New new Project: Wargaming in the Third Imperium
By now you've probably figured out that I use this blog to try and order my thoughts and you may have also noticed a trend in my previous posts, I seem to be unable to stick to any particular setting. Perhaps this stems from the fact that there are many fantastic settings available. I think it is also partially because I am easily distracted, by...., well..., pretty much anything I come across.
In rejoining the hobby I made a decision to focus on sci-fi, while I chose 15mm as my main scale I left 6mm and 1/2500 open for large ground battles and starship battles respectively. But I clearly have an interest in other genres, and while I am quite interested in history, on the gaming table I'm not that concerned with the recreating historical battles. I much prefer to play a fictitious battle in a historical setting or a fictitious setting. That being said, I do like to maintain at least a modicum of historical accuracy, whether that history is real or imagined.
On the subject of genres, I recently purchased a number of 15mm sailing ships with pirate and European crews for my granddaughter and I find myself itching to game with them. In point of fact I often find myself interested in different wargaming periods, Ancients, Black Powder, Colonial Wars, English Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, African Wars, other more modern wars and other smaller wars throughout history.
I'm sure I'm not alone in yearning to play in multiple genres, just look at the guys at Emerald Coast Skunkworks they have continually updated the Full Thrust II rule-set to include pretty much any ships from any sci-fi universe you care to name. In the same vein there are numerous mods of StarGrunt II, Dirtside II and Full Thrust II including mods for WWII, Ancients, ACW, other Black Powder, Age of Sail and probably more that I am unaware of. Clearly my distraction is something common to at least some other gamers. But how do I deal with it?
I've been a long time Traveller fan, if not a long time Traveller player. I believe I may have mentioned this on occasion in my previous posts. What if I combine my love of Traveller with my wargaming?
The official Traveller setting, otherwise known as the OTU or Official Traveller Universe, encompasses a small portion of our galaxy, dubbed "known space" this region includes several large human and non-human polities. The central polity, known as the Imperium, encompasses approximately 11,000 worlds. While the Imperium is generally a high tech society, that technology is not homogeneous across the 11,000 worlds. Technological Level 15 (TL15) is the generally accepted highest TL available within the Imperium, with a few notable exceptions. However there are many worlds at various stages of technological advancement. Ranging from the stone age tech of some lost colony or primitive species, all the way up to TL15 fusion weapons and starships, and beyond in selected cases.
In such a setting it would be possible to play any genre of wargame, one would only need to locate a suitable world to stage the game on. I could run games with my granddaughters pirates on any world with an ocean and a population at TL 2-3. Colonial Wars style games could be fought on worlds with TL4. WWI early TL5, WWII TL5, Korea TL5-6, Vietnam TL6-7, Modern Wars TL7-8, and beyond this point it's getting into sci-fi.
With 11,000+ worlds available I could find a place for any miniatures and I mean any miniatures I want to use, I could even mix genres if I like. This allows me to use all the miniatures in my collection (if I ever get around to painting them all). It also lets me add the miniatures I've been holding off getting such as Khurasan's Arak, (spider-like aliens with black powder technology). I could also buy fantasy figures, because somewhere there will be a world with dragons and "magic".
So, to get this started I've decided to focus on the Spinward Marches region of the known Traveller universe. I'm currently working through my miniatures collection and deciding where they fit in to the OTU. (for those uninitiated into Traveller, OTU stands for Official Traveller Universe. Once you start playing in the game universe it quickly starts deviating from the OTU and becomes either Your/My/Alternate Traveller Universe (YTU, MTU or ATU respectively). Hereafter I will refer to it as MTU.
