Quick-play Astronef

I found a fun looking set of easy play space ship combat rules today - called 'Launch Fighters!'
Its a free download and you can thank the nice chaps at Consortium games for this contribution.

Now, to play a bit of VSF style HM Royal Ether Squadron vs Kaiser's Sternmarine action using these rules, I recommend the following simple subtitutions in the rules:

• Delete Cannon, Insert Gatling-Cannon, Tesla Device or Electro-Howitzer
• Delete Missile, Insert Aether-torpedo, or Congreive Rocket Mk II
• Delete Defence, insert Armour Rating
• Delete Movement rating, insert Aether-engine or Solar Sail capacity

and you are ready to Blast-Off for Queen and Country!

You'll find Launch Fighters! (both full and quick play versions) and Consortium games here:
http://www.launchfightersgame.com/

Thanks awfully chaps!

Astronef scenery

Downloadable tabletop scape scenery an a fanastic looking campaign map editor

Simply download the bits you want, print out and laminate if you dont wnat the to have claret stains and cigar ash on them - enjoy!

Great job eh what!

http://www.thecourtjestersstudio.com/downloads/SpaceScenery.html

The Airship Destroyer - Part 2

Zeb has kindly emailed me to let us know that this vintage 1909 video is available here: http://www.europafilmtreasures.eu/player.htm?ID=278

It's a German version, but with English subtitling.

Thanks Zeb!

Kaiser's Goliath Gun

Egad! A 42cm cannon that fires 2800lb shells!
Sounds like a grand target for the Royal Aeronautical Service to take out!

http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Goliath_Gun/Goliath_Gun_01.htm

http://www.landships.freeservers.com/420mm_morser_m17.htm

A cracker of a picture

I just spied this fanstic sterographic image at the Republic of Sonora website- great stuff!

Check out the website here:

http://www.mysterious-island.com/aeronef/nef.html

LI spotted in South Carolina!

TMP spies have declared that recent land ironclad actions in South Carolina have been most prolific, thanks to the South Carolina Historical Gaming Society. Reports also indicate a new kind of Ironclad model, more akin to gunboat monitors - Chris says :

On this site are several pictures from a couple of LI games that we recently played here in South Carolina, USA. In some of the pics you can see 8 land ironclads that I made by mating 1/1200 ACW ships with 1/300 WWII tank hulls. They are the ones on the longer lighter-green bases. The USS Cairo class ships on top of the KV hulls was a really easy conversion. For them all I had to do was cut the bow and stern peices off of the ships and file the Fuel tanks off of the soviet tank hulls. (text from TMP here: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=147274)

Read the reports and see the full range of pics here:

http://www.commandpostonline.com/landironclads_pics/photo_gallery.htm

(there pics are Copyright © 2008 The Command Post, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Prussian Steam Strider

Found this lovely Steam strider pic, complete with an accompanying squad of gas-masked prussian skirmishers - Fur Kaiser unt Vaterland!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy7AhvKb82QTqxvTZsPMb7fkb2SYTbLpOBf-2F_LMAaCSKGjVNqUKJ5JhmjWfddkdU52iHpWfQY4KgAH7g_3K7KJzAc10Q2twODJc-0a-U2gSrVdJCneNahcwNBsQupnAn_OZH_w/s1600-h/

Good work - please tell me if its yours!

Airship fleet artwork!

You may recall the excellent initial artwork done by Isotx for their Iron Grip universe. Chekc out their latest efforts showing the Rahmos airship fleet!

http://www.moddb.com/mods/iron-grip-the-oppression/news/iron-grip-artwork

(Thanks to Don from http://vsf15mm.blogspot.com/ for the heads-up!)

Captain Baron Cherkassov

An interesting short article, which winds up rather badly for the Baron after he "had gone ashore that night to visit a lady friend, leaving his ship with torpedoes disarmed, all shells stowed save 12 and no extra men posted on watch."

later...

"The two disgraced officers were court-martialed for negligence and summarily stripped of all their ranks and privileges as well as being given a 3 year and 18 month prison sentences respectively. Tsar Nicholas II also went so far as to decree that the Baron was to be sentenced to perpetual bachelorhood, it being forbidden for him to marry so that he could not perpetuate his disgraceful family name."

