..being "a game of reminiscences over dinner to be enjoyed by a number of fellows of good cheer"
- sounds like fun eh? Something fun to do with your friends on New Years Eve perhaps!
http://www.wargamedevelopments.org/game_downloads/Military%20Memoirs.pdf
Saturday, 29 December 2007
Friday, 28 December 2007
Another Vanvlakian Astronef creation!
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Another T&C Review
...has been posted to the Lost World Gamers group:
On Christmas Eve, the last gift to myself arrived. The T&C rulebook and an elasmotherium.
Looking over the rules a bit it appears that this does incorporate the best of both SS and MM and adds a bit more. He says as much in the beginning of the book. He's really tried to make it easy to play without a GM, so solo play should be simple enough.
I don't think it'd be too hard to create dino stats for it either, though first I might expand the prehistoric mammals slightly. The animals included cover a wide array, and include several outside of the DeeZee range, but there is one glaring omission in my book: glyptodonts. I'll have to have a go at them when I find time.
Also, I think I'm going to have to get around to ordering a few more of the DeeZee animals. The elasmotherium looks great, and there are a few others I wouldn't mind owning.
Anyway, anyone still undecided on whether to get the rules or not - I'd say they are probably worth it. Despite the expense, they still cost less than some of my miniatures.
On Christmas Eve, the last gift to myself arrived. The T&C rulebook and an elasmotherium. Looking over the rules a bit it appears that this does incorporate the best of both SS and MM and adds a bit more. He says as much in the beginning of the book. He's really tried to make it easy to play without a GM, so solo play should be simple enough.
I don't think it'd be too hard to create dino stats for it either, though first I might expand the prehistoric mammals slightly. The animals included cover a wide array, and include several outside of the DeeZee range, but there is one glaring omission in my book: glyptodonts. I'll have to have a go at them when I find time.
Also, I think I'm going to have to get around to ordering a few more of the DeeZee animals. The elasmotherium looks great, and there are a few others I wouldn't mind owning.
Anyway, anyone still undecided on whether to get the rules or not - I'd say they are probably worth it. Despite the expense, they still cost less than some of my miniatures.
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Dictionary of Imaginary Places
When you need a quick name of a place to conquer!
http://supersech.livejournal.com/32230.html
http://supersech.livejournal.com/32230.html
Tuesday, 25 December 2007
Another Dr Steel videographic proclamation!
Dear Soldiers,
We here at ToySoldiersUnite are proud to announce that Dr. Steel has just transmitted a Soldier address to wrap up the year 2007.
Visit the below link to watch our Emperor\'s speech.
http://www.toysoldiersunite.com/popups/videoplayer.php?mid=22
We here at ToySoldiersUnite are proud to announce that Dr. Steel has just transmitted a Soldier address to wrap up the year 2007.
Visit the below link to watch our Emperor\'s speech.
http://www.toysoldiersunite.com/popups/videoplayer.php?mid=22
Special Moment, Part II
As a follow-up to the incident described here:
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2007/11/special-moments.html
...for Christmas my 6 yr old son gave me some Fokker Triplanes from the Wings of War series, saying "Biggles needs some more Huns to shoot at, they are running out in France!"
Insightful and historically accurate!
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2007/11/special-moments.html
...for Christmas my 6 yr old son gave me some Fokker Triplanes from the Wings of War series, saying "Biggles needs some more Huns to shoot at, they are running out in France!"
Insightful and historically accurate!
Hive, Queen and Country
After seeing this Yahoo group advertised sat TMP, I went to check it out. These guys are developing a VSF setting for wargaming and RPG and these are some of their fascinating background notes:
Hive, Queen and Country
In 1891 the Sun never sets upon the British Empire. It is an empire that spans four worlds; an empire won by accident as much as by design, its expansion founded upon faith in the ideals of a nation. With the latest innovations of technology the British flag and imperial way of life have been established on all the continents of Earth, the craters of Luna, Canals of Mars and the seas and islands of Venus. Imperialism has been propelled forward (but also sometimes reined in) by the forceful personalities of powerful men and women. In scientific, social, and political thought, mercantile and technological achievement The Empire is the most advanced human organization in the solar system. In the spring of 1891 it is to meet another society, one that doesn’t have the engineering skills of Babbage and Brunel, the writings of Tennyson or Byron or the social philosophies of Gladstone. The Hive has but one thing. The Hive has hunger.
