Warlords of the Traction Era (Or Wargaming Mortal Engines)

I've been thinking more about gaming in the World of Mortal Engines. Although there are a couple of HoTT army lists for playing traction city vs traction city or Green Storm games (available here: http://meadhall.org.uk/mortal.htm#army2), I feel more drawn to skirmish level games with 28mm figures. In his blog, Phillip Reeve said that he felt the early, 'Fever Crumb' era was better suited to wargaming and generally I agree with him. Certainly land barges, war mammoths, more STALKERS and the background of clashing nomad empires certainly makes for a better 'large/40K size' game than skirmishes on one of the tiers of a moving city, or in the hills of an Anti-traction league city fortress. But being me, I want to do both. The early setting promises great things, but I do love the later 'Predator cities' era.

In terms of rules, I've been a bit torn. Originally I was going to do it with HoTT (and I'll post up my WiP draft ideas in a subsequent post so that if any one wants them they can have a shufti); but the unit basing keeps putting me off and although I've built (and am continuing to build) armies for it, I've yet to actually play the game... so who knows if I'll actually like it.
I then toyed with Combat Zone, for which there are lots of 'after the market' additions from the CoZo Chronicles, and for which I put together a steampunk/historical weapons list a few years ago. BUT.... It's probably a bit too detailed for what I want. Great for the Predator cities era stuff, but it'd fall over when trying to deal with the bigger battles of the pre-traction era; especially given the level of the existing vehicle rules. It also has the detractor of being a commercially available rules-set, and I’d ideally hoped to be able to modify a free one as it makes distributing and disseminating my work easier.

Back when I first read Mortal Engines, I did think about using GW’s Inquisitor as a possible rules set. But since then my aspirations have increased somewhat. Whilst Inquisitor would work well for a handful of air pirates savaging a group of old-tech scavengers, it wouldn’t be able to do much more. If the limited vehicle rules for CZ was a detractor, then it goes doubly so for Inquisitor.

Thinking of Games Workshop, I have also considered both 2nd & 3rd Edition 40K. Yeah, I know, my GW gaming is a bit Retro, but I own both rules sets and have played both rules-sets, unlike anything newer. Although not freely available, both sets are old enough that they should be available for pennies. The rules are designed for the sort of size game I envisage, can cater for a range of figure ability levels (including heroes) and can deal with vehicles of varying sizes. Lots of people play 40K of varying generations (including Phillip Reeve, who plays it with his son) which means it should be an easy learning curve for potential new layers… and it also gives the potential of being able to (easily?) pick Phillips brains regarding queries. But I have found better, more fun, rules since I last played 40k…

The obvious (?) choice for rules is one I only thought of whilst typing this up. GASLIGHT is designed for semi-generic Steampunk games. It has additions to enable players to generate their own vehicles, weapons and unit types (including various levels of hero). It can be run at any level from RPG to massed battle (thinking 3 dry ships level here!), with an emphasis on ‘40k’ size (couple of vehicles/beasties, a couple of squads and a hero/character or two). It’s rules light as an added boost. The only downside is that I sold my rule books a couple of years ago (up to that point I played it a lot though), that it is a commercial set (although at $30 for all 4 official books, it won’t break the bank - http://www.rpgnow.com/product/90907/G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.-Compendium) and that it is almost too well suited. I do like playing around with rules sets, and for GASLIGHt it’d only be a case of generating a couple of unit stats, tweaking a weapon or two and then that’d be about it… Certainly, it’s a very good option, and one recommend to anyone (or everyone even?)

But GASLIGHT isn’t my choice (Atleast, not yet). One of my favourite rules sets of all time is Skank (http://www.skankgame.com/). It’s free, rules light and eminently modifiable. It’s also light, pulpish and plays through very quickly. The last couple of points are both benefits and detractors depending on mood, view point and game aims. I’ve had what should be ‘serious’ historical games feel more like carry on episodes. But then, we play games to have fun, which Skank definitely is. In terms of scope, it’ll happily 40k sized games, and smaller. In terms of modifications, it’ll take a few tweaks, but shouldn’t require too drastic a re-design. And that is sort of the fun of the project (Atleast from a rules point of view). The other name for Skank (Warlords of the Wastelands) inspired the title for the post.

