Castles in the Air

Gotta love a flying battleship!

As part of my Father’s Day haul I picked up a copy of the newly released rules from Osprey - Castles in the Air by Eric Farrington. I have enjoyed Victorian Science Fiction based games for many years and ‘back in the day’ scratch built fleets of dirigibles for the Ottomans, Greeks and Bulgarians to use with Wessex Games Aeronef rules, I even co authored a campaign supplement for them - my counterpart hails from the Antipodes - featuring the Turks which was huge fun.

Available on the Wargames Vault I believe - it was a great collaborative effort!

I had a quick run through the rules and have to say they look pretty good. The mechanics are straightforward and one of the things I am intrigued about is the whole 3D aspect. Yes, you can climb and dive a battleship!

The background is OK although to me seems a little overextended in respect of the timeline. The ‘history’ picks up after the Martian ‘War of the Worlds’ invasion in 1872 and assumes that the alien technology used by the invading forces had been extensively picked apart and adapted for use by humanity culminating in the use of the Air Screw as a means of of power and lift. This is then run up to 1914. From a personal choice I would have preferred to have stuck with the pre dreadnought era but them that is just me!

I am certainly keen to try these out although initially it did present rather a dilemma. I want to build pre dreadnoughts but I also want to tackle similar on a VSF style footing. I am not keen on building two sets of models though - yes, I shall be making some for this - so will stick with the planned pre dreadnoughts in due course, but with a twist.

Lightbulb Moment….

When I get to the pre dreadnoughts I plan to also build some flying bases to go with the models. These bases will consist of the stand itself and an entire lower deck assembly featuring lift/steering vanes and the air screw. The idea is that when I want to take to the skies all I will need to do will be to place the ship model on such a base and Voila! An instant flying battleship!

It is with this in mind that I am accelerating my plans for the design of the bits and pieces I shall need from Warbases to include some sabot lower hull assemblies.

I reckon that is two gaming experiences for the price of one which is pretty damned clever in my book!

The Age of Imperialism on Mars?

Back in the day that was a lot of fun!

 I have always been keen on Victorian Science Fiction. I have been an avid reader of Wells, Verne, Burroughs, Conan Doyle and others for many years and collection of the works by these worthies nestle safely in my Kindle (and via the Kindle App on my trusty IPad). Many years ago I contributed to a set of rules called Land  Ironclads - published by Wessex Games and set within the Aeronef late 19th century universe. Brigade models have a huge range for both rules which I believe are available from the Wargames Vault. My input was limited to the section on the Turkish army of the period although I recall suggesting that the scale of 1:1200th for the vehicles was adopted to tie in with the Aeronef models. 

This was a great collaboration with Aussie Paul - we had a lot of fun with this for sure!

It was all enormous fun at the time but enthusiasm waned and I never really raised much in the way of forces for it. I did rather more with Aeronef though and scratch built Turkish, Greek and Bulgarian aerial fleets and collaborated with Aussie Paul on a mini campaign supplement that again, is probably on the Wargames Vault somewhere. The scratch builds were solely dirigibles and I remember hoovering up vast quantities of plastic aircraft kit ordnance - dirigibles look like bombs after all - and churning out loads of models. It was all great fun.

At the time I had not read John Carter so did not get the whole Barsoom thing. As I remember correctly Space 1889 was already established when Aeronef was launched so the VSF in that universe was largely confined to the planet earth. There were plans for a naval version - Aquanef - and even for a space version - Astronef - but these never got beyond the testing phase which was a pity really,

Anyway, what is the point of all this meandering reminiscing? 

I always rather liked the idea of Redcoats on Mars but was not totally sold on the Space 1889 interpretation. As an aside I wonder how many of us when looking at a fantasy/science fiction setting are truly invested in what the creator intended? For me I like elements of the 1889 version as well as bits and pieces from John Carter but the way I see it it can be sliced and diced however you want - in much the same way as any earth bound imagi-nation.

Whilst wading my way through the Age of Imperialism figures and looking through the Plastic Soldier Review for inspiration (and yes, there has been rather a lot!) I came across a box of Sea People infantry from Hat. Something clicked. The figures have a suitably exotic appearance and lord alone knows why but they screamed out to me ‘Red/High Martians’! 

