The Allied Southern Territories

The southern hemisphere of Terra Nova is dominated by the Allied Southern Territories. Far from a confederation of equals, the AST is a puppet used by the Southern Republic to maintain control of its conquered vassal-states. The AST is nominally governed by the Curia, but since all twenty-five members
of the Curia are appointed by the Estates-General of the Southern Republic, it is far from independent. The most important members of the Curia are the three Lord Chancellors, each assigned to one of the vassal states, and the Lord Protector, who supposedly controls the entire AST. Swords of Pride is the name of the field guide for the allied southern Territories. DP9 has recently revamped their miniatures game into Heavy Gear Blitz. The most playable Heavy Gear mini game ever. Highly recommended! I good excuse for me to dust of some older minis buy new ones and start painting some anime Gears again. I start with the backbone of every Gear regiment - the General Purpose Cadre.

General Purpose Cadre

General Purpose Cadres are adaptable and efficient. They are able to fill a wide variety of battlefield roles, though are not as effective at any particular role as more specialized units. The bulk of most Southern forces is composed of General Purpose Cadres. A Southern GP Cadre consist of one Command Jaeger and 3 standard Jaegers. You will find many equipment options in the rule book and even more in the field guides.

Fire Support Cadre

The South's Fire Support Cadres are among the more unique expressions of Southern doctrine. Built around the variable capabilities of the formidable Spitting Cobra, Fire Support Cadres are half heavy strike, half long-range support, and entirely dedicated to burying the enemy under a barrage of heavy fire.
As such, the Cadre has a variety of weapon options available to improve its intended role. Fire Support Cadres work best when paired with Recon Cadres, but in smaller forces, they are often forced to employ their own recon elements. A Southern Fire Support Cadre consist of one Command Jaeger and 3 Spitting Cobras. I use 2 of the options to swap the Jaeger for a Mamba and one of the Spitting Cobras for a King Cobra. You will find many equipment options in the rule book and even more in the field guides.

Paratroop Cadre

While the Black Mamba's standard airdrop capability allows many Southern Cadres to take advantage of aerial insertion, only Paratroop Cadres are dedicated to airborne operations. Equipped with Gears specifically designed for long operations behind enemy lines, Paratroop Cadres are employed as commandos or infiltrators. They often work in combination with more conventional forces, which move in to provide support and resupply after the initial landing. A Paratroop Cadre consists of 3 Jäger Paratoopers and one Black Mamba.

The Jägers were no big deal, I used the deluxe kneeling and running minis and equipped them with all the necessary para upgrades (airbreak on the lower leg, antennas from Minimaniac, para rifle and chassis reinforcement).

You have the option to upgrade a Jäger to an Iguana Paratrooper. Since I still have some old style Iguanas lying around I converted one into an Iguana para. You can see the greenstuff work on the picture above with the Jägers. The crash bars are from Old Crow, the rest are the DP9 para upgrades.

Now it was time to build the command Gear. The Black Mamba may swap its MAC for a paratroop Rifle, in addition it can be equipped with a Satellite uplink making it effectively a Razorfang Para Black Mamba.

Since there is no specific model for this Gear some conversion work was necessary.

The weapon swap was simple, since I purchased some Para upgrade kits from Minimaniac’s old website. So I already had some Para rifles. There was a Razorfang BM on the DP9 site, but it is no more available.

I searched my vehicle companion books and the 2 Heavy Gear Art books for some illustration and came up with only 2 pictures. So I had to use some imagination and greenstuff on the helmet and a plastic rod on the back. The rod was sanded into the rounder shape on the top to look suitable. Please note that the different looking shoulders are just painted on and not actually sculpted.

The antennas on most Gears are from Minimaniac upgrade sprues. It is also possible to cut one from thin Plasticard or take a useable piece from a 28 mm kit (Infinity, 40K Tau etc.).

To make the command Gear stand out even more I sculpted a Stone Head face on the base, you can see it from above.

Recon Cadre

Composed of light, fast Gears, Recon Cadres are a regiment's eyes and ears. They are frequently used as spotters for heavier fire support units, but can also fill a variety of other roles when necessary, including light assault or fast deployment.

A Cadre consists of 4 Iguanas, all with standard Loadout.

Since I still had 4 of the old style Iguanas I used them right out of the box. Only for the command Gear I went for a very little conversion. To make the Gear look faster I went for a running position of the legs and I removed the spikes on the shoulder guards for an even sleeker look. The running leg was very straightforward, a cut at the knee and some repositioning (pinned with some wire for stability). The resulting gap was filled with Green Stuff.

I had the opportunity to buy some Southern Jackrabbit bikes from “sackofmonkeys”, I was blown away how well our painting styles fit each other. Even I have difficulties to see the difference... (Mamba by me, bike by him!).

He even included some converted minifigs civilians!

Some Southern Pack Lizard Infantry. Pictures like these show the size of the Gears pretty nicely.

I had the opportunity to paint the new VTOLs for the upcoming new HG edition. Pictured is the Southern VARIS.

The VTOL is in scale with the other HG minis, incredible fine cast and almost flawless!

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