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Hi all!


I want to introduce myself and give you a little sneak-peek and heads-up on our game and miniatures range that is launching in a couple of weeks time!

I'm Ben Jarvis, mini painter and owner of Megaton Games Ltd, a UK based games company responsible for various things you may have heard of such as the 'Mechabrick' Lego-compatible mecha game which was featured on TV over Christmas last year as well as the 'Etch-Master' photo-etch detailing range which has now had two successful crowd-funding campaigns over the last few years.

We are FINALLY going to be hitting Kickstarter in June with a project we have been working on for over 10 years now... and which we think is going to be pretty spectacularly awesome :-) The 'Armoured Syndicate' concept started out as a range of 32mm scale miniatures, we launch the first two last spring and now have about 8 models on sale already. In June those will be joined by a further seven or eight more characters along with scenery elements and accessories plus some really unique and very cool beta rules for the game written by world-renowned game designer Mark Latham ( who created/worked on: WH40K Dark Heresy, Walking Dead, Sedition Wars, Marvel Universe Mini Game etc etc).

Set in the early 22nd century Armoured Syndicate is all about gangs of mercenaries and massive corporations fighting over scarce resources in the western US and along the Mexican border after much of that region has been abandoned to turn back to desert due to global warming. It is very mech/robot heavy with the mechanical characters all being sentient and not just being pieces of dumb hardware.

The game will be a 'micro-skirmish game' in that it needs very few models to play, we are aiming for 3 or 4 models to be a viable force... it will have a unique 'bank account' aspect to the game-play where loyalty of your forces is dependent on you paying them (and you can bribe opponent's characters to switch sides) as well as traditional combat mechanics. We'll be unveiling more about the game-play over the coming few weeks as we approach the launch of our Kickstarter campaign for the project but in the mean-time... here's a few images (in the attachments to this post) of some of the models including a sneak peek at the new 'Ro-Ro Rabbit' model, a 12ft tall ex-theme park character robot who went rogue and now roams the desert badlands hunting humans with his carousel horse club!


Thanks all!

If you want to get some more info as it is released we are posting daily updates and teasers of the new models and products as well as pages from our awesome Armoured Syndicate comic on our fb page here: https://www.facebook.com/armouredsyndicate/

We are also in the process of putting up the comic and product images of the full miniatures line on our website here: http://www.armouredsyndicate.com



Ben Jarvis

I've picked up some of the armoured syndicate miniatures (Jose and Maria and her mini bot) and can vouch for the quality )

Looks pretty interesting. You might want to put some better pictures up here though. There were some really nice ones on your Facebook page.

~Eric

Thanks folks.....


And yes, there will be a load of really cool images going up over the next couple of weeks, we are just re-photographing the entire model range for the Kickstarter campaign so those will add to it for sure.

More to come soon!


Ben

Very nice! That robot/suit thing reminds me of the OOP Bouncers from Zandris IV. Still kicking myself for not getting those and will have to make sure I don't repeat that mistake here

 MLaw wrote:
Very nice! That robot/suit thing reminds me of the OOP Bouncers from Zandris IV. Still kicking myself for not getting those and will have to make sure I don't repeat that mistake here

If you mean the big mech in the image of the miniature line-up, that's 'El Toro', he was designed by Fil Dunn for the Armoured Syndicate range and is a pretty massive and awesome model!

Here's another image of him..... more coming shortly as we complete all the product photography on the models...

Ben

Ah, Fil Dunn.. That explains why it looks familiar. It seems to be a variation of one of his other designs.
EDIT: He has a few other variations in his store as well (fillbots). I'll not post those but I like the one he's done for your game and hope to get it


That is quite large.

Hi all! Ok.... just 1 week to go now until we kick things off on Kickstarter!

As it has been SUCH a big part of the 3+ years of development on this project, here's a quick intro to the background story behind Armoured Syndicate:

