Venus?

[Khurasan Miniatures]

I have some 15mm fantasy amphibian guys call Salamen who I'm thinking of building on for a VSF force.  I'm thinking I'll add some of them with firearms, as askaris or sepoys, and then I'll add some Victorian troops to go with them, maybe with a VSF flourish, like maybe mounted rifles on small dinosaurs, that sort of thing.

My understanding is that Venus is the planet that tends to have reptilians and so I might go with that.  Does that mean Germans?  I've seen a few different backbgrounds in which reptilians live on Venus and are ruled by Imperial Germany.

Salamen by the way:


Do these sort of alien askaris have the same rifles as the imperial troops, or are they usually given more primitive weapons?

[dartfrog]

Maybe with muskets would work. Any breech loaders kept for Imperial forces. I do like the idea of venutian sepoys to be honest. Very much 'Congo' in space. So maybe worth a few dastardly Belgians on Venus.

[Skrapwelder]

I have some skinks serving as British Cytherean Askari. Mostly irregulars but I have two regular units with Martini-Henry rifles. I have some more toad like creatures from the Hordes game I use for the Germans and Belgians.

[Conquistador]

On (Earther term) Venus in my VSF world I see multiple groups (just like Africa, Barsoom, the Olde West, elsewhere)

So these might work for selected factions:

I use

the Manth http://www.rebelminis.com/15mainpa.html using harvested secretion filled pods  for missile weapons.

One tribe of swamp dwellers
http://www.rebelminis.com/15algru.html

And their traditional jungle foes
http://www.rebelminis.com/15alze.html

Plus adapting these

http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/1518mmfantasy.html

And planning (some of which I have already) on using these:

http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/pl7.jpg

http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/t1201.jpg

http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/t2300.jpg

http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/t3700.jpg


Every colonial power needs Quislings... I mean "askaris" of course.

[Plynkes]

As far as I can recall, Venus in Space 1889 had not been colonized to any great extent, due to the extremely difficult conditions for doing so making it not really worth the bother (the atmosphere tended to rot all your equipment in quite short order, including your means of getting home if you're not careful, due to liftwood's remarkable properties being somehow eroded by the planet's magnetic field). What you had was a few scattered trading posts rather than colonies. So without large forces present, the adventures there had a more exploratory quality, expeditions to a lost world fighting the elements, the fauna and the lizard men natives, rather than massed battles.

So translated to wargaming terms that would be more like a Darkest Africa type of deal involving small expeditions of explorers with native bearers and native askari (recruited from among the lizard men of course) rather than traditional colonial wargaming.

It's one way of doing it, if you fancy a slightly different flavour for you Venus games.

Do these sort of alien askaris have the same rifles as the imperial troops, or are they usually given more primitive weapons?

In real life, after such incidents as the Indian Mutiny, native troops tended to be one generation of firearm behind the European troops, so that if they ever mutinied they would be at a disadvantage. So they might still have rifled muskets when the Europeans went over to breech-loaders, and single-shot rifles when the Europeans had magazine rifles. This began to change around the time of the Great War, when it became clear that being at a disadvantage versus the enemy in actual real fighting was more of a concern than making sure they were at a disadvantage to you in some hypothetical revolt. By the end of that conflict most native troops were using the same weapons as their white counterparts.

[Khurasan Miniatures]

Thanks a lot for that, as it's very helpful to have the input from someone who games the genre or at least knows a lot about it.

What sort of weapons would be used by the imperial troops in a space 1889 setting?  Normal historical rifles or some sort of steampunk advanced weaponry?

[Plynkes]

In that particular setting the mad-science stuff tends to be rare, and in the possession of player-character inventors and their friends or diabolical villain enemies, with the military using historical kit (well, they have such wonders as flying gunboats, but they tend to be fitted with historical weapons).

But there's no reason your setting has to be like that. You can give them electric rifles or whatever takes your fancy if you are so inclined.

[The_Beast]

As far as I can recall, Venus in Space 1889 had not been colonized to any great extent, due to the extremely difficult conditions for doing so making it not really worth the bother (the atmosphere tended to rot all your equipment in quite short order, including your means of getting home if you're not careful, due to liftwood's remarkable properties being somehow eroded by the planet's magnetic field). What you had was a few scattered trading posts rather than colonies. So without large forces present, the adventures there had a more exploratory quality, expeditions to a lost world fighting the elements, the fauna and the lizard men natives, rather than massed battles.
...

