Imperial Assault: Tyrants of Lothal

After last week's rebels, here are the other figures from FFG's latest IA release, Tyrants of Lothal.

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Death Troopers

Hondo Ohnaka

Tress Hacnua

CT-1701 'Wildfire'

Star Wars Rebels

I've painted more Imperial Assault figures, for which FFG have used the Rebels cartoon series. The cartoon itself isn't bad, and uses some original 1970s Star Wars concept design work from Ralph McQuarrie.

Star Wars Rebels

Ezra Bridger, Jedi apprentice

Kanan Jarrus, Jedi

Sabine Wren, Mandalorian artist

Zeb Orrelios, muscle

Chewbacca concepts, 1975

Here's Spectre Cell with Hera and Chopper:

Spectre Cell

And here are some Loth-cats, felines found on the main Rebels planet Lothal. Their ears resemble the McQuarrie-inspired rock formations on the planet.

Loth-cats

McQuarrie ~1980

Imperial Assault- Ahsoka Tano and friends

I've finishing with the latest bunch of heroes from Imperial Assault, and I quite like them.

Firstest with the mostest is fan favourite Ahsoka Tano. She first appeared as an annoying young teen and Anakin Skywalker’s protégée in the Clone Wars animated series. She (and the series) later improved and matured, culminating in her breaking with the Jedi path having been accused of a crime she didn’t commit. She returned in the Rebels series as a grown woman, and it is this aspect of her that I have painted. She senses something familiar about Darth Vader...

Ahsoka Tano

She was great fun to paint. She’s got an interesting colour palette, and some fine details on her front armour. Her head tails look better than they do in the blown-up images. She carries white lightsabers (in that distinctive but questionable dual backhand grip), which I painted a very pale glowing grey and I think came out OK. I decided not to do any significant OSL, as I struggle with just white and paler surfaces.

I didn’t feel so enthused by the next hero, Jarrod Kelvin. He strikes me as an impractical Wolverine-wannabe.

Jarrod Kelvin

In contrast, I do like Ko-Tun Feralo. She seems an eminently practical Rebel.

Ko-Tun Feralo

Finally, I love Drokkatta. Consensus is that she’s female, and I’m not going to question a Wookie demolitions expert. With her wacky goggles, grenade launcher and thermal detonators, I can’t wait to get her into battle.

Drokkatta

Heart of the Empire rebel heroes

Imperial Assault- Heart of the Empire Imperials

Heart of the Empire is the latest expansion for Imperial Assault. Here are the Imperial forces from that release, starting with the reason for it all:

Emperor Palpatine

Finally, a chance to use the Royal Guard!

Next, some Riot Troopers. I really like these figures, although I'm unaware of any canonical source. I've neatened up the bases since this picture was taken.

Riot Troopers

The next figures are Sentry Droids from the Rebels series. They're a little prone to twisting at the waist, but a simple paint job serves well.

Sentry Droids

The All Terrain Defence Pod (AT-DP) is a bit of a crowd pleaser, standing even taller than my AT-ST!

AT-DP

AT-DP

Finally, not Empire, but some mercenary scum of the shapeshifting Clawdite variety. They're based on the forgettable Episode II bounty hunter Zam Wesell. I wasn't really enthused by these figures so they got a quick paintjob only.

Clawdite Shapeshifters

Don't be fooled- she's an alien shapeshifter!

Next week: Rebel heroes!

Imperial Assault- Maul

Maul- formerly Darth Maul- is back from being cruelly bisected by Obi-Wan. Through powerful fan armour he has recovered and been grafted cybernetic legs. In Rebels, Maul disguises himself as an enfeebled shell of his former self.

I painted him off a red undercoat. I carefully did his skin markings in black. The first photo is untouched- it came out slightly overexposed giving a great effect to his signature dual-blades lightsaber. It is actually more pink, as can be seen in the other shots.

Overall, I’m happy with how he came out.

Star Wars Legions scale disappointment

I had a big rant I was going to post here, but that's not really my style. Instead, I'll illustrate my disappointment with Fantasy Flight Game's newly announced game with two pictures. Both show Legion figures on the left, and Imperial Assault figures on the right.

If they were the same, I'd be into it. If they were vastly different, e.g. 15mm, I'd be interested. But these are so similar, yet incompatible to my taste, so I'm going to give this a pass.

Imperial Assault- Rogue Two

I attended a Store Championship Imperial Assault tournament last weekend. I last went to one of these a bit over a year ago, and got thoroughly trounced, coming ninth of nine with a Stormtrooper list. I do not play competitive IA at all, so based on that previous experience I modified my expectations and went along to have a good time and learn. I made a Rebel list, which I have called Rogue Two.

Rogue Two

Match 1- Shielded (Nal Hutta swamps) vs Ben's Scum

I was busy re-learning how to play, so forgot to take a picture! Ben had a droid list, with IG-88, HKs, R2-D2, C-3P0, BT-1, and a jawa. I split my team up and got a few VPs from objectives, going down 42-32.

