'O' GROUP....... Mars 1889

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When Space 1889 first hit the shelves at the tail end of the 80's, I was living in New Jersey where I shared an apartment with a theatre director and sometime actress. We met in London over Vodka shots at Break For The Border. She was a typically theatrical type, so you can imagine the dramas and emotional rollercoaster ride. Made more 'interesting' that she was somewhat pissed at having been in the same drama class as Rebecca DeMornay, but not done quite so well on the big screen, and not been quite so blonde!

I remember buying Sky Galleons of Mars from The Compleat Strategist in New York, on East 33rd. I had a strong affinity with the shop through The Courier, which was THE BEST wargames' magazine for many, many years in my humble opinion.....

Sky Galleons was a blast to play! Lot's of fun! There's just that something about Peter Pig's 15mm Sudan range naval crew figures (packs 60 & 61) that make me want to scratchbuild my own 15mm aerial Gunboats.


As if I don't have enough projects on the go......tempting though, definitely one for the back-burner. Where this rambling trip down memory lane going, is to say that I picked up a couple of 'Specials' from the Too Fat Lardies this week. You can't fail to love these 'Specials', with their self-effacing humour and eclectic mix of down to earth wargaming articles.

Of particular note to Sci Fi gamers is the 2008 Summer Special which contains Bag the Jedi - a fun variant for the Lardies superb WW2 aerial combat game Bag the Hun!

Best read for me, was the 2008 Christmas Special. What piqued my interest here was twofold - They Don’t Like it Up ‘Em! Sudan rules in the Gilder manner. Expect more regarding VSF games on the blog as a result. Also, A Damnably Close Run Thing - Scott Dallimore's Indian Mutiny variant for the Lardies' acclaimed Sharp Practice Napoleonic/Black Powder skirmish game. There's something about the Mutiny that makes me think of Victorian Mars more so than the late Victorian 'Gunboats down the Nile' period. It occured to me that this could be a good, racuously fun 'skirmish' game option with only a few tweaks.

Before I hare off at a tangent with other rule systems, I'm going to make sure my VSF armies are ready to take the field first and foremost with ALIEN SQUAD LEADER (ASQL)2.0. Which, when all is said and done, is a fun set of rules that's tactically challenging without being demanding to learn, memorise or play. The 'Victorian Imperial' army template in edition 2.0 opens up ASQL to VSF.

Definitely more VSF and traditional Space Opera games with ASQL in the coming months.

Cheers
Mark
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Incoming Transmission..... Critical Mass Games 15mm Arc Fleet Combat Walkers Preview

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Never mind your Battlemechs and Japanese manga mecha, if you want real world gritty 15mm Sci Fi walkers look no further than Critical Mass Games new range of Arc Fleet Combat Walkers available to order from Monday, 21st September.


The Scout Variant with three chin guns is £8.50. Each of the 3 Heavy Support Variants with two wing weapons is £10.50. These Heavy Support Variants are a) 2 cannons, b) 2 missile pods, c) 2 cannon/missile pods.

The photos below show pre-production components (minus the crewman, one of three supplied randomly with each Walker). Better photos will be available on the Critical Mass website.

In addition, there will be 'platoon' box sets of 3 Scout Walkers at £23.00 or 3 Heavy Support (all same type) for £29.00.

Wing mounts and crew will be availble in seperately, contents and price TBD.

Further photos to whet your appetite can be found in a previous post from July (click here)

WWW.CRITICALMASSGAMES.COM

Cheers
Mark
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Iron Maiden First Strike: Photo BatRep

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There hasn't been much opportunity to enjoy the outdoors this year in Kinkydeenshine, but the tail end of last week turned everything round and we finally got our 'Indian Summer'. Over a candlelit Lamb Tangine, Heather declared we should make the most of the weather and play at least one Sci Fi wargame in the garden.....

Candlelit Lamb Tagine

Next day, post hangover.....covert surveillance satellite AL1CE is brought out of orbit and lands in the Kerrang Desert just inside the borders of AceeDCee.

Downed A1LCE Recce Satellite in crash crater guarded by AC/DC Combat Air Patrol

AC/DC troops of 78th 'Riff Raff' Rapid Reaction Force enjoying the pleasures of detached duty at El Burro

Iron Maiden First Strike Company.
"Boots on the ground chief!" Sgt. Major Blane scopes the enemy.

