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Miniatures Adventure => VSF Adventures => Topic started by: YPU on January 22, 2010, 10:13:22 PM

Title: Mission to the moon! UPDATED, with blurry pictures!
Post by: YPU on January 22, 2010, 10:13:22 PM: For 2010 I wanted to do a single big non GW project. Originally I was planning to do a Weird War II, but when I mentioned VSF there seemed to be a lot of interest, a lot more interest in fact.

Actually even my non-wargaming rpg group expressed some interest in it as well.

None of my players, nor myself are history buffs, or nowhere near that area and time. We think its interesting and all, simply don’t know all that much about it.

So that opens up even more possibilities, in fact, I can get myself the Perry miniatures plastic kits and have more infantry then I will ever need per side.

So that decides the English, in scarlet ofcourse. The American union, in blue, but who next? Something evil... due to reasons mentioned above I think I can get away with using French as evil Prussians!

There is still one person who’s interest I want to make sure will remain on this campaign. My girlfriend. She mainly has interest in fantasy, tough Victorian has quite some charm to her. She only collects one sort of miniature at the moment, night goblins, lots of them. Now how to ad those in. Perhaps a underground war? Hollow earth? Not really my style.

The Moon! How science fiction! And the little green men with moons on their shields, how appropriate. And my new grey rock crater and snow board fits in perfectly. (hey, I can have snow on the moon!)

So now we have aggressive green moon men natives, always good for fun times. (you can keep your Zulus!)

The system will be savage worlds, I am ok at building things in its showdown version and having a crossover RPG running alongside it will be easy!

Anyhow, Any good idea’s for this, plot twists, no matter how cliché, must have minis? I am pretty sure the huntsman spider tank will be mine soon enough for this. (no Prussian can go without)

As a side bonus, I scraped up a Prussian turret for their moon base (they should have one!)
So some pictures:
(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5152/camera004u.jpg) (http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3796/camera005.jpg)

(http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/9199/camera006.jpg)

So, will I actually stick to this project?

Shall their be battle reports and campaign status updates?

Do the horizontal stripes make the emperors troops look fat?

W ho knows stay tuned!
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Dewbakuk on January 23, 2010, 12:02:33 AM: Why use French as Prussians? Why not use Prussians as Prussians, they're probably one of the two easiest sets of VSF troops available?
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 23, 2010, 12:11:21 AM: To be honest; laziness. I don’t want to spend to much money on this, so I wanted something plastic, the Perry miniatures are extremely well priced and those are they have.
Besides that, one of my main gaming buddies will soon place a large bulk order at maelstrom games so I was looking for something to go on that list.

But if somebody can point my at a nice multipart plastic Prussian kit that goes well with the perry ones (or has some other factions of its own) for a decent price I would love to know.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: flooglestreet on January 23, 2010, 01:41:56 AM: Actually, those shifty frogs were considered with suspicion by Victoria, who tolerated her relative Willy and his silly behaviour.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Fjodin on January 23, 2010, 02:21:11 AM: SURE DO THIS PROJECT! And dont forget battle reports and MINI PHOTOS!
I was always interested in Victorian Space! To bad there are not much vsf space adventures/stories/pics
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Chairface on January 23, 2010, 03:25:46 AM: Love the turret! Keep it coming.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Mors on January 23, 2010, 08:54:45 AM: i will be interested to see how this project go's. two or three years afgon I painted up a battle of Skull Pass set up for my son as a Christmas present, by new years day he had decided he was into 40k >:( , so I inherited the Night Goblins which i rather like, Im not really into Warhammer that much but I do like Night Goblins and you can get a reasonable size army pretty cheap. I have been pondering how to introduce them into VSF and had decided they they would probably be besty in a Hollow Earth scenario, but I think the moon is a good idea too.
For anyone into Victorian style space advetuers I recomend the Space captain smith books here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Space-Captain-Smith-Chronicles-Isambard/dp/1905802137

Mors
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Dewbakuk on January 23, 2010, 09:02:08 AM: The Space Captain Smith books are awesome. Disengage brain and immerse yourself in the humour :)
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Red Orc on January 23, 2010, 02:27:06 PM: Seconded or rather thirded on Space Captain Smith. Great books. Like Biggles with jokes, sex, and hyperdrives.

