victorian science fiction Archives - Page 13 of 14

Steampunk Old West

I have been painting up some Foundry Old West figures for use with the Legends of the Old West Warhammer Historical rules.

My original plan (and still is) is to play some games using these rules in a traditional old west style environment. The sort of place that you see in old cowboy films. I do need to get some buildings and there are quite a few suppliers out there that do these.

However the recent trailer for Cowboys and Aliens got me thinking about “different” old west backgrounds. Obviously adding aliens into the mix is pretty simple, though I might wait until I have seen the film before venturing down that road (and yes I know I need to paint the figures too….).

I also remembered Wild Wild West, the steampunk action comedy. Now to be honest I loved the idea behind the film, steampunk in a cowboy setting, however the film itself was a bit of a disappointment. Forgetting the film it still is a really fun background. One day I wouldn’t mind seeing the original television series, however it looks like it is only available on DVD in the USA.

Whilst looking for scenery for Flames of War I did come across some really nice looking Victorian SF tanks from Ironclad Miniatures.

Okay so we can’t really use the name “tank” as that was merely a cover name used by the British in World War One to describe their new armoured fighting vehicles. However we now know what a tank is, and these look like tanks, just in the old west they wouldn’t have called them tanks. I am going to call them tanks even if the inhabitants of the old west wouldn’t have!
Two of the range strike me as ideal models for a Steampunk Old West setting.

The first model is the Medium Tank is tracked steam tank with a single large turret.

The second is the Armoured Steam Carriage, it can be built with either a Nordenfelt or Gatling machine gun.

Both of these look very steampunk and painted in desert colours would fit nicely into an old west setting.

There are other models in the range that would probably also work just as well, but these two are the ones I like.

So what about rules?

Well The Old West rules are from Warhammer Historical and are based around Warhammer, to me it would probably work to use the tank rules from Warhammer Historical’s World War One rules, The Great War.

The weapons though in The Old West wouldn’t hurt these tanks (well except the nitro) so if these tanks were to be used then we would need some extra weapons added. Again the rules from The Great War allow for the use of artillery and gatling guns.

The Old West is circa 1882 and the Gatling Gun was patented in 1862. Of course in a steampunk setting you can allow for the rapid advance of weapons as well as the introduction of tanks. For example the French 75mm field gun was in our world adopted in 1898, well we could bring that forward, couldn’t we? Anyhow a variety of artillery was used in the American Civil War and that could be used for a steampunk old west game for fighting against steam tanks.

So before going down this road, I think I need to paint up some more of my Old West miniatures, however I do have a couple of the Dixon’s cowboys that are painted up that I could use.

Lots to think about…

Steampunk Star Trek

An amusing and interesting mashup of Star Trek and Steampunk.

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

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 with Lionel Jeffries and Edward Judd.

moon2

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.

Victorian SF Imperial Guard Rough Riders

More photographs of Imperial Guard.

Great blog on someone else’s Praetorian Imperial Guard army.

Victorian Leman Russ Tank

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.

Victorian Leman Russ Tank

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

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.

Victorian Steampunk inspired Imperial Guard Army

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.

Cloudships of Mars