Counterblast Unboxed! The Neiran

Continuing our Unboxed set of articles, today we take a look at the Neiran Starter Box, now available from Bombshell Miniatures.

 Welcome to the second leg of our Galactic Sojourn, where we'll be looking at the Neiran faction boxed set, available now at the Bombshell Miniatures website.  I know the first thing you're going to be thinking:  only four models?  What gives?  Yes, it's $49.95 for four metal models- the smallest number of models in any Counterblast starter box (the Mekkus box is five, all others are six).  What you can't see in that picture is that the Neiran are HUGE.  Mary Profitt's paintwork and Patrick Keith's proper anatomical sculpting conceal the fact that those models aren't on 25mm bases...those are forties.  And don't worry, from a rules perspective, the Neiran pack a punch in those four models, capping at an even 150 points before any equipment or upgrades are added- and as many wounds as the GDF box packs into six models. Additionally, if you play a little bit of "counts as" fielding them properly equipped as modeled as a Jamad, Oracle, Huntress, and Scythe Sister instead you're looking at 233 points, and more wounds than I think any other box can hope to match...and still haven't added gear yet. 

The first model to consider is the Neiran Jamad.  This is the leader of your force.  She's no slouch, armed with more than twice as many weapons as she can field at once:  longrifle, pistol and Jekara polearm.  She has a 1" reach in combat (where the enemies will only have base to base range, quite handy that) and the longrifle means she can deal with threats at range equally well.  Trust me, those things hurt. Just about two inches tall, this is a formidable model to be certain. 

 Second up is going to be the Clansister, which I suggested could double as a Hunterss (particularly if you didn't want to bring a Jamad for some reason). Also armed with a Longrifle and Jekara, I hope you're starting to see a theme emerging here.  That theme being "if you're not close enough to hack to pieces, but still on the table, I can shoot you."  The boxed set comes with one of these, but the Kickstarter got you two, so I took the opportunity to show you a front and back view.

 The Scythesister is the only model that really doesn't "dual purpose" in the box.  Then again, when you can swing paired bat'leth looking blades, do you really need to do anything else? Well, just in case you do, she's armed with a pistol too.  Just in case they run or something. Why would they run? We'll get back to that in a moment. Once again one in the box but two in the kickstarter, so you get the dual sided view.

 Last but certainly not least is the Acolyte, who can double duty as an Oracle.  She's got a glaive- which is the small Neiran close combat weapon- and a pistol.  Hey... where's her longrifle?  Oh, that's right... she's psychic. She's just going to kill you with her mind instead.  Yeah, that's nice.  At least there's some variety in how you're going to die, right?



Two of the players in our club picked up Neiran, so I'm pretty certain I'm going to be seeing them pretty frequently.  Any by that I mean in my nightmares.  During the playtesting stage they straight up butchered my GDF forces, in a manner I can only describe as "spectacular in its brutality."  If you want a faction that doesn't require a lot of models on the table, or a faction where every single model is really hard to kill, this is definitely a solid choice.  That fifty bucks might only get you four models, but in their case, it really is a matter of quality over quantity.

Oh, I did say I'd get back to why they'd run from a Scythesister, didn't I?  Remember that almost every model in this game is on a 25mm base (or optionally a 30mm if you want to go that way), and are pretty accurately 28mm figures.  That old scythe? Yeah... bigger than them. And she's got two of them.  And she's pretty much the cheapest and weakest model in the box...let that sink into your cerebrum for a bit.

I'll see you on the other side of the table

The Second Class Elitist