Beyond the Gates of Antares: The Ongoing News & Rumors Thread

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**Thraxas Of Turai**

Very nice rundown on the rules Judgedoug, have read them a few times now and that is a very good run down of the.

@Vermonter/Bobtheinquisitor: The Concord troopers scale really well with Deadzone Rebs from Mantic, a near perfect match.

**Warhams-77**

Thanks, Judgedoug, for the rules summary and your impressions from playing it.

**judgedoug**

Vermonter wrote:
warboss wrote:
For instance, I see and recognize the effort and detail in that Isorian Nuhu but I'm not a fan of the look or the nomenclature. Also, the female bormoite looks alit less cartoony Thing villain than the males.

Something about the NuHu gives me a Dune vibe, not sure quite why. Maybe the decadent ruling order thing that the model implies. I presume the Freeborn are intended to evoke Herbert's Fremen?

Perhaps, but the Freeborn (slang name btw, I forget off hand their actual name) run a mercantile empire and have no particular worlds - just a bajillion trade/cargo/generation ships.

The "normal" humans of the Panhuman Concord and Isorian Senatex are all infinitely more evolved than we are, tens of thousands of years of evolution plus nanospores and nanites in the atmosphere and within their bloodstream and brain, etc, connecting all the humans together under IMTel. The NuHu are an even further evolution of these already mega evolved humans. Probably the evolutionary step closest to transhumanism. So they definitely aren't decadent. Actually the Panhuman Concord is on the rise and experiencing a golden age - there's no grimdark here - total opposite in fact, it's a pretty awesome future.

If Warlord is listening please please commission some people to write some novels and stories, the background in Antares is pretty much the most interesting thing I've seen in a miniatures game, like, ever.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Sounds very much like this universe written about by John Meaney

http://www.amazon.co.uk/To-Hold-Infinity-John-Meaney/dp/0553505882

(really good, give it a read)

**Thraxas Of Turai**

The first of the "How To Play" videos.

#1 Order Dice.

**wildger**

I really appreciate his effort to promote the game.

**Talking Banana**

Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
The Concord troopers scale really well with Deadzone Rebs from Mantic, a near perfect match.

@Thraxas - Which means they'd be an excellent match for Sedition Wars miniatures as well, as those are pretty much precisely Rebs scaled. Sounds like the Concord are very 28mm, which is no bad thing. I hate to trouble you further, but could you put up a comparison shot with some Rebs and / or Sedition Wars minis? But if it's a bother, please don't worry about it.

@Bob - I had a look at your gallery; thanks for posting those Glorlon pics. Now I'm really hoping that they'll eventually make retail. I wish more companies would dive into really alien looking creatures more readily. I know it's considered a risk, since the design has to hit a nerve or you've invested in a dud, but this is sci-fi we're talking about. There are plenty of sci fi gamers who are creature fanatics, and for all the Star Trek aliens, also plenty of miniature races that are very distinctively alien looking. I know that whenever good quality hard plastic Daleks get released, it's going to cause a riot.* Frp games currently lists the Glorlons as arriving this month, but they're the only store I can find that lists Total Extinction for pre-order, so who knows?

*Is this a subtle dig at Gates of Antares that someone better jump all over fast? Maybe. The Ghar battlesuits, although technically post-human, are exactly the kind of weird, alien forms I love. So I do want them to get into true aliens at some point, but they've done me a big favor with those battlesuits so far. If only the Ghar Outcasts hadn't gone the Ork / comical route, they'd be perfection. And I seem to be one of the few here who actually likes the Boromites, particularly the Rock riders.

@ Judgedoug, I've noticed that for all your hamfisted, melonheaded support of GoA, you never mention the Boromites. Are they not to your taste? Just curious. But objectively speaking, if you don't like the Boromites, then you can't claim to like any faction or aspect of this game at all, so consider your answer carefully.