I reckon there is some mileage with these figures for what I have in mind!

Don’t worry, the sun has not totally addled what is left of my grey matter as the next set I looked at was of unmarried Zulus and British Zulu War Command so normality of sorts has kind of returned.

One of the best books on the subject by the indefatigable Ian Knight. I simply had to dip into this book again and yes, I will probably watch Zulu and Zulu Dawn again - purely in the interests of research naturally…..

I rather liked the ideas of Flyers operating over the Martian landscape - Sky Galleons of Mars style - and was thinking about all the leftover and so far unused MDF templates I have kicking around. I reckon producing some self designed models for this would  not be too difficult - along with some Martian style ground vehicles - perhaps with the Martian types modelled on some of those wonderful looking Chinese/Korean/Japanese warships of the 16th/17th century.

Designing a VSF setting to suit one’s own purposes should be no different than any other imagi-nation and it is one of things that you either enjoy doing or not.

Luckily I do.

So, it looks like a small force of redcoats will be assembled with Zulu and Martian opponents. For the latter I shall look to make some flyer/aerial gunboats and perhaps even some Land ironclads. 

First of all though, the small matter of the remaining ACW bits and pieces - and I am including figures in with this as well!

Victorian Science Fiction

I remember it well and as I recall my sole contribution to this was the section on the Turkish Army and the suggestion that 1:1200th should be the scale of choice so as to be compatible with Aeronef. 

Many of my recent posts have been quite reflective in nature. I offer no apologies for this as events of this year have given me much pause for thought about things I have done and things I have yet to do whilst I am still able. From the perspective of this blog it has manifested itself in my revisiting many abandoned projects and taking a second look. For sure there are many that were lost in time and will remain so but there is the odd few that have surfaced that have given me a few ideas.

I should qualify this by saying that the contents of this post fall definitely in the hibernation state - projects that WILL be looked at in due course and not consigned to the landfill of my gaming history.

Victorian Science Fiction is something that I have enjoyed reading about via Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle and others and a number of years ago I was very heavily 'into it' via Aeronef (from 1999 as I recall) and the follow on rules set in the same timeline called Land Ironclads  both published by Wessex Games under the stewardship of Steve Blease.

Enormous fun and responsible for launching an enormous range of models available from Brigade Models and even a few suitable types from Irregular Miniatures.

Aeronef, written by Steve Blease and Matthew Hartley, covered Victorian airship combat with everything from single seat heavier than air craft up to giant sized armed dirigibles. It is huge fun to play and there were many exciting games fought at SEEMS back in the day. The rules were supported initially by Brigade Models  and the range of nations represented and classes of vessel is enormous. As an aside Brigade also have another set of rules available called Imperial Skies which cover a similar type of combat but with an alternate timeline and a rather more detailed approach.

My own contribution to this was limited to scratch building air fleets for the Turks (no surprise there!), Greeks and Bulgarians using mainly converted model aircraft bombs - the nations represented, being minor powers, mainly relied on dirigibles for their fleets - and lots of plastic card and sprue. I also made use of that rather nice small kit of the Hindenburg for a couple of ships including a Turkish aircraft carrier. This was of course before Brigade released any Turks....The scratch builds went to a new home as Steve Blease took them off my hands. I am sure I have some pictures kicking around somewhere of the models but they were built a couple of computers ago.

I penned a couple of articles for the journal of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Wargames Society (SFSFW) around the back story of the Turkish air fleet -the Ottoman Air Fleet or OAF for short - and one of the extraordinary things that came out of this was the start of my 'long range' friendship with Paul O'Grady of The Man Cave fame. I say long range for the simple fact Paul lives mostly in Australia. We have met a couple of times when he has been in London and have swapped wargaming stories as well as downed a few beers as one does in these circumstances...

I really enjoyed working with Paul on this one and we planned to write a follow up. Sadly we never got around to it. Note the very attractive walled town scratch built by Steve Blease using a CD for the base and with the walls and buildings fashioned from plastic sprue.

Paul and I co-wrote a mini campaign supplement for Aeronef which was hugely satisfying and a very enjoyable experience. We planned to follow this up with a further adventure but life got in the way and the idea faded away.

