What is the Artarian Remnant?
Posted on Wednesday Sep 15, 2021 at 06:00pm in The Remnant
Whether in the arena or on the battlefield, the Lorican Champions of the Artarian Remnant are feared and respected throughout civilised space. Their armour is a technological marvel, making each Champion a formidable force in their own right, and the advance of a full Remnant Fire Team is an awe-inspiring sight, decimating forces many times their number.
Before the coming of the Maelstrom, the Artarian Republic was situated in a string of systems stretching out from the edge of the Capital Worlds of humanity towards the vast undiscovered reaches of the Spiral Arm. They enjoyed the close links to the old, well developed systems in the Capital Worlds, and room for expansion in the other direction. The Artarians harboured ambitions to accomplish what humanity had never managed to do – explore the other spiral arms of the galaxy. Their cybel gates and ships were more advanced than any other frontier empire, and their colonisation technology was the envy of the frontier. The Artarians wanted more room to expand, and saw no reason why the cybel network couldn’t route around the galactic core to link other spiral arms. It was never established whether the Artarians managed this feat – there was significant opposition in the Senate to proposals to forge new cybel links near the unstable galactic core as it had never been done before.
When the Maelstrom erupted, it completely obliterated the Capital Worlds of humanity - the oldest, most developed centres of civilisation. With alarming swiftness the Artarians and other societies were bordering on the edge of the coruscating purple-red cloud of energy, helplessly watching it consume untold trillions of lives. The Artarians were far too close to the Capital Worlds to have any hope of conducting any meaningful research into the tidal wave of energy before it swept over their planets. They could only determine that the energy release was apocalyptic – no attempt to measure its potential destructive power was successful. The Maelstrom’s epicentre was only a few hundred light-years away from the Republic, leaving the Artarians with only a few precious decades to prepare for evacuation before it inevitably destroyed their systems too.
Their escape plan was ambitious: they would build ships that were entire countries – space-worthy versions of their arcologies and habitats, using their colonisation technology to move their entire society into space and away from the Maelstrom.
The Great Houses conduct gladiatorial duels or contests between Champions to settle disputes and conflicts. Each House spends considerable effort collecting a retinue of ritual champions in order to out-fight their rivals. This form of ‘polite warfare’ avoids risking damage to their limited ships and resources, and stops any dispute spiralling out of control into conventional warfare which would doom the Remnant. The resources that Great Houses spend on their individual Gladiatorial champions could fund an entire army in any other context and this, combined with their advanced technology makes the Champions one of the most powerful fighting forces in the galaxy. Lorican Fire Teams are equipped with such destructive weaponry and are so difficult to incapacitate, some worlds facing military action will surrender without much of a fight once they have witnessed them in combat. As the prospect of a few men fighting and beating hundreds is pretty cinematic, Artarian citizens thoroughly enjoy the heavily edited footage sent back of Fire Teams driving back large military forces on their own, often cheering on their favourite Champion.
The Remnant Fleet avoids conflict with outsiders as much as possible in order to protect their irreplaceable ships and resources. When they do fight, the Senate appoints a House which suits the task at hand, instructing them to deploy their Champions in a surgical strike, so that battles rarely escalate above a skirmish. In return, that House gains first rights on resources found after that planet is subdued, for example a House may be particularly interested in copper reserves on the planet and ask for rights to that resource.
In rare instances where a wider conflict is completely unavoidable, there are more conventional military units that can be deployed, such as the Fleetguard, drawn from the ranks of the population with high aptitude scores but not quite high enough for a Champion. In general though, Fire Teams will be deployed to crush resistance at a target site, crippling the planet’s military response long enough to either take apart their resistance piecemeal, or delay them long enough for the Remnant Fleets to harvest whatever resources they can and make their escape before the enemy can retaliate. Usually the fleet will not arrive at a planet until military resistance is subdued, in case of hidden orbital facilities or ground based defence weapons that could threaten the ships.
Lorican Combat Suits are the pinnacle of Artarian engineering, allowing a House Champion to have the utility and fighting prowess of many soldiers or workers. Each suit wearer is virtually a one man army, equipped with light but incredibly strong alloyed armour plating that is adapted from the same technology that is used in Remnant ship hull plating. It can absorb heat based weapons and even use it to recharge the suit's systems. The armour is quite capable of deflecting even heavy calibre ammunition, and is fully adapted to work in vacuum or underwater.
