Cellular Ghost's MERCs

Hey Guys!

I finally finished something! I painted 4 out of my 4 MERC minis for the potential of playing an actual game with them :D

Without further delays here they be:

They look better in real life but camera or the light dulls the details quite a bit. All the armor plates and clothes are wet blended; armor with a mix of Vallejo MC Scarlet and P3 Sanguine Highlight on a base of P3 Skorne Red washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade; and the Clothes are Vallejo MC Royal Purple/Citadel Nuln Oil and Vallejo MC Royal Purple on a Basecoat of Vallejo MC Black.

And as Guillaume (Guru) informed me, the models need a couple of markers to indicate facing. So, I put variety of reds, brown, and yellows to give a field of vision.

I had a real problem priming them since the can of primer I used gave the minis "little fuzzies". After several tries I settled for black primer since that was all I had, even I almost exclusively paint on white :/ Thats why if you look closely (or not closely :/), a bit of the detail is obscured by layering of primer. I also blame the stripping product I used, PineSol, which might have caused the fuzzies to appear due to the reaction with the primer. Dont know but I wont be using PineSol to strip my models anymore...

Now who's down for a game of MERCs?

Edit:

Added new pic of the MERC KemVar Trooper

the Uranium Deal (Mercs Battle Report)

---Classified Data---
--Clearance: VP and UD01 Project Director---
-16-05-2183-
-Codename: Uranium Deal
-Funds: ***encrypted***
-Assets: + ***encrypted***
-Status: --Read Report--

Report:

As you are aware, the Keizai Waza ''Blue Tiger'' squad met with (name erased) USCR representatives to discuss a possible Deal in which KW would sign for Uranium (and possibly Deuterium), all abundant in Siberia, in order to reinforce its position on the world's energy market.
Details of the transaction have not transpired yet but we do know Kemvar deemed KW entry on their turf (energy) worthy of sending a full composite assassination MERCS squad to put an end to this deal (and possibly re-ignite the enmity between USCR and KW).

Drone Pictures + Comments:

Forces Involved in the Conflict:

Here's the first Kemvar Assassination Squad Dispatched: Their battle colors identifies them to Kemvar VP José.

Soon after, Kemvar VP Yaum's squad was dispatched, proof of the mission's importance.

A new USCR squad unknown to our services yet, rumors are Commander Korto got in charge of it.

The infamous 'Blue Tiger' squad, responsible of countless civilian exposed to tactical nuke's radiation. Read our other reports for more information.

Individuals Involved in the Conflict:

Assassination Side:

José assigned his Assault Leader, Assassin and Monkeywrench to the mission while Yaum provided support with his Heavy, Sniper and Demo.

Dealers' Side:

In a pure show of strength, USCR had brought a Behemoth, Assault Leader and Sniper to protect the corporates. Keizai Waza had brought a Blue Tiger Tactical Nuke Squad (Assault Leader, Forward Observer and Pathfinder) Such heavy armament brought to protect a Megacon deal shows that both dealers expected the worse (or wanted to be in a strong position to negotiate the deal).

Drone Offline/Observer's Report:

The dealers must have been quite vigilant to protect the Uranium Deal or it might have been Kemvar's attempt to avoid any links to this assassination, one way or another, a Megacon defense system started disrupting communications and only the presence of one of our observers secretly inserted in the area allowed us to keep track of the situation:

-As soon as Kemvar's assassination squad was detected, USCR and Keizai Waza moved in to intercept. A transmission we caught indicate mission orders were simple: Eradicate the intruders, lethal force allowed.

The newly formed squad of USCR took that as an opportunity to film a propaganda movie to demonstrate their Behemoth's might to citizen workers while the Keizai Waza soldiers made a vow that, should they be close to death, they would bring their would be killer in the grave before they would fall.

(Corporate Plots: 'Hero of the People' and 'Death Before Dishonor')

First 15 Minutes of the Operation

Both sides moved into position. (USCR and KW reacting to their opponent's move by bounding all their members to the USCR Sniper (reaction1)).

The Drone went online for a couple of seconds, allowing for this picture to be taken.

On the left (cut by picture) the Kemvar Demo takes position in the center of the map behind a roadblock, in the background the USCR Sniper gets on top of  a small building to cover the battlefield while the Kemvar Heavy does the same thing in the forefront. USCR Behemoth moves and sits in the middle of two streets while the Assault Leader stays close to it to help it spot targets. At the far left, rushing behind buildings, is the  Kemvar Assassin, ready to execute the mission, one Vorpal Blade kill at a time.

15-30min. Since Beginning of Operation

While the battle raged on the field, our satellite took this picture and here's our interpretation of it (cross referenced with our observer): The Keizai Waza Assault Leader, having received his own satellite picture of the battlefield, saw the Kemvar Assassin heading his way, he probably then retreated to lure the Assassin in the open street in order to expose it to the combined firepower of his own gun and USCR's Behemoth and Assault Leader.
The picture shows that the trap worked but the Assassin still was able to charge the KW Assault Leader who apparently emerged unscathed to climb on a generator and fire a couple of shots into his opponent, wounding him and de-activating his cloaking field.