@ YPU; why not use the French as French? Britain wasn't really that concerned about Germany until about 1907; certainly, we were more bothered about France (the Fasoda Incident etc). After all, England and France have been enemies for nearly 1,000 years, compared to which any unpleasantness with Germany in the last 100 is recent history if not current affairs (and in Victoria's time was dystopian raving).

In fact, Victorian England was pretty pro-German, given that prince Albert was German, Victoria was half-German, most of her children married Germans, and after all, hang and whatnot, the Germans hated the French too (and beat them in the Franco-Prussian War). In short, I really can't understand the VSF thing for making the Prussians the bad guys (except, of course, they have great bad guy hats, which is very important).

@ Mors; there are very small Morlocks on Atlantis that look suspiciously like Night Goblins ;)
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Tacgnol on January 23, 2010, 02:58:06 PM: I love the idea of Night Goblins on the moon. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Thunderchicken on January 23, 2010, 04:20:13 PM: Have you read First Men in the Moon by H G Wells? You might get some inspiration from that. There's a couple of film versions too. It's on my 'project to do list' so it will be interesting to see how your project develops.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Gluteus Maximus on January 23, 2010, 05:12:05 PM: Quote from: Dewbakuk on January 23, 2010, 12:02:33 AM
Why use French as Prussians? Why not use Prussians as Prussians, they're probably one of the two easiest sets of VSF troops available?

Or, why not have a fictional central European superpower as the bad guys. You can then use whatever figures and uniform colours you want. As an added bonus, no real-life nations are cast as the bad guys, so you can even have the French and Prussians fighting alongside the British :o

Radical, I know, but it might just work lol
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Ray Rivers on January 23, 2010, 09:53:54 PM: Night goblins on the moon... o_o

I'm having a hard time getting that image in my mind.

Perhaps a photo might help ??? :D

The turret, btw, looks excellent!
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 24, 2010, 12:08:48 PM: Hm, I still am not sure about who the evil guys should be.

However Red Orc makes a good point on the French. I was already thinking about how the English and the French are always trying to best each other. However I always felt it was something of a gentlemen’s animosity of sorts, you know it a bit like they should hate each other but will band together should a larger treat present itself.

On the other hand, lets say that napoleon stayed emperor and concurred a large part of Europe.
Perhaps he is even still alive long afther he should have died, due to weird science! Or magic?

Since I will be DM’ing the rpg I will also play the evil guys here, wetter they are French or not.

I’ll see if I can get my hands on some of the books you guys mentioned on short notice, and i’ll be sure to update you on the status of this.

Actually should I use the French as bad guys I guess I should need to repaint the turret.

Actually for some reason the images of the French heavy cavalry from perry really has an evil vibe to me for some reason, that might actually have sparked me wanting to use them as prusians in the first place.

EDIT:
Ordered the First Perry miniatures English. Those are so cheap in respect to the company that should not be named but those guys also work for.

I considered also ordering gas mask heads from some other company but to get some for the English and some appropriate ones for the French. And then perhaps the Americans if they come in. I don’t think it would be worth it.

And in any case I think being able to breathe on the moon has a high VSF value to me in the first place.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Red Orc on January 24, 2010, 12:43:41 PM: It's a lovely turret and I don't think you should repaint it to be honest, it's too nice.

I'm sure there could be many reasons why the British and French could be contesting a Prussian turret... perhaps the Moon Men have taken it over, perhaps it's a prefabricated turret dropped on the moon that has crashed and the vile French and perfidious English are both attempting to capture it for their own nefarious ends (hey, Prussians as good guys, there's a spin on VSF that never gets played)...

Not sure that the animosity between Britain (read, England) and France was all that gentlemanly. Maybe the British could be the bad guys?

BTW - Napoleon did conquer a large part of Europe! He just didn't hold it very long. There's a series of VSF Manga books based around the idea of a steampunk French Empire ruled by Napoleon IV in about 1890, they have great ships and submarines... I'm pretty sure it has Captain Nemo in too. My 12-yr-old son has just informed me that's it's called "Nemo" so I'm even more sure it has Captain Nemo in now. Perhaps it might be worth checking out.