The pictures are all ‘official’ Mortal Engines artwork, which will hopefully whet readers appetites and serve to illustrate some of the things I may have a go at trying to make/bring to the table top. Future posts will hopefully focus on rules developments, as well as figure ideas and the like…

And some almost finished stuff...

And here's the painted figures I promised a while ago... sorry for the delay, part of it is due to my computer not liking blogger and not giving me a proper menu, and the sunshine luring me outside to read... These guys are all just waiting for basing now...

CDF private - this figure is a conversion of one of the HLBS US1/2 early 90's US infantry, and with the addition of a TAG AK47, some slight work re-shaping the ammo pouches and a change of colour scheme, I think it works quite well. I'm aware an AK74 would have been better in terms of beliveability, but I guess the advantage of imagi-nations is that you can do what you want :) The black flak jackets is taken from a few pictures I've seen of Georgian troops wearing similar pieces of kit, and I imagine are probably a fairly new addition to the CDF - possibly adopted after casualties from terrorist bomb/sniper attacks started increasing in number.

Another 'Foreign volunteer', also taken from the same Kampschwimer pack as the last one. This guy is pretty much stock (I carved away the pockets on his upper arms to make the jacket a little more generic.). The camo on the jacket is supposed to be the US woodland scheme, but I think the brown is a bit too light and/or orangey, and I think the cream is used too much.... on the plus side, it now looks like one of the knock-off schemes which were floating around the Balkans a lot in the 90's. I was tempted to paint a beret badge on the front of his wooly hat, again inspired by the Balkans, but I resisted temptation, saving that for another figure. I'm guessing he has been issued the PSG-1 after proving his marksmanship... either that, or whoever hired him couldn't maintain it well enough.

NaPa gunman - in this case, quite a heavily converted figure. The base model is some sort of US special forces type, to which I've added a mask, and replaced his M16 with an AK47/GL combo. The M16 arm wasn't originally supposed to go with this figure, but I had both in my spares box, so kitbased something usable out of them. The left hand is a bit gormless, as he's not holding anything in it... bu all the possibilities looked wrong, so I've left it as-is at the moment, and it doesn't notice too much. As the webbing & AK are both the same as the CDF use, it seemed like a good idea to given him a CDF jacket as well. Either this guy is a deserter, or he's been resupplying himself from prisoners and casualties

No idea where this ruin originally came from, but I remember playing with it with toy soldiers when I must have been around 5 or 6.  For a long time it sat with a not-very-good enamel paint scheme in my 'generic scenery' bits, but I decided to finally show it some love.  Afterall, whilst it is too big for 28mm figures, it fits in rather well with these 38mm (still too big, but less noticably so). The window frame is knocked together from a couple of old matches, and is really just there to add some character to what would otherwise be a very plain building indeed. I have been tempted to add graffiti to the outside, but I'll leave it blank and generic for now...

A converted 1/35th M-8, this was originally in the Sell pile.... but I had a change of heart. At some stage, I'm going to modify it to look more like the improvised armoured trucks which were used in the Balkans, but for now it's serviceable enough as it is I think...

Another converted toy - this was originally some sort of snap-together kit, which has been progressively modified over the years - first for 40K, and now for 1/48th moderns. It's a little on the tall side, and I'm not entirely convinced on the armament of rockets... but given that, I thought it looked like the sort of thing which an under equipped militia might buy off a dodgy arms dealer (who is probably re-fitting riot vehicles with bodged on anti-aircraft missiles). It's been given to the ChDKZ, in an attempt to give them something capable of knocking out the CDF T-72 which is sat on my windowsill.... atleast until the ChDKZ manage to capture a tank or two of their own! The missile graffiti says 'Freedom!' if I recall correctly...

