Victorian Martian Empires

[thejammedgatling]

Thanks everyone for all of your positive comments on the battle of the floatwood archiapeligo. I thought you may like some more pics of the full Martian fleet plus a bit more background.



Rabbitz and I are basing our rough timeline on a period following 'War of the Worlds', where man has travelled back to Mars to take the war back to the Martian invaders. The various Earth empires (Russian, German, British etc) are carving up sections of the planet for their own uses and coming to grips (and grief) with the inhabitants. Meanwhile certain Earth factions, seduced by promises of power and new technologies have made pacts with the Martian invaders... We're fighting this at 1/1200 and 28mm scale and have so far written (though not created) for four races. Two of these are hostiles and two largely neutral. The Astral Architeuthis (or space squid) are the servants and transports of one of these races, the Seers. What was great fun with this was creating an organic fleet to fight the steel ships of the Europeans, plus a race (the Seers) who only used mind control powers against their enemies. The battle was really just a rules tester to see if we'd made them too powerful or weak. Overall it was a close run thing with the great beasts needing to get in close to do damage and only having a single one shot weapon (either a lightning gland for the bull males or an acid spray for the females). Amount of damage through grappling or weapons was dependant on maturity of the beast. Tentacle grapple attacks could be split between crew or hull..so you really had to think where damage might be more effective. Meanwhile the seers stood at distance trying to mind control crews into sabotaging their weapons, firing on friendlies or holding a mutiny.




The squid were pretty simple to make, being assembled out of wooden beads, copper wire and cheap jewellery pieces from a craft shop. Texturing was done with polyfilla woodflex woodfiller to give then a more ancient look. Once I got the hang of one I entered a strange timewarp and suddenly found I'd made 30... Oooops need more Prussians!


Hope you like the pics and please give me feedback!


the Seers Fleet




adult bull male with lightning gland


adult female with acid projector


the end of the battleship Potemkin!


the Russians are in trouble…


the Seers mothership



We're currently working up to our first 28mm battle in a few weeks time. This will be a Victorian re-make of 'The Eagle has Landed', but substitute German paratroopers for Prussian clanks, Churchill for Queen Victoria and the American rangers for a rather inebriated Scottish pipe band. Will post pics as soon as we work out what happened.

Cheers

thejammedgatling

[fastolfrus]

Lovely looking work.

Look forward to seeing more

[Vanvlak]

Grand work TJG. I'm into Aeronef too, although currently operating in the Med. Ah well, Malta and Mars are very close alphabetically, so it shouldn't be a problem to get there 
Lovely job with the Squids. So far I've got a multitude of odds and ends (Knights of Malta, Turks, pirates, Vatican, Spanish and one French ship) and something I call the VanderWellin fleet.

[commissarmoody]

Looking vary nice, I am sure I am not the only one that cant wait to see your next battle.
What are the other races? And do you modles for them yet?

[Svennn]

Just superb.

I have a small fleet of Brigade ships I painted years ago but with inspiration like this I think Iwill be adding to it very soon.

[Sendak]

Arcane and Airborne, love the Seer fleet.

Always like the 'orgaenic' look for ships. Here thay are as living creatures!

Winner!

Thanks for showing us how yohu created the Skuids.  Are they gas-bag sorts of animals?

Those Russian ships are first rate.

What rules?

[thejammedgatling]

Arcane and Airborne, love the Seer fleet.

Always like the 'orgaenic' loot to ships. Here thay are as living creatures!

Winner!

Thanks for showing us how yohu created the Skuids.  Are they gas-bag sorts of animals?

Those Russian ships are first rate.

What rules?

Hi Sendak

The architeuthis young feed on the blossoms of the Martian floatwood trees which infuse their bodies with the same properties as the trees. They contain large gas sacks which they can inflate/ deflate to gain lift and their propulsion is gained through a strange electrochemical reaction created between this gas and the huge static charges they create while moving through the air.

The rules are modified aeronef from brigade. The core rules are only a page or so, though we have added several for our more outlandish weapons and races. All movement is simultaneous and damage is worked out by a card deck. It is a simple game which is good for a beginner. I was sucked in (never having left 28mm) after my first game which was a refight of Pearl Harbour in 1903!

Looking vary nice, I am sure I am not the only one that cant wait to see your next battle.
What are the other races? And do you modles for them yet?

We have ships for Russians, Japanese, Germans and Americans. We are working on the British and French ones. Apart from the official ones from brigade models there are a number of makers out there such as irregular, houstons and langtons who do models for this period in 1/1200. The langtons ACW ones are lovely.

As for races...The Seers you have seen. Then there are the Druna who travel the great dune deserts and mesa's in their sailbarges and sand skiffs (rather like the tuareg or sandpeople). This is the race who has had most contact with the Europeans. The termions live in termite style structures which blossom mushroom like on the sides of the Martian canyons, several miles deep. They lead a warlike/ cannibalistic lifestyle and are fairly low tech. They are a slave race to the Mechaloids who are the race which invaded earth (a la War of the Worlds). This race has now retreated to their vast polar underground fortress factories where they are licking their wounds and plotting a return visit...

I'll post models as we make them, though the next thing we do will be in 28mm!

Cheers
TJG

[Rabbitz]

Excellent post TJG.   I have a feeling we need to get loads more Human ships done to compete with the Calamari horde.

What rules?

 I was sucked in (never having left 28mm) after my first game which was a refight of Pearl Harbour in 1903!

Yeah Welcome to the Dark side TJG.  The rules are a kind of Hybrid set mixing elements from Full Thrust and Aeronef.  The basic set is just a single side of A4 paper.  The new advanced set is a whopping 3 page panflet... double sided to boot.   Then with the add on suppliment for the squid, another couple of pages, it wont be long before we have a complete book.   


Cant wait for our 1st 28mm game,  should be fun.

[The Hooded Claw]

I love these!

Very inspired and effective models. I too have considered using the gold plastic beads for Aeronef aliens. Not in the same manner as you, but the ame sort of beads. I would love to see some of your homebrew rules that you have used for Aeronef. The background work you have concocted is wonderful.

One thing I liked about Aeronef is that, though it is frightfully short (almost disappointingly so) it does lend itself well to modification/expansion.

Thanks for sharing and hope to see the other races soon.

-Eli

[Sendak]

Thanks TJG.

Danged civilized of you to share your imagination and art with us.

Motivating me to action takes a bit of doing. Heh.

You done it!

Doan know Aeronef rules...FT is online I think...

Nicely done.

[thejammedgatling]

I would love to see some of your homebrew rules that you have used for Aeronef.
-Eli

If you e-mail me directly I'll be happy to send you our own rules extensions. They run to about six pages....

Doan know Aeronef rules...FT is online I think...

The brigade site is your first port of call (that's brigade models not brigade games). Have a look at:
http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Frames/VAN/index.html

Glad everyone liked the models and thanks for the comments. I'll post more pics as soon as I can together with the next martian installment.

Cheers
TJG

[commissarmoody]

I think I might try and get thouse rules from you also. ^_^

[Boromir_and_kermit]

I have to say, these are brilliant!

You have inspired me that's for sure.
After seeing these, I picked up the Aeronef rules and plan to get some beads and copper wire in the next day or so.

Could I be a tad cheeky and ask... could I please have the aforementioned rule extentions? If that's possible, it would be fantastic.

Thanks and congratulations on some truely inspiring minis.
- Ben