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The Epirians will never be my favorites stylistically, but you can't argue their utility, especially since I'm one of the few gamers out there who doesn't currently own a large, standard human trooper force.

And how did it take this long for a company to produce human (yeah, not Tau), standard sci-fi military drones in hard plastic? Wasn't this kind of a no-brainer? An obvious best selling unit? How the heck have GW, Mantic, Dreamforge, etc. avoided doing them all these years?

To Maelstrom's Edge go the spoils.

 Vanguard-13 wrote:

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Drones can get a lot of usage on a tabletop. Not just for this, but in a whole lot of scenarios.

I've been wanting to do an automated facility raid for Mutants & Rayguns, and I think I've found a nice source of automated defenses now.

You got me thinking. Those drones remind me a lot of the drones from Armored Core MOA.

I wonder if an AC table top game exists. That would be fun to play as well! Fully modular player mechs vs each other or Vs AI drones / MTs.

MAN! I am an old fan of the Armored Core series and you're right, they do.

Based on the drones, I have to say I may be going with the Epirians after all and assuming it's like a standard starter box, looking to trade my Karists to get more of them (which based on the responses in this thread, there should definitely be some takers for ).

Heck, I may get two starter boxes and do the trade, and end up with a drone army! That is something I've definitely craved in the past but have never been able to run... until now.

The spider legs are pretty strong. You'd have to exert some force to snap 'em. More likely to bend, even if you accidentally tread on the part... not that I've uh, tested that. No.

Edit: This said, I think it fair warning to say the lug which connects to the body really, really hurts when you lean on it looking for something else you dropped on the floor.

The leg span is pretty broad on these guys and no base tool exists for them right now. We've got the CAD done and it is a fast and easy tool to make, and so it is one of our later stretch goals to make bases a reality for the spider drones. The airborne models will all use those standard flying bases simply due to tooling cost being too much for us to even consider custom bases for them as well.

The rules are quite well laid out in how to deal with models that have no bases. While we'd prefer to have bases on every model for consistency, the practical reality is that we had to choose between especially great plastic detail, or extra bases, and better models are the first choice every time. The stretch goal will hopefully not be too unreasonable to allow us to get the tool completed for the larger notched bases so fingers crossed!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

winterdyne wrote:
As it stands (remember Legoburner has said this sprue is not final), the one sprue makes two of either type, or one of each.

The flying drones use different weapon mount panniers (on the sprue as the inner 4 parts). These have a notch to accept the fan/wing things.

There are several ways magnetising or pinning weapons fit and the legged/flying variants could be done, all relatively trivial if you do a proper dry-fitting run first.

The layout on the sprue is final, it is just the labelling and getting the plastic injection fill perfect that are missing from that preview picture, so it will assemble what you see there and the painted plastics can be considered 'final'.

Regarding leg strength, they look a bit weak but they are close to the ground. I've just tried crushing a spider drone (dont worry winterdyne - an unpainted one ) and the legs simply flex until the body touches the ground. I tried striking it as well and have hurt my hand, but aside from a stress line on the plastic from where it bent and then went back in to position, the legs are fine and can take a pretty heavy beating. Yay HIPS! If they were resin they would have shattered, but plastic FTW!

for the Epirians!

Really interested to see more about the game. So far not really blown away by the models, but we each get our own opinions. I look forward to possibly using my dreamforge miniatures to use instead .

 legoburner wrote:
The airborne models will all use those standard flying bases simply due to tooling cost being too much for us to even consider custom bases for them as well.

Does that mean that the bases for the spiders/engineers couldn't be used by the fireflies? If so, is this due to the firing arcs being incorporated? It's just I prefer the bases to have ground on them, not clear (like in the pictures). Therefore I would naturally just get a couple more engineer/spider bases and use them unless that's gonna mess up the rules.

