Ottoman-ia!

It's OTTOMAN-IA

at Lead Adventure Forum!

   The good fellows over at Lead Adventure Miniatures have just released a trio of new packs of Turks for your buying, painting, and gaming pleasure! I think they look great, and can't wait to see how they paint up. Now I just have to find some money to buy them.

Looks like a grenade launcher, maybe?

Just in case of Black Smoke... and snipers, too!

I'd use them as the regular riflemen for the VSF unit.

   So far, it seems that my pattern for a VSF 'army' or 'force' - at least in 28mm - is to have one unit with special weapons like these, and a few units of regulars armed with plain old rifles. A few vehicles and mechanickal gadgets, something that flies (maybe a hot air balloon or something?). These would fall into the category of a special weapons unit, with some extra heavy weapons like the grenade launcher, and the previously released chaingun.

Place, Show and Also Ran, Part 2

   Here we go with Part Two of the followup to the "A to Z" of Victorian Science Fiction. I want to thank Elderac for making some excellent suggestions in the comments on Part One. He was spot on with some obvious misses on my part. If you have something to add, please, leave comments! I check to make sure they aren't spam or something I wouldn't want my kids to read, but honest criticism I do not mind! It makes my projects better in the long run.

   Also, I found the 'original' list of ideas for the "A to Z," and want to go back and include them. And so, without further ado...

"A" is also for... AETHERGRAPH

   An aethergraph is, essentially, an incredibly long-ranged heliograph. Using a powerful Babbage Engine, an aethergraph transmitter, like the one pictured below, calculates the precise angle needed to send messages to one of the relay vessels in orbit around the planets and in chains across the Deep Aether. Once out of atmosphere, a signal can be sent millions of miles by the combination of massive mirror and precise control.

Aethergraph Transmitter, Victoria Landing, Mars

 
"A" is also for...  ATLANTIS

   Among the 'original' list of ideas that I failed to mention was Atlantis. I think everyone is familiar with the legendary sunken or lost continent of Atlantis, where the technology of the Ancients is still active. In my personal VSF universe, I don't use Atlantis as anything other than alegend and a spur to deep-ocean exploration, but in the When the Navy Walked Universe, it is very much alive and kicking!

Ruins of Atlantis? Ignore the skindiver...

"B" is also for...   BONGOLESIA

   An imagi-nation originally developed by Mike Murphy for his modern game AK-47 Republic, Bongolesia was once an African colony, which I have appropriated for my VSF Universe. In that timeline, it is the source of an amazing plant, the Bongolesian Oxygen Plant (Oxygenesis bongolesia) which produces an extraordinary amount of oxygen.

"B" is also for BABBAGE ENGINE

   This entry could just as easily have been dedicated to Charles Babbage, the genius inventor who designed it. Or it could have fallen under "D" is for Difference Engine - and it almost displaced dinosaurs there. The machine that Babbage built is, for all intents and purposes, a mechanical computer. In VSF, it often takes the place of computers in 'hard' science fiction. In my VSF Universe, they are very small and very powerful, and are fabricated and placed in all sorts of devices and applications. Babbage Engines run automatons, and calculate the angles for aethergraphs and aethergation.


"F" is also for... FREEMASONRY

The Square and Compass

   Freemasons are, by the late 1800s, a well-established secret society. Rumors of their conspiracies, wealth and power are already widespread. They can be used (I do not make use of them) as patrons, foes, whatever. For another good use of Freemasonry in colonial / Victorian Science Fiction gaming, watch The Man Who Would Be King, with Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

"H" is also for... HELIOGRAPH

   The heliograph is an ancient signalling device, updated and improved by the use of that American boffin Mr. Morse's simple code. It requires no wires, no power source, and is easily transported. All one needs to use it is a bit of sunlight and a clear line of sight. Telescopes or binocular scopes are useful for reading messages at greater distances.

   That's all for tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

Place, Show and Also Ran, Part 1

   In the recently completed "A to Z" feature that I posted here, there were many times that more than one idea came to mind for a particular letter. However, being limited to choosing only one, I had to set aside these ideas for the time being. And many of them were good ideas. So, I have decided that I will do a series of "also rans", starting with this one. Each will be pretty short, and there will be multiple entries in each part of this series. I hope you enjoy.

"A" is also for... AUTOMATONS

Dr. Otto Maton's "Destroyer"-class Automaton
[Warbot Destroyer from Hydra Miniatures]

   Call them mechanickal men, or robots, or automatons, they are all essentially similar: mechanical creatures that do the bidding of their masters (usually). I have already gone into a bit of detail about my automaton forces in other posts, but I love the buggers. So, I chose to go with Aether for the original "A is for..." because I knew that automatons would show up later anyway.