Each suit is assisted by sophisticated motion predicting micro-servo motors to give them unparalleled strength and mobility, moving with ease through dense terrain and being able to punch holes through conventional armour. Every suit also boasts a wealth of sensors including friend or foe recognition, communications frequencies, target acquisition and capability calculation, capable of identifying weak points on the target and providing suggestions as to what weapon to attack it with. All suits are slaved with targeting and intelligence information from the insertion ships in orbit, providing a strategic overview, co-ordination between strike teams and immunity to ambush.
Fire Teams make use of a variety of suits specialised to the preferences of their Champion pilot. From the lighter, fast moving Nimbus suits, the more common, versatile Militus suits, to the huge, hard-hitting Brutus, Lorican suits are rightly feared by those who encounter them on the battlefields on the Edge.
You can find out more about the Artarian Remnant on the Maelstrom's Edge website. While you're there, you can pick up any of the Broken models, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore. Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.
Meanwhile, if you have any questions on the Maelstrom's Edge background or gameplay, pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
Before the coming of the Maelstrom, the Artarian Republic was situated in a string of systems stretching out from the edge of the Capital Worlds of humanity towards the vast undiscovered reaches of the Spiral Arm. They enjoyed the close links to the old, well developed systems in the Capital Worlds, and room for expansion in the other direction. The Artarians harboured ambitions to accomplish what humanity had never managed to do – explore the other spiral arms of the galaxy. Their cybel gates and ships were more advanced than any other frontier empire, and their colonisation technology was the envy of the frontier. The Artarians wanted more room to expand, and saw no reason why the cybel network couldn’t route around the galactic core to link other spiral arms. It was never established whether the Artarians managed this feat – there was significant opposition in the Senate to proposals to forge new cybel links near the unstable galactic core as it had never been done before.
When the Maelstrom erupted, it completely obliterated the Capital Worlds of humanity - the oldest, most developed centres of civilisation. With alarming swiftness the Artarians and other societies were bordering on the edge of the coruscating purple-red cloud of energy, helplessly watching it consume untold trillions of lives. The Artarians were far too close to the Capital Worlds to have any hope of conducting any meaningful research into the tidal wave of energy before it swept over their planets. They could only determine that the energy release was apocalyptic – no attempt to measure its potential destructive power was successful. The Maelstrom’s epicentre was only a few hundred light-years away from the Republic, leaving the Artarians with only a few precious decades to prepare for evacuation before it inevitably destroyed their systems too.
Their escape plan was ambitious: they would build ships that were entire countries – space-worthy versions of their arcologies and habitats, using their colonisation technology to move their entire society into space and away from the Maelstrom.
The Great Houses conduct gladiatorial duels or contests between Champions to settle disputes and conflicts. Each House spends considerable effort collecting a retinue of ritual champions in order to out-fight their rivals. This form of ‘polite warfare’ avoids risking damage to their limited ships and resources, and stops any dispute spiralling out of control into conventional warfare which would doom the Remnant. The resources that Great Houses spend on their individual Gladiatorial champions could fund an entire army in any other context and this, combined with their advanced technology makes the Champions one of the most powerful fighting forces in the galaxy. Lorican Fire Teams are equipped with such destructive weaponry and are so difficult to incapacitate, some worlds facing military action will surrender without much of a fight once they have witnessed them in combat. As the prospect of a few men fighting and beating hundreds is pretty cinematic, Artarian citizens thoroughly enjoy the heavily edited footage sent back of Fire Teams driving back large military forces on their own, often cheering on their favourite Champion.
The Remnant Fleet avoids conflict with outsiders as much as possible in order to protect their irreplaceable ships and resources. When they do fight, the Senate appoints a House which suits the task at hand, instructing them to deploy their Champions in a surgical strike, so that battles rarely escalate above a skirmish. In return, that House gains first rights on resources found after that planet is subdued, for example a House may be particularly interested in copper reserves on the planet and ask for rights to that resource.
In rare instances where a wider conflict is completely unavoidable, there are more conventional military units that can be deployed, such as the Fleetguard, drawn from the ranks of the population with high aptitude scores but not quite high enough for a Champion. In general though, Fire Teams will be deployed to crush resistance at a target site, crippling the planet’s military response long enough to either take apart their resistance piecemeal, or delay them long enough for the Remnant Fleets to harvest whatever resources they can and make their escape before the enemy can retaliate. Usually the fleet will not arrive at a planet until military resistance is subdued, in case of hidden orbital facilities or ground based defence weapons that could threaten the ships.
Lorican Combat Suits are the pinnacle of Artarian engineering, allowing a House Champion to have the utility and fighting prowess of many soldiers or workers. Each suit wearer is virtually a one man army, equipped with light but incredibly strong alloyed armour plating that is adapted from the same technology that is used in Remnant ship hull plating. It can absorb heat based weapons and even use it to recharge the suit's systems. The armour is quite capable of deflecting even heavy calibre ammunition, and is fully adapted to work in vacuum or underwater.