It has certainly crossed my mind to convert up and use my Crane wardrones from Anvil Industries alongisde these drones . I have really been craving is a new ruleset, and squad-based / 20-30 model size is just what I'm after. I imagine there are a lot of folks in a similar boat! So if the rules are good, and with the models being HIPS, I would bet conversions are welcome (although any good conversion has the weapons / etc clearly represented, which is what I do for all my GW conversions, too).

 legoburner wrote:

May I present - the Epirian Drones:

Those look great. The disembodied torso of a Battletech Mad Dog/Vulture as a quad 'mech or VTOL!
Will purchase a bucketload.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Vermonter wrote:
And how did it take this long for a company to produce human (yeah, not Tau), standard sci-fi military drones in hard plastic? Wasn't this kind of a no-brainer? An obvious best selling unit? How the heck have GW, Mantic, Dreamforge, etc. avoided doing them all these years?

Walking drones? Dreamforge has it's mule and Mantic have 4-legged drones in hard plastic on the way.

Epirians look better next to their robots. I look forward to seeing more of their robotic friends.

Love the drones, They really give the Epirian a totally different feel to what they had before seeing them.

In the novels we had a tonne of fun fleshing out how the Epirians use, fight with, and even form attachments with their robotic charges. For me, they're one of my favourite elements of the faction.

Here's the very beginning of the opening chapter, in which Sheriff Kyle Wynn gets in some shooting practice with his drones.

It was dark, and the night air was warm and dry, carrying the smell of hot sand in from the desert. Wynn stood, his longrifle heavy in his hands, waiting. The metal floor panels of the Sheriff’s office were cool and ridged beneath his bare feet.

Something bright moved at the other end of the long room. Several glowing drones danced and hovered in the air, slashing through the darkness like neon fireflies. Soundlessly, Wynn swung his body and maglock rifle across to face the new target, sighted along the gun’s barrel and squeezed the trigger.

I liked the Epirians to begin with. Except for the hat initially. I was undecided on that to start with, but even that started to grow on me. I really like them now with the drones. You've done an excellent job on fitting the robots and contractors together thematically.

Will you be releasing a Beta Rulebook? For Gamers to test out?

I'm very interested in the setting for Maelstrom's Edge, beyond the first two main factions I can see lots of scope for more irregular forces such as pirates, slavers (just land and people will beg to be 'saved'), smugglers, scavengers, salvage crews, local civil wars, hostile aliens looking for new homeworlds etc.

Hopefully there will be the ability to create such groups in the rules.

 legoburner wrote:

Regarding leg strength, they look a bit weak but they are close to the ground. I've just tried crushing a spider drone (dont worry winterdyne - an unpainted one ) and the legs simply flex until the body touches the ground. I tried striking it as well and have hurt my hand, but aside from a stress line on the plastic from where it bent and then went back in to position, the legs are fine and can take a pretty heavy beating. Yay HIPS! If they were resin they would have shattered, but plastic FTW!

That's really good to hear. I've shattered resin and broken off arms glued onto metal models even. I don't toss my models around or anything, just clumsily manage to knock things off tables sometimes or drop something I was actually trying to be careful with (I never ever ever touch my opponents models for that very reason).

Offhand I was wondering based on the models little clawed footsies, will these things be able to punch holes into surrounding surfaces hard enough to gain purchase and essentially crawl up walls or on ceilings like actual spiders? I realize it would be difficult to show that from a model perspective, but I could see it tactically affecting interesting results with crazy firing angles.

Epirians = Volvo's of the distant future. "They're boxy but they're good"

love the flying drones, like the walkers; lego was right the contractors don't look quite as derpy with the drones around.

Awwww, the drones are soo cute. And wow are they tiny!

I saw the pictures of them alone and thought they were bigger, then they were next to the guys and suddenly they're tiny.

Hollismason wrote:
Will you be releasing a Beta Rulebook? For Gamers to test out?

Yes. It'll be quite a short beta period so that there's no delay in getting the game into people's hands, but a beta version of the rules will be available for kickstarter backers.

I rebember reding that you plan on having 5 factions. Will another faction will make an apparition in the ks ?

Quick base question - If a model like the Spider Drone is supplied with no base, I assume it won't be using one in game, but can I give it a base anyway? Will that screw up the rules or are there liberties in the rule system that allows me to do such a thing?

so lego, my buddy, my boy, my man, what can you tell us about the karists' other units?
I'm pretty excited for this now, and with those drones looking so nice, I have to ask.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
so lego, my buddy, my boy, my man, what can you tell us about the karists' other units?
I'm pretty excited for this now, and with those drones looking so nice, I have to ask.