"B" is also for... BARSOOM

      Barsoom, the Martian name for their own planet. The home of the incomparable Dejah Thoris, and the adopted home of the mighty warlord of Mars, John Carter, once of Virginia. Since Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote about the planet almost a century ago, it has captivated readers. The recent film by Disney showed it to us in a new light, and although the plot of the film was a weak amalgamation, the visual scope was great (except for the white apes. Oh well.). Barsoom also fell victim to the "I will cover this elsewhere" bug that got automatons - a theme that you may see several times throughout this series.

"G" is also for... GERMANY

A Prussian Guards banner

   I skipped several letters to get to "G," as I do not have anything written down right now for the letters in between "B" and "G" on the 'official' list of ideas for the "A to Z". Does that last sentence qualify as quotation marks abuse? back to topic: Imperial Germany is often used as the OPFOR when facing the British in a VSF setting. As others have pointed out, this is a bit anachronistic, as the real rivals during the reign of Her Majesty (God Bless Her) Queen Victoria were the Russians and the French. Germanophobia didn't begin to develop until the very end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th, when a series of invasion novels starring the Germans as the invaders of Britain were published. I thought that Germany (or Prussia, as some would have it) was sufficiently covered with "K is for Kaiser".

   Enough for now - I will be back in a day or two with more, starting with "H is also for..."

A Brief Pause for Breath

   Ladies and gentleman, I shall be taking a brief respite from blogging for a few days to finish up some book reviews for my professor. When I return, I'll be doing a few "Place, Show, and Also Ran" posts, covering some of the alternates that I did not choose for the A to Z. I'll also throw in a few pictures of some of the minis I have painted in the last few weeks - nothing too earthshaking, but glad to get a few things done.

"Z" is for...

ZEPPELIN

   Zeppelin (n.): a rigid cylindrical airship consisting of a covered frame containing multiple gas cells, and with a suspended compartment for passengers and engines.

   There was, of course, no way not to mention the Zeppelin and other forms of flying ships when discussing Victorian Science Fiction. You may as well leave out Her Majesty (God Bless Her!) as flying vessels! The idea of flying ships was written about by Victorian writers (Jules Verne published Master of the World in 1904, just a few years after Edward took the throne).

   Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin started designing the style of airship which would bear his name in the 1870s after seeing airships used by the Union in the American Civil War and the French during the short-lived Franco-Prussian War. The first real zeppelin (LZ-1) was built in 1899. Zeppelins were used as bombers in World War I and as commercial vehicles after the war until the Hindenberg crash in 1937 ended their popularity. (Oh, the humanity!) In my VSF universe, I have Zeppelin retiring from the military at a younger age due to injuries sustained, and getting into the development of airships sooner as a result. Zeppelins fitted with more powerful engines and using a wondrous lifting gas (hydrium, an idea copied from Kenneth Opel's Airborn novels) are commonplace in the late 19th century of my little universe.

   Besides zeppelins, which are just really cool, the VSF enthusiast has a variety of airships to choose from. Most use some for of lighter-than-air technology, which is often non-gaseous in nature, thus eliminating the need for huge gas bags to provide lift. Liftwood, cavorite, and unobtainite are some examples of this. The problem with massive gas cells is that they are, well, massive. Big, relatively slow targets, which can't be significantly armoured due to weight considerations. Using liftwood, etc., eliminates that liability and makes armoured airships much more practical.

A small 6-man gunboat
[Laughing Ferret, 25mm conversion]

    Some airships are small gunboats, intended to swiftly enforce the will of the Great Powers which build them. The British Naval Air Service's ubiquitous Aphid-class is a prime example of this type. Others are massive behemoths of armourplate and turreted 14" naval guns, bristling with batteries of quick-firing light guns, and cruising slowly through the air, dominating the sky. The Class IV dreadnought is one of these types of airship.

HMS Aphid

<> 

Dreadnought Class IV Airship

   I know of several good rules sets that exist for VSF airship fleet battles, in alphabetical order:

• Aeronef, by Wessex Games
• Dystopian Wars, by Spartan Games
• GASLIGHT Compendium, by Palmer and Surdu
• Sky Galleons of Mars, by GDW (and Heliograph)
• When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Skies (not commercially published that I know of)
• When the Navy Walked, by The Arm Chair General (I helped write these rules).

   I have played in games using all of the above rules except for Dystopian Wars, and enjoyed them all. Except for When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Skies, all of them also have associated ground forces rules suitable for playing air-to-ground engagements and mixed actions. If I have inadvertently left any systems you are aware of out of the above list, please let me know and I will be happy to add it!

Naval Zeppelin