Each suit is assisted by sophisticated motion predicting micro-servo motors to give them unparalleled strength and mobility, moving with ease through dense terrain and being able to punch holes through conventional armour. Every suit also boasts a wealth of sensors including friend or foe recognition, communications frequencies, target acquisition and capability calculation, capable of identifying weak points on the target and providing suggestions as to what weapon to attack it with. All suits are slaved with targeting and intelligence information from the insertion ships in orbit, providing a strategic overview, co-ordination between strike teams and immunity to ambush.
Fire Teams make use of a variety of suits specialised to the preferences of their Champion pilot. From the lighter, fast moving Nimbus suits, the more common, versatile Militus suits, to the huge, hard-hitting Brutus, Lorican suits are rightly feared by those who encounter them on the battlefields on the Edge.
You can find out more about the Artarian Remnant on the Maelstrom's Edge website. While you're there, you can pick up any of the Broken models, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore. Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.
Meanwhile, if you have any questions on the Maelstrom's Edge background or gameplay, pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
Remnant Faction Summary now online!
Posted on Monday Mar 16, 2020 at 08:14pm in The Remnant
The Faction Summary for the Artarian Remnant is now online!
This summary lists all of the special rules, equipment and weapon profiiles used by the Remnant units released so far, and will be updated as future options are released. You can download the PDF here!
New Artarian Remnant model release: The Nimbus Battlesuit!
Posted on Monday Feb 03, 2020 at 05:00pm in The Remnant
A new addition to the Artarian Remnant range, the Nimbus Battlesuit is available now from the Maelstrom's Edge online store here!
Like its heavier Militus cousin, the Nimbus battlesuit is a marvel of Artarian engineering. Designed for sniper and scout roles, the Nimbus trades in the Militus' heavier armour in favour of speed and agility.
A specialised modification of the Incursion Rifle, the Nimbus Longshot's Torus Sniper Rifle fires a single, high-powered shot that can blast through enemy fields from across the battlefield.
The Nimbus Pathfinder fills the scout role, armed with an Incursion Blaster and equipped with a Pinpoint Scanner that it uses to paint enemy units to draw down heavier Remnant firepower.
Both variants of the suit can be equipped with an array of additional equipment, including Hologram Projectors and Cloak Generators to confound enemy targeting, Vent Systems to assist with cooling, Thermal Trackers to enhance their already formidable shooting, and a Lorican Boostpack when additional speed is required.
This kit contains a single, resin Nimbus suit, along with a 45mm plastic base. This model can be built as any of the following units: Nimbus Pathfinder, Nimbus Pathfinder Prime, Nimbus Longshot, Nimbus Longshot Prime. The rules for these units can be found in the Force Lists section of the website, or in a downloadable, printable format in the rules section here.
You can find assembly instructions for this model in PDF format here.
And, of course, the Nimbus battlesuit is available now from the Maelstrom's Edge online store here!
Like its heavier Militus cousin, the Nimbus battlesuit is a marvel of Artarian engineering. Designed for sniper and scout roles, the Nimbus trades in the Militus' heavier armour in favour of speed and agility.
A specialised modification of the Incursion Rifle, the Nimbus Longshot's Torus Sniper Rifle fires a single, high-powered shot that can blast through enemy fields from across the battlefield.
The Nimbus Pathfinder fills the scout role, armed with an Incursion Blaster and equipped with a Pinpoint Scanner that it uses to paint enemy units to draw down heavier Remnant firepower.
Both variants of the suit can be equipped with an array of additional equipment, including Hologram Projectors and Cloak Generators to confound enemy targeting, Vent Systems to assist with cooling, Thermal Trackers to enhance their already formidable shooting, and a Lorican Boostpack when additional speed is required.
This kit contains a single, resin Nimbus suit, along with a 45mm plastic base. This model can be built as any of the following units: Nimbus Pathfinder, Nimbus Pathfinder Prime, Nimbus Longshot, Nimbus Longshot Prime. The rules for these units can be found in the Force Lists section of the website, or in a downloadable, printable format in the rules section here.
You can find assembly instructions for this model in PDF format here.
And, of course, the Nimbus battlesuit is available now from the Maelstrom's Edge online store here!
The Aurum Blade - A 120 point Remnant Fire Team
Posted on Thursday Aug 15, 2019 at 05:00pm in The Remnant
As fun as it is to mess about with different colour schemes and builds, sooner or later you just have to throw some dice. I decided it was time to stop building random Remnant Militus suits, and put together an actual, playable fire team.
