Prussian reinforcements

 

What better troops to field on Mars than Unicycle mounted lancers? These fine troops are by Eureka miniatures. I had some fun with these, especially the plumes!

Some Free State armour

 

So, a couple of wheeled vehicles for the Free Staters. These are from Ironclad Miniatures (now sold by Pendraken). While similar in colour to the Japanese vehicles they do have a bit more of a Khaki/dusty look to them.

I have also been working on some more infantry (quite a lot really) but they are not yet finished.

AI can be useful and fun

 

So, one of my new flags for my Free Staters on Mars. I asked for a flag with some Fenian influences set in a VSF setting, this is one of the results that I got. This one has less Fenian influence than the others that I made but should work as a 'national' flag.

Much more Fenian this time around. I also had it generate an emblem to use on vehicles as I have two armoured cars to paint up.

This is most likely the one that I shall use most often. For some reason it took some effort to convince the AI to create a flag that was wider than it was tall. Go figure!

Finally, some new painted items!

 

So, these are 3d prints for Quar that I have decided look Japanese to me. The small vehicle is a light support armed with a MG. The two large vehicles are APCs, each armed with a light howitzer.

 

WIP troops to be transported

What a Steam Tanker!

 

I finally managed to get some of my VSF tanks onto the gaming table courtesy of What a Tanker! This was a test run of the rules. While I have played them before, it has been a few years while neither player had played the rules. So I acted as ref while each player took one tank each. The Tatsumaki (18 points) vs the Coohegen Corporation Armoured Electro-velocitor-Devastator. (13 points) 

Devastator Armoured Electro-velocitor	6	5	Turret	Fast: May change 1 die to a drive die.	Rapid Fire multiple times without a reload die in between shots. Instead must reload at start or end of turn.	13
	Armour	Strike	Features			Cost

Tatsumaki	7	8	Fixed	Heavy armour: Treat flank as front & rear as side armour
		4	Sponson		Rapid fire multiple times without a reload die in between shots. Instead must reload at start or end of turn.

The battlefield

The Japanese Tatsumaki in the foreground vs Cohaagen Corporation Armoured Electro-velocitor-Devastator in the far corner

The Devastator raced down the table in an effort to get around some of the terrain to get a clear shot at the Tatsumaki.

The lower part of the hill was classed as a minor obstacle, while vehicles behind the higher part of the hill would be hidden. 

Some fancy maneuvering by the Devastator got it to a position to have a clear shot on the Tatsumaki. Alas they failed to hit it. In the end, after three turns, the Tatsumaki was able to take out the Devastator with one shot!

So, it was a fun intro game, it played fast and was not taxing on the little grey cells. So, since that went  so fast we decided to have another go, with two more evenly matched tanks, two monitors. But that is a tale for the main blog HERE

Big damn game, too big really! A try at GASLIGHT rules

 

The battle underway, already the free Martian forces have lost some gunners!

Somewhere around 500 figures were slated to be in this game which as I said is too many. In fact many did not make it onto the battlefield, there just was not enough space!

Combined British, Prussian and Japanese forces

 

 

Defending the line

Scenes from our most recent game

 

Well guarded temple 

 

The British march in from the top of the picture, their target is the temple

 

 

 

British right flank encounter High Martians