I was rather more involved with Land Ironclads in that I penned the section on the Turkish army and proposed using 1:1200th as the scale of choice to tie in with Aeronef and the proposed naval set called Aquanef. The armies raised for use with the rules largely featured the extensive range of figures in 2mm available from Irregular Miniatures. The Land Ironclads themselves again were produced by Brigade. I played this game many times on a solo basis and it was great fun. I even got around to converting some Irregular Miniatures models into something a little more Victorian looking - well I added funnels and flags so that should count!

Aquanef  - the naval set - was to have been the naval set to tie in with the others. The game was play tested at a show by Steve Blease I believe but he rules never made it into print as far as I know. I can remember play testing an early version of the rules at the club featuring a battle between two undersea Aquanef. The game featured a 3D system with 5 or 6 depth levels ranging from the surface to the 'Stygian Depths'. The show play test featured surface and subsurface elements with the surface ships based on upturned clear plastic pint glasses and sea coloured CD bases. I would have loved to have seen the rules come to print but alas it was not to be.

What does all this mean then in terms of where I now? Well I am not planning on rushing out an order to Brigade Models anytime soon but there is some potential to bolt on some land elements to the 1/600th models I have. This idea has some mileage especially as Brigade produce some rather nice Martian 'not quite War of the Worlds' fighting machines. I think the point here is that should I wish to I could readily tackle some Land Ironclads style actions merely by investing in a few models and using them in conjunction with the kit I already have. Whilst it is not on my immediate agenda it is something work remembering for the future.

Aeronef is something else. There are models aplenty available but with my usual degree of perversity I would prefer to build my own. Sadly my time is rather limited at present so this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

I have rather enjoyed this little ramble around a piece of my wargaming history and I fully intend not letting the whole VSF thing sink without a trace again - I will do something with it in time.

A Victorian Science Fiction Slugfest

I have gone and done something rather rash.....

I was happily perusing the new game shop that has just opened in Rayleigh - Gamerz Nexus - when I was overcome by the dreaded 'shiny-new-must-have' syndrome. I am quite sure that most fellow sufferers have experienced this on the odd occasion and so I offer no apologies for my fall from grace. The shop primarily caters for fantasy gaming - either miniatures based, role-playing or collectible card games - and there are wonderful bits and pieces in the shop to look at. I happened to have popped in there purely to acquire some Army Painter white primer (which was duly obtained and very nice it is as well) and came out with not only the aforementioned spray but also a copy of Spartan Games rules for their game of Victorian Steampunk warfare called Dystopian Wars.

The basic premise for the gaming universe in question is that the industrial revolution occurred decades before it actually happened and that great airships battle above the clouds, huge warships blast each other on the high seas and land ironclads drive all before them on land. Supporting the rules are the inevitable miniatures for the major power blocks and very nice they look as well (although I will qualify that later in the post).

The game is described as following on from their fantasy naval set Uncharted Seas and a deep space set called Firestorm Armada so I presume that many of the mechanics have a common origin.

I have yet to read the rules in detail although they seem fairly straightforward and so when I have had the chance to peruse them I will report back. The production value of the rulebook is very high and in terms of eye candy the illustrations and photographs of the models available are very nice indeed. It seems to be almost obligatory these days for a rule book to be copiously illustrated with background material and ideas for games and in this respect Dystopian Wars is right up there with the best of them.

In terms of the gaming universe it delivers exactly what it says on the tin although having been spoiled by that included in Wessex Games Aeronef the Background could have been fleshed out a lot more in my opinion. Aeronef and Land Ironclads have a much more alternative history based approach and so the back story is more 'rounded' than that in Dystopian Wars. Having said that, in my opinion Wessex Games lose out by virtue of missing the naval element at the moment although when Aquanef (the VSF naval set) finally appears it will redress this enormously. The rules and background from the Wessex stable are really an extension of history in my opinion whereas Dystopian Wars seems to have been almost dropped into 1870 on a fully operational 'done deal' basis.