Read on see why he was so horrendously punished and how "crew efficiency was further reduced" Article reproduced in full below from: http://ww1history.suite101.com/article.cfm/zhemchug_vs_the_emden_1914

[This article is dedicated with great amusement to David C.]

The ill-fated Russian protected cruiser Zhemchug, her crew in high spirits

Zhemchug Vs the Emden 1914

The cruisers Emden of the German Navy and Zhemchug of the Russian Navy were matched on paper but not in actuality.

A survivor of the crushing Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, the Russian light cruiser Zhemchug remained in the Pacific Ocean to show the flag of the Tsar in the warm waters of that region. When World War One erupted in 1914 the 3,100-ton Zhemchugtook part in early convoy operations in the Pacific. Her general enemy was the German Pacific squadron of Kaiser Wilhelm II and her particular nemesis was the 3,364- ton German light cruiser Emden. The Emden had separated from the Kaiser's pacific squadron and raided the warm waters far from the European battlefields for months, sinking more than a dozen merchant ships and attacking British colonies. The two ships were well matched on paper; both were relatively new fast ships of a modern design capable of the same speed. The Zhemchug was armed with 8x4.7 inch (120mm) naval guns versus the Emden’s comparable armament of 10x 4.1 inch (105mm) guns.

In her search for the Emden the Zhemchug was brought to the Malaccan Straits where she stalked the Nicobar and Andarman Islands to no avail. Coming up empty handed the Zhemchug put into the Malaysian port of Penang on October 26, 1914. Feeling his ship safe in an allied harbor her Captain, Baron Cherkassov, departed his ship for leave ashore. The good baron left his ship in a deplorable state considering the Emden was thought to be in the region. The ship had no officers on watch as well as no lookouts posted. She was docked to where only one of her guns were able to fire on the harbor entrance, where any enemy would come from, and all of her 120mm ammunition save for a dozen rounds, was locked up. The keys to the ships magazines had been taken ashore with her senior officers for safekeeping. Worse still a number of local prostitutes were taken aboard the ship, further downgrading her crew’s effectiveness.

Zhemchung memorial in Penang (public domain picture)

In the predawn hours of October 28, 1914, another cruiser slowly entered the approaches to Penang. It flew the white ensign of the Royal Navy and had altered her appearance to look like the British cruiser HMS Yarmouth. The mysterious cruiser observed the Zhemchug lying at anchor with her lights on and no protective searchlights or torpedo boats around her. The mysterious cruiser in question was in fact the SMS Emden herself. The German cruiser, under the command of Korvettenkapitän Karl von Müller, quietly crept towards her sleeping target who had just days before been hunting for her. At 0515 and a range of just 400m she struck her British flag and ran up the Imperial German naval ensign while fired her torpedo tubes point blank into the Zhemchug. Working up steam the Emden sped past the stricken cruiser, turned sharply and re-engaged her. She raked the decks of the Russian cruiser at a range of just 700m as she passed with every gun capable of firing doing so. A second torpedo from the Emden finished the Zhemchug off, with the stricken ship settling in 30m of water. The unharmed Emden went onto sink a French destroyer also in the harbor and trade shots with the old French cruiser D'Iberville before making good her escape. The Emden, scourge of the Pacific would find itself sunk by the Australian cruiser Sydney less than a fortnight later.

The sinking of the Zhemchug was a traumatic experience for the Russian Pacific Squadron and virtually ended the Russian effort in that ocean during the war. Eighty-nine officers and men were killed and more than a hundred of the survivors were seriously wounded. These figures were very heavy indeed when you consider the Zhemchug complement was 354 men. Eighty-two of the bodies were recovered and interned in western road cemetery in Penang. The remaining crew was returned to Russia on the auxiliary cruiser Orel who had salvaged some of the Zhemchug 120mm guns in December 1914. Captain Baron Cherkassov as well as his second in command, Senior Lieutenant Kulibinu, was arrested on return to Russia. The two disgraced officers were court-martialed for negligence and summarily stripped of all their ranks and privileges as well as being given a 3 year and 18 month prison sentences respectively. Tsar Nicholas II also went so far as to decree that the Baron was to be sentenced to perpetual bachelorhood, it being forbidden for him to marry so that he could not perpetuate his disgraceful family name.

