Botwar - Beastlords - Stegarous

Stegarous, aka the Mane of the Sun, has the alternative form of a Flare Dragon. Excellent stats and expensive in points, as all Beastlords are. Has the Armoured Might special ability. Rolls a shield die as a critical die. Also immune to Mind Control and Mind Read with "Pure of Purpose" and only requires a single energy cube to maintain their super ability with "Superior Being".

Primed black, metal rough drybrush, Cygnar Base Blue, mix Cygnar Base Blue/Menoth White Highlight, Sulfuric Yellow, Khador Red Base, Coal Black, mix Coal Black/Mentoth White Highlight, Army Painter Gloss, GW Nuln Oil pinwashing. Base made with Basius Imperial pad and painted black, heavily drybrushed dark brown, drybrushed brown, lightly drybrushed light brown/yellow, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, lightly drybrushed yellow, rim pinted Khador Red Base, and name of model written on rim with silver fine paint pen.

Botwar - Beastlords - Tyrannous

Tyrannous, aka the Dragon of Rage, has the alternative form of a Rage Dragon. Excellent stats and expensive in points, as all Beastlords are. Has the Armoured Might special ability. Can re-roll two dice in close combat. Also immune to Mind Control and Mind Read with "Pure of Purpose" and only requires a single energy cube to maintain their super ability with "Superior Being".

Primed black, metal rough drybrush, Khador Red Highlight, mix Khador Red Highlight/Menoth White Highlight, Sulfuric Yellow, Khador Red Base, Murderous Magenta, Coal Black, mix Coal Black/Mentoth White Highlight, Army Painter Gloss, GW Nuln Oil pinwashing. Base made with Basius Imperial pad and painted black, heavily drybrushed dark brown, drybrushed brown, lightly drybrushed light brown/yellow, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, lightly drybrushed yellow, rim pinted Khador Red Base, and name of model written on rim with silver fine paint pen.

Botwar - Beastlords - Arkynor

Arkynor, aka the Forest Beast, has the alternative form of a Spined Dragon. Excellent stats and expensive in points, as all Beastlords are. Has the Armoured Might special ability. In close combat opponents roll one less shield die and rolls a shield die as a critical die. Also immune to Mind Control and Mind Read with "Pure of Purpose" and only requires a single energy cube to maintain their super ability with "Superior Being".

Primed black, metal rough drybrush, Beaten Purple, mix Beaten Purple/Menoth White Highlight, Sulfuric Yellow, Khador Red Base, Murderous Magenta, Coal Black, mix Coal Black/Mentoth White Highlight, Army Painter Gloss, GW Nuln Oil pinwashing. Base made with Basius Imperial pad and painted black, heavily drybrushed dark brown, drybrushed brown, lightly drybrushed light brown/yellow, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, lightly drybrushed yellow, rim pinted Khador Red Base, and name of model written on rim with silver fine paint pen.

Botwar - Beastlords - Tricerous

Tricerous, aka the Searing Flame, has the alternative form of a Fire Dragon. Excellent stats and expensive in points, as all Beastlords are. Has the Ram Attack special ability. Can re-roll two dice in close combat, rolls a shield die as a critical die, and with ranged attacks ignores Obscure and Terrain dice at close range. Also immune to Mind Control and Mind Read with "Pure of Purpose" and only requires a single energy cube to maintain their super ability with "Superior Being".

Primed black, metal rough drybrush, Trollblood Highlight, mix Trollblood Highlight/Menoth White Highlight, Sulfuric Yellow, Khador Red Base, Murderous Magenta, Coal Black, mix Coal Black/Mentoth White Highlight, Army Painter Gloss, GW Nuln Oil pinwashing. Base made with Basius Imperial pad and painted black, heavily drybrushed dark brown, drybrushed brown, lightly drybrushed light brown/yellow, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, lightly drybrushed yellow, rim pinted Khador Red Base, and name of model written on rim with silver fine paint pen.

