- by Iain Wilson



The launch of the Maelstrom's Edge V2 Rulebook was accompanied by a Starter Force box for each faction that included around 50 points of models. I thought it would be fun to try pitting these starter forces against each other in a series of battle reports, the first of which features the Kaigus Pact against the Karist Enclave (and which you can find here!). Last week, I shared some pics of the Kaigus Pact force from that battle, so this week it's the Karist Enclave in the spotlight.





The Karist Enclave - Guardians of Alsa





Click for larger image.




While this force is largely assembled straight from the box, I did make the small change of giving the Kaddar Nova a Tempest helmet from a spare sprue. The Guardians of Alsa are particularly militant splinter of the Enclave war machine, and I wanted to reflect that by having everyone wearing a helmet.





Kaddar Prentis.




As with the Kaigus Pact force, I wanted a super fast and easy paint scheme to get them on the table as quickly as possible. I started with a spray of Army Painter Alien Purple, and then a zenithal* spray of white (*sprayed from above, so the base layer stays in the crevasses and undersides of the model).



The colours are mostly Army Painter Speedpaints - Slaughter Red over the whole model, and then a coat of Grim Black over the bits that aren't armor. This leaves a little red showing through in places, but that works with the red armor for the look I was going for - for a more 'black' black, I would have re-base coated the black parts with some white or grey before the coat of Grim Black.





Tempest Elites.




I used the loincloths from the Faction Expansion Sprue to denote squad leaders throughout the force, including on the Tempests - this just took a little trimming to make the cloth sit right. To get them painted, I used a layer of white acrylic, and then a coat of Holy White Speedpaint.





Trooper Squad.




For weapons and buckles, I applied Broadsword Silver straight over the black. On reflection, though, I decided that all-metal weapons looked a little bland, so I re-basecoated the larger panels with white and then gave them a layer of Slaughter Red to match the armor. I also gave all of the raised edges on the armor and gun panels a highlight with a little thinned white.





Trooper Assault Squad.




On the various glowy areas, I applied thinned white acrylic into the crevasses, and then drybrushed with white and then again with a white/Purple Swarm/Slaughter Red blend. It's rough, but looks ok at table level. I gave the bases a coat of Gravelord Grey, and then drybrushed with Dungeon Grey and a little white for a highlight before painting the edges with Vallejo Heavy Charcoal.





Angel Minnows.




For the black on the Minnows, I started with an Alien Purple spray, and then a heavy coat of Grim Black. Their eyes have a coat of Alien Purple and then a white dot, while their mouths were a bit of a messy, unholy mix of white, Purple Swarm and Slaughter Red that I'm not entirely happy with, but will do for now... I finished up by painting the smooth parts of their heads with black acrylic and then gloss varnish.





The whole 50 point detachment.




What's Next?
To flesh out the force to the full 120 points for a standard game, I'm adding another two detachments. While my Karist forces generally include at least one Mature Angel (because they're lovely and big and scary!), I decided to go a different way with this force and really focus on Troopers. So the second detachment will include a Kaddar Alessi Novitiate leading a Shadow Walker and a unit of Troopers, while the third will be led by a converted Triarch in charge of two more units of Troopers and a unit of Heavy Troopers.





The Expanded 120 point Force.




Stay tuned for more!



What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!