My Aayari Guards (BPRE)

If you've been following along, you know I've been diving deep into the gritty world of Black Powder Red Earth (BPRE) lately. The game's got this great blend of tactical, modern combat that plays quick - and it has really hooked me. The game's official line of miniatures is top-notch; however, their price point would mean a serious load of cash. Fortunately, my friends came to the rescue and gifted me a whole lot of minis. How lucky am I?

Firstly, I tackled a dozen or so 3D, resin-printed minis. I was immediately drawn to their masks (Charlie tells me that they're riot masks) and chunky body suits. These guys just screamed "modern conflict" and I couldn't wait to bring them to life on the tabletop. Have you seen resin prints before? To me, they never really look as good as metal minis before they're painted...

 

I went with a simple desert-style scheme intended to match the arid, war-torn setting of BPRE. I wanted these guys to look like they'd seen some action, so I added plenty of mud and grime. 

One of my favorite things about miniatures is their special details. These dudes have ballistic plates over their thighs which are simple but effective. I also had to do some repairs to address various misprints - I replaced half of a gun on one mini, another had his right arm replaced with greenstuff and I used an Imperial Guard's arm holding some binoculars for another. Painting-wise, about the only really 'clever' thing I did, was to paint a reflection line down the middle of their masks - it worked a treat.

 

Of course, the real test of any miniature is how it looks on the battlefield. I've already used these guys in a couple of games, and they've performed... as expected 🤣. I'm running them as the lowest-ranked minis in the game - while they look cool, they're cheap, unreliable shots, and don't even have a save. At least I can field a heap of them during a game!

In BPRE 28mm* the Aayari Network's Guard units come in two flavors: the Guard Shurta (see above) and the better-trained and equipped Guard Muhtasib. These guys are also equipped with grenades and S-vests - so just getting close to them is dangerous. They're three times the cost of a Shurta and each Muhtasib deployed allows you to field up to four Shurta.

*There are two other BPRE releases called Phase Line and Spearhead, both of which include more Units and Factions. We're not talking hundreds of options, more like another dozen in total, and definitely no superhero units - it's just not that sort of game.

These are metal Infinity minis - the above picture is post-basing, priming and a light dry-brushing - doing so really brings out the details. Infinity minis are often very close to real-scale and as such, their heads are often very small. I found some heads I was once gifted in my bits box - I thought I'd use them for a quick photo shoot.

The details on these minis are pretty insane and my painting skills aren't really up for doing them justice. I had a few false starts on the paint job but in the end, I stuck to the basics and was really happy with the results.

I'd have liked a few more with some different poses etc - in the game these guys (and gals) are 15 points each, meaning in a typical 150-point game, you could actually field 10 of them. Not that I'd likely do so, I've found that the game's most enjoyable when you field a variety of units. We've been regularly fielding two Muhtasib (15x2=30 points) and eight Guard Shurta (8x5=40 points) along with 3 Hongbin operatives.

I'm exploring some other mini options (including looking through my pile of shame) to see how I can make things work. Regardless, it's always great having some freshly painted minis on the table :-)