Saucer War One - ANTIC's O.O.B. exposed!

[Macrossmartin]

Greetings, all. After a lengthy hiatus, I have returned! - as a man with a corncob pipe once said. But, I'm not wading ashore from a PT boat, but rather descending from the skies in a flying saucer! 

Or more accurately, I am working on Saucer War One — a game about descending upon the unsuspecting Earth in flying saucers! It's got a long way to go, but I thought I should share some progress here, and see what people think. Here's the 'elevator pitch' so you can know where I'm coming from:



Saucer War One: Invasion ’52 is a tabletop miniatures game of flying saucer combat, set in the 1950s. Against a background of B-grade Sci-Fi films, Cold War paranoia, Bebop Jazz and Rock n’ Roll, Saucer War One takes you through an alternate history in which alien civilisations challenged Humanity for dominance of the Earth.

Players field squadrons of beautifully detailed, 1/200 scale miniature saucers, maneuvering to bring machine-cannons, missiles, and exotic super-science weapons to bear. But victory is not decided by combat alone; Saucer War One is a fight for the hearts and minds of Earthlings. Can you gain the most believers for your cause, and ultimately triumph?

Right then, that's the commercial out of the way. So, what's this all about?

Well, ages ago I went through a bout with cancer (happily emerging the winner), and while recuperating I enjoyed a chuckle at old UFO documentaries I'd seen in my 70's childhood. It's the comfort of nostalgia, I suppose. But, then my gamer-brain started to take over, and up bubbled those fatal words:

"There's a game in that!"

A couple of years of falling down the rabbit hole that is Ufology, and I have penned a storyline of classic flying saucers fighting in the skies of Earth, complete with Venusians, Moon Nazis, and an Anderson-esque super-secret air force to fight them. 

The (evil) plan is to create a line of 1/200 scale model saucers and a ruleset to fight with. With a bit of finger-out-pulling, I should have some free rules, cards, and counters for print 'n play come June-July this year.

But in the meantime, please let me invite you to take a look at my new Miniature Martin blog here:

https://miniaturemartin.com/

I will post updates in this thread regularly, and I hope you will find some stuff of interest as I record my progress. In the meantime, here's a 3-view of a Noordican Biga class saucer that I just finished, so you can get an idea of what the miniatures may look like. (Any resemblance to a Sears Gas Lantern top is purely coincidental.)   



Wish me luck, and watch the skies!
 

[Sinewgrab]

Ooo.  The potential has me grinning evilly.
 

[commissarmoody]

Oh neat, I got some reading to do.

[FlyXwire]

This looks serious!

So plans are for June-July 2020 for an initial release?

[Macrossmartin]

This looks serious!

So plans are for June-July 2020 for an initial release?

Fighting the extraterrestrial hordes that threaten our world is very serious, very serious indeed... 

June-July 2020 is my target for the print 'n play version. It will probably be a bit 'alpha' in terms of its completeness, because playtesting is a bit tricky in the current viral climate. 

If things all go according to plan, I would like to attempt to launch a Kickstarter to fund physical production in July 2021. However, I am determined to get as much of Saucer War One complete as humanly possible well before I ask anyone to pony up. I've been burnt by mismanaged Kickstarters *cough* Robotech Tactics *cough* and I'll be damned before I inflict one on the wargame community myself.

[FlyXwire]

Sounds like an excellent way to "launch" your project!

What would be your 'average' size for a saucer model in 1/1200th scale, if/when you get to the hardware side of SW-One?

(and thanks for your responses too)

[Macrossmartin]

Sounds like an excellent way to "launch" your project!

What would be your 'average' size for a saucer model in 1/1200th scale, if/when you get to the hardware side of SW-One?

(and thanks for your responses too)

Guessing you meant "1/200th scale" 

The Biga class in the 3-view illustration will be about 50mm diameter in 1/200th. Saucers will fall into one of 3 broad 'Types': Alpha (the big bruisers of the game, 80 - 120mm dia.), Beta (all-rounders, 60 - 80mm dia.), and Gamma (fighters and scouts, 40 - 60mm dia.) Small enough to maneuver on a wargame table, big enough to have 'presence' and be relatively easy to paint and detail.

And, they're the same scale as Wings of Glory WW2 and Blood Red Skies, so lots of potential for transplanting them into 'foo fighter' encounters over the Reich! 

[FlyXwire]

Sharp idea to have them matching those air combat lines (in scales).

I think it was Projekt Poppy which made a series of 1/144th scale German Wunder Flugzeug models - always thought that would be a fun diversion from the strictly historical air combat gaming.

Your featured saucer on your blog is referencing on that lineage a bit, eh?

[Macrossmartin]

Sharp idea to have them matching those air combat lines (in scales).

I think it was Projekt Poppy which made a series of 1/144th scale German Wunder Flugzeug models - always thought that would be a fun diversion from the strictly historical air combat gaming.

Your featured saucer on your blog is referencing on that lineage a bit, eh?

