Geekin': Miniatures project
With the Floor Wars miniatures gaming convention coming up in 6 weeks (rather than 2 weeks as I'd previously believed) it looks like I'll have just enough time to prep the game I've wanted to run for a couple of years now - Venus and Back! - A Victorian Science-Fiction Odyssey.
I enjoy miniatures wargaming, though my own collection is pretty spotty - I got back into the hobby a couple years ago when Scott got interested in gaming the battles of the English Civil War, and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "If you help me paint my toy soldiers, I'll let you play with them." What grown man could resist? So we've played ECW on and off when time permits, even to the point of getting sick enough of the Warhammer ECW rules from Games Workshop for Scott to begin writing his own rules. I acquired forces and such to fight WWII infantry actions using the Crossfire rules, but I've kept looking back at an early fascination - Victorian Science Fiction.
Based on tales like John Carter, Warlord of Mars (by Edgar Rice Burroughs), VSF is clearly "planetary adventure" SF, with elements of the drawing room thrown in. For movie mashups, imagine Zulu, The Ghost and the Shadow, Star Wars and Pride and Prejudice all showing at the same theater. Good stuff. But how do you game it? I've always had a fondness for the roleplaying game "Space 1889" by Frank Chadwick, published in the mid-1980s and still occasionally available through a third- or fourth-party license since its original publisher's demise about a decade ago. The game's mechanical systems are awkward and irritating, but the back-story's a hoot: Thomas Edison invents an "ether propeller" to drive spaceships through the void and embarks on a proof-of-concept voyage to Mars in 1870. His return with proof of a Martian civilization sparks a scramble for the Solar System which plants Earth colonies on the four worlds of the Inner Solar System within a decade. It's European Imperialism on the Red Planet, with side-bar events going on on Venus and Mercury as well. Good times! The late 19th century has always been a period of interest to me, and warping it just ever so slightly by the addition of anti-gravity skyships, Martian potentates and the dinosaur-haunted swamps of Venus just makes it more fun.
More than two years ago, I bought a box of Games Workshop's "Skinks", light troops for their Warhammer Fantasy Reptile-man armies, thinking that they'd make good Venusian Lizardmen. I'd already won an eBay auction for several (discontinued) boxes of Space 1889 minis, enough to field a sizeable force of British regular infantry and somewhat smaller forces of Martians, but the "Sands of Mars" game will have to wait until I've acquired considerably more Martians - you need hordes of them to successfully threaten a force armed with stern British resolve and (more importantly) Martini-Henry bolt-action rifles. So I looked towards Venus.
I need to:
From previous experience at Floor Wars, I should plan on 2 or 3 players, and I'd like a game to play to conclusion in about 2 hours. So some tweaking is required.
It's an ambitious plan, especially considering that in the 6 weeks before the con I'm also still unpacking from my recent move, fixing various appliances and engaging in general house repair. I'll keep you posted - hopefully with pictures...
I enjoy miniatures wargaming, though my own collection is pretty spotty - I got back into the hobby a couple years ago when Scott got interested in gaming the battles of the English Civil War, and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "If you help me paint my toy soldiers, I'll let you play with them." What grown man could resist? So we've played ECW on and off when time permits, even to the point of getting sick enough of the Warhammer ECW rules from Games Workshop for Scott to begin writing his own rules. I acquired forces and such to fight WWII infantry actions using the Crossfire rules, but I've kept looking back at an early fascination - Victorian Science Fiction.
Based on tales like John Carter, Warlord of Mars (by Edgar Rice Burroughs), VSF is clearly "planetary adventure" SF, with elements of the drawing room thrown in. For movie mashups, imagine Zulu, The Ghost and the Shadow, Star Wars and Pride and Prejudice all showing at the same theater. Good stuff. But how do you game it? I've always had a fondness for the roleplaying game "Space 1889" by Frank Chadwick, published in the mid-1980s and still occasionally available through a third- or fourth-party license since its original publisher's demise about a decade ago. The game's mechanical systems are awkward and irritating, but the back-story's a hoot: Thomas Edison invents an "ether propeller" to drive spaceships through the void and embarks on a proof-of-concept voyage to Mars in 1870. His return with proof of a Martian civilization sparks a scramble for the Solar System which plants Earth colonies on the four worlds of the Inner Solar System within a decade. It's European Imperialism on the Red Planet, with side-bar events going on on Venus and Mercury as well. Good times! The late 19th century has always been a period of interest to me, and warping it just ever so slightly by the addition of anti-gravity skyships, Martian potentates and the dinosaur-haunted swamps of Venus just makes it more fun.
More than two years ago, I bought a box of Games Workshop's "Skinks", light troops for their Warhammer Fantasy Reptile-man armies, thinking that they'd make good Venusian Lizardmen. I'd already won an eBay auction for several (discontinued) boxes of Space 1889 minis, enough to field a sizeable force of British regular infantry and somewhat smaller forces of Martians, but the "Sands of Mars" game will have to wait until I've acquired considerably more Martians - you need hordes of them to successfully threaten a force armed with stern British resolve and (more importantly) Martini-Henry bolt-action rifles. So I looked towards Venus.
I need to:
- Assemble, base and paint the 60 or so Lizardmen I have. This will be a great opportunity to test the "quick-paint" techniques I've been reading about.
- Base and paint the European civilians I have, to make up the scientific party that's part of the European force.
- Maybe paint up some of my British regulars in the grey-green of German colonial troopers, since the Germans are the preeminent Earth power on Venus. It would be fun to have German luftschiffemarinen as the European troops guading the scientists, but this is a low-priority item. If there isn't time, they'll be British red-coats.
- Assemble enough jungle/swamp terrain to stage a creditable board. I think this will involve fake fur as "swamp grass", as many cycad-like fern-trees as I can assemble, and a series of grassy islands laid out on a vinyl "groundcloth" that represents the swamp waters. I actually love making terrain.
- Get the rules pulled together, probably using the "Soldier's Companion" book from Space 1889, tweaked to suit my tastes.
From previous experience at Floor Wars, I should plan on 2 or 3 players, and I'd like a game to play to conclusion in about 2 hours. So some tweaking is required.
It's an ambitious plan, especially considering that in the 6 weeks before the con I'm also still unpacking from my recent move, fixing various appliances and engaging in general house repair. I'll keep you posted - hopefully with pictures...