But I'm still committed to getting those Ghar battlesuits, and perhaps even buying into the starter set if the Concord fit in well enough with the stuff I already have. I probably would have already invested in it if I weren't over-budget for miniature purchases. I think the starter set could use more variety - Six Ghar battlesuits and a bunch of Concord soldier sprues doesn't have nearly the unit variety of MEdge, or Dark Vengeance. But they are well-designed miniatures.

Here's a question for anyone in the know: Are all of the Gates of Antares digitally sculpted? It seems most of them are, but are there any exceptions? I ask because I'm starting to tire of the wave of digital sculpts coming in. I think some companies do very good work - MKultra studios did great work on Mantic's Cyphers and Sentinel Games' Glorlons. But hand-sculpting, when well done (that's the key for everything, of course), invests minis with a different kind of character and life. I think both approaches have their strengths, and ideally would like to see a healthy blend of the two rather than have one completely supplant the other.

Anyhow, where does Antares stand?

**Thraxas Of Turai**

Sure thing, just a quick and poorly lit shot for you. Note the GW base on the Concord mini though.

Spoiler:

**Warhams-77**

I have not seen the Faction Overview-video being posted here also

I like how Mr. Priestley warms up and then switches into a storytelling mode and brings the background of Gates of Antares to life

There seems to be a bit of a sound problem around 8:10, careful with headphones it gets much louder

Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Boromites? I think they are nice. They remind me of Ben from the Fantastic Four

**Talking Banana**

Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
Sure thing, just a quick and poorly lit shot for you. Note the GW base on the Concord mini though.

Spoiler:

You certainly deliver fast. My thanks for the comparison shot. It was the final straw.

I've placed an order for the xilos horizon, so I'll soon be able to start contributing helpful opinions on the product instead of just jabbering.

Incidentally, NWS online gaming has the best price I've seen for it yet: $69.99. (Thanks for the reference, Judgedoug.) You pay a hefty shipping charge on top of that (yep, even within the USA), but even so it beats any other listing I've seen so far.

Just in case anyone else is on the edge of investing in this and needed a little discount push.

**judgedoug**

Vermonter wrote:
@ Judgedoug, I've noticed that for all your hamfisted, melonheaded support of GoA, you never mention the Boromites. Are they not to your taste? Just curious. But objectively speaking, if you don't like the Boromites, then you can't claim to like any faction or aspect of this game at all, so consider your answer carefully.

I honestly ~~don't like the Boromites at all~~ LOVE THE BOROMITES WITH ALL OF MY HEART, but I have a couple units from earlier this year so I'm going to ~~try to trade them to a local guy who likes Boromites for store credit or other minis I may want~~ CONTINUE TO LOVE THEM FOREVER

I love the way the Algoryn look, like Klingons in powered armor, so they're going to be my main dudes (already have a couple AI squads, need to get some command and support options), but my favorite background fiction is with the Isorian Senatex so once they get released I know I'm going to buy them all. I'm painting up my starter set plastics to donate to the FLGS for display and demos (well, trade for credit) BUT OBVIOUSLY I LOVE EVERYTHING EQUALLY

**BobtheInquisitor**

Vermonter, you had a look but didn't post anything? I am distraught. And Judgedoug sent me a link to that site, too. I thought I was the only one... I'll probably get it there unless the MM price is close while I am placing my Black Friday order.

Seeing that scale shot answers a lot of my questions. It looks like the GoA minis won't have any comparable bits for swapping with DFG minis. They might work with some Perry historicals...but what's the point of that?

**judgedoug**

Vermonter wrote:
The Ghar battlesuits, although technically post-human, are exactly the kind of weird, alien forms I love. So I do want them to get into true aliens at some point, but they've done me a big favor with those battlesuits so far. If only the Ghar Outcasts hadn't gone the Ork / comical route, they'd be perfection.

