And now for something completely different...

Well folks, I've been neglecting my Mordheim minis for a long time, but that doesn't mean I've been out of the hobby altogether! I've been working on some lovely Quar miniatures from Zombiesmith Games and really enjoy painting them up.

Brief background:

Quar are a race of anthropomorphic anteater-like creatures, more-or-less constantly at war, generally organized into relatively small nation-states. Recendly a cunning general named Alykinder has succeeded in uniting most nations under his banner but a few are holding out, retaining loyalty to their local kings. Tech is roughly 1920's/WWI level.

I've so far cranked out just small fireteams for Alykinder's crusade, some partisans, and some Kryst Sandstalkers who are an elite desert fighting force that have shifted alliances from against, to joining, to currently rebelling against the crusade.

Crusaders:


Partisans:


Kryst Sandstalkers:


There are two different rule sets, This Quar's War for larger battles and Songs of Our Ancestors for smaller squad-on-squad battles (which I play). Songs is based on Song of Blades and Heroes and Flying Lead, if you're familiar with those systems. Overall it's a really fun game! I have a squad of Coftyrans, who are the Crusaders' primary opponents and one of the last royalist nations holding out, but they still need to be primed and painted. Just thought I'd post what I've been working on, since these guys are a quirky, little-known miniature range.

I've loved those Little Guys since I first spotted them. It's one of several games that I'd kill to get involved with. All your squads look TERRIFIC...VERY NICELY DONE!
I, for one, will be following your posts on the expanding project. Have FUN with it all.

Now that are some funny miniatures I have never seen before. Some closeups of your paintjob would be nice, it really looks good from afar. I have visited the website, but I am not sure if I got the background right. There are just Quar in this universe, no other races? If this general unites all the nations, it is peace and all? Or whom does he unite all the nations agains?

To answer the background Q's:

Yes, it is just quar in this universe (at least as far as sentient races go). There's really no supernatural or sci-fi element to them, they're almost closer to alternate history or historical fiction in that sense but I thought it made more sense to post them in sci-fi than fantasy or historical.

If Alykinder succeeded in subduing all nations then in theory yes, they'd have peace, but the background suggests that something about the quar makes them unable to cooperate very well on a large level. Before the crusade conquered most of Alwyd (the continent the quar live on), nations were constantly shifting alliances and squabbling, trying to find a way to gain the upper hand on their neighbors. Furthermore, while the crusade now holds the majority of Alwyd, many of those nations weren't brought into Alykinder's armies willingly and there are small-scale rebellions all over the place. So realistically, the crusade is unlikely to have a huge impact on quar politics anytime in the forseeable future.

ere's a link to a map on the website which shows pre-crusade borders:
Map of Alwyd

The current setting is 11 years into the crusade. As it stands, Coftyr's border has been pushed back from Maer Braech to about two thirds its former size, the northernmost of the Inischol Islands is independent, the northernmost parts of Sleveen remain independent, small sections of Kryst and Creevin on the edge of Lake Morandi are holding out, a pocket in the middle of the mountains of Lower Barro is unconquered, and Fidwog is basically intact. All the rest is technically crusader territory. However, the crusade is stretched so thin and dealing so much dissidence behind their own lines that they're mostly unable to make any headway against those territories.

Any figures in particular you were interested in seeing close-ups of?

I've seen quite a few threads devoted to the Quar over on Lead Adventure Forum: http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php . SO for the helluva it I entered "Quar" on their search engine; the result was 40 pages of links...I guess the game & minis, not necessarily in that order, are pretty popular.

DeafNala wrote:

I guess the game & minis, not necessarily in that order, are pretty popular.

No kidding! Seems like they've got a bit of a cult following within the gaming world. I'm lucky in that I live near Oakland, CA, so I get to occasionally meet up and play with Anthony Brown, one of the game designers.

Well school means progression on these guys has been pretty slow, but I finished one more up this evening (although in the photo I can see that the blue highlighting on his jacket is a bit spotty and needs to be touched up...)

VERY NICELY DONE! The Little Guy holds up well even in a closeup.
Each time you post photos, I come that much closer to cracking & ordering some...keep 'em coming!

DeafNala wrote:

Each time you post photos, I come that much closer to cracking & ordering some...keep 'em coming!

Thanks for the encouragement, Deaf! Here's just a little more eyecandy to tip you over to the dark side...

YET ANOTHER step closer to the edge...VERY COOL looking little Guys. Considering the fact that they don't have expressive faces, they certainly do have a lot of individual personalities. VERY WELL DONE!

Now to a couple of questions: What do you use for bases? Is base size a factor in the game? AND are bases supplied/available if their size & shape are part of the rules?
What sort of terrain do you use? That evocative video of the lone Quar doing a trench raid had very WWI feel to it.

DeafNala wrote:

YET ANOTHER step closer to the edge...VERY COOL looking little Guys. Considering the fact that they don't have expressive faces, they certainly do have a lot of individual personalities. VERY WELL DONE!

Thanks again! That's something I really love about the quar range - very different and very characterful!

And to answer your questions:

Quote :

What do you use for bases?

I use 25mm round bases from Renedra, but other people I've played against use some different bases (25mm GW round or 30mm War Machine round seem to be the most popular).

Quote :

Is base size a factor in the game? AND are bases supplied/available if their size & shape are part of the rules?

