Tripods vs. Germ Growers vs. Humans

[Chesty Bond]

Hi, I hope this is the right place to post this.
I just purchased Future War Commander second edition and am hopeing to use the rules to play some wargaming scenarios I have long had in mind to play, pitting H.G WELLS Martians against Victorian to early 20th century humans against the Germ growing aliens from the obscure early Australian Sci-fi novel The Germ Growers.
I suspect a few of you will have a better grasp on how to represent the Martians in a book accurate way on the table with these rules and would appreciate any advice greatly.
The Germ Grower Aliens possess the ability to return to life after being killed and I am wondering how best to replicate this ability, they also have airships painted with invisibility paint and use germ warfare, which I see as making them ideal opponents for the Martians!
I realise all these abilities will be difficult to recreate on the table but I'm determined to try, and any advice anyone is willing to offer is appreciated!

[Raider4]

Hello, and welcome.

The Germ Growers? Honestly, never heard of it. Pubished in 1892 I see, so in the public domain. Off to grab a copy from Gutenburg.

. . . they also have airships painted with invisibility paint . . .

Invisibility paint, eh? Easy to model* then


*See Ferengi cloaked battleship recently posted on this forum . . .

[Chesty Bond]

Hello, and welcome.

The Germ Growers? Honestly, never heard of it. Pubished in 1892 I see, so in the public domain. Off to grab a copy from Gutenburg.

Invisibility paint, eh? Easy to model* then


*See Ferengi cloaked battleship recently posted on this forum . . .

That's some impressive brush work on the Ferengi ship, I'm afraid my painting is not up to that standard!

I hope you're not disappointed with The Germ Growers, it's dated and mainly of historic interest I'd say. But I think it shows an interesting different take on alien invasion in early Sci-fi literature compared to Wells', and I think they would have made a much better origin for the germs that killed Wells' Martians in The League of Extrodinary gentlemen than the idea that was used there.
So I'm going th use that idea as the background for my game, the Germ Growers didn't want to share earth with the Martians so they killed them with germ warfare and now it's time for round two with humanity caught in the middle!
Maybe I can cut out and fold boxes of clear plastic and mount them on flight stands for invisible air ships? I could put on door frames with evil Germ Growers hanging out on some, others with cotton wool germ gas being sprayed out on the ground below?
I'm not sure, That ferengi shìp sets the bar pretty high!

[Big Insect]

Hi, I hope this is the right place to post this.
I just purchased Future War Commander second edition and am hopeing to use the rules to play some wargaming scenarios I have long had in mind to play, pitting H.G WELLS Martians against Victorian to early 20th century humans against the Germ growing aliens from the obscure early Australian Sci-fi novel The Germ Growers.
I suspect a few of you will have a better grasp on how to represent the Martians in a book accurate way on the table with these rules and would appreciate any advice greatly.
The Germ Grower Aliens possess the ability to return to life after being killed and I am wondering how best to replicate this ability, they also have airships painted with invisibility paint and use germ warfare, which I see as making them ideal opponents for the Martians!
I realise all these abilities will be difficult to recreate on the table but I'm determined to try, and any advice anyone is willing to offer is appreciated!

FYI - there is a matchibg pair of Tripods* list & a British Victorian (Steam Punk) list, specifically designed for FWCII, both finished & awaiting final approval & upload to the forum (shortly)

* NB: you cannot use the term HGWells Martians or War of the Worlds, apparently, as his 'estate' gets a bit litigious about that. Apparently!

Enjoy
Mark
NB: never heard of the Germ Growers - do post some info & ideas?

[Andrew T]

Good day Chesty, wherever you are!

Germ Growers eh? That's a new one on me but my suggestion would be to make them Swarm tactical doctrine. Toxic ammunition already exists in the rules but if you wanted multiple on-table units to be able use them I would say make the toxic effects Temporary and perhaps consider a smaller template for the effects, say 5cm diameter.

For invisible airships, you could give them Stealth and Adaptive Camouflage. In addition, airships could remain concealed until they open fire.

Can Germ Growers regenerate indefinitely or just the once? When a unit is KO'd, leave them on table, with a marker or perhaps a suppression dice on 6. In the end phase (or initiative phase) next turn, roll a D6 for each KO'd unit. On a 1 they are proper dead and are removed from the table. 2-4 they remain in place and are still resurrecting. On 5-6 they come back to life, all hits are removed and they are available to command again.

That's just a few suggestions to get the Germ Growers into battle. Feel free to adopt, adapt or ignore. They sound like an interesting faction, a bit like Terminators/Necron/Undead but organic.

Cheers

[flamingpig0]

obscure early Australian Sci-fi novel The Germ Growers.

99p on Amazon Kindle

[Chesty Bond]

FYI - there is a matchibg pair of Tripods* list & a British Victorian (Steam Punk) list, specifically designed for FWCII, both finished & awaiting final approval & upload to the forum (shortly)

* NB: you cannot use the term HGWells Martians or War of the Worlds, apparently, as his 'estate' gets a bit litigious about that. Apparently!

Enjoy
Mark
NB: never heard of the Germ Growers - do post some info & ideas?

I'm glad to hear someone is using Future War Commander second edition for VSF and lower tech Sci-fi, and will view your lists with much interest!

I didn't know the H.G Wells estate was still policing his name or the name of his books, it seems silly now that they are public domain, I suppose they still have copyright on the terms.

I'll have to go through the book again, but here is a breif description off the top of my head, oviously there are spoilers if you intend to read the book. but the Germ Growers are basicly, from my understanding, noncorporeal beings who dwell in the depths of space hating the Creator and plotting against Him and All his works, space demons effectively.
They come to earth to corrupt and convert humans into new Germ Growers.
They take human form to do this.
They fly around abducting people and spreading diseases they grow from their invisible airships.
People who report attempted abductions are discounted as mad.
 