WiPs

Hello Folks - I thought I'd show some more WiPs (although actually atleast one of these has been finished since I took these pictures... never mind!)

first up is a NaPa guerilla NCO. Originally a German kampschwimmer NCO, I decided I'd have more use for him as something else. Fairly minor conversion work on this guy - I gave him a face mask from millipu, re-shaped his field cap into something less german and a little closer to a Yugoslavian cap/generic garrison cap (ints nothing in particular to be honest, which is good as atleast it doesn't look german :) ) I also shaved off the pockets on the upper arms of his jacket. The jacket itself has been doen in Russian 'flora' camo, and has probably been 'liberated' from some prisoners some where. The MP5 will be anopther piece of NaPa's black market arms deals - I tell you what, it must be a nightmare trying to resupply these guys. Civillian trousers, generic webbing and a neutralish tone for the face scarf complete the figure.

Spetsnatz in Partizan I camo (know flecktarn, of a sort). I decided to keep these guys looking fairly homogeneous, so as to make them identifiable from ChDKZ and other militia on the table top. No conversions on any of these figures. I'm, not sure wether to do the chest rigs in a camo scheme (such as the flora I've used for infantry uniforms) or not. I'm probably going to go with 'not' so as to stop the figures looking too busy. I think I'll probably do the AKs for these guys (an probably all the other Russians) in black, with black furniture and a mix of black and brown magazines, to give a visual differentiation from the AK weilding militia...

MVD figure - The MVD will be wearing a mix of camo schemes, to give them a similar look to the units which operated in Chechnya. I'll make sure to mix in some Flora camo along with the 2 schems shown above (and maybe another urban pattern) to give them some visual cohesion.

VDV para troopers - awaiting the Knarloc green caot required to finish  the Flora scheme. These guys will probably be getting plain green combat vests, again on the principles of not being too busy, but also I feel that if I do them in the most common camo scheme (flora) then they will just blend in with the rest of the uniforms.

The statue itself is done - now it's just a case of finishing off making the base look like corncrete, and doing the last of the details on the information plaque (including finishing the picture on the top left. I've treid to go with a 'byzantine/eastern orthodox' look to the picture, drawing my insperation from similar artwok I've seen in the Ukraine and Bulgaria)

Up next on the blog - some (almost, apart from basing and weathering) finished figures....

LBWS table-top sale goodies

Well, Sunday was the LBWS table top sale, so I was back for the goodness knows how manyth year selling off my lead backlog. In addition to downsizing my 'sell' pile, I also managed to pick up some nice odds and sods of kit (all for 1/48th gaming, as I've got scenery for the rest of my stuff... well.... maybe not the dark ages, but there wasn't anything there for that and I've got my eyes on some Rendera Saxon tnets and wattle fences to make a camp for them...)
http://www.bristolwargaming.co.uk/table_top_sale.html
is the website for the sell, nad it also has details of Revillie II, where I'll probably have a stall althoguh I'd ideally like to try and run a display game of some sort...

Here are photos of the buildings I got (there were also some nice big Last Valley trees, but I forgot to take any pictures of them, so you'll just have to wait until they turn up in a game).

2 resin ruined sections - I'm probably going to field this as just one large ruin as they've been painted to match. Looking at the size, I'm guessing it was originally intended for 1/35 figures... but it certainly does make a nice piece for my 1/48ths.

Got this pile of wood from the same seller - not sure what I'll use it for, but it seemed like a good piece of scatter scenery for Eastern Europe. Thinking about it, I could put it next to the part-built plasticville house (see below1) to add to the 'in construction' vibe. either that, or I start converting a saw mill!

Plasticville houses - O-gauge model railraod buildings, these are pretty much perfect scale for 1/48th figures. These models are all incomplete (there is also a fire-brigade building) which means they'll need some tweaking. This also gives me the chance to 'europeanise' them. Hopeully I'll be getting some more from:
http://darkhousegames.co.uk/

Chernarus Slogans & Grafiti

Having seen some of the Russian tanks in Chechnya & South Ossetia covered in grafiti and slogans, I thought I'd get some slogans suitable for my Chernarus games translated into Russian cyrillic (although, I think I may have done some of them into Ukrainian cyrillic...) Expect to see these on various vehicles (and possibly some scenery pieces) in the future... Death to the oppressor! = Деатх то тхе Опрессор! Freedom = Фреедом Sword of Allah: Сворд оф Аллах ChDKZ = ЧДКЗ CDF = ЦДФ NaPa=НаПа CMB (chernarus moslem brotherhood)= ЦМБ Free South zagorian = фрее соутг заґоріа! Down with the rebels = довн вітг тге Ребелс! Unite Chernarus! = Уніте чернарус!

