Reports Filter in of Ikwen Landing

We're hearing tale of folks in the UK and Europe as well as America getting their Ikwen in. Exciting news as the first wave of rebels report to the front.


FIGHT ON BRAVE IKWEN! Make your ancestors proud!

Hack and Slash

Melee Weapons Among the Ikwen

While the concept of firearms is new to the Ikwen (only within the current generation) they do have a long tradition of bladed combat. The Huli, which translates literally and quite basically as, "Blade", has taken many form among these aliens and their various cultures but is most commonly seen as a hooked sword or hafted weapon.

Huli weapons all share the common features of an inwardly curved blade, hooking to different degrees. The blade is edged along the entirety of the inside curve of the weapon as well as the back side of the curve itself. This allows the weapon to cut both on the forward and backward swings.

Most of the modern Huli are cobbled together from scrap and even pre-occupation Huli were often agricultural revisions of the more traditional weapon. The common Huli do indeed persist as they have been used for centuries as agricultural tools among more civilized Ikwen. The hooked sword, known simply as a Huli, was used for threshing and as a chopping tool for foods. The hafted Huli known as the Kragt-huli is used both as an agricultural and herding tool where the hook and point are useful in budging stubborn, thick-hided livestock animals. Hulis of other kinds can be seen among the more traditional and ancient Ikwen people as well as the Mugoda clans. These folk still maintain, to varying extents, the warrior ways of the earlier Ikwen cultures before settlement and agriculture allowed them to put away most of their need for weapons.

Among the steppes tribes, a common sight is the Goda-huli, a heavy-hafted hooked axe that is wielded to deadly effect from the backs of their massive steeds. In the case of this weapon, the haft is made thick and reinforced with resin and hide to help it absorb the shock of a charged strike. Where the blade turns in, instead of coming to a point it broadens to an axe-like head. The edge still continues to inside of the hooked blade but it gain a heavy striking head that can often remove heads and limbs in a single swing.

Another weapon common among most of the tribal folks of the Ikwen are short Huli blades, longer than a knife but not as massive and long as the machete-like basic Huli, the Katag-huli. These blades are used for ritual combats as well as a utility blade when hunting. Tribal Ikwen are also quite adept at throwing these blades as well as other Huli blades which they often do before they clash with an enemy.

Outside of the tribal Ikwen, the art of Huli combat has all but disappeared. There are still practitioners of ancient fighting arts and in some remote places there are schools that keep these techniques alive. A few remote villages have even kept alive the ancient Ikwen warrior ways and retain the traditional military orders of the Ikwen people training in many forms of Huli combat and wearing traditional armor and battle dress. Since the onset of the rebellion, these fighters have managed to find their way into fighting units and more than a few militia leaders have appeared wearing these ancient traditional costumes and weapons as a form of inspiration to oppose the invaders.

Ikwen For Gruntz

One of the more popular systems out for 15mm science fiction miniatures right now, is Gruntz 15mm. Gruntz is a straight forward system that allows players to build their own forces using a points system. It also allows them to build their own units and vehicles using this same points system. I have posted some reviews of the system at the end of this post but for now, let's dive into what I have done.

With the Ikwen being released I decided i wanted a way to really demonstrate how I see them being used in games. Having access to Gruntz and Gruntomatic, the free unit generator for Gruntz 15mm, I decided to tinker with some unit cards for the Ikwen. While my experience with the system is minimal, one of the beauties of the system is that it assigns descriptive values to the statistics of the game, allowing you to fit numbers to your theme and this is exactly what I did.

I have tried to post only units that can be made with the Ikwen miniatures currently available, however there are a couple that have been included, for the sake of completeness, that do not currently have miniatures. My hope is to expand the range to include all manner of units allow for a fully developed force. For those wanting to field figures for the cards that do not yet have specific figures, simple conversions will allow you to field them until such time as appropriate figures become available.

Purchase Gruntz 15mm - HERE

Gruntz 15mm Forums - http://gruntz15.proboards.com/

Overviews and Reviews:

http://www.gruntz.biz/p/about.html

http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com/2013/11/gruntz-15mm-sci-fi-skirmish-rules.html

http://youtu.be/yPiDBPbshIM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBzwMl_ymw4

The Ikwen Uprising is Upon Us

Ikwen Coming March 4th, 2015

Over a generation ago, the planet Kwiell was set upon by aliens bent on exploiting the natural resources of the planet. The planet's native population, the Ikwen, found themselves suddenly enslaved and their society rocked as they were enslaved, put to work and in many cases hunted and killed. The Ikwen have spent decades in frustrated servitude to these invading overlords, hedging on their beliefs and their close-knit kinship ties to get them through. It was only when the invaders sought to remove their spiritual identities that they found the courage to rise up and go to war.