The Focus of the Campaign
Hive Queen and Country Campaign sourcebook primarily centers on the military efforts of the First Hive War. The efforts of the Imperial forces to contain and then destroy the Hive, an alien race of terrible ferocity and hunger, take place between the early spring of 1891 and the late summer of 1892. The Hive is an alien super-organism, a group of creatures like a colony of ants or termites magnified uncounted millions of times. Introduced from off-world into Victorian England the Hive is genetically programmed to feed, eating any bio-mass it encounters, and use that bio-mass to breed more hive members. Each successive generation is better able to thrive in local conditions. The Hive will feast and grow until it becomes large enough to make additional hives, undergoing fission like a single celled. The process will begin all over. The aliens will cover the entire Earth unless they are stopped. The only remnant of earthly flora and fauna will be those species the invaders have chosen to raise in their gardens, like the fungi grown by leafcutter ants. The desperate military actions of HM forces are set against the larger background of a Victorian Era in which space travel is far more common then it is in our current era. The Great Powers, which competed so stiffly against each other for rule of Earth have all the inner planets on which to shoulder the White Man’s Burden. Before the rediscovery of Aerolyth, the contra-gravitational mineral, the Victorian era was one of rapid technological advances. Giving Victorian engineers the challenges of designing for vehicles first for aerial navigation and then space flight and the rigors of interplanetary travel was like throwing rocket fuel on a bonfire. A period of amazing growth has pushed forward the limits of human knowledge and engineering ability at an unprecedented rate.
Worlds of Hive Queen and Country
The Victorian period is one of immense progress in all fields of human endeavor; strides were made in every science, the value of human life validated as never before. Entire regions of the planet were explored, mapped, and exploited. Yet for all that was done there was much that was nearly done or left unfinished. The tradition of speculative fiction, both hard science fiction and what we now call techno-thrillers began in the Victorian Era as people rode a wave of change that made them look even farther into the future. Hive, Queen and Country takes place in a world where many of those “might have beens” became everyday realities. Where not only do great ocean liners ply the seas and vast airships cruise the sky but huge astral liners the airless darkness between the planets. It is a world, or worlds, that have the bright stamp of a human race that is vigorous, powerful, and above all hopeful for the future. It also has ancient races that are steeped in darkness and filled with hatred and envy of the Earthmen and what they represent. It is this evil, this fear, and hatred that will challenge the British Empire as never before. The worlds of Hive, Queen and Country diverges from our history in several places, firstly in 1830 when Babbage’s Difference Engine becomes a working reality and forever changes the way that mathematical data is developed, handled and stored. Next comes John Lubbock’s accidental rediscovery of Aerolyth in 1865 on the Salisbury Plain, which allowed conquest of the air ocean above the Earth’s surface. These two events lead directly to the colonization of the solar system by the Great Powers. After reaching the limits of the atmosphere the great powers looked to the vast reaches of interplanetary space for new realms to conquer. They found them in Earth’s nearest celestial neighbors, Luna, Venus, and Mars. The rockets of Hale and Mendeleyev-Konstantino and then the Etheric Engines of Ewing-Stuart gave them the tools they needed. By 1891 colonies of Earthmen stood on the Moon, Venus and Mars. Everywhere they went they found marvels and surprises. The new worlds were jewels in the crown of empire, Mars a dazzling ruby, Venus a vast opal. The moon is a dull lump of coal, but no less valuable for its lack of beauty. The race for the new worlds had begun in earnest in 1873. By 1880 men and women were living, working, and dieing on all three of the other planets. Each had their own treasures, but each also had its own ways of killing. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Hivequeen/
Hive, Queen and Country
In 1891 the Sun never sets upon the British Empire. It is an empire that spans four worlds; an empire won by accident as much as by design, its expansion founded upon faith in the ideals of a nation. With the latest innovations of technology the British flag and imperial way of life have been established on all the continents of Earth, the craters of Luna, Canals of Mars and the seas and islands of Venus. Imperialism has been propelled forward (but also sometimes reined in) by the forceful personalities of powerful men and women. In scientific, social, and political thought, mercantile and technological achievement The Empire is the most advanced human organization in the solar system. In the spring of 1891 it is to meet another society, one that doesn’t have the engineering skills of Babbage and Brunel, the writings of Tennyson or Byron or the social philosophies of Gladstone. The Hive has but one thing. The Hive has hunger.