Music to paint to - Chenarus I

I tend to prefer to paint figures to music (masks background noise, stops me jumpinng when doors slam/etc and just generally keeps me saner). However, do try to tie the music into what I'm painting. So, for my Chernarus figures I've been digging out esoteric Eastern European tunes on youtube. In this endevour, eurovision has been of great assisstance as atleast it gives me access to a selection of tracks from various countries. Here's what I'm currently listening to:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=AL94UKMTqg-9Cv-vKK2asBMolVv3iWVfmg , which has heped me power through painting 'Partizan I' flecktarn on some spetsnatz. They were the Moldovian group at eurovision 2011 with the HUGE pointed hats, and pretty girl playing a trumpet whilst riding a unicycle in a fairy costume. No, I'd have ever thought that I'd listen to them of my own free will either, but I am... Whlst I'd never say it was my favourite sort of music, and I'd never play it in my car whilst going on a trrip, it's grown on me beyond the ridicule that I had for it at Eurovision the other year. Here's another one I listen to (and the video for which is also fairly good insperation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBqgKUS3zkw&feature=player_embedded This is a bit ockier, and probably easier on some listeners ears...! Now to try and track down which colour to do the blocks of some scenery I'm working on - Brick, or Breeze-block...

Figure Focus - TAG Pt II

So, heres part II of of my TAG figure focus....

SWAT figures, painted up as a Tagan Police Special Response Team, these guys are just too late for the era I play, and so have been passed onto Emma to use in Sci-Fi games....

More TAG weapon swops, bringing out of era figures into era - here we hve 3 Foundry Darkest Africa Masai & a Redoubt Boear conveted into some tribal trackers and a... well... boer... Just, a lter era one :)

My 'Not-Rhodesia' imagi-nation, Tanga has a light infantry & SAS force made up of paint-converted US  special forces figres. Lots moe of these in the to paint pile I should add. The guy bottom left in the white tee is usually used as an armed farmer...

The Tribal Rebels! A terrifying blend of the Mau-mau & the Simba rebels from the congo. These guys are hopped up on drugs and ju-ju, beliving that they are safe against bulets they'll often try to charge down the their opponents. The figures typicaly are from the less well armed (village militia/DRA19-24) packs, with a few suitable Vietcong and AK toting africans mixed in to give them a bit more hitting power. Given that these sorts of rebellions happened primarily in the 60's, I've done my best to keep the weaponry suitably aged (ex-WW2, apart from their newly aquired kalashnikovs).  I really need to get another pack or two of machete guys for this lot, and maybe some more loose 'modern' melee weapons to convert some more Foundry DA figures... 

My guerilla forces - typically all the figures that looked too well/recently armed (or dressed) to fit in with the tribal types end up in this set. I rationaise the mix of uniform with guys in jeans and tee-shirts by deviding them into 'Main force' (uniforms of some sort) and 'Local force' (civies). The somali's in native clothing generaly run with this force, as although they look 'primative' enough to run with the tribal rebels, their weaponry is a bit too uptogether compared to the rest. I've also mixed in quite a few of the 'white mercenary' packs (DRA12-18) to vary up the weaponry choice.

These guys were sat in a pile to be repainted to join the tribal rebels (originally I just had one mega force of  african militia, which decided to start seperating down into sub-factions to try and make the variou forces a bit more interesting). I know why most of them were going to have some paint tweaking done - the camo schemes are to late for the sort of era they are supposed to repreesent. No idea why the machete guy is in there though....

At one stage, I had not only my 'organised' 5-Commando style mercenaries, but some disorganised ones a well. Then theygot mixed in with the African militia Farcry 2 style, and then they were disbanded... These guyss will be getting repainted and then joining the Tangan Army as more ligt infantrymen (probably after the addition of some webbing pouches...)

Whilst these guys (baring the RPG-2) were up  for sale (weapons too late for most of them) but have been moved to the Chernarus painting pile.

These caught me eye...