The ship models are very nice and beautifully detailed (made from Resin) but overall just don't do it for me - that is not a reflection of the quality or the ideas which are extremely good - but that is just my own personal beef. The game is set in 1870 and so I would want to see warships that looked vaguely like they belong historically in that year. There are enough actual historical types of the era that could be 'tweaked' into something a little more fantastic and as I say, they are lovely models but not my cup of tea. I am not keen on most sci-fi/fantasy ranges simply because I have my own ideas on what 'stuff' should look like and whilst many of the ideas presented (the Prussian Dirigible Aircraft Carrier is a good example - think Hindenburg with a flight deck - and one that I shall certainly 'borrow') are very interesting I have a number of my own thoughts on how to model this 'era' - which will probably not be to anybody elses taste. To each his own I suppose.

I am really not sure what I will do or how I will progress this and with hindsight it may be seen very much as an impulse purchase BUT....I am very interested in the idea of VSF and how it can be translated into a game and so this is very much a valuable part of my data bank of ideas and inspiration. I would certainly try the rules out but would use my own (scratch built) models.

Lovely eye candy though....

Airships - The Aerial Leviathans

One of the books I have in my collection is a large format illustrated history of the German airship – the Hindenburg. I picked this up as a boot sale a couple of years ago for the princely sum of 20p and it is an absolute goldmine of information for the budding airship commander. The book is chock full of photographs and technical stuff about this massive airship and also features a very good history of the vessel type in general – from the first Zeppelin up to some of the modern airships in use today. There are lots of wonderful pictures of many of the early powered airships – even tracing their history back to the Montgolfier brothers hot air balloons. Within the world of Aeronef I have always preferred the use of dirigibles and so this book is a welcome reference to the nuts and bolts of how these flying leviathans ‘did their stuff’. Some of the earlier vessels depicted have a wonderful ‘Heath Robinson-ish’ quality and are crying out to be modelled and gamed with. I am thinking particularly of Henri Giffards airship of 1852 – this is a wonderful looking device and it would not take too much of an imaginative leap to expand it into a war machine of some kind.

The book also contains a number of photos of airships from other nations and so there is much inspiration contained in here for the modeller.

Revel produce a lovely plastic clip together ‘mini kit’ of the Hindenburg that comes up at about 3” long and so is ideal for use with Aeronef – indeed, I have used the model as the basis for a number of vessels in my first Ottoman Turkish and Greek air fleets (currently in the collection of Steve Blease). Currently this model is available for around the £1.99 level which is disappointing as only two years ago you could pick them up for 99p! The hull is split in two halves along the latitude of the model with the north and south tail fins separate from the hull and the east and west cast on the top half. The four engine pods are also separate; as are the nose and tail cones. Being a plastic kit it can easily be chopped about and even if you did not want to bother with this it is easy to bore a hole into the underside to mount it on a flying base and give it a paint job for use as a merchant ship.

In the past I have cut a section out of the upper half of the hull and then decked the resultant gap over. On to this newly decked area funnels, gun turrets, masts and even aircraft launching rails can all be added – very easily and very cheaply. I picked up one of these kits at a boot sale on Saturday just gone for 50p and it has certainly got the creative juices flowing again – especially as I had in mind some dirigible based scratch builds for the aforementioned Ottoman Turks.

Of course, this does not address the subject of lateen-rigged Barbary Corsair aerial Xebecs and how best I can make them……………………………..;-)

Barbary Corsairs in Aeronef - A Clarification

Further to my previous post concerning wind powered Barbary Corsairs (now there is an image to conjure with!) I should perhaps clarify my position in respect of how I see VSF. My rules of choice for VSF aerial games are, of course, Aeronef. These rules provide a degree of alternative history ‘background’ within which the gamer is able to set their action. The descriptions contained therein also provide details of how Aeronef and Aerostat are powered and what materials are used for providing the all important ‘lift’. This is perfectly acceptable within the game system and adds the all important ‘flavour’ to the game.