Bot Wars - Beastlords - Parasolar

Parasolar, aka the Unstoppable, has the alternative form of a Rhino Dragon. Excellent stats and expensive in points, as all Beastlords are. Has the Ram Attack special ability. Can re-roll a die in close combat. Also immune to Mind Control and Mind Read with "Pure of Purpose" and only requires a single energy cube to maintain their super ability with "Superior Being".

Primed black, metal rough drybrush, Iosian Green, mix Iosian Green/Menoth White Highlight, Sulfuric Yellow, Khador Red Base, Cygnar Blue Highlight, mix Cygnar Blue Highlight/Menoth White Highlight, Coal Black, mix Coal Black/Mentoth White Highlight, Army Painter Gloss, GW Nuln Oil pinwashing. Base made with Basius Imperial pad and painted black, heavily drybrushed dark brown, drybrushed brown, lightly drybrushed light brown/yellow, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, lightly drybrushed yellow, rim pinted Khador Red Base, and name of model written on rim with silver fine paint pen.

Bot War

Bot War is a miniature skirmish game set in the era of the mid-80's and the theme is strongly influenced by the cartoons that were on TV. The game company is basically a one-man show in Australia (Anthony Mallett), the rules are simple, solid, with complexity for veteran gamers, and his miniatures are very nicely designed and made. His customer service is excellent. The game's scale is 10mm. The factions are:

Transformers-like factions: Valiants (Autobots), Deceivers (Decepticons), Beastlords (Dinobots), Infesters (Insecticons) and Trashers (Junkicons).

Human Factions: Democracy (G.I.Joe and M.A.S.K), C.O.I.L.S. (Cobra), Red Star Nation (Dino-Riders and Soviets)

Non-Human: Overlords (Quintessons, Allicon, and Sharkicons) and Atlanticans (mix of transformers and Atlanteans).

The game is for two or more players. Average games are 80 points and every model has a point value, from single digit cost to 25 or more for potent models. There are also upgrades that can be purchased to fill the points decided upon for the game. An average game will have 5 to 10 models. Once you and your opponent select the models you are using, a scenario is determined. Games are on a three by three foot table. 

The rules and model cards are free to download from the Bot War website of Trader's Galaxy, you just need to make an account. Model cards have various statistics and specific model rules. These include Strategy rating (SR), Movement in inches (M), purple Attack dice for ranged attacks (RA) and close combat attacks (CA), Shield Dice rolled against attacks (SA), Damage that can be taken (D), and energy cubes that generated at the start of each turn. Each model generally also has some abilities and one super ability.

During a turn, first the cubes each model generates is added to a pool that is redistributed to your models. Then models activate in order of SR from lowest to highest. In case of a tie for SR, good guy faction models go first. If both sides are good or bad, roll a die and that die will be the deciding factor in future turns for those tied models.

When a model activates it can move, conduct a ranged attack, close combat attack, or special ability in any order. Moving and attacking costs one energy cube each and power boosting during an attack (ranged, close, or shield) costs an additional energy cube. A maximum of two activations can be done by each model in a turn.

I have models for a few factions, purchased through my local game store last year, some more during a Boxing Day sale, and a few more to fill out my factions recently from the Trader's Galaxy recently. I just finished the Beastlord "Hammer of the One" box set and three Valliants. I have a bunch of other Valliants, a handful of Deceivers, all the Infesters and Trashers, most of the Democracy, and a few Atlanticans (it was a really good Boxing Day sale). In the next few weeks I will post what I have done so far and later this year paint up the Infesters. I will also show my models in action in a few brief battle reports.

"The Masters" Brush Cleaner and Preserver

This product has been a great rejuvenator of my older brushes. I recommend it for all artists, whether miniature, terrain, or canvas painters.  

It is quite simple to use. Available locally at Gauntlet Games in small size and Opus in all sizes.

I have been using this for a few months but a little goes a long way.

