Secret Santa 2016

Santa's elves discussing the need for more primer and paints.

I hope all of Chris's Christmas Elves are hard at work painting for all of the good little boys and girls. I for one finished mine off last night.

As we in the United States are about to start the holiday I hope you can all take the time to enjoy the season with friends and family. Best wishes to one and all.

Paint Table - Oh My

Well to prove Jonathan Freitag right yes I may have a problem, it is not that big, honest. It is lucky for me there is not a Miniatures Anonymous. So by my count I have the following in different states on my paint table.

• 33 Aeronefs based, primed and partially painted
• 11 15mm armoured vehicles and artillery
• 92 15mm infantry, British Paras and Home Guard

Yes it is sizable.

Overall a packed table.
Infantry are behind the bin.

Two Turkish Balloons.

A French pre-dreadnought and two favorite merchants.

Polish, French and British tanks.
Yes, two distinct groups.

Arms Race - VSF Style

Gaulois next to a typical Royal Navy patrol craft.

It is already known that I am playing Imperial Skies on Mars (and Venus) in lieu of Dreadnought action on Earth, but a minor diplomatic matter came up in ordering the miniatures during and after the Kickstarter, an Arms Race.

First off I had two decent colonial fleets for the British and French with a small smattering of Germans, Americans and merchants. And than the Kickstarter came along and I bought the Russian fleet to get the cute Dobrovolets class destroyers. And as I was buying based on esoteric designs I had to also get the Gaulois class dreadnought.

Dobrovolets Class Destroyer
Image from Brigade Models website

With those on order I had to get a few more Royal Navy vessels, a Brazilian, more merchants, a few balloons and a Ottoman ship. (After the orders I had more battleships and and cruisers than I initially planned on.) And the arms race was off.

The good news is I have most of the ships I need for Mars but the British Colonial Office would like something heavier to off set the French Gaulois class and the German Schleswig-Holstein. I also received my CoreSec order of basing bits. The bad news is I do need more bits before starting the campaign.

For now the fleets have stabilized for the colonial powers on Mars, and working on a fleet list for Venus and the need for digs. It does seem I am having more fun with the planning than playing, but I have had fun with the Imperial Skies rules.

Imperial Skies - Gaulois Class Dreadnought

The Gaulois waiting to be built and based.

Seeing the Gaulois class dreadnought (or should it be battleship) was what clinched it for me to return to the world of Space 1889 and AeroNef through the Kickstarter for Imperial Skies. This is a model that calls out for anyone that loves the pre-dreadnought period of the wet navies.

Now the real Battleship Gaulois did have a lively career in the Mediterranean, ending with her being sunk on 27 December 1916, by UB-47. Now I am sure my Gaulois will also will have a similar exciting career.

I said battleship or more appropriate a pre-dreadnought as the Gaulois looks like an armed ship for this period. It also works for my campaign world that is based in 1889 and not the world or dreadnoughts in 1919, but that is my take on the models that I use.

Based and painted
from the Brigade Models website.

Imperial Skies as an RPG

These would come in handy on Mars, but unfortunately
the heavy units are needed on Earth.

Figures from Brigade Models

 

It has always been my intention to treat Imperial Skies as more of an RPG than a strict tabletop wargame. With that said I needed to set up the factions. For me the game had to be played from the perspective of the British Empire in a very Space 1889 fashion. With that in mind I needed to look to the political, economic and military situation on Mars (as well as Earth and Venus).

For the Empire there were certain concerns that needed to be met by the small Royal Navy force on Mars. In no particular order these are:

Piracy	Keep piracy in check and keep the lanes open for free (British) trade.
Great Game	Concerns with the Russian Empire.
Spice Trade	Trying to maintain the monopoly. See trade missions.
Missionaries	Need to protect the Christian faith on the planet.
Trade Missions	Potential conflict with the Americans.
Realpolitik	Issues with the French Republic and the German Empire
Slavers	As with piracy, slavers need to be kept in check. Concern with Brazilian and Belgium interests in the form of trade.

With this done I will be looking to finish writing up the linked campaign, This will be heavy on conflict with the French and Russians as that is how the game is played, but Martians, Germans and Americans will appear as well as dashing pirates and slavers.

Roads Under Construction

Round About - Figures to show scale.

There are some things that gamers can never get enough of. Rules, history books and terrain come to mind immediately. For me I have been looking for better roads than the ones I have been using for the past 15 years (oh my). The roads I bought back than were latex roads from JR Miniatures. These worked great for Poland and farm country as well as Arabia and East Africa, but not so well for towns and cities in Europe.

Recently I found I was not the only one looking for roads as fellow bloggers were on the path to find a better solution. I think I may have found a solution from Gaming Models. Craig has recently released 15mm and 20mm cobblestone roads and they are just what the doctor ordered. I received the 20mm roads and they look perfect with my 15mm forces. My vehicles can even pass on them. More updates on the full set once I get every thing together.

Update - 9 Oct 2016

At least the high command is ready.
Kraków Army

This blog post is very much a good news bad news sort of post. First the good news, Imperial Skies is looking like a great game and I hope to have the rest of my figures based and painted, once I get my order of bit and bobs from CorSec Engineering.

French Fleet based on Mars is looking good and the Royal Navy and merchants are on deck so a game will be happening real soon. Also have a few Germans and Americans. Waiting on the dreaded Russians from Tony. Working on a short introduction scenario for this weekend so I can at least start moving ships around.

Now the bad news, my Case White - 1939 Invasion of Poland, in 15mm, is on hold as I need more infantry. Have almost a platoon from the 10th Mechanized Brigade but I am in need of support and regular infantry as well. Some cavalry would be nice too. Also need to hear back about ordering samples from Outpost. Oh bother.

More soon.