Match 2- Gaining Favor (Anchorhead Cantina) vs Paul's Rebels 

This was the first time I have come across the Smuggler Box tactic, where a few key characters use passive abilities to turn themselves into a hard-to-kill defensive block. Luke Skywalker was not in the box, and I was able to whittle him down and kill him before losing 46-25.

Smuggler Box on the right, Luke at the intersection.

Match 3- Anchorhead Cantina vs Andrew's Rebels

A similar looking team to my last opponent (but no Smuggler Box), and we had an attritional fight. Luke was doing the best to replicate his daddy and murder my troopers in a corridor, whilst I was inspired by my killing of him in the last match. I almost took him down, but he played a card that saved his bacon and gave him the win 40-24. I don't know if I should have gone for the objectives, but murderous Luke was in my way regardless.

Luke won't go down!

Match 4- Spoils of Crime (Jabba's Palace) vs Josh's Scum

This was pretty cool- I got to play against a Scum list containing Jabba, in his own palace. My opponent ran around killing my guys, but left Jabba alone in his starting location. I saw the opportunity and stormed him, taking down the crime lord in a hail of fire- but it wasn't enough to give me a win and I lost 43-25.

Rebels take down Jabba. I loved the jawa conversion.

So, I had four losses, and came tenth out of ten. But I was already expecting a poor result, so it didn't pain me too much and I learnt a lot about the competitive side of IA. The games were fast, usually around 40 minutes, which is nice. My opponents were very obliging to explain afterwards just how they were able to do so well.

IA Skirmish, like X-Wing, is much more of a game than a tactical simulation. It has trends as different models come out- IG-88 and Jedi Luke are currently atop 'the meta'. I prefer the narrative campaign, but it is good to try the other mode of play as well.

Rogue Two were OK, but not spectacular. I did better than last time, actually getting scores in double figures! I know I missed opportunities to really get Rogue Two working together well and using all their abilities to the utmost, but I also feel they were a bit lacking in damage output. Something to think about for my next tournament!

Bonus game- Flick 'em up

In the skirmish arena, I also got to play Flick 'em up. This is a dexterity western game, where you physically flick 'bullets' at your opponents cowboys to knock them down. It's visceral fun- you groan when you just miss, and sigh with relief when your bandit teeters but does not fall. Much more relatable than rolling a die.

Colourised period photo of lawman shooting at bandit.

It has some clever features- you flip your cowboys' hats to show when they have activated, and the town hall clock shows the turn progression.

Star Wars: BT-1 and 0-0-0

Marvel publishes a Darth Vader comic, and on the whole it's not too bad. Set between Episodes IV and V, Vader feels the Emperor's displeasure and is trying to work out who the pilot was who evaded him and took out the Death Star. He enlists some allies, in the form of unimaginative Artoo/ Threepio knockoffs, BT-1 and 0-0-0.

BT-1 and 0-0-0

BT-1 (Beetee) is an blastomech- an astromech with a hidden arsenal. He loves destruction and often has to be restrained from excess. Very easy to paint.

0-0-0 (Triple Zero) is a protocol droid with Threepio's mannerisms and a penchant for torture and sadism. I used blue and black washes for an oily gunmetal sheen. The eyes were a struggle.

Despite being a lazy twist on Artoo and Threepio, BT-1 and 0-0-0 do have character and often steal the scene. I have seen gloss black interpretations of them, but I see them as metallic.

Art by FFG

As a bonus, here's a jawa! He really came to life when I painted the eyes.

Marvel Star Wars Comics

Star Wars: Hera and Chopper

Hera Syndulla is a strong leader and skilled pilot. I struggled with her orange flight suit, but really enjoyed her overall. She's got a good colour scheme, and her skin is an interesting tone. I freehanded some concentric rings onto her lekku, which I'm pretty happy with.

C1-10P makes R2-D2 look like a model of decorum. He's a grubby astromech who is constantly grumbling, and his defining moment is when he callously pushes a rival droid out of an airlock in front of witnesses. There are Reddit threads about how many people Chopper has killed... I'm a fan, and he too was fun to paint.

Both these characters got cameos in Rogue One. I do hope I can complete the rest of the Ghost's crew.

Addendum:

I've been asked to show Hera's lekku patterns, and took the opportunity to show her face with better lighting. The patterns are a rough simplification, but I think they suffice.

Imperial Assault- Stormtrooper specialists

I finished off the last of my Imperial Assault miniatures I had sitting around. It's a bit of a slog painting white armour...

First up are the Jet Troopers. I have to say, I quite like the idea of them zipping about the battlefield, even if they will never hit anything. These troopers are based on a Disney ride! The colours are taken from the invaluable 501st Costume Reference Library.

Jet Troopers

Next, a dewback patrol. The officer has the orange pauldron and the trooper has a bendy shock rod. I think the riders are strangely anachronistic in this age of hyperspace, antigravity, and lasers. The dewbacks look rather placid but pack quite a bite.

Dewbacks

Captain Terro

Dewback rider

 Finally, I had two more ISB infiltrators to empty out the plastic pile.

ISB Infiltrators

I'm looking forward to the next wave of releases in a few months!