The Spinward Marches region is well documented and provides for several major factions and a myriad of minor factions. Major factions include the Imperium (the 3rd Imperium to be more precise) and the Zhodani Consulate, both of which are truly massive interstellar polities. Smaller interstellar factions include the various Vargr groups from the Vargr Extents, Aslan clans from the Aslan Heirate, the Darrian Confederation and the Sword Worlds Confederation. Still smaller factions include the Droyne, Federation of Arden and various independent, client states and member worlds within the region, be they human or non-human. Still smaller factions can be found almost anywhere within the region representing many different types of groups such as mercenary companies, corporations, terrorist/resistance groups, and cultural groups. For example the Llellewyloly or "Dandies" have a resistance group called the Junidy Liberation Army (JLA), there is a Zhodani backed anti-imperial terrorist/guerrilla group called the Ine Givar, on Garda-Vilis there is the Tanoose Freedom League, the world of Menorb is home to the Irklan a human cultural group that eschews most technology, and very much resembles a cross between Ninjas, Hashishim and given their desert habitat the Fremen of Dune.
I have made a few decisions already, which I'll detail further in later posts, but for now:
I'm hunting down any 25mm Virushi I can find at a reasonable price (they still apparently work well with 15mm). I really want to field a Virushi medic (complete with red cross stencilled on his flank) and have one or more random Virushi civilians somewhere on the table.
I'm also experimenting with scratch building Llellewyloly/Dandies. They're not that good, but from a distance they may work. On the plus side I don't have to make too many of them as they only make up at most about 50% of the population of the worlds they live on; Even the JLA is not exclusively Llellewyloly, but includes many sympathetic humans. Any way here's a couple of pics of my first attempts.
The legs are still a work in progress, the knee/elbow joints need to be sharper, I just need to find the right material to use. I just looked at the fly screen on my window and thought, I need to find a wire screen, with the same or very close to the same gauge wire mesh; it will give me the sharply defined joints and will probably be easier to handle than cutting up florists wire and bending it into shape.
I've yet to figure out what to use for the fingers/toes and also need to acquire weapons and equipment for them to use.
Anyway that will do for now, I'll post later with more specifics.
In rejoining the hobby I made a decision to focus on sci-fi, while I chose 15mm as my main scale I left 6mm and 1/2500 open for large ground battles and starship battles respectively. But I clearly have an interest in other genres, and while I am quite interested in history, on the gaming table I'm not that concerned with the recreating historical battles. I much prefer to play a fictitious battle in a historical setting or a fictitious setting. That being said, I do like to maintain at least a modicum of historical accuracy, whether that history is real or imagined.
On the subject of genres, I recently purchased a number of 15mm sailing ships with pirate and European crews for my granddaughter and I find myself itching to game with them. In point of fact I often find myself interested in different wargaming periods, Ancients, Black Powder, Colonial Wars, English Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, African Wars, other more modern wars and other smaller wars throughout history.
I'm sure I'm not alone in yearning to play in multiple genres, just look at the guys at Emerald Coast Skunkworks they have continually updated the Full Thrust II rule-set to include pretty much any ships from any sci-fi universe you care to name. In the same vein there are numerous mods of StarGrunt II, Dirtside II and Full Thrust II including mods for WWII, Ancients, ACW, other Black Powder, Age of Sail and probably more that I am unaware of. Clearly my distraction is something common to at least some other gamers. But how do I deal with it?
I've been a long time Traveller fan, if not a long time Traveller player. I believe I may have mentioned this on occasion in my previous posts. What if I combine my love of Traveller with my wargaming?
The official Traveller setting, otherwise known as the OTU or Official Traveller Universe, encompasses a small portion of our galaxy, dubbed "known space" this region includes several large human and non-human polities. The central polity, known as the Imperium, encompasses approximately 11,000 worlds. While the Imperium is generally a high tech society, that technology is not homogeneous across the 11,000 worlds. Technological Level 15 (TL15) is the generally accepted highest TL available within the Imperium, with a few notable exceptions. However there are many worlds at various stages of technological advancement. Ranging from the stone age tech of some lost colony or primitive species, all the way up to TL15 fusion weapons and starships, and beyond in selected cases.