If it helps, and one of the reasons I love them a lot, is that they are more like African child soldiers herded as meat shields into combat. The Outcasts are pretty much entirely disposable, because, they're outcasts. They're given the worst weapons (slug throwers, AK-47's basically), and can actually run out of ammunition during the game. They're rather tragic

Automatically Appended Next Post:

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Seeing that scale shot answers a lot of my questions. It looks like the GoA minis won't have any comparable bits for swapping with DFG minis. They might work with some Perry historicals...but what's the point of that?

Woops, just realized I forgot to reply to your early question. My DFG is packed in a box somewhere in my closet so I won't be able to get scale shots with Dreamforge.
HOWEVER I'm going to contribute to the scale thread this evening, I promise, with a shot of Concord + Algoryn + Boromite + Ghar Battle Suit + Lord of the Rings + GW Empire + Stormcast Eternal + Bolt Action + other random stuff (Copplestone? Hasslefree? Pig Iron?) + possibly my cat if she's being nosey

**BobtheInquisitor**

"Klingons in power armor"? Hirogen. You mean Hirogen.

Can't wait to see the cat.

And you know I'm onboard if they release some novels.

**judgedoug**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
"Klingons in power armor"? Hirogen. You mean Hirogen.

Noooo oh nonono.

**Talking Banana**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Vermonter, you had a look but didn't post anything? I am distraught.

I had a look at your gallery - I wasn't aware that I could post comments on images outside of a thread. My apologies, I'll see what I can do.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Vermonter, I meant my Plog, linked in my sig.

Judgedoug, at least they aren't Blingons.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Vermonter, I meant my Plog, linked in my sig.

Judgedoug, at least they aren't Blingons.

Edit: thanks for posting!

**Fenrir Kitsune**

Got a rulebook ordered, gonna use a mix of models - whatever I fancy. Have faith in The Priest.....

**Ctaylor**

My box just arrived in So. California.

First impressions:
* Very heavy. Most of that weight is the rulebook, which is massive. But there is plenty of plastic.

* A couple sprues had some pieces break/fall off during transport. Everything looks to be in the box, however. The box is packed.

* I do not like the reference card being the box divider. And there is only one copy of the ref card. It is the only thing that feels cheap about the starter box.

* Minis looks nice, with good but not great detail. The Ghar are more detailed than the Concord troopers.

* The pin markers are really neat, but they need some white paint on the numbers to help readability.

I'm digging into the rules right now.

**volume**

@Ctaylor - there's also the reference pages toward the back of the Rulebook (the final few pages - sorry, I'd give page references, but I don't have my copy to hand!)

@Vermonter - I believe I read/heard somewhere that the Antares minis are a mix of digital sculpts (for some of the armoured models/factions) and hand-sculpted models for some of the organic-looking models (Boromites )

Also with regards to seeing more alien-looking creatures.... all of the races which have Army Lists in the Antares book are described as 'Pan-human' as opposed to all-out alien... (they're all highly advanced creatures which have evolved from what-we-know-as humanity)... there have been a few hints from Warlord about potential all-out-alien models coming later - so we may see some interesting coming down the pipeline.... there are some alien races mentioned in the fluff, but I don't remember a physical description.

Loving the book so far... have played a few games, but am still finding additional rules for specific pieces of weaponry.... I'm also loving the terrain section - heaps of options, and loads of scope for all sorts of strange worlds to be created!

**Pacific**

What do you get if you take Rogue Trader 1st edition 40k, remove the Thatcher-era and 2000Ad dystopian influences, add 30 years of game design element developments and a small dose of real-life science/technological progress, add a measure of Iain M Banks' Culture series (with a sprinkling of other contemporary sci-fi influences)?

This game, of course

**Thraxas Of Turai**

Impressed then Pacific?