Anyway, there are some thoughts, do with as will...
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Chairface on January 24, 2010, 03:44:54 PM: Why do there have to be bad guys? In the colonial period they were pretty much all various levels of good and bad. Just have competing empires and forget the whole good/bad thing.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Red Orc on January 24, 2010, 04:13:03 PM: But everyone thought they were the good guys. The entire colonial period is based on the idea that 'we' (whoever 'we' are) are the good guys, and everyone else is the bad guys. Which does lead to competing empires, because that's what empires do. But 'no man is to himself evil'. They all justified it with rhetoric about civilisation and progress and whatnot.

But YPU has already said that there will be a DM faction - in fantasy RPGs that's the orcs, because no-one plays gallant orckish heroes heroically raiding human settlements, so what is the VSF equivalent? That would depend on the 'party' faction really. If the 'party' is British, and the DM faction needs to be human, then Prussian, French or Russian would all work. If the party is from the US, then Spanish, Mexican, Japanese or indeed British might be good. If the party is Japanese, then American, Russian or Chinese baddies might work, if the party's French then German, British or Spanish baddies might work etc.

Of course, setting it on the moon does at least allow Moon Men to be the enemy (ie transfering the fantasy good humans v bad goblins into space); but an evil human faction in 1890 probably belongs to or is allied to some human nation - unless it's a trans-national 'evil scientist-cum-criminal mastermind-cum-secret conspiracy' faction of course; Captain Nemo joins forces with Professor Moriaty and the Illuminati...
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 24, 2010, 05:28:42 PM: The moon men will start out as villains, but probably will end up as allies.
Evil empires make things easier, it takes away moral questions a bit, and that’s the sort of campaign my players are looking for right now.

Ok, here is a plot idea:
For some time now the Prussian moon base has been the only supplier of Lunarium, However recently the shipments (which are shot to earth using a big cannon (which I will build)) have stopped and all communications, trough light flashes, have stopped.

The British will send out a space exploration force to investigate. However they will find that the Imperial French were faster, those sly frog eaters have been after the Lunarium supply ever since it began and often try to capture wayward shipments.

The Prusian base turns out to be abandoned, for no apparent reason, and the locals aren’t making it easier.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 25, 2010, 07:53:59 PM: I have started statting up the normal troopers in savage World, but I think I need something to differentiate the troops from each other a bit.

I would like to take one thing at which the troops should be better than the rest, and perhaps one at which they are worse.

But to be honest I am having a hard time doing this, tough I find it interesting I, as mentioned know next to nothing about this era.
So I implore the more historically minded people here, what defined the british and the French from each other in this era?
And suggestions for the goblin moon men would be nice as well. (tough I have something in mind for them already)

You know I am wondering if perhaps I would be better of switching to gaslight, as I hear it mentioned often, then again does that handle little green men with bow and arrows well?

Oh and I finished First men in the moon, was a nice little work and the fact that its somewhat light-hearted without loosing interest inspires me to do the same.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Gluteus Maximus on January 25, 2010, 10:40:31 PM: GASLIGHT can handle pretty well any type of weapon and troop type, so moon-goblins should be a doddle!

As to British Vs French - and this is very simplistic- the British would be more solid and phlegmatic, very tough but unimaginitive, whilst the French would have more attacking flair, capable of spectacular success or dramatic collapse.

A bit like the present-day rugby teams, in fact ;)
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Dewbakuk on January 25, 2010, 11:22:09 PM: If you want to go with sterotypes (which Savage Worlds is good at :) ), then I'd make the British Infantry slightly better shots and slightly braver. However the French Officers should be better than the British ones and have the higher edges which boost their troops.

The result in Savage Worlds would be that the French troops would react, fight and take casualties better than the British (though not shoot) as long as their officers were around but would lose a lot of benefits should the officer die. The British on the other hand would usually benefit from having an officer but should be able to function pretty well without one.

