I hadn't originally planned to get any of these, wanting to focus on the rather lovely looking battle suits, but they do have their uses. They are very good at using up a few spare points. A basic squad costs only 43 points while a battle suit costs 60 and come in squads of at least three. That makes them a cheap way to give you an extra activation a turn. They also count as a Tactical unit, and as you need a minimum of two of these in even the smallest of armies, a cheap one is very useful.
Although I got them for pragmatic reasons, I have really come to love the models. They are absolutely full of character. Apart from the leader, all the troopers look terrified, clutching their weapons like security blankets or firing blindly in panic. I particularly like the one holding his gun over his head and not even looking where he is shooting. While the one riding on the disruptor cannon, has the smug expression of someone who knows he is slightly above everyone else.
The official outcast models have been painted naked, apart from their pants and a selection of metal extra bits. The metal bolts protruding from their backs were, presumably, to interface with their battle suits, while the wrist and ankle tags may have done the same, or be to keep them under control. They also wear metal collars, unsurprising, but more oddly, metal bands around their shoulders. I decided to treat these as sleeves and paint them wearing skin tight black T-shirts, this allowed me to keep them consistent with the army colour scheme.
These black "T-shirts" with the metal pieces protruding, they reminded of the black carapace that Warhammer 40K Space Marines use to interface with their power armour. This got me thinking. Hearing stunted creatures who hate everything and ride around in suits immediately made me think Daleks. But there is another comparison you can make.
The Ghar hate their enemies, live only for war and have no tolerance for failure. They are not aliens, but genetically modified humans, the result of experiments carried out by a long dead creator. They were power armoured suits and use weapons that, though effective, are archaic. Also, their main squad types divided into a basic type, and assault type and a heavy weapon type.
Am I the only one thinking that, with the Ghar, Rick Priestly may have been wriffing off one of his former employers most iconic characters?
With 500 points completed, I have, technically, reached my goal. I have enough points to play a basic game. But I have had so much fun with the Ghar that I couldn't resist one further indulgence.
The Ghar Command Crawler is a combination commander and vehicle, not something I have really used in any game before. The model is absolutely superb, as well as being a very well cast largely resin piece, I had enormous fun painting it.
I stuck mostly to the established army colours, but added some purple elements. I have been using purple stripes to identify my battle suit leaders, so it made sense to add the command colour to my Crawler. With him done, I can scrape together 750 points a side, but I don't think I'm going to stop until I hit 1,000.