Every so often a few germ growers disappear, having been turned into slave/non-sapient beings under the command of good, angel like, aliens, apparently as punishment from god, presumably this simply makes the rest hate god more and they redouble their efforts to corrupt and convert more humans.

As you can see, where Wells based his story on Darwinism the writer of the Germ Growers based his tale on religious ideas.

The story seems very dated due to the religious themes, but also strangely modern in its use of the theme of abduction and covert alien infiltration, like a victorian version of a paranoid cold war sci-fi stories like invasion of the body snatchers or some such, with the military and covert alien invasion themes not yet being separate distinct tropes yet.
Even the demon/alien parallels remind me of some modern UFO theories.

I think the church would be involved in fighting the Germ Growers, and the good aliens and their Germ Grower slave creatures would contribute to the effort to defeat the Germ Growers as well.

I hope this quick rundown helps and sparks some interest and ideas!

[Chesty Bond]

Good day Chesty, wherever you are!

Germ Growers eh? That's a new one on me but my suggestion would be to make them Swarm tactical doctrine. Toxic ammunition already exists in the rules but if you wanted multiple on-table units to be able use them I would say make the toxic effects Temporary and perhaps consider a smaller template for the effects, say 5cm diameter.

For invisible airships, you could give them Stealth and Adaptive Camouflage. In addition, airships could remain concealed until they open fire.

Can Germ Growers regenerate indefinitely or just the once? When a unit is KO'd, leave them on table, with a marker or perhaps a suppression dice on 6. In the end phase (or initiative phase) next turn, roll a D6 for each KO'd unit. On a 1 they are proper dead and are removed from the table. 2-4 they remain in place and are still resurrecting. On 5-6 they come back to life, all hits are removed and they are available to command again.

That's just a few suggestions to get the Germ Growers into battle. Feel free to adopt, adapt or ignore. They sound like an interesting faction, a bit like Terminators/Necron/Undead but organic.

Cheers

Thank you for the suggestions!
The Germ Growers can presumably resurrect as often as they wish, but they are all evil people, and although they seem to be dedicated to their evil cause and probably don't fear death, I think being shot dead a few times might put them off, at least that's the best idea I can come up with for game balance!

[Raider4]

99p on Amazon Kindle

Available for nowt. Legally.

[Andrew T]

So the Germ Growers are daemons? Presumably the Vatican are aware of them and have reinstituted the Inquisition with a mission to root them out and smite them? You could have a few interesting elite units with the power to banish Germ Growers instantly. Some short range weapons, 15cm, that can exorcise a Germ Grower with the power of prayer or a hosepipe of holy water? This is all very Grimdark before anyone thought of that title!

What scale are you going to use? Have you thought of any minis for them yet?

[Raider4]

Some short range weapons, 15cm, that can exorcise a Germ Grower with the power of prayer or a hosepipe of holy water?

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?


"Thou shalt count to three, no more, no less."

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?


"Thou shalt count to three, no more, no less."

"Five is right out!"

[Chesty Bond]

So the Germ Growers are daemons? Presumably the Vatican are aware of them and have reinstituted the Inquisition with a mission to root them out and smite them? You could have a few interesting elite units with the power to banish Germ Growers instantly. Some short range weapons, 15cm, that can exorcise a Germ Grower with the power of prayer or a hosepipe of holy water? This is all very Grimdark before anyone thought of that title!

What scale are you going to use? Have you thought of any minis for them yet?

Grimdark VSF,I don't know if the two aesthetics work together, but the author was a clergyman and the Christian allegory of germ growers as fallen angels is obvious in the story, though I'm not sure it's supposed to be taken literally that the Germ Growers are demons. But a VSF Church militant fighting demonic aliens in the midst of a Martian invasion sounds pretty good to me!

As for scale I don't know yet, I'm new to smaller scales, but if I want the Tripods to be reasonably large as in War of the Worlds, I think a smaller scale is necessary.
I'm thinking 10mm or 15mm.
I'm looking for figures to represent the Germ Growers, I'll have to reread the description of how they dress but I'm thinking cultists with gas masks is the closest I'll get.
I'm looking at Pendraken Human Theological figures as an option in 10mm, do you think they could pass for vsf or are they too obviously future tech?
Germ Growers have advanced science but they seem to construct their tech in hiding on earth from locally available materials.
They would probably just use human guns, but maybe I could say they were "germ guns". The grenadeers look good for Germ Growers throwing vials of germs.

[Andrew T]

The guns are a bit sci-fi but if you painted them with wooden furniture that would probably do it.

Have you seen the tripods in the Old Sci-Fi range? They would seem to take care of the Martian contingent.

Would you have invisible airships on the table? Might be an issue finding one big enough. Brigade Miniatures do some dirigibles/zeppelins in their Aeronef range but I don't think they would scale well with 10mm.

[Chesty Bond]

The guns are a bit sci-fi but if you painted them with wooden furniture that would probably do it.

Have you seen the tripods in the Old Sci-Fi range? They would seem to take care of the Martian contingent.

Would you have invisible airships on the table? Might be an issue finding one big enough. Brigade Miniatures do some dirigibles/zeppelins in their Aeronef range but I don't think they would scale well with 10mm.

The Germ Growers airships weren't that big, if I recall correctly, nothing like Zeppelin size. I'll have to reread the descriptions, but I think they probably only seated a few people.
I imagine if it came to full scale open warfare with humanity and Martians they might use larger ones though.

I'll check out the Tripods in the Old Sci-fi range, thanks for the suggestion!

[Raider4]

I'll check out the Tripods in the Old Sci-fi range, thanks for the suggestion!

Forum ancient history: https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,88.msg1093.html#msg1093