May just have been my imagination making extensions, but I thought the bad effect on liftwood was one of the reasons for German being a bigger player.

Indirectly from the British being a stronger player on Mars and dependent on liftwood, and the Germans had far less, they had the jump on other technologies such as aerostats, which sounded appropriate in the thick, murky atmosphere.

I even had them using armored bags, up til I remembered water vapor is a lighter-than-air-without-wv, but said, hang it, I wants armored bags... 

Definitely going to be watching how these VSF Salamen develop!

Doug

[DivisMal]

New VSF miniatures in 15mm? That would be amazing.

@ Khurasan Miniatures: Apart from Lizardmen Askaris, which would be great, I second the call for characters. There is so much missing for a decent VSF battle, *cough* renegade submarine captain (a true nobody , Kirk Douglas-lookalike Harpooner, private detective with funny hat, Professor with umbrella, society lady, US cavalryman gone native etc.

[DLIinVSF]

May just have been my imagination making extensions, but I thought the bad effect on liftwood was one of the reasons for German being a bigger player.

Indirectly from the British being a stronger player on Mars and dependent on liftwood, and the Germans had far less, they had the jump on other technologies such as aerostats, which sounded appropriate in the thick, murky atmosphere.

Doug

Mr Beast is most correct in his memory here. In the original and updated versions of Space 1889 the Imperial Germans are dominant and use native forces as do the British. As there isn't a musket history on Venus unlike Mars( maybe because they can't keep the power dry for one thing) European forces either arm the natives with 1870's-1880's rifles or just let them use their native weapons.

I must say I like the mini's posted above and if I was playing in 15mm I'd be adding them to my shopping list. I'd suggest if they were to be armed with a common rifle maybe not the latest,limited to the regular human units i.e. for the Brits give the navies Martini Henry's.

You don't have to go down the Space 1889 route but if you do have a look at some of the new novels one of which introduce"fire lances" (and new sub species of "lizardmen") bio-weapons grown from plants if you wanted "super weapons" rather than a spear or gun.

[The_Beast]

Mr Beast is most correct in his memory here...

Not to fear; my list of 'bold but wrong' is long, and honorable.

Caveats: Germany is preeminent, but hardly dominant. Exploration of vast unknown areas was also quite right. Mars may be easier to map from space, but it's filled with plenty of terra incognito. Red captains can live quite long without ever encountering a fellow 'alien', but other encounters are another matter.

You don't have to go down the Space 1889 route but if you do have a look at some of the new novels one of which introduce"fire lances" (and new sub species of "lizardmen") bio-weapons grown from plants if you wanted "super weapons" rather than a spear or gun.

Excellent! Doesn't have to be 'super' in one's background to be superbly different. Love it!

Doug

[Conquistador]

While I have all the Spacce 1889 PDFs I prefer my own setting.

Tarzan has an estate on Venus.

[gamer Mac]

From my memory the liftwood problem led to the Germans employing zeppelins to expand over a lot good places on venues. The British were more or less stuck at their initial landing points, New Victoria rings a bell. In my idea the parrot men of Venus have access to lighter than air vessels while the visious lixardmen control the jungle floor.

[Froggy the Great]

My personal Venus setting is a bit of a mashup of Space 1889, but notably I added a high-but declining warrior civilization of High Cythereans.  Their vassal races include the Parrotmen (kroot figures), Saurians (saurus figures) and Lizardfolk (lizardman figures).  All of these were armed with variants of jezzails, shotguns, etc.  The High Cythereans had some sort of energy weapons.

[Commander Roj]

New VSF miniatures in 15mm? That would be amazing.

@ Khurasan Miniatures: Apart from Lizardmen Askaris, which would be great, I second the call for characters. There is so much missing for a decent VSF battle, *cough* renegade submarine captain (a true nobody , Kirk Douglas-lookalike Harpooner, private detective with funny hat, Professor with umbrella, society lady, US cavalryman gone native etc.

Yes please! With assorted cads, hero's and delectable princesses. I have always fancied making my own 15mm fliers.