As the 21st century drew to a close and the 22nd century began it became clear that power had shifted. As the world government's grip on power weakened against public unrest, climate change and the increasing scarceness of natural resources, so the power of the corporations grew by equal measure. Slowly, methodically and with an agenda that no one really saw until it was too late, the corporations took control. The mega-corporations had spent nearly a century buying up advanced military subcontractors, buying land, taking control of social media and news outlets until one day there was a dawning realisation that the governments could no longer control the corporations. The drones, the mechs, the advanced hardware used by the world's military forces... was all made, programmed and controlled by the corporations. The populace got all it's information from the news and web-feeds that were owned by the corporations, the corporations were now in control and it was business, not democracy or politics that would now shape the world.
Natural resources were now the only thing worth fighting for. Unlike the governments who justified wars on humanitarian grounds, the corporations were much less afraid to reveal their true motivations. They needed fuel, power, minerals, land, water or they would loose their power, at first it was about protecting and securing what they had. The traditional rules of business stood, for a while. Assets and commodities were bought and sold, mergers and acquisitions drove the global economy forwards and the military forces now under the control of the largest corporations kept everyone in check, but it could never last.
In 2122 the first case of 'hostile acquisition' was recorded. Dromeda Corp, a massive US software developer (and owner of one of the largest military technology development facilities in the World) used an unprecedented 'army' of it's combat mechs to surround and then take control of a rival corporation's solar energy farm in New Mexico following a dispute over supply of electricity to one of Dromeda's facilities nearby. The floodgates had been opened and a new era had begun. Smaller mining and processing companies realised they were at risk and began retro-fitting their industrial mechs with defensive and offensive systems. The larger corporations began eyeing up each other's land and resources and many lines were drawn in the sand as conventional business to business relations broke down.
Armoured Syndicate is set in the south western US and along the Mexican border, largely now desert and abandoned settlements due to global warming, as the fight for resources begins to escalate into a state of civil war. The mechs, bots and mechanicals are the characters and the stars of this story with humans playing a supporting role. The robots are all autonomous and to a greater or lesser extent, intelligent and possibly even in some cases, self-aware. Massive 200 ton mining mechs try to defend their owner's land against the smaller but more advanced military drones of the ever expanding mega-corps. The larger corporations look to secure their own futures by taking whatever infrastructure and resources they need to keep themselves operating and expanding. In amongst the melee the more resourceful 'locals' try to profit from the new world order in any way they can leading to a dangerous mix of mercenaries, gamblers, businessmen and doomsday-prepers 'proved right' entering the fray... trying to make a buck, and stay alive.

And to help 'paint a picture' of the game environment, here's some of the art that has been commissioned for the initial launch:

More info and pics of the models coming shortly!...

Ben

We are LIVE on Kickstarter and over 150% funded in about 18hrs!

We have already unlocked two stretch goals and are well on our way towards the third!

One of the key things about the campaign is that we have a £1 pledge level which lets you then buy ANY item in the campaign as an add-on. I am always frustrated by the campaigns that force you to buy a whole army just to get the one or two models you want!

In addition to the awesome miniatures there is also a range of very cool resin post-apoc scenery available as part of the campaign... more updates coming shortly!

Ben
[url]
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1752543891/armoured-syndicate[/url]

To add....


We have so far broken two stretch-goals, these include the 'RoRo Rabbit' ex-theme park robot character (who is super-creepy awesome!) and an exclusive sheet of EtchMaster photo-etched brass scenic details too... we are hopefully going to hit the third goal by later today!

There's some lovely stuff here. I've got some painted up over in my blog and gallery:

I've used the brass on a couple of things too. Good stuff!

I'll concur, I've got a few of them too, very nice indeed

What are the brass etchings like keep meaning to pester for some, but the range is awesome for AS

We are just in the process of re-doing the Etch-Master website at present but we ran a small Kickstarter for a load of new sheets of the brass details and bases in March... (I am biased as creator of them of course) but they are very cool for replacing swords, shields etc on miniatures as well as adding signage, razorwire etc to bases and scenery.

We've supplied sheets for several other Kickstarters now including for DreaBall for Mantic, for Infamy and others as well as doing two campaigns of our own... they do quite well, it's certainly a growing idea that people are really starting to embrace once they realise what can be done with them :-)



Ben

Guys,

I urge you to check this out - I have several of the miniatures, which are just sublime

Next stretch goal is busted open too - shop cut from a shipping container. Damn fine.

We will be revealing some very cool stretch-goal miniatures and some other cool add-ons today! Watch this space!........



Ben

There's some very nice stuff there - will be watching with interest.

Doing a full reveal of some new stretch-goal miniatures later this evening but for now.....

here's a little size comparison featuring two of our existing models, Maria and El Toro... and two new ones, El Becerro and the D1220 Tarantula.... very much looking forward to the Tarantula as it's going to be a massive and very imposing figure and give Dromeda corp some real firepower :-)

More to come....

Ben

PS: here's the link again: [url]
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1752543891/armoured-syndicate[/url]

We just announced the results of our painting competition! A LOAD of people submitted gorgeous versions of our models for the comp... but here's the four winners:

1st Place: Norman Ealand
2nd Place: Markus Stroh
3rd Place: Russel Scott
4th Place: Christian Woodward


Thanks to everyone who entered!!


Ben

You can get your own copies of the models (and our new releases) via the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1752543891/armoured-syndicate

 Armoured-Syndicate wrote:
We just announced the results of our painting competition! A LOAD of people submitted gorgeous versions of our models for the comp... but here's the four winners:

1st Place: Norman Ealand
2nd Place: Markus Stroh
3rd Place: Russel Scott
4th Place: Christian Woodward


Thanks to everyone who entered!!


Ben

You can get your own copies of the models (and our new releases) via the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1752543891/armoured-syndicate

Congrats, there is some great painting skills on show

Just under 4 days left of the campaign!

Just over 2 days to go now!

Last chance to grab some of the cool mech models, scenery or just pledge for £1 to get access to the pledge-manager!


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1752543891/armoured-syndicate

Last few hours on this one

the minis are really, really nice from the ones I've got so if you're interested you're not going to get them cheaper