
Well after the disruption of last week, this week’s New Stand is maybe a touch on the light side (probably because there was three fewer days to generate news from). It’s light enough that I’ve left it until late in the day to try and get a few more articles squeezed in! The good news though is that we have updates from Spectre, Black Hill Games and Combat Octopus.
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Spectre Miniatures Releases A Stack of New Rules

Spectre Miniatures kicked off this week with an Extra Rules drop. First up, we have some details for bringing EOD Specialists to your table. The extra rules include both a new element for trained forces (complete with some new gear) but also a new action “Disarm” letting you play through a tense mid-mission red wire-cutting exercise. The extra rules page is slowly building up as Spectre adds new additions so it’s interesting to see what’s being added next – we’ve already had a pretty major change with the Solo/Non-Playable Element rules and a relatively minor addition with the 8.6mm Blackout carbine.

Alongside the new rules, we also got the three force builders previewed last week. Law Enforcement includes both SWAT and Patrol officers, as well as vehicles to carry them around in. The Criminals get Organised Criminals and Criminal Gang elements to add to your Crime Boss. Finally, the Russians list is only a sample, one designed to get things started off with a more detailed list arriving later. It does include quite a few new items (such as Russian launchers and the BTRs that I assume will be released soon) as well as a wide variety of elements to cover a selection of Forces. Having not dug into Spectre V3 at this point, I can’t really say if these list builders are good or not, but they definitely include a few specific tweaks for the different forces.
Speaking of the Russians, according to Steve on the Spectre Discord the Russian release is still going ahead this weekend. So prepare your wallets and stand by for the next big thing from Spectre.
Black Hills Games Releases British Infantry Specialists

Black Hills Games released the full British Infantry specialists last week (luckily not IMMEDIATELY after the News Stand as has occasionally happened). The last two figures added to the set were the GPMG (or gimpy) gunner and a sharpshooter. With this release and the last one (both available on Black Hill’s Gumroad store) you can build a section of modern British Infantry with a good selection of weapon systems to support the core riflemen. I’m going to be picking up a set of these guys, so stand by to see on them on a table soon!
Combat Octopus Begins Work On The Criminals And Has Exciting News!


Having won the voting, Armed Criminals is the topic that Combat Octopus will be covering for the next two months. Although I may be a little sore after losing out on a set that would be perfect for my own projects, it looks like CO will be focusing on making a set that extends the modular assets out with plenty of options. We’ve already got two rough poses you can see above, with the potential for various new hand options and weapons (the first figure will also be getting an AK potentially). This will definitely be a set that although I’m not rushing to print a load of criminals, will definitely be handy in the bits box
However, perhaps the bigger news is that Combat Octopus is now a full time operation! It seems that he’s reached the stage where he’s able to focus in on making models as his day job, which should hopefully mean less stress and rushing to cram around deadlines alongside and more time being able to invest in making the stuff exactly how he wants to make it. I’ve been a patron of Combat Octopus from the start and I’m very excited to see where he goes from here!
Seeing as I’m out of main news stories, I thought I might as well show off some outstanding hobby work that has been popping up all over the Ultramodern Discord (and with good reason!).

For Hamburg Tactica 2024, the multinational coalition of Team Würfelkrieg, Ivan of the head chopping and CONflict Rheinland came up with a rather impressive board to show off Asymmetric Warfare at the show. They went with a favela theme, set in the depths of Val Verde and it’s safe to say they absolutely NAILED it.

From the winding streets that cut through the centre, to the stacked elevation of the various structures to all the tiny little details that dot the rooftops, everything feels right, giving the impression of a giant bustling city while still looking incredibly playable with the focus on the centrre. There is also a good selection of assets on the table, ranging from civilian cars to help set the scene up to the actual combatants (and their rides).

You can see a good flythrough of it here, and there has been plenty of photos put up on the various groups such as Modern Miniature Warfare. It sounds like we’ll be getting a big overview soon (once the creators have recovered), so stand by for more coverage on what sounded like to be one of the more popular boards at the show.

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