For the wooden hulled vessels of the Barbary Corsairs I suggested that perhaps ‘Martian Liftwood’ (as described in the universe of Frank Chadwick’s outstanding Space 1889 VSF arena) would be a ‘the obvious choice’ for a lifting agent. This has caused a little stir in that this idea is strictly speaking the invention of the said 20th century rules writer (and all round rules genius!) rather than being a VSF period concept. At the time of writing I had not thought this idea through logically as, if memory serves me correctly, within the ‘Space 1889’ universe Liftwood only grows very sparingly on Mars and so finding it for use as a source of lift on Earth would be nigh on impossible and so the Barbary Corsairs would need to use other means to get their vessels off the ground. If using a purely Aeronef driven background then naturally I would not import ideas from another rule set without due consideration.

However, I mentioned Liftwood as within in my own VSF world I happily borrow and tweak ideas and rules from the appropriate genre wherever they may come from in order to drop them into the background where I am able. This is a personal thing as I am a self confessed inveterate rule/background tweaker! I am not in any way challenging anybodies copyright, intellectual property or ideas – I am just a gamer with a fertile imagination that is extremely grateful for all those rule writing denizens and authors that have given me a wonderful universe to play with!

Barbary Corsairs in Aeronef

My recent reading about the Barbary Corsairs has reacquainted me with an idea I was toying with some time ago along the lines of having them as an auxiliary force for use with the Ottoman Turks - a position they occupied historically during the 16th century. They were raiders par excellence and often came together in sizable numbers for larger expeditions. My only reservation about using these is that I am unconvinced about them having access to much in the way of industrial capacity - even basic steam power.

With this in mind I am considering the use of wind power for propulsion. The vessels would be traditional wooden hulled types with much use made of some form of anti-gravity coating (Martian 'liftwood' would be the obvious choice although I am assuming that something 'earthly' would be used instead) to provide the flight aspect and traditional sails for movement.

I envisage that these vessels would be quite fast in the right wind conditions, relatively lightly armed and probably quite light in respect of build. As sailing ships were still in use during the early days of steam this seems to be a viable idea.

These vessels would be great at running down dirigibles but would struggle against pure Aeronef when on equal terms and so are ideal for use as raiders.

The models would need to be scratchbuilt although I seem to recall that the Barbary Corsairs featured in the Wizkids collectible pirate card game some years ago so I shall investigate this avenue further and see what I can find.

Aquanef Models from an unusual source...........

With the release of Wessex Games’ Aquanef – Victorian science fiction naval combat – scheduled for later this year I have been giving some thought as to the models of the Aquanef themselves. The display game at Salute run by Steve Blease and Matthew Hartley made use of upturned plastic beer glasses with a CD mounted on the top as a base for a conventional ship model and the submerged Aquanef themselves were mounted on conventional flying bases. This allows for the illusion of surface/subsurface interaction and looks very effective. As an aside this approach could be easily used for any other game involving submarines – I am thinking about a WW2 U Boat vs. Convoy type actions – and would be relatively easy to set up. As yet there are few, if any, commercially available models for the Aquanef themselves and so the budding underwater gamer will need to convert or scratch build the appropriate vessels. A further consideration is that Aquanef themselves will ideally need to be represented by a full hulled submerged model and a surfaced waterline version. This has implications for the scratch builder in that the obvious need for models that look the same overall will need to be addressed. As a result of my numerous DIY adventures over the course of the weekend I think I have found a novel solution.

Rawlplugs.

That’s right, Rawlplugs – or rather the plastic versions that are available in a variety of sizes and colours. Before you think I have gone barking mad consider the following:

They have a suitably ridged and ribbed surface – usually with some ‘fins’ sticking out around the mid point, so are ideal for painting.
They have a rounded end – suitable for a bow section.
They have a split along most of the length of the plug – this forms a natural point of division so that one plug can be used for two surfaced hulls if cut carefully.
They are also available in assorted sizes so these can be used for different vessel classes.

A whole plug could merely be detailed as required and mounted on a flying base – I would suggest filling the slot with some plastic card or similar for diving vanes etc. The split plug can be used as a surfaced Aquanef, again with some appropriate detail added.

I must confess that I have looking long and hard at Rawlplugs as a source of gaming raw material – mounted on flying bases and suitably painted and detailed they could form the basis of a very nice looking rocket based space fleet.

Another attraction is the fact that they are cheap and easy to come by. I would imagine that most gamers have a selection of these kicking around indoors in the tool box. I will have a play around with a few and see what comes out by way of a design or two.

