Taking a break from scenario work, I decided to start painting up the Spectre’s Criminal Heavies. As my collection is much more focused on the military side rather than the law enforcement, I’d always planned for them to be some kind of Special Forces team. I hadn’t nailed it down but after thinking about the first real combat zone for ChargeReal, it just had to be a team from inside the Bazi Empire.
Part of my pitch for the Bazi Empire is to bring some of the royal intrigue that existed in historical times and add it to the modern day. In one of my designs for the original Bazistan, there had been local private militias and I think it might be cool to bring this idea into the new version, putting them into the hands of the various minor family members. Obviously, these forces might vary in their exact layout – the poorer groups simply being guys grabbed off the street and handed an AK while the richer Princes and Princess might hire in external PMCs or arm and equip a professional team out of their pocket. With Gucci gear (like drum mag rifle and MGLs) and those distinctive face masks, you can see some young Prince dropping a chunk of currency inspired by the latest action films in the world. A reference to this would be the Fedayeen Saddam helmets – sometimes a little pop culture can be a bad thing!
Colour wise, I’m going for a Desert MARPAT look which has become the go-to camo for the Bazi Empire SF forces. The main difference between these guys and Insurgent PMC I did previous is that these guys will be in black facemasks and web gear to make them stand out.
My aim is to get these guys finished before the weekend, ready to stand in for the Hongbin mercs in the Black Powder Red Earth game – perhaps another example of the tensions being enflamed in the neighbouring region of Al-Bawaaba by the Bazi Royals…
As part of this, I revaluated some of the guys I’ve been 3d printing. Rather than using them for the relatively under-equipped Army of the Bazi Emirati, I think they fit with their much better equipped Royal Army of Bazistan. This army is the same one that will be rolling with the Atlay tank I printed, riding in more modern IFVs and light vehicles and having access to more recent force multipliers (such as radio comms in the entire squad).
Instead, the under equipped Army of the Bazi Emirati will use the AK equipped Middle Eastern figures I already have, dealing with worse body armour and steel helmets. Seeing as I’m using them in a scenario later this month, I think the bonus they have is that the Bazi Emirati units are more experienced than their well equipped cousins to the south – and they might have a few tricks up their sleeves