Well, we do know the Karists are getting some sort of Cthulu esque void monster thing. No idea what the model looks like, although I have a feeling we'll see renders of it soon as the KS is getting very close.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:

 the shrouded lord wrote:
so lego, my buddy, my boy, my man, what can you tell us about the karists' other units?
I'm pretty excited for this now, and with those drones looking so nice, I have to ask.

Well, we do know the Karists are getting some sort of Cthulu esque void monster thing. No idea what the model looks like, although I have a feeling we'll see renders of it soon as the KS is getting very close.

Not just renders

I think of the... 8?... units that are supposed to be in the core game we've seen 5, 6 are supposed to be done I think, and the other two are somewhat close?

Trying to remember exactly what Lego/Yakface said, it was something along that line I believe.

TP^DC Deputy Manager wrote:

 legoburner wrote:
The airborne models will all use those standard flying bases simply due to tooling cost being too much for us to even consider custom bases for them as well.

Does that mean that the bases for the spiders/engineers couldn't be used by the fireflies? If so, is this due to the firing arcs being incorporated? It's just I prefer the bases to have ground on them, not clear (like in the pictures). Therefore I would naturally just get a couple more engineer/spider bases and use them unless that's gonna mess up the rules.

The hex flying bases were used because they offer a nice and easy way to denote the front/rear arc (the base should be set so that the 'points' of the hex are on the right/left side of the model.

While I would love to say that you can swap out the base however you like, frankly bases play to integral a part of the game to allow players to be able to change their size as they see fit. Other companies have sometimes allowed players to change the base size of their models, and it has eventually been abused by some players to gain an advantage in the game.

However, the rules do allow bases of the same size to be swapped out (so you can replace a base with a 3rd party manufacturer's base as long as it is the same diameter). I suppose it would probably be workable to say that the hex base can be swapped out for a standard round base for those people that don't like hex bases and want to remount the flying stand onto something else. In other words, I will look into getting that bit into the final rules.

The Wise Dane wrote:Quick base question - If a model like the Spider Drone is supplied with no base, I assume it won't be using one in game, but can I give it a base anyway? Will that screw up the rules or are there liberties in the rule system that allows me to do such a thing?

Every model must be mounted on a base the same diameter that they are supplied with. However, if a model does not come with a base then it is officially a model without a base (and the rules account for models without a base). However, you are allowed to put a model without a base on a base...but for the purposes of the game you just ignore the base and treat it like a model without a base.

However, as Legoburner mentioned, hopefully the KS will be a huge success and we'll be able to include a base for the Spider Drone!

 yakface wrote:

Every model must be mounted on a base the same diameter that they are supplied with. However, if a model does not come with a base then it is officially a model without a base (and the rules account for models without a base). However, you are allowed to put a model without a base on a base...but for the purposes of the game you just ignore the base and treat it like a model without a base.

However, as Legoburner mentioned, hopefully the KS will be a huge success and we'll be able to include a base for the Spider Drone!

I hope so as it seems quite important. I'd go so far as saying that it's all about that base, about that base...

 warboss wrote:

 yakface wrote:

Every model must be mounted on a base the same diameter that they are supplied with. However, if a model does not come with a base then it is officially a model without a base (and the rules account for models without a base). However, you are allowed to put a model without a base on a base...but for the purposes of the game you just ignore the base and treat it like a model without a base.

However, as Legoburner mentioned, hopefully the KS will be a huge success and we'll be able to include a base for the Spider Drone!

I hope so as it seems quite important. I'd go so far as saying that it's all about that base, about that base...

This user's posting priveleges have been revoked

Gonna resist.... (and after he got BANED, I'm glad I did!)

I dunno if I particularly care, but not having bases for some of the models in the core set is likely to be viewed as an 'incomplete box set' with 'fake stretch goals'. Just be ready to spin that.

Given what I've been reading today about the Eldar codex, I can certainly say I'm very ready to apply money to this venture... now to see more of the factions...


I am ready to play a game written by people not under the stranglehold of middle management who don't play the game...