An amusing and interesting mashup of Star Trek and Steampunk.
Category: victorian science fiction
Space 1939
The ideas behind Space 1939 have been brewing for some time.
The concept is quite simple, take the Space 1889 universe complete with inter-planetary travel and transpose it to 1939 and the Second World War.
Why 1939?
Well it’s in the main because it sounds like 1889.
In this alternate world we have the same kinds of political machinations that we had prior to World War Two, but in this world you have æther flyers and liftwood armoured fighting vehicles.
As with any alternate history, once you have deviated from the history we know, it is highly improbable that the events that happen in our world also happening in the alternate world. In our world, World War Two was in many ways a direct result of World War One. Would World War One have resulted in trench warfare and the defeat of Germany if either side had liftwood based steam powered flyers.
Well the benefit of an imaginary alternate world, is that you don’t need to worry too much about deviation from the timeline due to the use of liftwood or æther flyers, but to just say that the alternate timeline followed a similar path to our own. If anything 19th Century space travel has increased the rate of technological change.
So it’s 1939 and the great nations of Earth are readying for war. Liftwood is in great demand and as a result shortages mean that only a small proportion of each nation’s war machines are liftwood based.
As well as tanks, armoured cars, cavalry, giant land fortresses and low level liftwood platforms will decide who wins the ground. In the air, liftwood flyers are supplemented with fighters and bombers.
So what about rules?
Well I could write my own rules, but why not use a rules set that people are familiar with. So you could use any rule set you like, but I will be looking at using Flames of War (and possibly Warhammer Historical for skirmish style games).
More soon…
Steampunk Exhibition
Lots of Steampunk goodness on show.
The First Men In The Moon
Coming to the BBC in 2010 will be a new adaptation of HG Wells’ The First Men In The Moon.
Mark Gatiss is to star in his own adaptation of HG Wells’ thrilling scientific romance The First Men In The Moon alongside Rory Kinnear, in a one-off 90-minute drama for BBC Four.
It’s July 1969 and, as the world waits with baited breath for news of the Apollo 11 astronauts, a young boy meets 90-year-old Julius Bedford (Rory Kinnear) who tells an extraordinary story of two men’s journey to the Moon, way back in 1909.
As a young man, Bedford chances to meet Professor Cavor (Mark Gatiss), a somewhat unworldly scientist with an amazing invention: Cavorite – anything to which it is applied becomes opaque to the force of gravity. Knowing a miracle when he sees one, and with a keen eye on profit, Bedford encourages Cavor to think big. And so the two men construct a copper and cast-iron sphere which will fly them to the Moon. But what terrors await them in the lunar interior? And will they ever succeed in returning to Earth?
Sounds good and hopefully with modern effects will look good too. Having said that I have always enjoyed the 1964 version of First Men In The Moon
Victorian SF Imperial Guard Rough Riders
The main focus of Bristol Conflict 2003 (was it really six years ago now) was the tournament games. Yes there was a Forge World stand and yes there were demonstration games and yes there was a very very small Games Workshop retail stand, however the main reason people went was to play games.
One Imperial Guard army which caught my eye was a Victorian Science Fiction themed army which made extensive use of the Praetorian Imperial Guard figures.
It was a really nice army. This photograph shows the Rough Riders. The mechanically enhanced soldiers in the background are counted as Ogryns which I thought was a clever idea and a nice touch.
More photographs of Imperial Guard.
Great blog on someone else’s Praetorian Imperial Guard army.
Victorian Leman Russ Tank
The main focus of Bristol Conflict 2003 (was it really six years ago now) was the tournament games. Yes there was a Forge World stand and yes there were demonstration games and yes there was a very very small Games Workshop retail stand, however the main reason people went was to play games.
One Imperial Guard army which caught my eye was a Victorian Science Fiction themed army which made extensive use of the Praetorian Imperial Guard figures.
The main tank used was a “Leman Russ” though as you can see the actual model took elements of the Leman Russ and combined it with an Imperial Steam Tank from Warhammer Fantasy.
It was a really nice army.
More photographs from Bristol Conflict 2003.
More photographs of Imperial Guard.
Great blog on someone else’s Praetorian Imperial Guard army.
Victorian Imperial Guard Sentinel
The main focus of Bristol Conflict 2003 (was it really six years ago now) was the tournament games. Yes there was a Forge World stand and yes there were demonstration games and yes there was a very very small Games Workshop retail stand, however the main reason people went was to play games.
One Imperial Guard army which caught my eye was a Victorian Science Fiction themed army which made extensive use of the Praetorian Imperial Guard figures.
It was a really nice army and I will post some more pictures over the next week or so.
More photographs from Bristol Conflict 2003.
More photographs of Imperial Guard.
Great blog on someone else’s Praetorian Imperial Guard army.
Cloudships of Mars
I have always liked the concept of Space 1889 and over the years bought the game, models and other stuff.
Through the community feed and via this blog I did find this excellent Cloudships of Mars website (update: link is dead, but here is a different site with photos of the models), which has some fantastic photos and models form the Space 1889 demonstration game which has been at Salute a few years back.
I have always wanted to do an Epic version of 1889, but never got much further than just thinking about it.
It’s these kinds of websites and images which inspire you to get the stuff out and have a game.
Space 1889 Style Laptop
Check out this fantastic looking Space 1889 Steampunk laptop.
It is like something out of a movie and it all works, it comes complete with USB and ethernet ports.
There are more pictures here.
Victorian Science Fiction Blog
If you like Victorian Science Fiction, check out Tas’s VSF Blog.
Overall well worth a visit.