To this day passing Russian ships drop wreaths in the Malaccan Straits and the harbor of Penang to those men of the cruiser Zhemchug. Russians still gather at the monument to the fallen men of the Zhemchug in the western road cemetery at the end of October every year.

Sources

Pleshakov, Constantine The Tsars Last Armada, 2004 Basic Books

Russian Ambassador's Press Releasehttp://www.malaysia.mid.ru/int_e_03.html

Philips, John Spoilers of the Sea: Wartime Raiders in the Age of Steam, 1970

Rickard, J (27 September 2007), Penang Raid, 28 October 1914, http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/raid_penang.html

Dirigibles And Dreadnoughts

A brilliantly (and recently renamed) blog, this shows Paul's great foray into the wondeful world of Nefs. He has some great stuff here, check it out at:

http://dirigiblesanddreadnoughts.blogspot.com/

A Good Word For Eureka Miniatures

I just got my order (in under two weeks from Australia no
less!) of 15mm WWI Italians from Eureka Miniatures. These
are great little minis, the machine-gun stands are minor
works of art! Very nicely done and as always a breeze to deal
with.
http://www.eurekamin.com.au/

The past 12 months of 'Sauce

This is what the past year of hits looks like from a geographical origin perspective (click http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/pauljamesog/WIP/wws_1year.jpg for a bigger version)

This will now be archived and a new one started - many thanks to the kind souls who contributed to all those red dots!

Bloodaxe Minis!

I just got my order of 15mm WWI Russians and inter war Soviets,
I must say their sculpting is excellent! The figures compare in
size with those from Peter Pig but have I think a nicer animation.
The price on Bloodaxe miniatures is also far better for we
American customers since there is no exchange rate or high
shipping costs to deal with.

I bought one of their 1914 Russian Infantry Regiment WWI
UNIT PACKS for $14.95, this one was a particular good value
it is based around the Spearhead system and contained 50 infantry
2 officers and 4 machine gun teams. I'll be getting another of these
soon along with their German WWI pack.

I also got some of their interwar period Soviet infantry in Budenka
Cap, very nice figs!

This is a very new company that seems to have allot going
for it and great future lines soon going to be released like
FIRST ITALO-ETHIOPIAN WAR. I do highly recommend
this one guys, they are fast and communicate with their customers
every step of the way. I'm really looking forward to more from this
bunch!

Don

http://www.bloodaxeminiatures.com/

Leviathan - a new VSF game

Catalyst Game Labs (makers of Battletech & Shadowrun) revealed at GenCon that they are working on a new miniature game which will be a VSF game with giant levitating battleships.

Randall David from talks about the upcoming game currently working under the working title of Leviathan - exciting stuff!



The news and video is from TGN's coverage of GenCon 2008.The coverage can be seen here:
http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/gencon2008
and if anyone is interested there are also three other short interviews with Randall Bills from Catalyst.

HMCS Redoubt

Bill Witthans, creator of the fine Prussian steam-powered landship posted to WWS previously, has kindly sent me pics of another of his wonderful conveyances- the HMCS REDOUBT!

Bill created this from the Scheltrum Miniatures "Jules Verne Class French Aerial Torpedo Destroyer" kit you can find here: (thanks for the information Ironmammoth!)
http://www.scheltrum.co.uk/ironclad.html
Great stuff Bill- many thanks indeed for sharing your great creation!

2025 Edit: Sadly this website is long gone. I did find a few pics from the Wayback machine for prosperity

Imperial Land Leviathan
Massive wheeled articulated land battleship. Multi-turreted and multi decked with additional deck mounted weaponry. The model features interior detailing showing the engineroom, magazine, battle control room and open bridge.

Subterranean Tunnelling Machine

HMLS Terrible
British "Behemoth Class" steam tank with hull mounted cannon and sponson mounted gatling-guns.

HMLS Nestor
British "Trojan Horse Class" assault vehicle.

Russian "Imperial Class" Mobile Naval Gun
Tracked and armoured gun emplacement with turret mounted gatling-gun and hull mounted naval gun.