In such a setting it would be possible to play any genre of wargame, one would only need to locate a suitable world to stage the game on. I could run games with my granddaughters pirates on any world with an ocean and a population at TL 2-3. Colonial Wars style games could be fought on worlds with TL4. WWI early TL5, WWII TL5, Korea TL5-6, Vietnam TL6-7, Modern Wars TL7-8, and beyond this point it's getting into sci-fi.
With 11,000+ worlds available I could find a place for any miniatures and I mean any miniatures I want to use, I could even mix genres if I like. This allows me to use all the miniatures in my collection (if I ever get around to painting them all). It also lets me add the miniatures I've been holding off getting such as Khurasan's Arak, (spider-like aliens with black powder technology). I could also buy fantasy figures, because somewhere there will be a world with dragons and "magic".
So, to get this started I've decided to focus on the Spinward Marches region of the known Traveller universe. I'm currently working through my miniatures collection and deciding where they fit in to the OTU. (for those uninitiated into Traveller, OTU stands for Official Traveller Universe. Once you start playing in the game universe it quickly starts deviating from the OTU and becomes either Your/My/Alternate Traveller Universe (YTU, MTU or ATU respectively). Hereafter I will refer to it as MTU.
The Spinward Marches region is well documented and provides for several major factions and a myriad of minor factions. Major factions include the Imperium (the 3rd Imperium to be more precise) and the Zhodani Consulate, both of which are truly massive interstellar polities. Smaller interstellar factions include the various Vargr groups from the Vargr Extents, Aslan clans from the Aslan Heirate, the Darrian Confederation and the Sword Worlds Confederation. Still smaller factions include the Droyne, Federation of Arden and various independent, client states and member worlds within the region, be they human or non-human. Still smaller factions can be found almost anywhere within the region representing many different types of groups such as mercenary companies, corporations, terrorist/resistance groups, and cultural groups. For example the Llellewyloly or "Dandies" have a resistance group called the Junidy Liberation Army (JLA), there is a Zhodani backed anti-imperial terrorist/guerrilla group called the Ine Givar, on Garda-Vilis there is the Tanoose Freedom League, the world of Menorb is home to the Irklan a human cultural group that eschews most technology, and very much resembles a cross between Ninjas, Hashishim and given their desert habitat the Fremen of Dune.
I have made a few decisions already, which I'll detail further in later posts, but for now:
- Imperial Marines will be represented by GZGs UNSC Marines in Hardsuits.
- Zhodani Troops will be represented by both Eureka Miniatures' Ventaurans and Darkest Star Games' Venturians, (very similar miniatures with a definite Zhodani feel.
- Vargr will be represented by the numerous wolf like aliens produced by Darkest Star Games, RAFM (who still manufacture the old Traveller minis under different names), Ral Partha Europe (Critical Mass), Khurasan and Ion Age.
- Aslan will be represented by RAFM and Khurasan feline aliens.
- Sword Worlders will probably use several different ranges, among them GZG's NSL Panzergrenadiers and Jägers, and possibly their OutRim Coaltion Marines as well.
I'm hunting down any 25mm Virushi I can find at a reasonable price (they still apparently work well with 15mm). I really want to field a Virushi medic (complete with red cross stencilled on his flank) and have one or more random Virushi civilians somewhere on the table.
I'm also experimenting with scratch building Llellewyloly/Dandies. They're not that good, but from a distance they may work. On the plus side I don't have to make too many of them as they only make up at most about 50% of the population of the worlds they live on; Even the JLA is not exclusively Llellewyloly, but includes many sympathetic humans. Any way here's a couple of pics of my first attempts.
The legs are still a work in progress, the knee/elbow joints need to be sharper, I just need to find the right material to use. I just looked at the fly screen on my window and thought, I need to find a wire screen, with the same or very close to the same gauge wire mesh; it will give me the sharply defined joints and will probably be easier to handle than cutting up florists wire and bending it into shape.
I've yet to figure out what to use for the fingers/toes and also need to acquire weapons and equipment for them to use.
Anyway that will do for now, I'll post later with more specifics.
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