The conflict began as acts of sabotage, ambushes and in some cases organized resistance but as time went on it grew into a very real, very active militia war. Weapons were procured through theft or the trade of the very resources they had been robbed of. Groups of soldiers took to the wilderness, the highlands and steppes where they enlisted the locals there into their fight. Ancient desert fortresses and settlements were once more turned into homes for fighters and their families. Ancient warrior traditions and less-spoken of factions found a renewed place in the world.

The Ikwen are one side of an asymmetric war against a higher tech, invading enemy. They fight in a less organized, militia style, utilizing acquired weapons, not of their of own manufacture.

While we see them as very much freedom-fighting indigenous life forms, use them as alien invaders, allies, mercenaries or even lower tech indigenous forces for more organized warfare.

On 4th March 2015 we will be releasing the next packs in the Loud Ninja Games range at 15mm.co.uk . These will be the Ikwen as described in the words of their imagineer Eli Arndt. Sculpted by Roderick Campbell there will be three packs and a platoon pack with saving.

Here are pictures of the codes for you to look at:

RAP016 Ikwen Militia with Assault Rifles (6 in pack)

RAP018 Ikwen Militia with Light Machine Gun (6 in pack – 3 poses)

RAP017 Ikwen Militia with Rocket Launchers (6 in pack – 3 poses)

RAP016P Ikwen Militia Platoon (24) with saving!

We will be putting up more information real soon in a background posting before the release. These are lovely 15mm sci-fi miniatures with an original idea behind them and we love them.

We hope you do too.

-Eli and Gavin

Ikwen on The Horizon

Previewing The Upcoming Ikwen Pack Contents

Hello all,

February saw the release of Alien Encounters and Wasteland Mutants and, as we move on toward March, we are now working on organizing the Ikwen packs for release.

I have received test casts from the master molds and they are looking very nice. While inspecting them, I snapped a pic of how they will be arranged in their packs. There are three packs to kick off the range, each containing six figures -

1) Militia with assault rifles (bottom right) which is six individual poses.

2) Militia with missile launchers (top) - two of each of three poses.

3) Militia with Light Machineguns (bottom left) - tow of each of three poses.

We are shooting for a March release on these, as early as possible. Further announcement will be made when an exact time is figured out.

When they are released, they will be put on our store page on 15mm.co.uk

Enjoy,

-Eli

Upcoming Releases and New Ranges

Hey all,

Guess what time it is?

It's time for Loud Ninja Games to get rolling
.
Due to release Monday, February 2, 2015, are RAP13, 14, and 15 will see the start of two new ranges Alien Encounters #1 (RAP13) and my wild and crazy Wasteland (RAP14 & 15).

RAP13 Alien Encounters #1

RAP14 Wasteland Mutants

RAP15 Super Mutants

Alien Encounters will be a sort of grab bag of science fiction one-offs and small encounter groups geared toward collecting and role-playing but certainly not outside the realm of use for more traditional wargaming.

The Wasteland range will be just about everything I can imagine to fill a blasted, mutated, violent future. Mutants, savages, renegade, monsters, even some heroes.

Look for these in the Loud Ninja Games store at 15mm.co.uk come Monday, February 2, 2015.

Final Days for the Yan'drassi Invasion Kickstarter

Hello all you Loud Ninjas out there,

The Yan'drassi Invasion Kickstarter project has been and continues to be a success and as we move into our last few days, I hope that we will see that last little push to end it on a great note.

This project has produced a nice range of figures across three distinct alien species and has even moved into its first war machine. We have squads of Neeks, Tavshar, and Horgosi as well as characters for the Tavshar and Horgosi called Primes. Their are also unit builder packs, without squad leaders) for those who want larger units than those released in the standard packs. The Tavshar Gun Skimemr is a light attack vehicle being worked on and if the project funds enough, we'll see the release of a battlesuit as well.

 

Please take a looks at the WIP picture below and consider joining Loud ninja Games and all the wonderful backers in the final push to the Yan'drassi Invasion -

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/485545784/the-yandrassi-invasion-new-15mm-scifi-alien-force