Ulthar (Sub-faction - updated)

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A technologically advanced alien empire bent on invading and subjugating the Earth; their efforts have been repelled time and again so far.

The Ulthar have a culture based around a shifting caste system. Currently the Aquarius Warlords are the masters.

Ulthar Supremes (rear row left to right):

• Gorgoroth, Taurus Captain: a raging slave caste ground assault commander.
• Stormblades, Libra Sensei: warrior monk master of close-quarters fighting.

(middle row, left to right):

• Stinger, Scorpio Fencer: deadly armoured blade-warrior.
• Ra'Leigh, Aquarius Warlord: royal caste, current masters of the Ulthar forces of war.
• Xyllian, Master Sagittarius: incomparable scout and infiltrator.

(front row, left to right):

• Gemini X: twin psychic mutant, healer and defender.
• Gemini Y: twin psychic mutant, manipulator of minds.

Ra'Leigh, Aquarius Warlord

The Ulthar are a warlike race of aliens travelling to Earth through Quantum Holes. The aquari are the royal caste, controlling the wrariors, navigation and ship itself of each Patriaship.

This mini has taken a long, long time to finish off - it really has. Firstly there was a problem with the neck frill component, then when it had been prepped I base-coated the main armour and lost focus and motivation. And that situation carried on for quite some time...

What I resolved to do was start other minis (a couple of Grimm in fact), and paint the second version of Stalker to 'get something done' - which from past expereince helps me paint something that has ground to a halt. And it did work, albeit slowly, but finally Ra'Leigh, Aquarius Warlord has been finished, barring varnish.

The upshot is that my Ulthar Sub-faction is finished for the time being, which means I am again closing in on painting everything in the range (until the next waves of releases!).

As a level 3 Supreme, Ra'Leigh, Aquarius Warlord is a potent model on the battlefield - durable and pretty hard-hitting. I still find the Ulthar tricky to use as a whole, meaning I do not get the best out of them, but I am pleased with the force as a painted 'unit' of sorts.

Stinger, Scorpio Fencer

Schooled in the mastery of Scorpio armour: a masterpiece of Ulthar craft providing the warrior with deadly blades and good protection.

I finished this one quite quickly which probably shows in some places, although some aspects of the paint-work I am pretty happy with (some of the use of sharp highlights for example). The mini sat with a base coat of dark green for a number of weeks (months?) before my recent move. As I gathered some motivation for painting again I set to work just as I was finishing Sovereign and Stinger ended up being done much more quickly than most of my minis.

I wanted the palette to remain quite tight across the Ulthar minis I have. Therefore the colourchoicess for Stinger, Scorpio Fencer would be limited, although the armour utilized a slightly different approach than that which I employed for Xyllian. I have tended to go for purple robes and cloth and green armour for the Ulthar (classic Marvel villain colours!), although Stinger lacks the same cloth options of many of the rest of the range.

In game terms Stinger is a melee specialist and interceptor – perfect for foiling close combat attacks on your more vulnerable Team-members.

Ulthar (Sub-Faction)

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The Ulthar landed last summer; alien invaders bent on conquest. The Ulthar are the most recent Villain Sub-faction in Pulp City, and soon should be bolstered to form a complete Level 12 Team.

The Ulthar are mainly Nature Origin so far, although that may change as the line-up grows.

The Ulthar so far (left to right):

• Xyllian, Master Sagittarius; scout and infiltrator par excellence


• Gemini Y; psychic, mind manipulator


• Gorgoroth, Taurus Captain; ground assault leader


• Gemini X; psychic, healer and defender


• Stormblades, Libra Sensei; warrior monk

Xyllian, Master Sagittarius

Master Caste - Sagittarius: Master scouts and infiltrators who land first on any planet and prepare the invasion.

The only Pulp City mini I painted in February, Xyllian, Master Sagittarius (by Israel Gonzalez Mojarro) is the last of the first wave of Ulthar that I had to paint. I started out with a clear mind of what I wanted to try to do, alas in execution my skills were not on par with my goals.

While I am reasonably satisfied with the outcome, it isn't how I envisaged the model looking. My original plan had been to to a near-black armour effect with green highlighting on the sharp armour edges, after seeing a similar approach on some of the recent GW Dark Eldar. As I was painting it though, I couldn't achieve an effect that looked consistent across the armour areas as well as being sufficiently satisfying to look at. Therefore I just went for the mid to dark green armour. The purple cape is intended to help tie the mini in to the rest of the Ulthar, and that actually came out as the most satisfactory part of the paint job. There will be a group Ulthar shot soon.

Xyllian, Master Sagittarius brings some decent ranged Actions, and his Exclusive Resource (shared with Virgo) boosts these further. Basically he is part sniper/fire base model, and part Team support through his Gate skill Analyze Action (which does benefit from the Sagittarius Crossbow - meaning multiple targets could be affected, or a model slowed down while using Analyze). Add in decent defensive Traits (although lacking any defensive Trumps), and Xyllian is a decent proposition who can even hold up in close combat to a limited extent.