Enlightened / Covenant of Antarctica - Land Based units

Here are my land based units of the Enlightened/Covenant of Antarctica forces, for the Dystopian Wars game. From smallest to largest are: 44 Xenophon walkers, 12 Colossus walkers, three Janus Infantry portal walkers, Nine Orpheus Drone Controller tanks, 16 Socrates bombards, 24 Atticus Medium walkers, 12 Scorpios Tank Hunter walkers, four Archimedes Heavy walkers, one Callimachus Time Dilation orb, and one Herodotus class mobile airfield. The SAS planes were already painted before. Here are my Sea (older Spartan and newer Warcradle), Air, and Fortifications that I have built in the last few months.

It is unknown what Warcradle, the current holders of the Dystopian Wars IP, will do with the land based game but have hinted at it being 15mm scale (1:100) once they make it. Unfortunately the older models are 1:1200 scale so unless I change the scale for playing the land game, with friends who have the same models I might have to use them for something else. I can use them for my Horizon Wars/Hardwar tabletop games and role playing games though. Its also nice to paint something different. The older second edition rules, when made by Spartan Games, are available on the Warcradle website here: https://blog.warcradle.com/spartan-games-archive

Covenant of Antarctica - Herodotus Class Mobile Airfield

For the Covenant of Antarctica/Enlighted faction in Dystopian Wars, I have painted one Herodotus class mobile airfield. It was painted the same as my Xenophon small walkers with the addition of Arcane blue for the windows, a little cheap black on parts of the legs and the large door aft of the walker, and Cygnar Yellow for the leg mounted gun barrels. There are no rules for them in the third edition of the game.

In the second edition, they had a turn radius of three inches, slow, and can launch nine wings of aircraft/SAS tokens. It also provides fuel reserves, combat coordinator against aerial units, provides swarm tactics, and a level three shield generator. For weapons it has port and stbd firing boadside guns, a forward mounted particle accelerator that is brutal at close range, and 360 degree missile launchers that can fire at extreme range all the way to close in. Deployed in units of one model. They are nearly five times the cost of a regular Atticus walker.

Covenant of Antarctica - Callimachus Time Dilation Orb (land)

For the Covenant of Antarctica/Enlighted faction in Dystopian Wars, I have painted one Callimachus Time Dilation Orb, land based. They were painted the same as my Xenophon small walkers with the addition of Arcane blue for the windows. There are no rules for them in the third edition of the game.

In the second edition, they had a turn radius of zero, were slow, and had different abilities depending on the top center option chosen. If it was the alpha model it has a dilation generator and a teleport generator, both of which provided excellent support and surprise to their opponent's plans. The beta model had a random strength energy beam that got more powerful the closer you were to it with improved AP/AA and close combat statistics plus a shield generator and time flow generator. Deployed in units of one model. They are four times the cost of a regular Atticus walker.

Covenant of Antarctica - Archimedes Heavy Walker

For the Covenant of Antarctica/Enlighted faction in Dystopian Wars, I have painted 4 Archimedes heavy walkers. They were painted the same as my Xenophon small walkers with the addition of Arcane blue for the window as well as Frostbite and Khador Red for the missiles around the center turret. There are no rules for them in the third edition of the game.

In the second edition, they had a turn radius of zero, two energy turrets (top and bottom) of fantastic long range strength with 360 degree arcs, excellent rocket battery with 360 degree arc, two claw guns with 90 degree forward arc, great AA/AP defense, crushing impact and hull breaker for boardings, internal generator (2), and can add a disruption generator. Deployed in units of one model. They are four times the cost of a regular Atticus walker.

Covenant of Antarctica - Skorpios Heavy Tank Hunter Walker

For the Covenant of Antarctica/Enlighted faction in Dystopian Wars, I have painted 12 Skorpios heavy hunter walkers. They were painted the same as my Xenophon small walkers with the addition of Arcane blue for the window, no yellow, and cheap black for the undercarriage. There are no rules for them in the third edition of the game.

In the second edition, they had a turn radius of zero, fixed foward long lance gun of fantastic strength, internal generator (2), and can be deployed in units of two to three models. They are double the cost of a regular Atticus walker though.