Mortal Engines Wargames Musings

The more I think about making a playable game out of the Mortal Engines books the closer I come to 3 effective methods:

I) City on City - tiny scale cities, each about the size of a 1/72nd tank (maybe with big cities up to the size of a 1/35th scale tank) scooting around eating each other, with airships etc out of scale (well, seeing as they are larger, what with being closer to the viewers eye) but present for landings and what not. In terms of game play, it'd be rather like a land version of a Space-ship battle game like Full thrust... infact, FT might not be too bad an idea for a rules set. This is very definitely limited to the later books, as there are actually moving cities. I guess something similar could be achieved with land barges and traction fortresses, maybe evening making them vaguely inter-compatible by doing so in say in 3mm or 6mm. Certainly some of the Epic Ork models would work well.

II) Skirmish 'Gang' warfare inside a city - Effectively Necromunda or combat zone, involving various 'gang' size warbands skirmishing in a multi-level diesel-punk industrial setting. There are quite a few suitable figures out, and games would be along the lines of the Engineers guild try to storm London Museum, or a small band of anti-tractionist terrorists battling with say the crew of a pirate suburb. It could also work for the early period stuff - A small group of London Trained Bandsmen skirmishing with Movement warriors in the outskirts of London, or what have you. No vehicles or suchlike used, with the focus very much on each individual figure.

The final option (III) is really  limited to the Early period (pre-traction) stuff, which is the 'massed battle' game. Although there are possibilities for Battle Mammoths, Campavans, traction bunkers and the like in 28mm, unless one is using a particularly large board, they cannot be used in any real numbers; and certainly for the likes of traction fortresses are really relegated to the role of mobile scenery. To actually be able to deal with a reasonable number (say a few warmachines and a platoon or two of infantry) will require a smaller scale - around 10-15mm. Ruleswise, maybe GASLIGHT, or a varient...

Udate (28mm) - Painted 'cold apocalypse' survivor convesions and a few more WiPs

So here's the latest update on my cold/winter British Apocalypse (yeah - I'm still working on a snappy name). I've actually done quite a bit of work since I took these pictures, but updated pictures will be along in their due course...

Here are the figures I showed last time in paint. I've tried to keep to a muted pallet, but make them look like anyone you might pass in the street or any outfits that you might buy from an out-doors store. The guy in the black hooded jacket has since got some red fingerless gloves, a) to make him look a bit warmer and b) to break up the drab colour scheme some more. I'm a bit stuck on how to do bases on these guys, and I'm knocking up a couple of dummy runs on blank penny-washers to try to work out what looks best...

These folks have changed a fair bit, but this was the state of conversion a while ago. From the left: TAG Criminal, Hasslefree, TAG African Militia,TAG African Militia, TAG Tunnel Rat, Dixon Resistance Fighter. Since then, far left & right have been finished and are actually in paint, whilst the others are all only awaiting minor details (bag straps, etc). The grey paint is for improved contrast (I find it hard to work out quite how things will look in just the green)

Here is the 'quiver' I eventually settled on - I was going to try to sculpt it open, with bolts sticking out... but my sculpting isn't quite up to that yet, so closed it is.

Objective markers - the two bags I sculpted in paint, along with a couple of jerry cans and a mystery crate....!

Painting update (20mm) - Paras, Motor Rifles & Partizans...

Apologies for the non-scenic pictures, but the table was still laid up for christmas and I didn't want to disrupt it...! 

Here are the latest 20mm offerings...

More NATO partisans - with a  couple of Eastern Europeans mixed in. Currently hitting about the half way point, although Santa did bring a pile of WW2 resistance fighters who will mainly be heading to Poland (and potentially Yugoslavia) 

Soviet Motor Rifles, including a AGS grenade launcher - still more (21, of which 4 have yet to be purchased) to do before I finish the 2nd platoon...

British Paras - 10 left to (hopefully) finish off the platoon, assuming my initial calculations were correct...!

The first of my unarmed civilians/refugees - quite a few more to come as they are a fairly prominent feature in many of the FoF scenarios...