Gorgoroth, Taurus Captain

Slave caste - Taurus: Enslaved natives of Ergo planet, blind creatures that resemble Earth's mythological minotaurs. They form spearhead units of ground invasions.

Gorgoroth, Taurus Captain, by Israel Gonzalez Mojarro (who also sculpted some of the other Ulthar) if the fourth of this growing Extra-Terrestrial Team that I have finished.

Initially I had tried to tie in the mini with the other Ulthar by attempting a very dark purple (near to black) hue on the fabric, but that looked rubbish, so I settled for a straight 'black' look. I have been using a red and purple colour theme, as well as the matching skin tone, on my Ulthar minis, and wanted that reflected in Gorgoroth, even though he is of a different species. It didn't work out so I may have another crack at it further down the line. In the mean-time he looks okay with the other Ulthar, so no rush to do another yet.

I mention 'okay' because that is my general feeling about the results. I like the mini, I think it is nicely sculpted and fitting in what it represents. I like my choice of basing, I just wish I had done a better job with the execution of the paint-job. It isn't terrible, but it is not very exciting either. Couple that with the dissatisfying way the metallic bits turned out, and I simply wish it was 'better'.

In game terms this guy is pretty tough; not so much due to his Traits, but based on a combination of Invincible 2 (reduce all Damage by 2) and 16 Damage. Thanks to needing to scent his prey (Gorgoroth is sightless), he is a little trickier to use than most bruising/brick types, but has some excellent Damaging Actions.

Stormblades, Libra Sensei

Master Caste - Libra: Monastic order of martial arts specialists.

A true master of the art of combat, Stormblades, Libra Sensei is another of the Ulthar minis. Although not yet on general release, some were available at Gencon in the US in August, and the web store had some available as well.

Stormblades, Libra Sensei is a Level 2 Supreme, and like most of the Ulthar so far is Nature origin, which adds a new dimension to Team-building as so few Nature Supremes were available, relatively speaking.

Observant readers may notice that the colour palettes of both Stormblades and Dr. Tenebrous are very similar, which was due to painting them roughly concurrently, although Stormblades was finished first. I'll be using the same skin colour across most of my Ulthar, except maybe Virgo (sine she is a renegade it will help differentiate her). And the purple and red motif will be used on my other Ulthar minis as it has been here and on Gemini X and Gemini Y, but likely not non-Ulthar species within the Ulthar Sub-faction (for example the Taurus model).

With his mix of Skills and Exclusive Actions, Stormblades is not only pretty mobile, but he has various options to close on his enemies as will as dish out some major Damage in Base to Base.

Gemini Y

Master Caste - Gemini: Twisted and broken. Gemini X and Y are Ulthar's only known psychics.

They [the Ulthar] embody every damn stereotype of an alien we had before: green, funny language, high pitched voices. Even their ships look like flying saucers!

The other half of the Gemini pair, Gemini Y was painted at the same time as Gemini X for obvious reasons. As I suggested in the Gemini X post, I hope to maintain the regal purple theme, and will see if I can incorporate the yellow elements as well to really draw the minis of the Ulthar together as they are finished in good time - I currently have 2 more Ulthar to paint, as well as one of their subjugated species (a Taurus; still counts as Ulthar Sub-faction).

As with Gemini X, I did find my painting of this mini difficult; the results are satisfactory for gaming, and I accept the final results since I am far from being a perfectionist, but sometimes one wishes that something was just simply better in its execution.

As an aside, the bases I am using for all my Ulthar are from Dragon Forge. They are from the Lost Empires range, painted to match the colours I use for my urban bases. I just thought it would add to the alien-ness of the minis to have a distinct set of bases. I ordered them months ago in anticipation of painting the Ulthar, and was pleased I did so.

Gemini Y offers Actions that concentrate on limiting enemy capability, in contrast to the focus on battlefield control that Gemini X has. In this regard, if pushed to suggest which is 'better', then if playing in a more aggressive style I would probably go with Gemini Y, whereas if playing in a more defensive style Gemini X may offer better value. of course in an ideal situation it may be better to take them both and maximise their capabilities.

Gemini X

The Ulthar are a warlike race of aliens travelling to Earth through Quantum Holes.

Master Caste - Gemini: Twisted and broken. Gemini X and Y are Ulthar's only known psychics.

One of a pair (along with Gemini Y), Gemini X is a Level 1 Villain from the newly emerged Ulthar Sub-faction. The Geminis can be used together or separately, but really benefit from synergistic rules that each has. Gemini X offers a healing Action, Actions for battlefield control, as well as synergies with Gemini Y.


The Ulthar offer something quite different in Pulp City, in that most of the Sub-faction Supremes have a Nature Origin, giving a different slant on Team construction. The other villain Sub-factions have thus far been dominated by Mystery Origins, resulting in a slight disadvantage against Science Teams (such as Heavy Metal).





I struggled a little with the mini, as I have been with my painting in general in the last couple of months (except for the Hulking Grimm which was nice and simple to paint). The purple colour used for the robes will hopefully feature on each Ulthar mini I do, and I will try and maintain similar flesh-tones across the Ulthar (although not all Ulthar Supremes are of that species...) to try to tie them together.