
The game has a number of adversaries that survivor's may encounter. The biggest and most dangerous are the Martian Tripods of various types. Thankfully, I have a variety of Tripod models from the now defunct All Quiet on the Martian Front. However, there are a variety of other tripod models available on the market as well.
In addition to the the Martian Tripods, there are smaller foes as well. That includes various drones, animated human corpses, modified animals, and even wild, feral dogs to face off against. I have a few drones from Alien Dungeon and plenty of Irish Wolfhounds thanks to my Dark Age Irish army from Wargames Atlantic.
Last time, you may recall that I was working on building up my adversaries, and created various cadaver troops to oppose the human survivors. These foes are re-animated human corpses operating on Martian technology. These undead troopers roam the Martian control zones to track down and kill lone or small groups of humans. Worse, they can flush out humans for the Martians to capture for their own nefarious purposes later.
For base models, I used left-over Wargame Atlantic models from the Dark Age Irish line. Their barefooted look matched well with how I thought the Martians would treat these Cadaver troops. The Martians view them more as an expendable resource than true soldiers. I then used Green Stuff to get the final look I wanted. Therefore, they have various control helmets, Martian optics, built-in weaponry, and antennae. You may recall that they looked like this....
Well, I have since gone to work painting them up for use on the game table! Of course, I started it all off by brush undercoating them all with cheap white acrylic paints. This was to help the following coats of paint to stick to the models. From there, I went to work.
The first models I painted were the converted Irish Wolfhounds. These would be Martian Ferals. A Feral is a normal animal that was upgraded with cyber-astro-techno parts to make them into a deranged killing machine. It is not clear if the Martians initially knew the difference between humans and animal, or even if they do now. However, they do out fit various animal corpses into the merciless and violent Feral.
A simple paint scheme using Ash Grey and Fur Brown as the base animal, then hit it with a dark wash for effect. The metal parts are based coated Plate Mail Silver and then given a Red Wash to make it look like Martian metals that my Tripods have. From there, I painted the signature Martian Red Eye on the optics. The bases are simply painted with cheap acrylics for ground effects.
Next up were my Butchers. A Butcher is a human corpse (at least, we hope they were dead before the Martians implanted them) that has been modified with blades, hooks, and other sharp weapons. They shamble about looking for humans to attack and drive out into the open. Here they are.....
I painted their flesh with a light flesh tone (Elven perhaps), and then hit it with a green tone ink. From there I dry-brushed it with a bright green paint called Jungle Green. Next, I painted the clothing with various colors to look like civilians that were transformed. All metal parts were painted like the Ferals, with Plate Mail hit with a Red Tone ink. Once complete, I used a strong tone on all the clothing/hair to finish the model. The signature Martian eye was painted on all the optics. Bases are against just cheap acrylics dabbled on.
Next up was the Martian Jolters/Shockers. These guys use arc-lighting gauntlets as their primary weapons which are fed from batteries implanted in their backs. They are dangerous foes but suffer from a rapid decay rate due to their exposure to the arc-lightning.
They are pretty much painted the same way as the Butchers. I could have probably done more to create the lightning effect on their gloves, cabling, and battery packs. However, I was lazy and just went with an electric blue and a blue tone ink wash on the cables. I probably could have also used a dark tone/black drybrush on the arms to show the burning from the lightning, but opted to stay somewhat uniform to the look of the other foes.
Lastly, I made the Martian Gunners. These lads have had their forearms replaced with a Martian heat-ray type weapon. I looked at the ones on the Tripods and tried to make large, boxy versions to represent the less-advanced Martian tech going into the Gunners. These guys give the Martian cadaver troops a bit of long-ranged firepower against human survivors. They are far from accurate, but can force the humans to keep their heads down while larger Martians move in.
The painting here is identical to the painting on the Butchers. The only exception is that I used bronze on the cabling for the "heat ray" on the Gunner's forearm. They all look rather nice and cohesive as a group, but in play they will mostly hit the table individually.
These guys combined with my existing Martian drones, Tripods, Zombies, and wild dogs will provide a nice selection of foes for my human survivors to face off against! I think I made good use of some left over bits from other projects to make these guys. Waste not, want not!
Next up, I want to expand my selection of Ferals to add other animals besides dogs. One of the inspirations for this project was the idea of a Martian Feral cow hunting down and trying to kill ragged human survivors in the wreckage of a small town. Now, I just need to get my 3D printer fired up to print some cows to convert! Onward!
You can find the rules for Under the Martian Yoke on the Blood and Spectacles Wargame Vault page.
Or purchase all out games at the Blood and Spectacles Publishing Wargames Vault Page!