20,000 Leagues Under the Aquanef at Salute

I am really excited about the forthcoming release of Aquanef by Wessex Games. The rules are designed to allow gamers to fight naval actions during the latter half of the 19th century incorporating both submarines and sea monsters and using Aeronef. Aquanef themselves are what Victorians imagined submarines would look like – the most famous example of course being the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. The game mechanics will be familiar to Aeronef players and as such the set represents a logical extension of that set with many similarities in terms of game mechanics and background. I am a great fan of submarine games but this has usually been confined to board games as representing surface and subsurface activity on the tabletop is not an easy undertaking. From what Steve Blease is describing on his blog it would appear that a viable solution is available in the shape of using upturned plastic beer glasses and old CDs. The CDs are ‘seascaped’ and placed on the top of an upturned beer glass (or should that be beer plastic?) with the ship model placed on top. The complete assembly is moved as per normal – this represents the surface element of the game. The subsurface side can consist of models on the usual ‘flying’ bases – using different height stems for the Aquanef may be a possibility in order to represent different depths. A complexity will arise of course when tackling and action that encompasses subsurface, surface and air elements using this method – an alternative I imagine would be to use half pint glasses for the surface elements and pints for the aerial with the subsurface kit on ordinary flying bases. As an aside, with some careful modelling there is no reason why a model, suitably prepared, could not be used as a spaceship, a dirigible and an Aquanef – that makes for very economic gaming with the same models being used for three different genre! My plan is to experiment with this approach and so my tried and trusted ‘plastic-aircraft-bomb-with-scrap-bits-of-sprue-added-and-based-on-a-flying-stand’ technique will once again be on the model tray in due course.

Steve Blease is running an Aquanef game at Salute with, I believe, Matthew Hartley, so to anybody with a passing interest in VSF please pass by and take a look. Certainly the pictures released thus far on his blog: http://bleaseworld.blogspot.com/ are very inspiring! I am hoping that lots of pictures get taken of this game as I am really keen to see how the CD idea works out for representing surface and subsurface units. The models that Steve has produced for the game are also featured and very nice they look as well. I was really taken with the underwater scenery idea and so have a mental note to visit our local Aquarium shop – Swallow Aquatics – for some further inspiration. It all looks really effective and I am really sorry not to be going to Salute to see it in action.

A similar approach with the models could be used for another period of interest, which for me would be enormously tempting (and as an additional project I suppose!) – this being a WW2 German U Boat Wolf Pack attacking a convoy. The only problem I envisage is the fact that full hull submarines (i.e. not the usual waterline types) are hard to come by unless you use 1/600th or 1/700th. One to think about for the future perhaps but in the meantime I am keen to try VSF style sub and subsurface warfare using Aquanef as published. It should also give me the stimulus to tackle the 1/2400th scale ACQ models I have that featured in my previous post.

Mars Attacks!!!

Another Sunday, another boot sale. Today we hit the Dunton boot sale which is huge (and took us nearly 45 minutes to get away from!) and once again I managed to score some unexpected goodies.

First up and featuring in the picture above is a trio of plastic four legged robot type machines. I am not sure but I have a feeling these have featured on Doctor Who at some point so if anybody can shed any light on their origins then I would appreciate it. They stand around 35mm high and will fit nicely onto a 40mm square base so will feature as Martians in my Land Ironclads set up. They are painted silver with a single red 'eye' and the only thing I may do to them apart from basing them is to lightly black wash the legs so as the detail is picked out. They are very nice and the three models cost me 30p in total.

I also puchased a Games Workshop bundle for £5 which was obviously the result of a former gamer clearing out their old stuff prior to heading off to the untold delights of university or somesuch. For the £5 I acquired the following: 3 Games Worshop paint brushes (unused), 3 tins of Humbrol enamel paint (again unused and they are colours that I use!), a painted Bloodbowl team (ebay here we come for that methinks!), assorted plastic and metal Orcs and Goblins (about a dozen or so), a Space Dwarf (Squat) on a chopper style motorbike, most of a Bugmans Brewery beer wagon, an Epic metal Imperial Guard Mole (the small one - rather like the one from Thunderbirds), a pack of GW static grass and an unopened pack of GW hedges and wall sections - designed for 28mm. I shall keep the brushes, paint, grass and the Imperial Mole (this looks suitably VSF) but the rest will be 'outed' - probably at the club first and then ebay.

