Phase: 1 Factions

So, for Xenoform, one of the factions are the Colonial Marines. Now I did a horrifyingly huge amount of googling to find some good minis for marines. I didn't want a lot - some basic grunts, a couple of guys with incinerators, only one smartgunner (I have reasons for one, but I'll get to that).

Hasslefree minis had a couple of nice ones. So did Copplestone. So did EM-4/Mirilton. And then one day Mad Robot Miniatures announced their Colonial Defence Force squad kit. So, that settled it. Out of all of them, they looked the most like the Colonial Marines;

So tonight, in between gluing my fingers together, I've been gluing Marines together.

The Marines player will field 5 Marines for the average mission. The player can choose from a Sergeant, a Smartgunner, a Medtech, a Technican, 2 Marines with Flamers and 3 regular Marines.

I chose 5 because I thought it was a nice round number for a small squad. I chose to have only one Smartgunner, for the same general reason you're only allowed to have one Assault Cannon in Space Hulk - because it's a big, chunky, filthy nasty weapon. That and I wanted to encourage a player having a bit of variety in their squad.

I also ordered a few EM-4 minis for some advanced characters, which players gain by winning missions.

The Marines are in a way the basic template of the factions in the game. They're also sort of the 'heroes' of the game.



Then there are the Predators, or 'Yautja' as they are known in expanded universe canon. There are a few 'not-Predator' minis out there. Again, Copplestone do some, Ground Zero (iirc) do some. But they're tiny. I don't truck with no tiny Predators. There was only one option. I used my ebay-fu to find some Horrorclix Predators;

And the bonus? I don't need to glue my fingers together or paint them. Because I have sausage fingers and I'm too old to piss about with that stuff anymore.

The Predators are more formidable than the Marines. The player only has three to field, but can choose from an Elder, 2 more elite-y Preds and 3 regular ones.

And of course Aliens. There are few people who make Aliens or 'not-Aliens'. And most of them are really, really tiny (15mm scale) or just not close enough-looking. So, once again some ebay-fu and I scored two boxes of these Horrorclix guys;

These, plus one I had from way back when Horrorclix was a game that people actually apparently played. And a Queen from those days too. Also, same bonus as the Preds - no painting, no gluing my fingers together.

These guys are swarming critters, so I have 'borrowed' a kind of Blip mechanism for them from Space Hulk.

For spawn points, I'm probably going to use these from Dark Arts minis, although they're pretty big;

I could also use these;

But they're much, much, MUCH bigger. Although they look cool.

Once I finish gluing the Marines and paint them and some eggs, they'll be done.