The Focus of the Campaign
Hive Queen and Country Campaign sourcebook primarily centers on the military efforts of the First Hive War. The efforts of the Imperial forces to contain and then destroy the Hive, an alien race of terrible ferocity and hunger, take place between the early spring of 1891 and the late summer of 1892. The Hive is an alien super-organism, a group of creatures like a colony of ants or termites magnified uncounted millions of times. Introduced from off-world into Victorian England the Hive is genetically programmed to feed, eating any bio-mass it encounters, and use that bio-mass to breed more hive members. Each successive generation is better able to thrive in local conditions. The Hive will feast and grow until it becomes large enough to make additional hives, undergoing fission like a single celled. The process will begin all over. The aliens will cover the entire Earth unless they are stopped. The only remnant of earthly flora and fauna will be those species the invaders have chosen to raise in their gardens, like the fungi grown by leafcutter ants. The desperate military actions of HM forces are set against the larger background of a Victorian Era in which space travel is far more common then it is in our current era. The Great Powers, which competed so stiffly against each other for rule of Earth have all the inner planets on which to shoulder the White Man’s Burden. Before the rediscovery of Aerolyth, the contra-gravitational mineral, the Victorian era was one of rapid technological advances. Giving Victorian engineers the challenges of designing for vehicles first for aerial navigation and then space flight and the rigors of interplanetary travel was like throwing rocket fuel on a bonfire. A period of amazing growth has pushed forward the limits of human knowledge and engineering ability at an unprecedented rate.
Worlds of Hive Queen and Country
The Victorian period is one of immense progress in all fields of human endeavor; strides were made in every science, the value of human life validated as never before. Entire regions of the planet were explored, mapped, and exploited. Yet for all that was done there was much that was nearly done or left unfinished. The tradition of speculative fiction, both hard science fiction and what we now call techno-thrillers began in the Victorian Era as people rode a wave of change that made them look even farther into the future. Hive, Queen and Country takes place in a world where many of those “might have beens” became everyday realities. Where not only do great ocean liners ply the seas and vast airships cruise the sky but huge astral liners the airless darkness between the planets. It is a world, or worlds, that have the bright stamp of a human race that is vigorous, powerful, and above all hopeful for the future. It also has ancient races that are steeped in darkness and filled with hatred and envy of the Earthmen and what they represent. It is this evil, this fear, and hatred that will challenge the British Empire as never before. The worlds of Hive, Queen and Country diverges from our history in several places, firstly in 1830 when Babbage’s Difference Engine becomes a working reality and forever changes the way that mathematical data is developed, handled and stored. Next comes John Lubbock’s accidental rediscovery of Aerolyth in 1865 on the Salisbury Plain, which allowed conquest of the air ocean above the Earth’s surface. These two events lead directly to the colonization of the solar system by the Great Powers. After reaching the limits of the atmosphere the great powers looked to the vast reaches of interplanetary space for new realms to conquer. They found them in Earth’s nearest celestial neighbors, Luna, Venus, and Mars. The rockets of Hale and Mendeleyev-Konstantino and then the Etheric Engines of Ewing-Stuart gave them the tools they needed. By 1891 colonies of Earthmen stood on the Moon, Venus and Mars. Everywhere they went they found marvels and surprises. The new worlds were jewels in the crown of empire, Mars a dazzling ruby, Venus a vast opal. The moon is a dull lump of coal, but no less valuable for its lack of beauty. The race for the new worlds had begun in earnest in 1873. By 1880 men and women were living, working, and dieing on all three of the other planets. Each had their own treasures, but each also had its own ways of killing. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Hivequeen/
Monday, 24 December 2007
I'm dreaming of a White Wine Sauce Christmas
Best Wishes for a very Merry Christmas to All!
May your cup runeth over...and keep running!
May your cup runeth over...and keep running!Sunday, 23 December 2007
The Colonel’s boiler plated brandy Snifter
Patrick has posted his VSF rules, brilliantly entitled: "The Colonel’s boiler plated brandy Snifter"!
