Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Wider Wargaming => Genre/Period Discussion => Fantasy & Sci-Fi => Topic started by: Last Hussar on 03 December 2016, 12:05:06 PM

Title: British Empire on Mars
Post by: Last Hussar on 03 December 2016, 12:05:06 PM
Toying with the idea of Victorians v Martians. 

1) The Colonial ranges - are they pretty similar.  I'm looking for Pith Helmet and Red Coats.

2) Aeroships - think gunboats in the sky (cf Space 1889), couple of 2 pdrs and maxims.  How big would you make the model, as I'll have to scratch build.

3) Rules.  Dont want skirmish - want to be able to have land dreadnaughts and the tripods as well as the Aeroships, and quite a few bases of infantry (prob 30mm bases, with men in lines).  I've seen teh 1889 companion 'Soldiers Handbook' mentioned, but think this might be too skirmish-y.

Ideas, chaps.
Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: Steve J on 03 December 2016, 12:30:35 PM
I've seen Future War Commander used, but that was some time back. Not sure of anything else that would fit as really not my 'period'.
Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: Raider4 on 03 December 2016, 03:33:37 PM
Martian Empires (http://www.blackhat.co.uk/product/martian-empires/)

Well worth a tenner of your money.

Cheers, Martyn
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Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: Last Hussar on 03 December 2016, 07:10:07 PM
Looks interesting but not a lot of info on the site.  Can you give me some idea of the game?
Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: Genom on 03 December 2016, 08:34:12 PM
There was one called timeline 300 if I remember right, was based on a steampunk style from what I remember. Not sure if it had martians or not, but it was for bigger battles than skirmish.
Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: GrumpyOldMan on 03 December 2016, 08:51:13 PM
Hello LH

For rules you could look at Fistful of Tripods http://fft3.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Tripods.pdf (http://fft3.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Tripods.pdf)

It's more about Martian invasion of earth but might be handy.

Edit:-

Rummaging through archives, two others that would work would be:-

http://staineswargamers.org/Webrules/RulesImperialMars.htm (http://staineswargamers.org/Webrules/RulesImperialMars.htm)

http://www.deepfriedhappymice.com/html/gw_vsf_ice.html (http://www.deepfriedhappymice.com/html/gw_vsf_ice.html)

Don't know how you feel about card models but this site has some 15mm sky galleons that you could re-scale:-

http://onemonk.com/squirmydad-dl.html (http://onemonk.com/squirmydad-dl.html)

Card walkers and buildings here:-

http://www.sprawl.papermakeit.com/models.html (http://www.sprawl.papermakeit.com/models.html)

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan
Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: sunjester on 04 December 2016, 08:48:43 AM
You could look at using The Men Who Would be Kings with some tweaking.

Nice, simple mechanisms, with lots of options for upgrades in the rules. Then port across some of the fantastical abilities from Dragon Rampant, burrowing, flying etc.

I have been toying with the idea of using 10mm for play bigger battles with TMWWBK, using stands of 2/3 figures to replace 1 28mm figure.

Simples! ;)
Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: Raider4 on 04 December 2016, 11:26:31 AM
Quote from: Last Hussar on 03 December 2016, 07:10:07 PM
Looks interesting but not a lot of info on the site.  Can you give me some idea of the game?

Re: Martian Empires:

Apparently based on a set of Napoleonic rules called Huzzah!. Never seen these, but the army building process reminds me very much of Warmaster.

Units are usually made up of 4 stands. 4x2 cm is the standard as per Warmaster. Irregular infantry units may have 6 stands. Artillery is only 2 stands.

The main rulebook includes lists for the British at home, and the initial Martian invasion (Wells).

Then there are lists for British, French & Prussian expeditionary forces. These include walkers, steam tanks, flyers etc.

On Mars there are lists for Imperial & Tribal Martians (Burroughs' reds & greens, I believe) and cephalods (Wells).

There is a free expansion - The Venus Expedition (http://www.blackhat.co.uk/downloads/MEvenus.pdf) - which you can download to get a flavour of the rules.

Cheers, Martyn
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Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: Bunny on 14 January 2017, 07:54:42 AM
Martian Empires is a great game I took part in a participation game last year, I've been a fan for years.

The martian figures made by Black Hat are lovely and the size of the figures means you could use any historical colonial range.

Check out a blog http://martianwarlords.blogspot.com/ it is very good and inspirational!
Title: Re: British Empire on Mars
Post by: Terry37 on 22 January 2017, 03:26:50 AM
I have given thought to such if I decide to go into VSF. In any event, I can suggest reading "The Queens martian Rifles" by Brines, as it may give you some ideas. And I found it a pretty good read.

Terry