Ahh, but is it? The often-seen (on the internet) Haunebu wunderwaffe saucer didn't show up until a magazine article in 1954. Keep that in mind as I reveal the true origins of that amazing machine!

Here's the 'secret' document supposedly revealing the Haunebu type II.:



Be aware that no providence for this document has ever been unearthed.

Now here's the Venusian flying saucer that contactee George Adamski claimed he photographed at Desert Center California, in November 1952:



and lastly, here's a gas pressure lantern that was available all over the States in the '40s through the Sears and Roebuck catalogue:



You seeing what I'm seeing...? 

Adamski probably faked the picture to help support his story of meeting a Venusian, scratchbuilding his 'saucer' from an old lantern, three small lightbulbs, and a pot lid. The photo (and others) appeared in Flying Saucers Have Landed written by WW2 RAF fighter pilot and electric music pioneer Desmond Leslie, in 1953.

Around this time, various ex-Nazi scientists such as Viktor Schauberger started claiming the flying saucers everyone was seeing were their inventions, stolen by the Americans and Russians. Articles appeared in Der Spiegel and other magazines, and by the 60's a lot of people were connecting UFOs with Nazis, and the Vril and Thule Societies. (You'll see those crazy gangs show up later in Saucer War One!)

It's a fascinating topic, and when you dive into it there are some amazing examples of how real Ufology and UFO mythology have evolved side-by-side. But you have to go in with a slightly cynical view, to keep your brain from exploding. 

However, in the world of Saucer War One this isn't mythology or the product of fast-talking, new-age, con-men. It's all real. The Venusians. The Nazi saucers. The ancient aliens. The abductions. All of it. Perhaps the only question we should ask is: Are we sure that isn't the universe we're really living in...? 

But how we get from there to other High Strangeness like Georgio Tsoukalos's hair, I just don't know...   

[leadboy]

As you say, oooooo.....there definitely is a game in that. I immediately thought of how the RAF would respond in the early 1950s to an alien saucer invasion in the skies above London - lots of potential for lovely early post war jets - Meteors and Vampires vs. Saucers! Or were you thinking only of the USAF or the Russians, or just having saucer v saucer combat?

[Macrossmartin]

As you say, oooooo.....there definitely is a game in that. I immediately thought of how the RAF would respond in the early 1950s to an alien saucer invasion in the skies above London - lots of potential for lovely early post war jets - Meteors and Vampires vs. Saucers! Or were you thinking only of the USAF or the Russians, or just having saucer v saucer combat?

Interestingly, I've just been reading about a Vampire intercept of a UFO in 1956 over Bedford. Solid targets seen on two ground radars and by the Vampire, with eyewitnesses on the ground. What was it they saw...?? 

Saucer War One's primary focus is Saucer vs Saucer combat, but players can also take conventional aircraft. These are usually there to perform a task specific to a scenario (called a Case File) such as extracting an Agent off the ground, for example. However, the belligerents in Saucer War One rarely use conventional combat aircraft.

When other peoples' combat aircraft show up at a fight it is bad news for everybody, because all sides in Saucer War One are eager to keep their secret war exactly that — secret! Fortunately, evading or outrunning mere jets is child's play for an Element 115 powered gravitic drive. Even the best jet interceptors the US and USSR can throw into the skies are plodding slowpokes compared to Saucers.

But, as history (maybe) shows, every now and again a fighter jockey gets lucky, bounces a Saucer, gets off a shot, and down into somebody's backyard it goes. Then you have a Saucer Down mission to get the thing back before the local military show up and grab it for themselves! (ANTIC call this type of mission MAGICSHOW; Now you see it — Now you don't.) 

Such interfering jets can be taken as a random event that shows up in the game to throw a spanner in the works. But in theory, you could fight a game in which a bunch of jets take on a handful of Saucers; there will be stats and Data Discs for such aircraft. However, you'd need a lot of fighters to go dancing with even one Saucer!

[FlyXwire]

Aha, so it seems we're uncovering some vital evidence of 'Saucer War One', and now in real time ......

"Data Discs for such aircraft"

Data Discs?  Care to forward any evidence of this???   

[Macrossmartin]

Aha, so it seems we're uncovering some vital evidence of 'Saucer War One', and now in real time ......

"Data Discs for such aircraft"

Data Discs?  Care to forward any evidence of this???   

I can neither confirm nor deny that this may or may not be an example of a Data Disc...

[FlyXwire]

BRILLIANT!!!   

And what do they say....."oh go ahead, take my money!"

[commissarmoody]

I read more of your blog and think it sounds great. I live in Vegas so I am sure that there are a few people in town that might be interested in it here.

This has a kind of X-com UFO defense feel to it, and I like that idea. I was wanting to play some pulp 1950s Jets vs Nazi UFOs in space. With ground missions in Antarctica, Moon bases, also on Mars and Venus. But I think this will scratch the Air Combat segment of the monstrosity I was planning for the future.
Also I like the ideas you are pushing out so far, looking forward to seeing the Monarians and Earth Defense Forces have going one.