Overall, these should be just what everyone has been waiting for to round out their fireteams and squads. There may still be room for "high command" figures, but Rebel Minis did a great job of creating leaders for these three ranges.

Cheers,
Chris K.

Rebel Miniatures has just released command packs for their popular Earth Force, Titan Marines and Droptroopers 15mm sci fi ranges. Whether you are into collecting 'complete' forces or not, command figures help make a range more rounded and certainly allow easier identification of unit commanders! Readers can see more pictures on TMP here.

In the future combat scenario, the traditional leader as we know it is likely to change. The far battlefield may see a diminishing role for the "Do you want to live forever?" style of leadership, replaced instead by orders beamed on the CrossComm/Grid via satellite or direct from a HoloCommand Centre somewhere in orbit.

Likewise direct tactical orders such as "We gotta take that compound" will be replaced by constantly updating markers and symbols on a trooper's helmet display.

You may think that men in whatever guise, in the tension of a firefight will always look for a leader - maybe, but what about cloned or 'chipped' warriors of the future planets? Will they be 'programmed' for each fight?

James Cameron's ALIENS gave us a thought provoking study of the dilemma of future command. Not only did we have the larger than life Sand of Iwo Jima character in Apone, it also introduced us to Gorman, a platoon leader of the electronic age who lead from the...err, van.

Despite the pivotal role on the modern battlefield and in many wargame rules, dedicated leader figures can be hard to come by in 15mm Sci Fi. I'm still find myself painting a stripe or different coloured helmet/shoulder pad on grunts to denote them as leaders. OK that's fine for the squads but what about the platoon leader?

Well, where there's no separate platoon commander figure that's 'different' to the squad leaders, you are essentially being handed the role of Gorman. Sitting in your armoured VW camper, watching the screens and keeping an eye on Bid TV all at the same time. That's right, "38, simulated". Next time you look at those figures, before you press "Buy" just remember "38, simulated".


Still, you want those minis, you must have those minis. You've expressed "Wow" and "Awesome" on every forum going. The shiny, the precious MUST BE YOURS........

OK, we can paint a bigger stripe, give our heroic leader a bigger shoulder pad, but let's think 'outside the pack' in order to turn that fireteam plus the rest of a bag of Ebay fodder into a worthwhile platoon with a recognisable and identifiable command structure.

As our main focus is Sci Fi, I'm going to turn to HALO here. Fans of the original HALO game will remember that Masterchief is guided, aided and ultimately contested by the A.I. 343 Guilty Spark, also known as the "Oracle". Now imagine that Guilty Spark was a Command Drone. That's right. We looked at the potential for drones, bots and UAVs replacing men carrying support weapons in my earlier post about SAWs, why can't we therefore put Gorman in a drone.


Within a drone he has greater mobility on the battlefield, can exert his command presence and provide timely and encouraging firepower support to the grunts on the ground. Guilty Spark was able to zap the flood with lasers, so there's no reason why we can't give our Gorman drone a limited support and self protection ability. Even give each squad its' own Apone drone! So the Command Drone is shot down? No worries, the command data and comms passes to another drone in the unit or a replacement Command Drone whizzes it's way up to the battlefront.

My next reference is also from HALO, this time Cortana. Oooh, the beautiful, sultry, Cortana. Well, we'll get to Cortana. Artificial Intelligence plays a key role within the HALO 'verse and the fiction is worth reading to take a step into the future and see a wonderful visualisation of A.I. in use. Halo: Contact Harvest by Joseph Staten introduces us to the A.I. character Mack. And believe me, he is all character. Mack's avatar, his holographic presence is a Mexican bandito.

So your command or A.I,. function can be expressed as an iridescent blue, green, red character avatar - a 10-15mm figure, 20mm even, maybe a typical command figure, but also maybe a cowboy, a pirate, a Patton, a hero of the Federation.

Maybe, just maybe, these 'command avatars' will also be used for morale, accompanying the men into action - maybe individual avatars for each soldier, maybe a mascot avatar for squad or platoon - again being in the key places, directing, exhorting, cajoling or comforting as the situation warrants.

And this is where Cortana comes in. Maybe the day of humans commanding humans is past and AI Avatars take on the job on behalf of the master battle computer....

Cortana is their leader, their commissar, their confident, their reason.... This is a great role for some of Critical Mass Games' Vadorian Assassins.

And finally in this brief look at alternative 15mm Sci Fi command figures, we turn to Star Wars. In the later episodes we see Clone commanders appearing as light blue holographic images in front of other commanders. So, let's take an ordinary kneeling trooper figure - give him that stripey thing to denote him as leader and place a 15mm.co.uk 6mm HOF command or grunt figure at his feet - again panted as a holographic image so it appears that he's communicating with higher command or one of his troopers.


Hope you enjoyed this quick look at how we can turn necessity into opportunity to leave behind the mental shackles of the Grav Panzer, plasma AK and BFG, to instead really push the envelope of Sci Fi in miniature.

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The question has been posed to me more than once, "what you would like to see “command” look like?"In short, my vision of command figures are miniatures who look like they are leading men in action.

It's a personal thing, I absolutely hate team, squad and platoon level leaders reading a map, looking through binocluars or standing bolt upright pointing/talking into radio. Put the kiss of death on more than one range of figures for me.

This image says it all. Even though he is kneeling, there is dynamism, force and command presence. Also note that his weapon is at the ready, not dangling like a handbag as we see on some miniatures. You could even take the entire torso and transpose it onto braced or running legs.

Take a look at this promo video for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and study the leader carefully. His gestures, his movements and most particularly his stance.

[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/DKZjxoJyI8g&hl=en&fs=1&]

Notice how the weapon is ready at all times, gestures snappy, stance alert in a semi crouch and not standing bolt upright.


How often do you see a raised fist HALT gesture or a hand splayed on helmet for RALLY ON ME?
Tell me if I'm wrong, but to me team, squad, platoon leader miniatures are more important than the ordinary grunts. They give the unit character. I think Flames of War generally does a great job in this respect and recent WW2 Soviet releases at least have been brimming with different leader figures - not just one pointyfinger bloke who looks like a traffic warden directing tourists to Harrods. Plus you've got to use him as every team, squad AND platoon leader in your tabletop outfit.

Certain aspects of future command on the battlefield may do away with the traditional leader as we know them. Every man may be their own boss, or they will be reacting to commands on the CrossComm beamed via satellite or direct from a HoloCommand Centre somewhere in orbit. But I hope this provides some inspiration for the lower tech grunts who will still look to a man with cohones to lead them when the dog hits the fan.

Cheers
Mark
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