Historicon 2010, Day Two, Part Two

Sky Galleons of Mars
Friday, 8 PM

  This is a game of Sky Galleons of Mars, usually in 1/1200 (about 1.5mm), blown up to 28mm scale. The ships were scratchbuilt by a fellow attending the convention. Absolutely great, but not real cheap. The main structure is insulation foamboard. If you want contact info for him, I have it. Rules are available easily from Amazon.com.

The British Aerial Squadron of Syrtis Major

My ship, the Red Hullcutter. As commander of this vessel, I was Admiral of the Martian fleet.

My orders were not well obeyed.

  Martian objective: get past the British squadron and attack Syrtis Major. British objective: stop the Martian savages. The Martian plan was to try and lure the British in close to our main battleships, pound them with gunnery to damage their liftwood panels, and then board them, while the smaller, faster vessels made for Syrtis Major.

Boarders Away! The Blue Hullcutter grapples and boards HMS Bumblebee

  Martians are boarding for two reasons: 1) their gunnery SUCKS, and 2) they have Marines and most of the British ships did not. Unfortunately, the British were able to keep at higher altittudes as a result of the general failure of Martian gunnery to harm their liftwood panels.

Wreckage of the HMS Bumblebee, with Martian marines dragged to their deaths.

  The final result of the game was a minor Martian victory. One small Martian craft was aflame, but still flying, and several Martian vessels had broken through the line of the British and were headed for their objective. The only ship lost was the Bumblebee, though several Martian vessels were quite badly battered.

  A great deal of fun was had. So much that I did a crap job of taking photos and writing notes. Taunts were thrown, challenges were made, rum was drunk. I still claim the Martians are better than the British Royal Navy because the "Martians only believe in rum and the lash." And we sang "one-nil, one-nil one-nil one-nil" over and over, as that was how many ships were brought down.