Foreign Legion however could be argued to get both benefits and be a true terror on the battle field.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Plynkes on January 26, 2010, 12:29:26 AM: If it's after 1871 and before 1915, the French should be absolutely committed to the offensive. Attack in all situations, defence is a waste of time. Maybe some kind of "impetuous" trait where units might head off towards the enemy of their own accord (especially if you just plonk them in cover and leave them there to shoot the enemy), plus bonuses to charging and getting stuck in with the bayonet, perhaps.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 26, 2010, 04:49:18 PM: Here is an idea, the French invasion of Russia left napoleons army broken and his own body in ruins, it was then that he decided a army reinforced by machines would be the future of his empire.

Currently trying to relocate my old make knight golems, and seeing if I can get some from friends as well. (we used to play MK together) and deciding on what colour scheme a French robot should have, any suggestions?

hm, I have been re using quite a few MK miniatures of late, perhaps I should purchase the few that the local game store still has lying around for dirt cheap.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Red Orc on January 26, 2010, 05:02:21 PM: French should be blue. Napoleonic French should be dark blue, and later French should be lighter. Almost sky blue.

I believe that there are a good many people using Mage Knight converted robots and what not, there's one at http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=15712.15 that is shortly to be gracing Atlantean shores, I hope...

PS the Manga books about Captain Nemo and the steampunk French Empire are actually called "Captain Nemo" and set in 1894.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 26, 2010, 05:16:36 PM: Ok I found the buggers, I have two of these:
(http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/8845/scoutk.jpg),
the models looks pretty VSF to start with, but its left hand is a rune inscribed blade tied up with leather straps. This doesn’t work for one, and would be ridiculous of two had the same thing. I think I will replace that arm with 40 ork guns. Give them some ranged power. These might do well as batlesuits, their roster eyes and size would allow it.

And I have one of these,
(http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/2971/103849.jpg)
now actually like this mini. He has a good powerplant on his back and he just looks villainous. Not big enough to fit a person in. Down side is that he has some asian ish symbols on his arms and shoulders. I could cover those with Greenstuff I guess, or I could use him as some sort of special character mercenary. (his tetsubo suggests it)

those bases are 35mm for scale referrence.

Red Orc
Yes, that was the topic that got me going on this,
and I still cant find that manga, I think I found its Wikipedia page, but I cant find it for sale anywhere.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Jonas on January 26, 2010, 05:28:41 PM: The images are not shown, there is just a message that the pics re taken without permission from troll and toad...
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 26, 2010, 05:39:13 PM: and thats what I get from using the images I got from google. Lets see what I can do.

EDIT: there, that should do it.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: The_Beast on January 26, 2010, 08:06:43 PM: Quote from: YPU on January 26, 2010, 05:16:36 PM
Ok I found the buggers, I have two of these:
(http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/8845/scoutk.jpg),
the models looks pretty VSF to start with, but its left hand is a rune inscribed blade tied up with leather straps. This doesn’t work for one, and would be ridiculous of two had the same thing. I think I will replace that arm with 40 ork guns. Give them some ranged power. These might do well as batlesuits, their roster eyes and size would allow it.

***snippage***

First post, be gentle...

From this angle, the blade looks 'pierced' down the center. Couldn't you just slice the point, and make them pincers?

Doug
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: Red Orc on January 26, 2010, 08:22:42 PM: Quote from: YPU on January 26, 2010, 05:16:36 PM
...
Red Orc... I still cant find that manga, I think I found its Wikipedia page, but I cant find it for sale anywhere.

Honestly, I've never seen it for sale. But my local library has a copy which is where No. 1 Son came across it. Vol. 1 is currently lying on his bedroom floor.

I'm calling it a 'manga' - turns out it was produced in Canada in 2005. Author - Jason DeAngelis. Art - Aldin Viray. Published by Seven Seas; www.gomanga.com

In my defence it looks Japanese (big eyes, pointy noses, everyone looks stretched), and reads back-to-front.

Oh, and it's set in 1893.

Hey, I'm rubbish at this...
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 27, 2010, 08:36:41 AM: Red Ork Don’t worry, wikipedia calls it a English origin manga or something. So your correct both ways.

