To some pictures of some painted up miniatures

 

British Bulldog landship

A Minion ram transport

Another unit of Fenian light horse

New addition to my German forces

 

Some more air support for my Prussians/Germans. This is all part of my grand invasion plan that will include 4 'landing craft' flyers and an air cruiser. They will be accompanied with some water borne barges bringing in the armoured support.

Four crew and maybe a dozen passengers can fit with in her. Beyond the VSF invasion force I expect this will see service in some pulp games too.

Valor & Steel & Flesh game 2

 

Our second game saw the British up against a combined Irish and Minion force. As usual I fielded too much stuff, but at least I had a good grasp on the rules! 

AAR can be found HERE

The forces:

The relief force

Town defenders

The minion town assault force

Minion blocking force

Irish blocking force

Irish assault force with Nanarchists

Recent VSF action

 

British & Prussian forces square off against each other while a melee continues on the hill between reservists & some steam powered jump troops

So, we tried out the old Valor & Flesh & Steel rules by Bob Charrette, it went well. Unlike most of my games this was not set on Mars, but somewhere in Europe. An Anglo-Franco force went up against a Prussian force augmented by some American equipment. Basically I fielded what I could for British and Prussian forces and filled in with extra stuff from other factions. It was a meeting engagement with objectives placed in each opponent's side of the table.

Canadian & Scottish troops, supported by automated M.I.M.E.s & a light MG tractor

It only took 3-4 turns to play out, but that took a few hours as we were learning the rules. The rules themselve are a kind of difficult. They are not the best organized and I spent the week leading up to the game consolidating all the information that I could into a coherent format. There is just so much information in the rulebook much of it scattered throughout that it takes a few readings to find everything.

A bold cavalry charge right in front of the enemy, thankfully the enemy had already activated & could do nothing to stop them!

I made a few adjustments to the game. I altered the weapon ranges down to encourage closer action, and I got rid of the use of a deck of cards for fate numbers and damage charts, using D12s instead. I did keep a deck for peril checks but I will replace that with D12s as well. Oh and I also made the power of weapons somewhat variable by using an old fashioned average die with negative or positive modifiers. It allows for some variation when checking for armour penetration.

I have posted the AAR HERE!

Testing out 2 Hour Wargames Colonial Adventures

 

So, I tried this game out solo a couple of time over the last few weeks, but this past Friday I suckered I mean invited two fellow gamers over to give it a proper test. 

It was a standard patrol, with both players on the same side vs the system (nominally run by me) 

Two units of Canadians

Two Martian sepoy units

So two commanders each with two units on patrol looking for the enemy in rough terrain. They also were to fire the village.

Some of the potential foes for the British to encounter

The sepoys units found the enemy pretty fast. Two units of musket armed natives appeared on the main hill. These were followed quickly by two unit of fanatics. Meanwhile the Canadians thought they might have found some natives, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

One unit of musket men took the hill and rained fire down on the advancing Canadians, while on their left flank the fanatics quickly charged and engaged the sepoy troops. It was a bloody melee that saw  sepoy and a fanatic unit destroyed and the other units severely weakened. As for the fire fight, the Canadians emerge triumphant, even after one of the units had to turn away to fight off the remaining fanatics who had just routed the remaining sepoy unit.

In the end the last remaining native unit quit the field leaving it in the hands of the Canadians.

I had some issues with the rules. It certainly was a quick game but it felt chaotic. I understand what the rules are trying to do, the whole reaction system, but somehow it just did not feel right to me. The group agreed that the system makes sense for skirmish gaming, and I may try a game of All things zombie to give it a test, but for unit VSF action, I am afraid my search continues for the right game.

Up next, a return to G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

PS sorry for the lack of 'action' photos I was too busy trying to figure out all the reaction rolls.

More troops to get on the battlefield, some time soon hopefully

Martian warriors!

 

So here are 24 Martians from Parroom Station to add to the collection. Half of them have two handed swords while the others have polearms. 

I did do them up in two different flesh shades. The swords men tend to be a bit darker somewhat more reddish which in my mind represents the drugs ingested by these fanatic warriors. These models seemed built for contrast paints and for a simple wash at the end of the main painting, the details really came out nicely.

Generic VSF defenses

 

These fine castings are from OSHIRO The turrets on platforms will be used in a planned German attack on British positions. The other three may well be used in the same game, but the original plan was to use them on a coastal bost for All Quiet on the Martian Front.

Some more Martian tripods

 

I did these up during the AHPC XVI. The purple tripod in the rear is meant to represent a scientist or Royal tripod. The model is not an official model, it is something I picked up at an estate sale along with some other AQMF stuff. The assault tripod on the right is done up as my version of a red Martian tripod. The last tripod is the last of the grenadiers tripods that I have bringing me up to three in total.

More All Quiet on the Martian Front 25 American tanks

 

Command tank and 12 MK IIs

3 Mk III machine guns tanks (rear) & 3 Mk IIbs

6 Mk III tanks

Having done a lot of green versions of these tanks, I felt I needed something different for my second tank group. In my fluff these were vehicles were relocated from the western front when the Martians advanced deeper into the US.

They were primed with rattle can British Uniform. Then heavy dry brush/over brushed with craft paint Khaki and sand. The Mk II's had an Agrax earth shade wash while the Mk IIIs had a Vallejo Dark green wash lightly applied to give just the sense of a green tint. 

The MkIII machine gun tanks were painted green but a lighter shade than my usual green. These will be assigned as support for my armoured infantry units.

British reinforcements

 

So, a rocket launcher and five mechanical unicorn mounted female troopers(and a mechanical mule) I do have some more cavalry and also a 10 person rifle unit (not done yet)

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