How to play video #2: Shooting

I can see why some dislike the Bormomites, I think they have the best looking equipment though. This is my favourite support weapon design ever:

Spoiler:

**judgedoug**

judgedoug wrote:
HOWEVER I'm going to contribute to the scale thread this evening, I promise, with a shot of Concord + Algoryn + Boromite + Ghar Battle Suit + Lord of the Rings + GW Empire + Stormcast Eternal + Bolt Action + other random stuff (Copplestone? Hasslefree? Pig Iron?) + possibly my cat if she's being nosey

Woops, I'm a jerk, and I neglected to do this. I was busy painting Concord figs. Which, btw, we all know that Citadel white spray primer sucks, but it's specifically incompatible with Gates of Antares minis on a molecular level. It fuzzed slightly. Meanwhile Val-Spar grey primer worked just fine on my Ghar. Lesson learned for like the eleventh time: throw away Citadel spray, even if it's free. Needless to say some of my concord dudes look like crap due to slightly fuzzy bumpy priming, but they're being painted up for rough in-store handling anyways. Still makes me shed a modeling tear though

**BobtheInquisitor**

hand-sculpted Boromites

Boromite sculptor: "I am not left handed!" *flourishes*

**Zond**

So how do the factions play? I watched the faction overview video but it was more of a background rundown (not a complaint at all). I'm also curious as to how big the starter set it in terms of standard game size? And finally if you were to expand on the forces in the game, or alternatively create starter forces from the four other factions what would you buy?

**Thraxas Of Turai**

The Concord in the boxed game easily make a legal 500 point force, with a good few Drones left over. The Ghar range from 360 odd points to nigh on 500 points if fully kitted out.

To expand my Concord I am going to get a command squad, drop squad and the interceptors (jetbikes) when released.

As for starter armies the Warlord site has some good starter armies. But personally I would hang fire until more plastics are released.

**judgedoug**

Don't forget the restrictions on drop squads and interceptor squads.

**Talking Banana**

Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
I can see why some dislike the Bormomites, I think they have the best looking equipment though. This is my favourite support weapon design ever:

I'm mixed on all of the factions so far, to be honest, and think they could've been better designed and sculpted - many of the CAD models have oddly stilted poses, for example. That's not unique to GoA - MEdge has the same issue with a number of models - but the fact that the problem isn't unique to Warlord still isn't incentive to buy their models. I haven't seen a faction yet that's worth the expense and trouble of buying and working with metal figures. The Boromites actually come closest for me, because I agree with Thraxas on their support weapon design - love it - and I like the rocky magma creatures that they ride and sick on people. I think hand sculpting the rock creatures was good for them and added character to their design. I'm not really taken with the body design of the Boromites themselves, as I have no great love for Marvel's FF or the Thing, though I do think they start looking much cooler when they've got their visors on.

I primarily invested in the GoA boxed set to get the armored Ghar, the only GoA models that have been released so far that I consider "must haves," to read the fluff*, and to have the Concord troopers to mess around with and mix / match with other lines. Scale will affect how much I can do that, as is always true, but I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to do something fun with them. If I do end up playing, I'll consider the Ghar outcasts if they do them in plastic and I start seeing some convincing alternate paintjobs on them. Otherwise, I'll sub something more menacing and icky for them. The nice thing about the Ghar battlesuits is that literally anything could be inside them, so plausibly subbing something else for the outcasts is really pretty easy. The battlesuit shape doesn't suggest anything about the form of the Ghar themselves, a big part of the reason the suits look so cool in the first place.

(I'm ok with the Concord as they are, btw. I'm not in love with their design - there's nothing in metal released for them that I have to have - but fine with it. If nothing else, they make a nice alternate, more average human scaled armored force to go up against my Enforcers.)

I know this is a commonplace thing to state, but I'm getting more and more into brand disloyalty, and since Mantic got me back into this hobby, that's a bit of a departure for me since I've pretty much stuck with them up to this point. There are plenty of great plastic models out there to cover just about any bases (especially if you mod them), and, thankfully, more plastic lines are popping up now. No, it's not limited to GoA and MEdge. Even Wild West Exodus is doing it now, and their alien faction plastics look more suitable for GoA than they do for their own Wild West post-??? game. It won't be the models that determine whether I play more GoA or MEdge, it'll be which ruleset I prefer, and then I'll use whatever MEdge, GoA, Mantic, 40k whatever models I choose to play it. Or, more likely, I won't play anything at all, and just assemble, modify, and paint minis for the fun of it. But if you're in the NH area and looking for someone to game with, let me know.

