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!

The Chances of Anything Coming from Mars...

Currently on a flying work trip through the UK, but I did get the chance to stop briefly in Woking for a homage to HG Wells. He lived in the town while writing War of the Worlds in 1895-97, using it as the setting for the initial part of the book.

The first alien cylinder lands in Horsell Common, assembling heat ray equipped machines where they impact in the sandpit

The 7 metre tall Tripod itself in the centre of town!

With a crashed cylinder and some of Mankind's bacterial allies in attendance

Nearby Wells Plaza has a nice statue of the author; 

Note the martian red weed at the base of the chair, date on the back of the chair from The Time Machine (when the Traveller meets with Eloy and Morlocks) and he is holding the Cavorite sphere spaceship from The First Men in the Moon.

"The Man from Maybury Hill"; 141 Maybury Road Woking, where HG Wells lived while writing the book

Just a nice spot to enjoy a coffee and consider invasion from another world (nice product placement there Games Workshop!)

"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a Million to One they said..."

The Death Rays the Victorians Used to Conquer the Moon

A great article from IO9 (here) that I've reproduced here so it doesn't end up as another dead link in the fullness of time.  Enjoy.

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Do you remember when the Moon was conquered in 1889 and, to cement their victory, a number of giant dishes were erected? 

As promised, this is another image from the British Library’s flickr account, loaded with public domain images. This image is taken from The Conquest of the Moon: a story of the Bayouda, and you can either read the book here or just make up your own story based on this illustration:

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...

Space 1889: A Return to the Red Planet

Has it really been a year since we last visited the fractious Earthmen colonies on Mars? Sadly yes and not just because of COVID, though that kept us away from the gaming table. To be honest our selected rules weren't delivering the experience we wanted and interested had waned. Having made some changes to Lion Rampant (with the help of one of the playtesters) we were set to return to the Red Planet

Commanding my French Colonial forces, I had 2 units of Foreign Legion, 2 units of French trained Canal Martian infantry (Tiralleurs Martiens) and a Canal Martian artillery crew equipped with a Mitralleuse (which we all know was designed before the Gatling gun and being of French design is far superior). The French objective was to secure the European archeologists who were plundering exploring and documenting the priceless artefacts within.

The French archeologists at the Martian ruins dig site, threatened by steppe Martians

Under the direction of their French Officers, Canal Martian Tiralleurs advance to the dig site

White the Foreign Legion sets up to cover their flank

and quickly come under a frontal assault by Martial Hill tribesman, which they repulsed.

In the meantime, the British Queen's Own Martian Rifles advanced on my far left to secure the supplies of precious liftwood that had recently been harvested

The British troops from the Syrtis Major garrison

But who is this advancing out of the Steppe...

Tharks!!!

Back on my side the 1st Tiralleurs unit advanced on the ruins but their assault was thrown back in disarray with the second unit unable to support effectively.

They never recovered from this setback and fell back slowly, but remaining intact. Meanwhile the Steppe Martians isolated the Legionnaires from the front with infantry...

and the rear with cavalry...

Steppe Martian cavalry on Gashants attack the French rear but are repulsed

And on my right flank the mounted battle was fiercely contested...

and my Legionnaires watched as fellow Frenchmen of the Zouvre regiment were overrun and massacred

As the battle raged, French morale held firm and so did the Line, the proud notes of the Legion bugler sounding clear and steading the men's nerves as they fought for France in the Red Deserts so far from it.

I did not achieve my objectives, but my force held out and only one unit lost.  French newspapers would tout this stoic defence as a Victory against untold numbers of Steppe Barbarians, but this was of little solace to the families of the missing Archeologists. The Martian Steppe tribes achieved all their goals and carried the day.

Overall it was a really enjoyable game - the rules were right on for a fun game and plenty of tweaks were made. Keen to try again, adding in some mechanical contraptions.

The weapons (and barbettes) are all magnetic and can be changed out

Separately, I was thrilled to be gifted this wonderful Armoured Cloudship to lead the French airship squadron - the Escadre de Chasse Ideaus Fons! Thank you very much to Andrew, the gifted naval architect responsible - c'est magnifique!

Perfect for crewing with 28mm figures