Rick Priestley succumbs to Boromite infestation – news of Warlord’s forthcoming science-fiction project.
2013 was a busy year for the Warlord team. What with the astonishing success of our WWII-based Bolt Action game on top of our growing Black Powder and Hail Caesar ranges, we’ve had to run around like billy-ho just to keep up with all the mould making, casting, packing and despatching. So much so, in fact, that there are now considerably more of us than this time last year, and we’ve also had to invest in more premises, more equipment, and more stock just to satisfy the demand. That is – of course – all thanks to you our customers, and I for one would like to say thank you very much for supporting our efforts throughout the year. Thank you!
Now, you might think with all that running round, casting, packing and what-not we’d have enough to do, but – needless to say – we’ve also been doggedly pursuing a number of very exciting new projects behind the scenes. Foremost amongst these is the development of my new Science-Fiction wargame, called Beyond the Gates of Antares.
From now on, I’ll be including regular updates about the Antares game as part of the Warlord Newsletter. Over the next month or so we’ll be taking a look at the model ranges, both what we have completed and work in progress, and we’ll start to explore the game and the ideas behind it. But to kick off with, we present a sneak-peak selection of our new Boromite models – a panhuman race designed by our ace and entirely human designer Wojtek Flis. Bear in mind these new models aren’t quite ready for sale just yet (remember all that mould making, casting and so on?) but they will be amongst the first Antarean releases.
Boromite Overseer team, consisting of Boromite Overseer with plasma carbine, tractor maul and reflex armour plus two Gangers with plasma carbines and reflex armour.
Boromite Labour Guilds
In the distant past, the ancestors of the Boromites were bio-engineered for hard and dangerous work in extreme environments. As a result they are able to endure extremes of pressure and temperature that would soon kill any other human. Boromites are amongst the most visibly different of all panhuman mutants, with their broad, robust bodies and thick, gnarly hides studded with horny nodules. Their name derives from the mining colonies of Borom, a system that consists of a densely packed asteroid annulus but no planets. Today the Boromites have spread throughout Antarean space and can be found upon worlds within the Panhuman Concord, the Isorian Shard, and beyond. They have no worlds of their own. Instead, they form an itinerant work force with its own distinctive cultural identity and secretive customs. They easily avoid becoming absorbed into the societies they live amongst because their primitive minds do not interact freely with the Intergrated Machine Intelligences of more sophisticated cultures. As a consequence they remain almost entirely hidden, even amongst highly regulated autocratic societies, a reclusive and insular sub-culture with its own values and social mores.
Although they are spread throughout Antarean space, Boromites maintain strong contacts with each other via the trading networks of the Freeborn. Boromite labour gangs are but one of the services regularly traded by the Vardos of the Freeborn. Individual work gangs are small social units – clans that comprise a number of closely related families – multiple gangs are formed into competing Guilds. These Guilds and labour gangs also form the basis for military action. All Boromite workers are also warriors, and their labour organisations also provide the basis of their military organisation. Although competing Guilds are rivals – sometimes bitterly so – different Guilds will often band together to fight a common enemy. Several Guilds have to work in concert to undertake a major operation, such as to secure a mineral rich planet or asteroid. Because they are spread throughout space, Boromite gangs can also be found in the fighting forces of other societies, where their hardiness and determination make them highly valued fighters. Boromite gangers carry the common weapons of Antarean space, but in addition they uniquely make use of weapons developed from mining tools, including mass compactors, tractor mauls and frag borers. Reflex shielding is also common – the metallic nodes that support the enclosing armour field are often fixed directly into the wearer’s thick hide.
Sam Phillips