On the other side of the field (No Picture, Drone Offline), the KW Pathfinder fakes a Nuke by marking a spot with his laser, the Kemvar Assassination Squad evacuate the area but no nuke gets fired.

30-45min. Since Beginning of Operation

The Kemvar Assassin then gets killed by the USCR Assault Leader.

And the first kill is soon followed by a second one as the Pathfinder falls to Kemvar Sniper's fire.

In the background you can see the Kemvar Sniper and Assault Leader, the Assault Leader will get entangled by USCR Harpoon Sniper fire.

15min to End of Operation

In the middle, avoiding a lot of incoming fire and even a wurm grenade, the Forward Observer uses his Machine Pistol to wound badly the Kemvar Demo. Prooving they are ruthless, the Heavy proceed to shoot and finish his own team Demo in order to damage the Forward Observer.

Kemvar's efforts to eliminate the Observer won't be rewarded as he will survive the bloody battle.

 Meanwhile, Both Dealers' Assault Leaders start covering each-other's back while they rush to secure the containers' area and kill more enemies...Only to receive the end-of-mission signal.

Conclusion

Having successfully repelled most members of the assassination squad, the Dealers Mercs were successful in preventing yet another anonymous assassination in the world's energy market. Furthermore, the USCR Assault Leader investigation of a container showed it contained Kemvar's wurm-grenade eggs.

Facts:

-Our very own agent infiltrated to get infos on the deal's end got caught and is M.I.A.

-The Keizai Waza did not fire the Tactical Nuke they brought and cannot be prosecuted.

-USCR propaganda movie was not released as the secrecy of the deal was too important for the Behemoth's high command.

---End of report---
-----Please leave a comment---

-WELCOME TO THE CAUSE !!!- 

So I've tried MERCS about a week ago and really fell for the game. At last, something that relies more on strategy than dice roll ! Don't get me wrong though, there will be some critical dice roll fail and the like but the most important part of the game is movement and what you make of it. I just finished painting my first model and will keep you posted on further development, such as a battle report from a most wanted faceoff against Guru's Keizai Waza ! Soooo without any further ado, here is my monkeywrench for the USCR, my first MERCS strike team of hopefully many ! 

-Korto

Nuclear Launch Detected (Part 4)

The Curse:
-I've been trying to post the last two members of my Keizai Waza NLD Merc team on this blog for ever...
-At first I took pictures.
-Then forgot my camera at the store.
-Forgot said camera the many time I came back to get it.
-Then got it but was in the middle of exams so I didn't had time to post.
-Realized the pictures I took of the last team members were quite blurry.
-Went back to take more pictures of them.
-To realize my 7+ years old camera is dying...It can't focus properly anymore. (That and I'm a terrible photograph)

Nonetheless I uploaded the pictures as else I'll have nothing to show.

Here's the Heavy-Hybrid: a though armor that will see it survive many games combined with a heavy weapon to deny critical zones of the battlefield. (note: I'm pretty sure people aren't used to Armor 3 on Keizai Waza) 

 And last but not least: The Demo. His acid grenades reduce enemy armor permanently by 1...Quite useful to deal with your opponent's armor 3.

Group Shot

The NLD ''Asset Denial Division'' of Keizai Waza with its five members in battle armors.
(Its not blurry because I'm a terrible photograph and my camera is dying, it's blurry because they're running, that's why!)

Now I only need to buy and paint the Keizai Waza sniper and I'll have the full 6. There's really something that makes you proud to own everything of an army fully painted....And with Mercs it's never been so easy!
At the same time, you know inside yourself you just can't wait for more releases for Keizai Waza, be it because you're curious or because there 's so much potential.

Comments and critics welcomed as always, I apologize if the bad pictures burned your eyes: I'll try and amass money to buy a new camera!

-guru

Is this the end of the Nuclear Launch Detected adventure? Not at all! Expect fluffy battle reports and new members (as Mercs releases them).

Nuclear Launch Detected (Part 3)

Well, it took me some time to go back to my MERCS, not that I didn't want to but I was mostly distracted (as it is often the case) either by the Blorkade-Runners or university teamwork.

Three things kept me going so I would see the completion of the third member of the Blue Tiger group: This blog, the Mercs Minis Forums where I said I would finish the leader and the fact that more and more people are looking at Mercs starters at the store and picking up some.

I won't write more text as you've waited long enough for the pictures:

Here it is! The Keizai Waza Assault Leader of my Blue Tiger Corp.

I Love that little Tactical Nuke, I was afraid I couldn't make it look good but I'm pretty satisfied with the result.

As you can see, he is on a better base than plain old plastic, it's a Secret Weapon ''iron deck'' base, I wanted this 'industrial' feel to my guys, a feeling you could find playing your starcraft Terrans or simply by looking at Mercs' beautiful artworks.

And now a group shot of the three members so far, notice that I also changed their bases and I marked them for gaming as I saw on the Mercs forums.