All in all then, not a bad weekend on the boot sale front!

The 'Aeroclad' in 'Land Ironclads'

One of my (many and varied) interests is Victorian Science Fiction and wargaming within that genre. Land Ironclads is a set of rules available from Wessex Games and Brigade Models covering warfare in an alternate Victorian history where great machines of war cross the landscape and huge flying machines clash in battle across the sky alongside historical late 19th and early 20th century armies. As ever, my interest in this genre revolves around the Ottoman Turks and how the ‘Sick Man of Europe’ responded to the challenge of industry and technology from its own position of being in the lower league of global powers. I have tailored the Ottoman progress in this alternate world to mirror, after a fashion, its actual history over the late nineteenth and early twentieth century so there is a lot of ‘kit’ that is either second rate or poorly serviced; usually both, although with a couple of notable exceptions. The following then, is a brief overview of an idea I have been toying with in respect of the vehicles in use with the forces of the Sublime Porte within this alternate history.

Within the world of Land Ironclads the vehicles that are portrayed are inevitably steam powered and move on a variety of wheels, tracks or even legs. This is fine and probably in accord with most gamers perceptions of what this mode of war machine would have looked like. Allowing for the War of the Words type Martians in their walking devices (powered by who knows what) the variety of locomotive mediums available for the propulsion of vehicles is fairly comprehensive. It occurred to me though, that one type was missing and so I would like to introduce into Victorian Science Fiction Warfare the ‘Aeroclad’.

The Aeroclad is primarily a vehicle that hovers a few feet above the ground in the same manner as a modern day hovercraft. They are built on the same principle as an Aeronef but utilise much less raw anti-gravity raw material in order to be able to ‘float’ just above the ground. This enables the Aeroclad to operate over terrain that a land ironclad is unable to – even, to a certain extent, water, although this does slow them down considerably. They ‘fly’ in much the same way as Aeronef but are configured more as land ironclads so as a result whilst being highly manoeuvrable they are quite slow although faster than the ground equivalents. The weaponry and armour also tends to be lighter than the ground based equivalent – simply because of the reduced load carrying ability.

They are cheaper to produce than conventional land ironclads and require less crew to operate and so are greatly valued by those second rate powers that have access to limited quantities of anti-gravity raw material or have limited industrial capacity for manufacturing anything more advanced. Those nations that use these vehicles tend to use them en masse in the manner of horsed cavalry for reconnaissance and raiding rather than in a formal line of battle whilst the great powers tend to use these vehicles primarily on colonial service where the advantages of ease of maintenance, low manpower requirement and speed are assets that are highly prized.

Of those nationalities that are the largest users of these vehicles the Ottoman Turks are by far the greatest exponents. Harking back to the days of the Akinji raiders on horseback; or even the tradition of the armoured Sipahis; the Ottoman Turks employ these vehicles in large numbers and unusually, often use them in a formal line of battle. This has not been without problems as often these vehicles sustain very high casualties when used against determined opposition. This has led the Turks to develop heavier versions, better armed and armoured to operate on the battlefield although this has been at the price of reduced speed. Ottoman tactical doctrine however, accepts the trade off of reduced armour and firepower compared to the purely land based equivalents as the Aeroclad is able to operate in areas that a conventional Land Ironclad is unable to traverse. The lifting ability of the Ottoman Aeroclads is unique in that it is derived from the use of Cavourite shutters on the underside of the hull rather than the more usual use of R matter. This accounts for their relatively light build as cutting great chunks or metal out of a hull has the effect not only of lightening it but also reducing its ability to carry much in the way of armour plate. In fact, the heaviest Turkish Aeroclad is comparable in fighting value to most other nation’s older heavy vehicles.

This is the idea I am contemplating – model wise I envisage using vehicles of a similar size to the existing ranges available from Brigade Models – and certainly the historical ‘background’ needs fleshing out as do the ideas for models. I am sorely tempted to scratch build the Aeroclads using a combination of scrap plastic bits and pieces and cast metal turrets etc from Brigade Models. I have a number preliminary ideas for this but will need to consider the whole idea in more detail.

