From StuartL - Smoke Jaguars - 55 Points

Hi again,

    The second batch of figures off my painting desk this week are some mechs for Battletech. These are some figures from the recent-ish Battletech Kickstarter. I bought a fair number of new models for my collection, so there may be some more of these coming at some point in the future. 

    These models are all painted to represent mechs from Clan Smoke Jaguar, one of the factions in the Battletech setting. In Battletech, factions are divided into two loose groups. On one side you have the Inner Sphere, a set of feudal empires with vast hordes of giant stompy robots, and the Clans, a warrior cult with slightly smaller, but more elite hordes of giant stompy robots. In the setting, Clan Smoke Jaguar is infamous as being the worst group of sociopaths in a setting where committing war crimes is commonplace. They were so reviled that the Inner Sphere forces put aside centuries of infighting and launched an all out attack to annihilate them while the rest of the (supposedly allied) Clan forces cheered them on from the sidelines. 

    Now, I did not actually know any of that when I started collecting them, I just thought that the paint scheme looked easy to copy. And it was, so I still play them. I also have the advantage, that if I lose, it is entirely in fitting with the lore of the faction. 

    Some of these mechs might look familiar to Inner Sphere players too. As part of the Kickstarter, a bunch of clan variants of Inner Sphere mechs was released. As with all clan mechs, they are just that little bit better than the IS versions. 

   

    One of Battletech's charms is its mad mech designs. Take the one above, the designer thought that some sort of chicken-fighter jet combo would make for a fun mech to pilot. He even gave it little arms for punching things, should the need arise. What a visionary.

    In total there are 11 minis in this entry, while Battletech's scale is something like 6-8mm, each of these figures stands at 30mm or more in height, so I am uncertain exactly how to score them. I think they usually just get counted as 28mm infantry, so assuming that to be the case, that should be 55 points, though the final decision lies with my most wonderful of minions. 

    This lot should also net me another Squirrel and some points for the Big Stompy Robots of Death side duel.

My ongoing duels information:
Skulls - 141 (+0)
BSRoD - 16 (+11)
Squirrels - 8 (+1) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons, Medieval Polish, Clan Smoke Jaguar

From Millsy:

These are really cool Stuart. Grey, especially lots of it, can be really dull (I'm looking at YOU modern car colours) but the flashes of red and the clean blacklining has really made them pop. They look like they would have been a load of fun to paint too.

I think you assessment of scale and points is spot on, so that's 55 points for your total. Nice one!

Cheers,

Millsy