I have a strong interest in apocalyptic survival and therefore have to admit being fascinated by the dying gasps of the Third Reich, especially the last few days in Berlin, which is summed up so wonderfully in Oliver Hirschbiegel's film DOWNFALL.
Add to this a love of Zombie movies ever since a teenager and you can imagine that games involving Nazi science trying to forestall the inevitable but instead create the ultimate Götterdämmerung of walking dead, have an appeal I find difficult resist.
Well, I can resist it no longer. Battlefront recently released a natty little pack containing 3 Soviet Roto Razvedki Universal Carriers (with crew) or £9.50, though you can pick them up in the UK from some stockists for less than £9.00. £3 per vehicle including crew - bargain! I love the dinky toy look of the Carrier, one of my favourite all time historical AFVs, so this set is a definite must have!
I'm ordering these as part of a Soviet Zombie Hunter force for WWW2 Götterdämmerung games, along with the Soviet Leytenant A V Pyl’cyn and Submachine-Gun Company pack to provide the dismounted element. They'll also make a nice tabletop force for Ambush Allet: Force on Force and potentially some low tech militia too.
If the budget stretches, I'll buy the Soviet LW flamethrower platoon too this month but I am going to have to get some German WW2 Zombies first.....these will mostly be derived from Peter Pig's LW Germans surrendering pack 446 and one of the greatcoated mortar crewmen in pack 552. I'll bend the arms and pop the heads forward or to one side and even replace some of them with Peter Pig's separate 'skull' heads.
Now, I'm just wondering which fully armoured Sci Fi miniatures would be best for elite WWW2 Soviets. I'm tempted to field yet more GZG New Israelis but this time with Peter Pig separate heads wearing pilotka sidecaps or Soviet tanker helmets? Or again with headsops, possibly ex-MJ Space Troopers from The Scene?
If any of you are doing or thinking of WWW2 in 15mm I'd welcome any input.
Cheers
Mark
I love weird war II stuff. I've only done role playing with it though. Allied OSI troops taking on the nazis latest supernatural horror. And that was mostly horror games, not sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteMy personal preference for breakdown of the nationalities is:
Germans: occult, magic, monsters, and mad science. The long war has depleted their technological resources and they have to turn to demonic or necromantic sources of power to continue.
US: Technology, power armor, super-weapons, etc. Alien tech scavenged from crashed foo-fighters keeps the Americans on the cutting edge.
UK: resources also scarce because of the long war. Special ops and stealth raids using magic or technology. Whatever it takes to get the job done.
Japan: More magic. Spirit ancestors have joined the war to prevent the disgrace of a defeat. Dragons join Zeros on attacks in the pacific.
Take a look at Dream Pod 9's "Gear Krieg" figs -- these are hands-down my favorite WWWII figs for 15mm, possibly my favorite 15mm period. Their troop figures are limited, but they *do* have german zombies. Russians are almost nonexistent though (1 tank) -- you can use the british/american walkers as lend-lease though.
ReplyDeleteAnd, there's going to be a Battlefront Evolution: World at War expansion covering Gear Krieg figs soon! Info, along with some nicely painted figs side-by-side 15mm troops at:
http://www.agisn.de/html/gear_krieg.html
As for the elite soviets...cant help ya there. But, Eureka makes some *awsome* "sci-fi germans" (which are sadly limited to 4 sculpts) that will work well for weird world war II. Here's some of mine as example:
http://users.infohell.net/~elakin/20090404_gearkrieg/scifi_germans.jpg
The time honored issue with WWW2 is what to do for the good guys. By good guys I mean the UK and America. It's just hard to imagine them doing the horrible things that the Japanese, Germans and even the Russians did.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that Tesla-based gizmos had a place in allied gear and DP9 seems to agree. I think the Russians need some armored troops.
Mark, if you haven't checked them out, look at Eureka's Sci-fi WW2 Germans. I commissioned these through their 300 Club when it first came about and they make great elite German strike troops. You might als want to contact Nic at Eureka and see if there might be some room for sci-fi WW2 elements for other nations.
-Eli
I had good luck using artillery crews for zombies. Clip the shells out of their hands and bend the heads and they look very shambley.
ReplyDeleteAs for armored Russians, my buddy and I have been trying to crack that nut for a bit. You might want to look at modern Russian commandos, especially if you can find any with the night vision helmets with the face shields. Another option might be to use Italian paratrooper as their horizontal magazine pouches could be painted like metal. Might not even need a head swap either.
-Eli
I was thinking about putting up a 300 club request for MORE sci-fi germans -- i'd like to have some NCO's, and panzerfaust/schrek troops to go with the existing "basic" troops. Are they still actively doing the 300 club?
ReplyDeleteI'd certainly buy other nationalities troops if they became available (or sign up for 300-club pre-orders)
elakin,
ReplyDeleteLet us know if you do the 300 club for more Eureka SciFi Germans. I own a lot of them now and would love some additional troop options.
Jeff
Gents,
ReplyDeleteA couple weeks back, I contacted Nic at Eureka and proposed the possibility of osme more poses for the WW2 Sci-fi Germans. He seemed favorable to the idea and asked me for a list of poses that I thought would be good to add. I am waiting to hear back from him on the viability of expanding the line.
-Eli
I would probably get some if he puts them up in the 300 club.
ReplyDeleteGot my reply from Nic. Those who are interested in this see my blog at leadpeople.blogspot.com for details.
ReplyDelete-Eli
I ordered! Super cool.
ReplyDelete