And so, after consulting the force lists and jotting down a quick list, and piecing together the remaining suits that I needed to make it work, the Aurum Blade was born!
This is a 120 point force, which is a good size for small, quick games. It also serves as a nice core for expansion later, as I intend to add some Nimbus and Brutus suits once those kits are ready to go.
The Aurum Blade - 120 point Artarian Remnant force
Command - Militus Warrior Prime - 34 points
- Arc Splitter
- Aruval Phase Blade
- Prime Array
- Vent System
- Defensive Countermeasures
Some of the gear that I wanted for this model isn't available yet (coming in an upgrade pack as soon as we can get it finished!), so I used a couple of fill-in parts. The Aruval Blade is taken from a Warhammer 40000 Space Wolf kit, the Defensive Countermeasures are trimmed off the Epirian Master Handler's missile pods, and the Prime Array is the back end of an Incursion Blaster, sliced off and flipped upside down.
***
Core - Militus Warrior - 17 points
- Combat Gauntlet
- Combat Gauntlet with Reflex Shield
- Lorican Field Generator
This model was a conversion I had to make after I wound up with some leftover parts from a Warhammer 40000 Ork Trukk that I kitbashed into an Epirian Contractor Truck. While the saws are big and showy, it made the most sense to just treat them as combat gauntlets, rules-wise. The saws are attached to trimmed-down reflex shield arms, but that's just represented as a single reflex shield due to there being no benefit to taking two of them!
Core - Militus Warrior - 21 points
- Conflagration Launcher
- Combat Gauntlet
- Incursion Blaster
This was one of the first models I painted up for the Remnant, and is still one of my favourites, so it was a fairly obvious idea to base a fire team around him.
Anvil - Militus Dominator - 30 points
- Conflagration Launcher x2
- Incursion Blaster x2
You might remember this suit from such articles as Building the Militus Dominator! He's just itching to lay down some firepower.
Vanguard - Militus Skyrunner Initiate - 18 points
- Incursion Blaster x2
- Mark of the Initiate
This last model was also assembled and painted for a previous article, showing how to paint the gold used on this fire team. The Mark of the Initiate means that he takes to the field with lower stats then the rest of the team, but also makes him five points cheaper, which meant that the fire team came in bang on the 120 points without having to sacrifice any gear.
As an initiate, I left his suit simpler than the rest of the fire team, with the only white decoration being the initiate shield on his left shoulder pad.
The team all assembled:
All that's left now is to test them out on the table! I'll make no promises on their performance there - I tend to build lists around the models that I want to I like the look of, with very little regard for what will be most effective in battle. Part of the challenge is in taking whatever you wind up with and finding ways to make it work!
More on that soon!
To put together your own Remnant fire team, pick up the Militus battlesuit from the webstore here.
As always, feel free to pop along and share your creations, or ask any Maelstrom's Edge- or hobby-related questions on the Comm Guild Facebook page!
For other Maelstrom's Edge modeling articles, including tutorials and walkthroughs of a wide range of different building and miniature projects, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.
Colours of the Remnant
Posted on Monday Aug 05, 2019 at 08:14pm in The Remnant
Unlike the many other factions on the Edge, the Artarian Remnant fleets don't employ conventional military forces. Instead, the various Houses that make up the rigidly class-based Remnant society sponsor Champions forged in gladiatorial arenas, equipping them with advanced Lorican combat suits. Their champions waging war is a televised spectacle not to be missed for the civilian populations of the great fleets, and so Lorican Champions generally take to the field in customised House colours so that viewers can easily recognise their favourites.
Because competition between the houses is fierce, Lorican fire teams are most commonly made up of champions from a single house, although occasionally mixed-house teams will be fielded out of necessity or for a co-operative, all-star event. Each House has a colour scheme made up of a Primary colour which usually covers the majority of the suit, and a Secondary colour which is applied in a unique pattern to identify the individual Champions. A Tertiary colour is applied in matching patterns for the entire fire team.
In the below image, the three suits shown are all from the same House and fire team, with gold (primary) and white (secondary) for the House colours, and purple for the fire team marking.
Similarly, the three below colour schemes are all for the same House, with bronze (primary) and white (secondary) for the House colours. However, these suits are all from different fire teams.
There are many different Houses of varying importance throughout the Remnant fleets, with some Houses spread across multiple fleets, and some smaller Houses only found on one or two. As a result, variations in fire team markings are not uncommon even within a single House. Additionally, different Houses apply their colouring with varying degrees of rigidity - some allow considerable leeway for champions to customise their own suits, while others will adopt a more rigid, military-style colouration. In some rare cases, champions may even take to the field with no House markings at all, usually due to their House affiliation being severed due to poor achievement in the arena or the field.
