Costaguana Brigada "La Palma" E.N.C. (6mm Sci Fi)

[Mr. Average]

I suppose we knew it would come to this: tensions are rising on the Sualco-Costaguana border.  The presence of European mercenaries (in particular the Earthlight Division) in the Llano Brumoso south of Esmeralda, and the arrival of an ENSPUN naval task group in the Golfo Placido to “observe developments” in the area – well, this has put the Republic of Costaguana’s Ejercito Nacional on high alert.  Leading the charge is the storied Brigada “La Palma” E.N.C., with a history dating back to the Silvermine War of 1904.  Their armored advance units have been ordered from their bases to perform snap maneuvers on the Costaguañero side of the border that runs down the line of the Rio Peñacoso, roughly down the center of the Llano Brumoso.  The first armored units took up their positions this morning – the mechanized infantry is on its way from their base at Presidio Alvarado, to the East.

Though operating with older equipment, late of the Russian Confederation (war surplus from the First Upheaval sold off in huge quantities after the armistice) the ENC is highly motivated – at least, that’s how it appears, though with an army of conscripts anything is possible.  Trainers and observers from the Regimento Acero, an Argentine mercenary outfit licensed in Buenos Aires, have arrived in Santo Porto and are tasked with bringing the La Palma brigade up to fighting trim as soon as possible.  As far as the high command of the ENC are concerned, the La Palma brigade is a crack outfit – experts in the Regimento Acero have their doubts.

[Angel Barracks]

I like that, how big is the skirt?

[Mr. Average]

The vehicle, skirt to skirt, is about 5/8″ x 1 1/8″. The body of the tank is about 3/8″ x 7/8″. Compare to the Earthlight repulsortanks at 3/4″ x 1 1/4″, and it’s a comparably sized but substantially lighter vehicle.

The model is from C-in-C by the way.

[Rules Junkie Jim]

I love the way you’re painting these – they’re convincing me as future Earth hardware!

I take it the GEV gear is obsolescent at this stage, but was standard during the Great Upheaval, with grav technology the current state-of-the-art?

[Mr. Average]

Yes, GEVs are twenty years out of date, or more, but are still potent.  Some mercenary outfits swear by them, and many late sixth-generation GEVs are still in standard active service and can go toe-to-toe with repulsortanks of the same type.  Technologically, though, GEVs are a dead-end, and they’re seen as the “poor man’s repuslortank,” and more so the ones from the Russian Confederation because they fared so poorly in the First Upheaval against American, Mitteleuropean and Japanese armor they were supposedly designed to match or outclass.  Tons of the stuff flooded into the South American and African markets after the Armistice.

Repulsortanks were developed in Mitteleuropa towards the end of the First Upheaval and are the current high end weapon system.  Only the wealthiest and best-connected mercenary units can get their hands on them – Earthlight Division (MDR), Active Response (ENSPUN), Advance Global Management (ENSPUN) and ZKU (Japan).  Even larger militaries like to avoid them where possible because they require an enormous support tail to keep them functional – ENSPUN Peacemakers, for example, use regular old tracked vehicles because they are easy to maintain when such forces are “living off the land,” but the ENSPUN Intervention Force uses LODAV repulsor vehicles for rapid insertion by orbital spaceplane transports.  Two-tiered combat of this kind is more common in their time than in ours.

Note also that repuslortanks are not true “grav” vehicles – they are technically geomagnetic inverters, and require a planetary magnetic field to operate.  Grav vehicles are a hundred years and another world war away – they aren’t developed until the middle of the Second Upheaval.  This doesn’t bother anyone until they try to fight on planets without a magnetic field, like Mars.

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

How high can repulsor tanks fly?

I really like that GEV! By and large, I am not impressed with c-i-c’s stuuf, but your paintjob really makes the vehicle!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Mr. Average]

If they overcharge their generators they can get to about treetop height to sort of “jump” over small bits of forest, but not for very long.  Besides, hovering higher than a few feet exposes the semiconductors on the bottom of their hull, and even though they’re armored, they can still be knocked out of alignment and spoil the vehicle’s magnetic lift field.  Grav tanks of a hundred years later don’t have any of these problems – in fact their fields make them stronger on the bottom than anywhere else.  But in Costaguana, that’s all in the future.

Thank you for saying so about the tanks’ paint jobs.  I also have found that the C-in-C tanks look strange, but the main point of the project has been to use what I have on hand, and I can’t remember where these came from – I think I ordered them a few years back but I couldn’t remember for what.  Thinking of them as surplus vehicles, the T-55’s of their era, if that makes sense, helps me get into painting them, though.

[Mr. Average]

Advance units of the La Palma Brigade have reached their positions.

Most notable is the inclusion of SA-904 “Spastic” Surface-to-Air Missiles.  They have a range that reaches well inside Sulaquéro territory.

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Well, your paint jobs certainly help me appreciate what can be done with C-i-C figures. What are using for the infantry?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Mr. Average]

They’re Khurasan “Red Faction” units. I think they’re pretty all right, and have a lot of support weapons available.

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