I just saw these on the Warlord games website, and by the looks of them they may be a 'must buy'. Half the figures will be trooping off to join my 5 Commando style mercs in africa, and the others will be joining my BritApoc collection.

Which also reminded me of these guys from artizan, who I've been meanin to pick up for a while (more recruits for the mercs, although I'll probably do some weapon swops to make them a bit less WW2...

As an aside, I read Fever Crumb & Web Of Air, from The World of Mortal Engines series, and once again was captivated by the setting. I've often thought about gaming it, as it has a great diselpunk post-apocalypse feel... but I'm never sure that I could do justice to the images in mind in regards to scenery, figure conversions, etc. It did orccur to me that The Movements traction-fortress would be 1/2 meter high in 28mm scale, whilst something like the traction city of London would be around the 10 meter high mark... meaning that any games would have to be set within the traction cities rather than having them usable. Not a mjor problem per-say, but something more to ponder. Also, I'm ware that I've been playing a lot of fallout 3 recently, which has added to the visualization in many ways, but which I don't want to influence things too much and possibly distract from the setting. Maybe I'll post some more stuff up as/if my musings continue...

Figure Focus - TAG Pt I

Partly inspired by Vampi-fan's blog, where he goes back over some of his old figures and gives pictures/reviews, I thought I'd revisit my painted lead pile and post up some pictures by manufacturer. I'm starting with TAG, as after their current facebook  promotion (like us and get a figure and a discount - see here for more details http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/pages/page.php?Like-our-FaceBook-page-and-get-a-Freebie-and-a-discount-188 ) they readily came to mind (shows advertising works I guess!), and this gets one of the largest manufacturers out the way :)

Militia and mobsters - the chaps on either end are also part of my Russian Mafia gang (used to be used for games of combat zone, but now may well be getting involved in Chernarus), whilst the two in the centre tend to end up  with the militia...

I originally intended these guys to be used as PMCs, but looking at them, they don't look much like the 'iconic' PMC guys you see on the news. Their camo is too varied, but I guess all the rest of their kit is ok. Currently these guys are in the sale pile, as not sure how/where I can use them (way to modern for my african games, and a bit too kitted up for Chernarus)

A few more gunmen of various flavors which are also on the sale pile - nice figures, but they don't quitte fit into what I'm trying to do. That said, the kneeling white guys with the AK/SVd Dragunov may well end up back in africa, as looking at them like this I can't see any reason why they shouldn't be in there with my other mercs...

The great thing about the Dirtiest Africa range is that it covers subjects from the 70's right through to now.. which makes lots of the equipmennt almost perfect for my BritApoc retro apocalypse. These guys havee been broken into 3 factions for the pictures - Village Militia, Raiders & misc. I think all the figures are pretty much stock, although the guy with the sheep skin waistcoat in the bottom image had it added so he didn't get too cold in the british rain! Oh, a couple of the Militia guys have also had TAG pouches added to make them look slightly better equipped than the rest. Most of these figures are duplicates of some of thefigures in my Africa collection, so I was happy enouch to divert them across. The tattered clothing on a couple really helps add to the PA look. Thanks to DAWGIE for making me think outside the box, and not just see african militia when I looked at the figures.

I know I keep harping on about TAGs weapon range, but it really is great. Here are a few examples of it being used to convert figures for Brit Apoc games. The manufacturers of the figures are, from the left, Arrtizan, Warlord, Killer Bee & EM-4/Mirliton.

Whilst I really like the mercenaries in the dirtiest africa range, they don't work terribly well with the rest of my mercenary figures (which are based on 5-commando in the congo, and are generally a bit more homogeneous in terms of uniform style and alot heavier in terms of equipment loadout). However, some of the Chindits and Nam figures fit in very well, with only a few minor conversions (haed and/or weapon sawps). I'm still not entirely convinced on absolute accuracy of  M1 helmets and flak jackets for mercenary forces  in the congo, but I've seen a couple off picturres which atleast let me ease my concience when using them in my imagi-nation battles. Looks like I need to do some more basing :-/


And that's where I'm going to leave part I. The next installment will have LOTS of african militia, some white- govermental troops and some figures which whilst pleasing enough as-is are scheduled forr re-paints to make them more useful. But I'm going to give folks a rest for a while first...