Cloudships of Mars revisited

After such a hiatus there are TWO posts in a single week? Good grief! Why so? Because this happened...

I also liked their clever plastic altitude bases

Following my trip to the Woking Tripod, I attended the WARFARE show at Farnbrough and had a chance to chat with the chaps from the Werelords club who were running this "Cloudships of Mars revisited" table. 

Yes they are indeed the same chaps who put on the stunning 28mm display back at SALUTE 06 (see herehttp://www.werelords.com/cloudships/main.htm).  Well they are back with a new scale (6mm) and with an all news set of rules they have written, that are faithful to the spirit of the original but updating them and tightening them up for big demo games.

They were super enthusiastic about sharing their game, the moreso when I told them of our own Cloudships agmes and some pics from this blog. I guess its a real niche inside a niche hobby!

The ships themselves are a true delight - each one of the hand crafted and scratch built from all sort of things. It was fun to try and guess,  but the detailing and crew really brought them to life. 

The flyer at the demo game read:

Building a Cloudship Fleet in 6mm

The Ships are a wide range of manufacturers: Peter Pig ACW, DeAgostini Star Wars die cast, Heroics and Ross, and Brigade Models.  Weapons include WW1 & WW2 guns, ECW & Napoleonic guns plus gatlings, mitrailleuse and Nordenfelts. Crew range form Colonial & Franco-Prussian, Confederates, SYW Iroquois Indians and Ancient Greeks.

Details was added from Model railways N gauge, supplies for packs of coals sacks anbd sails from plastci ship kits, Mats by Deep cut Studios, and Scenery by Brigade

These pics do something to show what a true delight and labour of love they are.

Look at that liftwood torpedo!

The Majesty of the big Martian Kite under full sail!

Unfortunately I didn't have the time to sit down for a game (though they invited several times!) but it was a real delight to spend some time with these cracking fellows and their creations. 

Thank you gentlemen - I doff my hat to you!

Space 1889: Sky Galleons of Mars

Following up on the recent ground action, we took to the skies with some classic Sky Galleons of Mars. We played a meeting engagement between British Squadron and Martians, with scratch-built ships by our talented friend Andrew.

Syrtis Major Royal Naval Air Squadron 

1 x Reliant class aerial cruiser escorted by 

1 x Dauntless and 1 x Aphid gunboats

Oenetrian Allied Fleet

2 x Whisperdeath large kites

2 x Hull cutters

1 x Skyfire Screw Galley

The British formation manoeuvres to windward to maintain the range

The allied Martian fleet deploys

The Reliant and Dauntless catch a Martian Kite and take her under heavy fire

The Martians move upwind to close the range

The engagement becomes general

A long range Martian shot cripples the Reliant's lift mechanism, and her escorts scramble to screen her

Martian Screw Galleys break through the British escorts and grapple with the Dauntless

Swarmed by the combined enemy crews, the British Marines and sailors fight valiantly but futilely

And so the Oenotrian Fleet gained a decisive Victory over their hated British foes, but they would soon learn that the resolve of the Earthman was not so easily broken...

"Sky Galleons of Mars" to Return!

Exciting news indeed, from the guys who are doing the reboot of the Space 1889 RPG!  Early days thus far but expect a Kickstarter in the future to get this moving.  Details so far are:

• Classic rules to be used, though updated
• Classic Hex maps to be utilised
• All new range of miniatures- plastic in the starter with metal ones available individually
• English, German and likely other language versions

Watching with great interest!
http://raum1889.de/?p=602