Base size isn't a huge factor in the game, I played just the other night and my opponent had his HMG gunner on a 40mm round base with the gun, even though technically he's an individual, separate from the gun. Some people use 25mm round, others like the 30mm round "lipped" bases. Generally speaking people don't seem to get too hung up on nitty gritty rules with this game, so pretty much as long as your figures are based on smallish round bases they'd be playable.

Quote :

What sort of terrain do you use? That evocative video of the lone Quar doing a trench raid had very WWI feel to it.

At the store where I play, we use pretty generic "countryside" terrain - hills, trees, hedges, etc. and then some Warhammer Fantasy buildings, which tend to have a good European village feel to them. We also use some WWI/WWII city ruins in some of our games.

You're right that the tech level is supposed to be pretty close to WWI, though, and trench warfare is big. We have a few of those modular resin trench sets that we break out if the scenario calls for it. I've been wanting to build a quar house or two, which have a very "hobbit hole" look about them - think a largeish mound of dirt with sod roof and windows cut into the side, and maybe a tower or two sticking off of it somewhere.

Uh, nice stuff! I really like the models, very original. There's just too many tabletop stuff out there in the world. Pics like these make me want to have them all

You should post some battle report or something some day so we can get a little insight into the feel of the game

Eliazar wrote:

Uh, nice stuff! I really like the models, very original. There's just too many tabletop stuff out there in the world. Pics like these make me want to have them all

I'm in the same boat. Lately I've been focusing on my quar but there are at least 3 other heavy contenders for what I'd like to get into next. One day...

Eliazar wrote:

You should post some battle report or something some day so we can get a little insight into the feel of the game

Funny you should ask, I actually have two very short battle reports written up back-to-back, although they're written as a narrative so you don't get any insight into how the game itself plays. I can post a link to those (in a Warseer thread) if you like, or just wait until the next game I get in and I'll snap a few pictures to write up a report that explains a bit more about the rules.

Or you can do both and give us a link so we can keep ourself busy until we see the next report

You ask, I deliver:

Warseer Thread to Quar Battle Report

Bit of intro - it's a pretty fast-playing game, so the first "battle report" if you even want to call it that isn't much more than a couple rounds of combat, about a page and a half with pictures. The second one is a bit longer. I'm also no expert with prose, so they're not super flashy or anything.

Okey dokey here's the LMG gunner and Yawdryl to round out the Coftyran squad:



And a group shot of all the Coftyrans together:



Enjoy!

They really are such cool little Guys...LOVE the LMG Guy. WELL DONE!
Have you picked up any of the cavalry minis? They look pretty tempting.

As a matter of fact I have! I even have one painted. I've got a cavalry officer and cavalry rhyflers with close combat weapons - so far I've painted the one with a derringer but still have to get around to the guy with the saber and the officer. They're next on my to-do list, although I'm also waiting for an order containing some tank crew and if those arrive before I get to the cavalry they might take priority.

Figured I'd go ahead and post a shot of the one cavalryquar I've finished:



I'll probably tackle the other two this weekend, if I get a chance.

OOOH! VERY COOL! At last I have a decent idea what the Steed's head looks like. VERY NICELY DONE!

Finally finished the cavalry quar! There are only 3, so I guess it's not that much of an achievement, haha.

HURRAH! The Cavalry hase arrived...more or less. Though few in numbers the Lads' TERRIFIC good looks more than make up for their lack of numbers....I like the dapple grey. VERY WELL DONE!

Been plugging away on the quar and forgot to post any updates here! :facepalm:

Here are some quar tank crew. Technically the first two belong to Coftyr and the next three are Crusaders, but I painted mine in faction-neutral colors so they can all serve together for whichever nation needs their services.





I've got 3 more of the Crusader tank crew to paint up, but one got converted to be carrying a gun instead of the oiling can and has a few grenades strapped to his back. If/when their tank gets destroyed and they're stuck on their feet, he'll serve as their leader.

These may be the coolest yet. I love the Guy with the oil can & goggles. VERY WELL DONE!
Have you gotten a tank yet?

DeafNala wrote:

These may be the coolest yet. I love the Guy with the oil can & goggles. VERY WELL DONE!
Have you gotten a tank yet?

Thanks for the kind words, as always, Deaf! Sadly, I have not yet added a tank to my ranks. An Ailthean light tractor for the Crusade is high on my list, though. After that, depending on what all has been released by Zombiesmith, I'd like to add either a Chyweethl (Royalist light tractor) or Sothwyr (Kryst light/scout tractor). I have played with tanks, both with and against, but that was borrowing other folks' models.

I'm a bit torn when it comes to getting more quar. Not whether or not to get any, but how to model and paint them. As far as Crusaders go I can think of at least three more squads I'd love to do that are each very differently aesthetically (Toulmore veterans, "Black Star Mercenaries" who are another player's invention but look great and I'd love to have some of my own, and a squad based on Steve Zissou & Co. from the Life Aquatic). At the same time, that many aesthetically disparate squads wouldn't necessarily make for a great-looking army, and I'd love to be able to use them for "This Quar's War" (the larger-scale wargame). Of course, there are the 15mm models which would perhaps be a little more conducive to This Quar's War, and ring in at only $20 for 58 models...

Before I add any tractors, though, I want to get each of my existing 4 squads up to 10 men each. Then we can talk about some artillery!