Caledonia Coming Together
I have been watching an excess of airbrushing videos recently. YouTube's next recommended video has been a great guide. One of the videos last night was an old one from Kenny of Next Level Painting. He made the following point (summarized):
An airbrush is a great tool to help you paint faster. What makes the difference is what you so with that extra time. If you don't do anything with that time, it will only look like you airbrushed your miniature.
It is an obvious truth once I thought about it. It is noticeable when a miniature has only been painted by an airbrush, even when done well.
On the painting table recently has been the force of crazed Scotsmen known as the Caledonian Highlander Army from Infinity. They are being painted as a response to the difficulty of playing against the Steel Phalanx I currently have painted.
My current selection of Steel Phalanx.
It should be noted that Steel Phalanx is cool. An army of AI recreated heroes from the Iliad, they are a mix of high technology and brute force.
They are also incredibly difficult for a new player to play against.
The Steel Phalanx has a host of special rules that give them a large advantage on the battlefield. They can easily form multiple link teams. Their most common trooper, the Myrmidon, has an Optical Disruption Device (ODD) that makes it very difficult to hit.
Myrmidons. The core of Steel Phalanx and some of the most difficult troopers to play against.
They punch you in the mouth and easily dodge your counter punches. That makes the not very fun to play against until you have experience against them.
Caledonia has a similar spirit. They are angry Scots and Englishmen who want nothing more than to punch you in the mouth. The difference is that the Highlanders do not care enough to dodge your counter-punch.
All of my painted Caledonian Highlander Army as of September, 2017.
When I started on the Caledonians, my goal was to put together a furious (and furry) horde of kilted berserkers with some specialist support. Multiple Dog Warriors, Highlanders, units with Frenzy, and wonderfully dynamic (if uncomfortably constipated) sculpts define the faction for me.
I find that the only disappointing part of the faction is the reliance on the worst line trooper in the game, the Caledonian Volunteer. All of the Volunteer's stats are laughably bad. They only have a Paramedic specialist option. The only interesting weapon load out is a dirt cheap HMG.
Here's two of the recent Caledonian Volunteers I painted. I did the green of their jackets using an airbrush and light shading. These two made the quote from Kenny more relevant.
The real problem I have with Volunteers is that they don't embody the faction. Haqq gets absurd WIP 14 Doctor+ directly fitting their lore. Fusiliers are better shots, but a consumer society (and potentially interference from ALEPH) has weakened their willpower. USARF Grunts have heavy armor and are shock immune from their years defending the wall.
Volunteers are cheap and bad; not the angry, scrappy survivors from a land rich with Tesium that I would expect. They should have armor 3, access to T2 weapons on base profiles, or even simply Frenzy and something like Natural Born Warrior. Instead, they are the very definition of cheerleader, but in a faction that does not have good enough units to justify them.
#ResculptCaledonia2016
Volunteer complaints aside, I finally have a list painted that I think will be solid for most ITS missions. It is formed around three Dog Warriors who are responsible for shredding link teams, and utilizes William Wallace to provide free Coordinated Orders to move up the table. The list should be a blast to play, but has obvious weaknesses. Sounds classically Caledonian.
The first Caledonian list. Scylla is my Wardriver Hacker. She certainly has the sass for it.