Now only two more members to paint!! (Although I'm seriously thinking about getting that little sniper to have the full 6...I'll paint him in a reverse paint scheme.)
I don't want to make promises I cannot keep but I'm seriously wondering if I can have the last two (demolition and heavy) painted by this week's Thursday: In time to play with new players in the community.

Comments and critics welcomed!

Nuclear Launch Detected (Part 2)

(Fanfiction) A Brief history of the 青トラ (Blue Tiger) Sub-company:

Blue Tiger had a lot to play in the Japanese space program as well as in mercs armor development. Originally manned by Japanese space-entrepreneurs who wanted to develop space tourism, the blue tiger had to develop its own spaceship design in order to build orbital tourist resorts and then bring them there.

In 2137, The Blue Tiger Company was bought by what would later be known as the Keizai Waza Corporation.
The Keizai Waza wasn't interested as much in the space tourism as in the technologies these space entrepreneurs had, more specifically the Helium-Atomic Battery (a GFR, Gas-cooled Fast Reactor).
Although at the time it had been bought, the Helium-Atomic Battery design the Blue Tiger possessed was made for powering spaceships and orbital hotels, its energy production levels were promising and it seemed the technology had a lot of potential.

 2153, due to the nature of its projects, Blue Tiger is given military contracts by the Keizai Waza, more precisely launching defense or spy satellites and miniaturizing the the Helium-Atomic battery so it can be used to power the new MERCS armor prototype. In addition to these contracts, the Blue Tiger was assigned several Mercs teams in order to protect launch sites, laboratory and company offices.

From 2153-2183: The Blue-Tiger, while fully incorporated into Keizai Waza research department was able to keep its name within the Keizai-Waza corporation, speculations are it is a reward for having successfully miniaturized the helium-atomic battery and the good completion of its military contracts.
The Mercs assigned to their office have their own color of armor and have access to one of the most ruthless weapon developed from their space technology:the Tactical Nuke (although toxins were designed by other labs).

The Keizai Waza Forward Observer

 Wow! The power of the nuke blast is hitting the Forward Observer making him almost stumble. 

Or maybe he's like the Pathfinder and the rest of the team: not glued on their bases and awaiting their shiny new bases from Secret Weapon.

Hope you like it!! I had A LOT of fun painting this mini and it is probably my favorite design out of the team.

On the battlefield this guy is where the heat is to admire the marvel of technology that Keizai Waza has: The Tactical Nuke. (On a side note: he's very generous.)

MERCS... how I fell in love with a world of corporate security.

Late last summer I was sitting in my local gaming store talking to the manager of about a skirmish Sci-Fi game by the name of Infinity. I had just discovered it via Beasts Of War Infinity week and I couldn't say enough good things about it. Infinity had everything I was looking for in a game.

Guns: Check
Cool looking figs: Check
Easy to learn rules: err... kinda check ish...

Ok, so it had ALMOST everything I was looking for in a game. The rule books were not as easy to read as I would have liked, but they were free online from the creators of the game so I didn't really have anything to complain about. That's when the manager asked me if I had ever looked into MERCS. Now, I had checked it out earlier in the year and at that time MERCS consisted of 6-8 really cool models and no rules. To be honest, I thought he was nuts for even trying to compare MERCS to Infinity. Then he did something that changed my life... he handed me his copy of the rulebook. For those of you who are truly geeky I am sure you will understand the feeling of sheer joy achieved by picking up a quality rulebook. A hard cover with a satin finish, colour interior, all printed on a high quality paper... As I held this book in my hands I couldn't help but be impressed. I looked at him and asked "how much"? "Thirty five plus tax" he replied. I had only one word to answer him with... "SOLD".

I sat down in that store and read that book from cover to cover. I wont go into details about the content of the book aside from saying the book is well thought out. It is organised in a logical fashion with excellent diagrams and pictures to explain rules. The language of the book is clear and straightforward and so easy to read. This easy read was a nice change after the struggle that I had with Infinity. Some of the things that attracted me to the game the most were the unique mechanics it employs. Things like snap to cover, model by model initiative, and card movement. (While some of these may seem tedious, I assure you they are not, and once familiar with the game it plays very smoothly.)

Having read the rules all that was left to do was pick up some figs. The choices at the time were FCC, CCC and Kemvar. I decided to go with the CCC as I had seen pics of the "Heavy" online and had thought he was one sweet looking little dude. Opening the blisters of figs I was once again impressed by the quality of the product. Mold lines and flash were practically non existent and the quality of the sculpts was very good. Before I left the store that day I had all my CCC assembled. A week later, I bought the Kemvar to keep my CCC company in my mini case. :)

Fast Forward 7 months... I own every faction and every model currently available for the game. Below you will find some examples of my work and my progress as I paint every model that MERCS currently offers. I am aiming for tabletop quality and I would like to have everything painted by June if possible. I think at my current speed it should be doable. As always, CC is welcome. Wish me luck!

CCC




KemVar




USCR WIP