How have you painted your Remnant suits? We'd love to see them! Pop along to the Comm Guild Facebook Group to share your work!
The Militus kit is available now, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range in the webstore here.
You can find the rules for the Remnant in the online Force Listing section here, and you can also find a downloadable, printable version in the 'Rules' section of the website here!
Happy Gaming!
Because competition between the houses is fierce, Lorican fire teams are most commonly made up of champions from a single house, although occasionally mixed-house teams will be fielded out of necessity or for a co-operative, all-star event. Each House has a colour scheme made up of a Primary colour which usually covers the majority of the suit, and a Secondary colour which is applied in a unique pattern to identify the individual Champions. A Tertiary colour is applied in matching patterns for the entire fire team.
In the below image, the three suits shown are all from the same House and fire team, with gold (primary) and white (secondary) for the House colours, and purple for the fire team marking.
Similarly, the three below colour schemes are all for the same House, with bronze (primary) and white (secondary) for the House colours. However, these suits are all from different fire teams.
There are many different Houses of varying importance throughout the Remnant fleets, with some Houses spread across multiple fleets, and some smaller Houses only found on one or two. As a result, variations in fire team markings are not uncommon even within a single House. Additionally, different Houses apply their colouring with varying degrees of rigidity - some allow considerable leeway for champions to customise their own suits, while others will adopt a more rigid, military-style colouration. In some rare cases, champions may even take to the field with no House markings at all, usually due to their House affiliation being severed due to poor achievement in the arena or the field.
How have you painted your Remnant suits? We'd love to see them! Pop along to the Comm Guild Facebook Group to share your work!
The Militus kit is available now, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range in the webstore here.
You can find the rules for the Remnant in the online Force Listing section here, and you can also find a downloadable, printable version in the 'Rules' section of the website here!
Happy Gaming!
Another look at the converted Militus from this week's painting guide!
Posted on Friday May 10, 2019 at 05:49am in The Remnant
You can find the painting article here.
The Militus kit is available now from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore!
Tags: conversion militus modeling painting remnant
Team Building!
Posted on Wednesday Apr 17, 2019 at 05:00pm in The Remnant
While we were all gathered together after Salute, the Spiral Arm Studios team has been happily assembling Militus suits. There may have been some 'Pew! Pew!' noises...
The Militus kit is available now from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore!
New Faction & Plastic Release: The Artarian Remnant!
Posted on Sunday Apr 07, 2019 at 12:00am in The Remnant
Spiral Arm Studios are thrilled to present our latest plastic kit: The Remnant Militus Battlesuit! This is the first kit for the Artarian Remnant, the newest faction to join the fray at the Maelstrom's Edge.
Lorican Combat Suits are the pinnacle of Artarian engineering, allowing a House Champion to have the utility and fighting prowess of many soldiers or workers. Each suit wearer is virtually a one man army, equipped with light but incredibly strong alloyed armour plating that is adapted from the same technology that is used in Remnant ship hull plating. It can absorb heat based weapons and even use it to recharge the suit's systems. The armour is quite capable of deflecting even heavy calibre ammunition, and is fully adapted to work in vacuum or underwater.
Each suit is assisted by sophisticated motion predicting micro-servo motors to give them unparalleled strength and mobility, moving with ease through dense terrain and being able to punch holes through conventional armour. Every suit also boasts a wealth of sensors including friend or foe recognition, communications frequencies, target acquisition and capability calculation, capable of identifying weak points on the target and providing suggestions as to what weapon to attack it with. All suits are slaved with targeting and intelligence information from the insertion ships in orbit, providing a strategic overview, co-ordination between strike teams and immunity to ambush.
The suits are powered by a miniature tritium energy cell, and are good for several months without recharging. This powers all suit subsystems including medical diagnostic systems which will seal over wounds including resorting to removal of limbs if necessary, and supply painkillers, stimulants and medication as required. The armour will also recycle bodily waste and their occupants can survive for weeks without resupply, although the experience would not be particularly pleasant.
The standard 'Militus' class suit forms the core of most Artarian fire teams. They can be equipped with a range of different, high-powered weapon options and are also often fitted with protective field generators or jump packs for extra mobilty.
This kit contains a single, mulitpart Militus suit on one plastic sprue, along with a 45mm plastic base.
To get you building, you can find assembly instructions in PDF format here.
The Militus kit is available now from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore. Faction rules are still being finalised, as the other models for the Remnant are still being developed, but will be added to the website as soon as they are ready to go!