Beast, I have long ago cut the blades apart (which is their normal angle I believe, for some reason the tips fuse in the mould. However they only look more fantasy blade like now.

So I found a few ork guns, a lot fewer then I thought I had, I guess I have used them quite often on these sorts of projects. I’ll harass one of my buddies for his ork guns some time. Anyhow, I have some appropriate ish guns and two steampunk looking ork chainsaws. From what was mentioned the French should be aggressive so a close combat monster seems appropriate.
On the other hand it already has a circle saw perhaps some ranged weapon would also be good. And finally I wondered, considering its size, I wouldn’t field a unit of these anyway, they would be wild cards in savage world and function as individual units, so cant I just have one chainsaw and one gun? A mark I and a Mark II or something.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon!
Post by: YPU on January 27, 2010, 10:09:37 PM: Pictures of the two large clanks will be up tomorrow, they have some natural lines that actually somewhat mimic those of French uniforms. So I am trying to copy to colour of those. It looks somewhat random (tough having two of them helps a lot) I think having them next to infantry of the same uniform will make it look a lot better.

EDIT: Here they are;
(http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/1122/sdc10596.jpg)
(http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/98/sdc10597.jpg)
(http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/3338/sdc10598w.jpg)

Still haven’t decided what to do with the small one. I think robots will be napoleons thing the whole flesh is weak decision after the Russian fiasco and all. The English will get more of a “her majesties royal scientists most modern weapons” and the Americans, should I use them, will get stuff that goes BOOM or makes other loud noises.

And continuing my rambling, I am planning to do a lot of underground fighting in this campaign, the goblin caves below the surface is where the Lunarium is found and all, does anybody have a good guide to a modular cave board? I was thinking of using hexes or something, large ones.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon! UPDATED, with blurry pictures!
Post by: Dr DeAth on January 28, 2010, 08:18:01 PM: Very nice - I have a few of these in my MK shoebox but had discounted them as being too 'flat'. Having now seen your results I think may have to revisit them with a view to adding another unit to the Caliph of Khosinda's arsenal! :)
Title: Re: Mission to the moon! UPDATED, with blurry pictures!
Post by: Ray Rivers on January 28, 2010, 08:20:30 PM: Nice clanks!

Now let's see the Night goblins ;D
Title: Re: Mission to the moon! UPDATED, with blurry pictures!
Post by: YPU on January 28, 2010, 08:40:14 PM: Quote from: Ray Rivers on January 28, 2010, 08:20:30 PM
Nice clanks!

Now let's see the Night goblins ;D
For now we will be using my girlfriends night goblins, as I currently am far to down on my money to buy my own. But I will sure get some in the picture ones I have some English done (maelstrom shipped them today)

EDIT: I now also have one of these bassed and undercoated ready for paint.

(http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/4807/vickyx.jpg)

She will be accompanying some named character, her name is
‘Vicky’ the Ironclad Bitch.
Title: Re: Mission to the moon! UPDATED, with blurry pictures!
Post by: YPU on February 04, 2010, 07:46:03 PM: My Brits arrived today, and I assembled them with much glee. I will probably post some pictures of the French power suits, Vicky the ironclad bitch, and a runaway experiment all showing in scale to my first few painted Englishmen.

Anyhow, I am having doubts about a few things. First of, game system, I was planning to use savage world showdown, but I have some trouble deciding on stats. So I wonder if I perhaps would have more use of some other game system, probably g.a.s.l.i.g.h.t.

Some of my problems, the command “squad” (the correct term escapes me for a second) what should they do, should I field them as a unit of their own or should I field them spread out among the five men groups of soldiers?

The specific effects of the command squad, They should offer some sort of support effect, of course, but I have a hard time deciding what exactly (especially the two banners)

The four riflemen, now I understand what their historic advantage is, but four guys with slightly more effective rifles don’t really sound all that kicking. But the relatively short rifle would make for a nice scattergun, making them effective scouts and deadly on short range. But again I find a lack of abilities that would enforce this idea.

Thats about it for now, I have three groups of five, the command group, and five grenadiers (who wear the peninsular caps, rather then Napoleonic, to differentiate them more)