The balloon goes up!

For those about to rock.....

Uh-oh!

The Dance of Death!!!

The sun/s ALWAYS shines on Bruce!
No. 4 'Powerslave' platoon securing the objective

Shot of table plus garden to please the missus

All over bar the BBQ....

By no means a serious game. My original plan had been to play a solo scenario with a full Grav mech company, walkers, dropships, the works....but decided to keep it simple for Heather's first experience with Future War Commander (lite!).

As a serious fan of AC/DC since her college years, she was happy to lead 'Angus' and the boys, leaving the 'Iron Maidens' to me. One of H's favourite films is Predator (1987), so she fully 'gets' that the Iron Maidens were super-soldiers wearing adaptive camo suits and a match for her 'eavy metal.

Interestingly Heather's only reference for Grav vehicles is Luke's skimmer on Tatooine in Star Wars, so the Grav APCs followed the course of the pass rather than use their full inherent 3D mobility.

Great thing is she wants to do it again!

Cheers
Mark
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Incoming Transmission..... Khurasan 15mm Karkarines

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A new 15mm Sci Fi race from Jon at Khurasan Miniatures:

Karkarine Marines

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Karkarine Marines
TTC-1201 Karkarine Infantry, 4 figs for $2.49
TTC-1202 Karkarine Command and Hvy Wpns, 3 figs for $1.79

Lovely miniatures! Plenty of photos on the website together with the much anticipated Pelagic Dominate Heavy Grav AFVs. Simply inspired! Well done Jon! These are some of the best if not THE best 15mm Sci Fi miniatures to appear so far this year - where do I start? Headline thoughts.... animation, discernably different and naturalistic poses, sculpting consistency, inherent believability, radical!

I want to encourage you to look beyond the full on Sci Fi battle be it platoon, company or battalion level and use these figures in Pulp, Apocalyptic/Gamma, VSF and Sci Fi RPG games too. 'Venusians' instantly comes to my mind, as does Waterworld and post apocalyptic pirate concepts.


Don't forget to read my original preview from 23rd July for more detail (click here)!

Karkarine Marines. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Galaxy. Available now from:

WWW.KHURASANMINIATURES.TRIPOD.NET

Cheers
Mark
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Iron Maiden First Strike: FWC BatRep

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Satellite Recovery.....

WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!

"Out of the Silent Planet"

"Run to the Hills"

"Be Quick or Be Dead"

First blood for my Critical Mass Augmented Troopers. Full BatRep to follow.....

"Tailgunner"

Anyhoo! A gratuitous close up of my two favourite figs of the Iron Maiden First Strike Company taken at the start of the game.

"Leyton One, Leyton One, we have Number of the Beast
in company strength. Repeat. Company strength."

Cheers
Mark
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The Face of God: FWC BatRep

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The Face of God

Echo Zulu, Echo Zulu. This is Panjur 5. Boots on target.
By Crom! You've got to see this!
All round defence initiated......

SITUATION:

Massive unidentified electrical signals are being received throughout the Sector. The source of these signals has been pinpointed to an uninhabited rock in a forgotten backwater, Nu IV. A nearby frigate has been ordered to assemble a task force of Marines and investigate.


Weather: Violent dust and electrical storms reducing all ranges by half

Terrain: Open, desert Mesa terrain forming natural ampitheatre.

Enemy Forces: Unknown......


Friendly Forces:

MISSION:

Locate, identify and report on source of signals eminating from planet surface.

Execution:

SUMMARY:

The scenario was designed to be simple, fun, solo game following a blowout Chinese Take Away one evening. It pitches two very different forces at each other and ended up being surprisingly well balanced.

One of the things that struck home in designing the forces for the game using the FWC points based system as a guide, was very definitely NOT to grab a shopping bag full of attributes and tech upgrades, because they sound cool but instead to carefully tailor the Unit Attributes/Weapons and Tech Upgrades to the role your forces will play in the mission.

I enjoyed playing the game, especially the near run ending. It was challenging but not demanding/ The scenario begs to be replayed with different forces, especially aliens and I already have an image in my head of an alien vs alien encounter.

Just in case you are wondering, the 'Face of God' monument is a volcanic basalt rock ornament we brought back with us from Santorini, two years ago. It's been crying out to be used in this type of scenario!


Cheers
Mark
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