Warlords of the Air

As part of my ongoing house cleaning of projects and gaming ideas, I came across my assembled but as yet unpainted Ottoman Turkish Dirigible Fleet. The models are really nice and originate from Brigade and are in need of some time and attention. I have had a bad time with the models for the Turks as whilst I really like the models Brigade have produced (they have a HUGE range for this period) I have often thought that they don't quite tick the boxes for how I envisage the Turks to look. It is a personal thing I am sure and no reflection on the Brigade design team! I have, in the past, scratch built many dirigibles - they are really easy to make - and every so often I get the urge to create some original models. All of my first generation dirigibles are now in the collection of Steve Blease of Wessex Games, the originators of Aeronef (along with Matthew Hartley), THE Victorian Aerial wargames rules that are fast approaching a second edition. Finishing the models I have would be a quick win as painting them is an easy task - unlike the Aeronef that need a little more work. In the meantime I shall mull over the future of the Turks I have - whether to finish them or build them from scratch - and also the fate of the opposition I have for them. I had planned to fight a VSF version of the WW1 Arab Revolt and to be honest, probably will still do so at some point, and the opposition consisted of a Royal Naval Air Service Red Sea squadron consisting of old aerial colonial cruisers and monitors - very much a second division force but sufficient to show the flag and keep the natives honest.

A bit of a ramble I know but in closing I have added a couple of pictures of some of my old scratch built kit for the Balkan Wars with the hope it will inspire readers to inspire me to get on with it! The names on the bases are taken from actual naval vessels of the period.

Irregular Miniatures 2mm Ships

Above is the picture taken from the http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/ website of their newly launched range of generic 2mm (approximately 1:900th) 20th (and 19th) century warships. Just the thing for all those Aquanef fleets being planned...................;-)

Check out their website for catalogue codes and prices - as well as sizes which is quite useful.

Victorian Science Fiction

As an aside from all this nautical mayhem, I am also really interested in Victorian Science Fiction. The basic premise is gaming using a late 19th century set up supported by inventions that may have been around or those that appeared later - for example anything that flies. Anyone that has read any of the classics by HG Wells or Jules Verne will get the idea. The two sets of rules of choice for this 'period' are Aeronef, covering air actions between fleets of flying ironclads and dirigibles and Land Ironclads - both available from Wessex Games. Both sets are usable with each other so a degree of crossover is easily attainable.

Both rules sets are supported by miniatures available from Brigade Models - Wessex themselves also have a small line for Aeronef. the air stuff is scaled at 1/1200th so anyone having access to some period warships would be able to tackle a huge Tsushima/Jutland/Midway/Leyte Gulf sized action with a novel twist.

I like dirigibles and so my air fleets tend to be based around these. They are 'second line' air assets as most major powers use Aeronef ironclads rather than the airships. A historical parallel would be the Dreadnought vs Pre Dreadnought composition of the worlds navies in 1914 - all the trendymajor powers had dreadnoughts as the first line weapon of choice whislt the smaller powers stil needed to rely on the older ships.

My own own air set up is still in gestation - it is Turkish (naturally) and is dirigible based. Another practical advantage of a dirigible fleet is that they are really easy to scratch build. All you need is a supply of 1/72nd, 1/48th or 1/35th scale plastic aircraft kit bombs, some plastic scrap bits and pieces, some flying bases and a little imagination and they are ready. I have another batch on the modelling tray and will go through the process on a stage by stage basis when I get around to it.

For Land Ironclads I will be using some of the marvelous models launched by Brigade together with some bits and pieces from Irregular. These are scaled at 2mm in order to fit in with the huge range of Aeronef models already available. Check out

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/ and also http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/ for ideas and inspiration. You may also want to check out http://www.blease.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/WG.homepage.html

The great thing about VSF is that you could use an existing 19th century army and just add a couple of steam powered contraptions suitably painted in a traditional style and there you have it - instant VSF.

More to follow with this in due course and as the mood takes me - including VSF naval (where is Captian Nemo when you need him?) and VSF in space.........;-)