They are a VFS plug-in for the existing Two Hour Wargames rules and you may find them here:
http://patrick.smyrl.googlepages.com/home222
They are a VFS plug-in for the existing Two Hour Wargames rules and you may find them here:
http://patrick.smyrl.googlepages.com/home222
Saturday, 22 December 2007
Dumont's Airship
Alberto Santos-Dumont,the young plantation owner from Brazil, spent lavishly in building sausage-shaped airships, establishing the first airport, and maintaining a fleet of dirigibles. His first flight was made in 1898 in a cylindrical balloon 80 feet long and propelled by a small gasoline engine suspended in a car below. Releasing gas to make a landing, he averted a catastrophe by signaling a group of boys to pull his collapsing dirigible like a kite by its guide rope as it neared the ground. After two failures he succeeded, in 1901, in circling the Eiffel Tower in Paris despite a strong wind, and won the de la Meurthe 100,000 francs. award for his achievement. For a decade he continued to be a central figure in French aviation, performing a series of spectacular feats with air-ships, and later airplanes, and proving by his accomplishments the practicality of flying.
You can download a paper model of this great looking airship from fiddler's green here: http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Dumont-Airship/airship.php
Thanks to Jim J of the LostWorld yahoo group for the link!
Friday, 21 December 2007
Imperial German painting guides
Prussians are notorious about looking just right after all
Thursday, 20 December 2007
Tas's Factorium Back in Buisness!
After a year of extreme labour shortages, Tas's Factorium is back in business! On the bench right now is a modular river section, jungle terrain and a dozen 15mm adventurers getting ready for a dinosaur hunt. While I am happy with the way the terrain is coming along, it would seem that figure painting is indeed a highly perishable skill...
Anyhow, I hope to have pics up in the next few days.
I had to do a bit of research for the terrain, so have compiled a section for the most relevant terrain modelling links - its on the left hand frame of the blog, below the 25mm VSF section and above the blog archive. I hope you find these useful
Anyhow, I hope to have pics up in the next few days.
I had to do a bit of research for the terrain, so have compiled a section for the most relevant terrain modelling links - its on the left hand frame of the blog, below the 25mm VSF section and above the blog archive. I hope you find these useful
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Dr Steel's Christmas Message
I received the following communique today:
Happy Holidays, Toy Soldiers! With the holidays now upon us, Dr. Steel has sent a special transmission from deep within his laboratory to wish us all a very merry Christmas. Thank you for helping Dr. Steel take over the world!
May your holidays be filled with joy (and robots)
Dr. Steel Holiday Greeting
Add to My Profile More Videos
Dr. Steel Holiday Greeting
Add to My Profile More Videos
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Pre-Dreadnought prototype from North Head Miniatures
I got this email today from Simon at North Head Miniatures:
Dave and were having a discussion the other morning over the paper and our morning tea about where we could possibly expand into next year, 2008. We want to continue working on the 1/1200 Ironclads and I have a project that I am working on that we have yet to agree on. However, we both have a love of pre-dreadnoughts and WW1. So we were thinking of maybe producing a range of ships for those periods, maybe focusing on the Med and the Black Sea.
We have rather quickly knocked out a sample to see what it could look like and I have used my rather poor painting skills, as Dave was busy designing, to show you what would be possible and ask if you thought it was worth going forward. The miniature is the Italian Regina Elena . Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Dave and were having a discussion the other morning over the paper and our morning tea about where we could possibly expand into next year, 2008. We want to continue working on the 1/1200 Ironclads and I have a project that I am working on that we have yet to agree on. However, we both have a love of pre-dreadnoughts and WW1. So we were thinking of maybe producing a range of ships for those periods, maybe focusing on the Med and the Black Sea.
We have rather quickly knocked out a sample to see what it could look like and I have used my rather poor painting skills, as Dave was busy designing, to show you what would be possible and ask if you thought it was worth going forward. The miniature is the Italian Regina Elena . Your thoughts would be appreciated.
I for one love this period (almost as much as the Ironclad era) and heartily support the idea of expanding such a range in this scale, which matches nicely with Aeronef and the forthcoming Land Ironclads and Aquanef.
What do you think? Leave your comments here!
Steampunk Dalek
You may recall this Steampunk Dalek by Promus-Kaa:
Steampunk Dalek by ~Promus-Kaa on deviantART
Well now its animated too!
but I prefer the B&W render for truly authentic feel:
Steampunk Dalek by ~Promus-Kaa on deviantART
Well now its animated too!
but I prefer the B&W render for truly authentic feel:
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An exploration of debauchery, vice and other reasons to be a man!