As for playing at tournaments or shops and needing official figures, that may be a problem for some, but it isn't for me, as I've never done either. The age of "you must buy into metal figures to play this game," or even of "you must buy our figures to play our game" is really over. From now on, the best looking figure lines and the material I like most wins, and the more I can modify and individualize it, the better.

So yeah, I'd definitely buy those mounted Boromites - as Bob says, if they cast them in plastic. But if I can't get the Boromite soldiers riding the creatures to look good enough (I can), then I'll swap them with something else. But I think we all know that Warlord will only be releasing those things in metal, even though nothing official has been stated, so the point is moot as I won't be buying them anyway.

Anyhow, with "disloyal" fans like me, companies like Mantic, Warlord, and Spiral Studios don't need loyal customers. In fact, studies have shown that loyal customers like Judgedoug are actually detrimental to a product line's success, while customers like me are their glorious, messianic, but nobly humble saviors.** I'll still buy plenty of their product; I just won't necessarily use it as intended.

And Judgedoug? You can bet that when I get my MEdge figures that I'll be putting some Karist melonheads on those Concord bodies. If they look great that way, I'll glue them and make it permanent. If they look terrible, don't worry; I'll still post some pictures just for you.

*Right now the fluff's potential is more interesting to me than GoA's figure designs. I'm interested to see what this not-Grimdark future reads like.

**I'm terrible, I know. It's all in fun.

**judgedoug**

Vermonter wrote:
Anyhow, with "disloyal" fans like me, companies like Mantic, Warlord, and Spiral Studios don't need loyal customers. In fact, studies have shown that loyal customers like Judgedoug are actually detrimental to a product line's success, while customers like me are their glorious, messianic, but nobly humble saviors.** I'll still buy plenty of their product; I just won't necessarily use it as intended.

And Judgedoug? You can bet that when I get my MEdge figures that I'll be putting some Karist melonheads on those Concord bodies. If they look great that way, I'll glue them and make it permanent. If they look terrible, don't worry; I'll still post some pictures just for you.

That's how I know that you love me

re: plastics and metals. What's interesting is something I've noticed as I've gotten older - it's probably the evolving grognard in me - is that I dislike multipart plastics more and more. I love their cheapness, but I spend so much of my meager hobby time assembling figs that I'd rather be painting. Like, I speedpaint everything, so that usually means I wind up spending more time gluing figures than actually putting paint on them. As neat as the plastic Concord guys are, them being like 6 parts apiece is really offputting to me. I've become much more a fan of "file mold line, dab of glue on base, done". Obviously other people love their plastic kits to have as many bits as possible, and I totally understand that point of view. And some plastics are also great - Warlord's plastic Napoleonics are ideal to me, for instance, or WGF's WSS infantry (3 pieces!). Like right now I'm kind of torn waiting for plastic Algoryn basic infantry, but then I'm like, feth it, I have two base squads in metal already, and they're "glue on head, glue on base" simple, so I can get them painted right away. (Well, at least I know I'm not a TMP style grognard, because then I'd be discussing my favorite Humbrol enamel paint to use for the facings on Front Rank infantry...) The TL;DR version being that I'm nearing the tipping point where my time is more valuable than my money: preferring to spend more money to have a metal one or two piece figure than to have to assemble 6+ piece plastics (and matching up arms etc). One of the reasons I haven't assembled my like 100 plastic Enforcers yet...

**Thraxas Of Turai**

Whoops, you are right Judge forgot about the need for certain command units to unlock the unit itself.

@Zond: Warlord actually did a good set of starter army lists in a mailshot today, it is a wall of text so I will spoiler it:

Spoiler: