The Martians Are Coming

I finally got around to finishing some more Martians. My poor Shastapshian Martians are still outgunned by the perfidious British of Syrtis Major, but at least we have more of a chance now. The figures are all 15mm and are from Black Hat Miniatures, except for the Small Bird sky galleon, which is a paper model produced by squirmydad. You can download this model from the Sky Galleons of Mars yahoo group. Big thatnks to squirmydad for that.

My forces are based around the Shastapshian army in the Space: 1889 rules. Their army is organised into 'flags'. Each flag is a combined arms battalion comprising two warbands of infantry, one artillery battery and one cavalry warband. My ultimate goal is to be able to field three or four of these flags with supporting walkers and sky galleons.

A Red Flag Warband

These new infantry are the first warband for the second flag that I am producing.

Small Bird Class Screw Galley

This is my first air support unit. The Small Bird is normally used to support troops in siege situations by providing high level bombing. I am hoping that its sweeper guns and aerial mobility can also level the playing field against the British machine-guns.

Storch Mk2 Walker

This light recon walker is armed with a 0.5" Gatling gun instead of the more usual two-pounder that the Prussian Storch walker carries. Prussian renegades have provided the Shastapshians with three of these walkers so I had better buy and paint the other two as well. Let us hope that they prove resiliant enough to deal with the British steam tanks that I have heard are in production.

Shastaphsian forces march on Syrtis Major.

This is all of my painted Martians so far. I need to add some cavalry to complete the Black Flag. They are currently sitting undercoated by the painting table awaiting their turn.

In the near future, I plan to complete the Red Flag by adding an infantry warband with melee weapons, because the Black Flag is the only flag whose troops all have rifles. They will also need the cavalry and artillery, so I shall have to buy these at some point in the future. I have also printed out another Small Bird and plan to build it shortly. I think I would like a squadron of three of them and it would be nice to have crew figures for the Small Birds, so I shall print and build another at some point.

In the longer term I plan to expand the army to three or four flags, as mentioned above, and add the extra two walkers. After that, who knows? I am tempted to add an allied Piedmontese mercenary battalion to the Shastapshian forces, with the Piedmontese taking the role of the Fenians and Prussians in the rulebook. Whaddya mean you never heard of the Piedmontese space effort or their holdings on Mars? Well, you will ...

The Red Menace

Last month I painted Martians to fight Steve's British troops. We actually managed to play the game last week, but my battle report has been delayed by various Real Life(tm) problems. We used the Soldier's Companion rules from GDW that are aimed at supporting Space 1889.

The Martian Messiah, Itaba Sootaman, has been rabble-rousing in the provinces around Shastapsh. His goal is to foment rebellion against the British occupying Syrtis Major and to drive the invaders from Martian soil. When it was reported that Sootaman was largely unaccompanied, the British sent a platoon of infantry to arrest him. His general area was known, but not his exact whereabouts, so the patrol headed out to investigate the villages in that area. As they advanced through the village of Paraam, which still lay partially devastated by a recent British assault, the area was quiet. The locals had obviously heard that the British were coming and had evacuated the area. This worried the British commander.
He ordered his troops to advance on the next village, Irshash. As they approached the village, a ragged volley of fire erupted from the woods line in front of them. It was all sound and fury for the Martian marksmanship was terrible and there were no British casualties. The two sides traded fire for a while, but neither side took any casualties. The Martian marksmanship was terrible, but their use of cover was brilliant.

Suddenly another troop of Martians erupted from the brush behind the British. Ambush! The attack was perfectly executed and, but for the Martian accuracy, might have seen the British ending their days on that spot. Unfortunately for the Martians, their smoothbore muskets were not very accurate. Caught in a pincer movement, the British fixed bayonets and charged the Martians in front of them. They drove the Martians all the way out of the woods and back to the next village along, sniping at the Martians' heels as they went. The other Martian warriors could do little now but pursue the British. Fortunately, they caught them and were able to break their nerve. The British regrouped back at Paraam and returned to the fray, and the fight continued swirling around the woods from which the Martians had first emerged. The British now held their nerve and started causing significant casualties to the Martians. One Martian troop was nearly wiped out, while the other was suffering badly.


Seeing the chance to break the Martians' nerve forever, the British commander ordered a charge. His men bravely tore into the Martian force and a bloody combat ensued with no quarter given. Then it happened. The British officer fell in the melee. The Martian warriors howled as one of their number took his head. This was too much for the British soldiers and they broke and ran. The Martians were too exhausted to pursue, but this was still a great victory for them. Inspired by this act, the whole of Shastapsh would soon be in ferment.

This was a great game that could have gone either way. The Martian ambush was perfectly executed, but my dice were not favouring me in this game. For some reason I have real problems rolling sixes! The rules worked well, although we could envisage situations where the Martian player might be sitting for ages waiting to win an initiative roll. Since your only option when you fail to win the initiative is to shoot or charge and you do not get to manoeuvre, a good British leader could easily win the initiative every turn and march circles around a poor Martian leader, leaving the Martian player with nothing to do. I suspect that we will institute a die roll modifier of +1 for every turn in which you have not won the initiative. This modifier is cumulative until you win the initiative, at which point it resets to 0. That would ensure that both sides at least get to do something and stay involved in the game. I am now looking forward to painting and using the rest of my Martians in a bigger game. I also need to get around to making some better Martian terrain.

Martians, Sah, fahsands of 'em!

Well, maybe not thousands, but certainly enough for a game. February is Martians month. I set as my goal this month painting some 15mm Martian infantry for Soldier's Companion, the miniatures rules from Space: 1889. The figures are by Black Hat, and the terrain they are set up on is the Mars Station terrain from WorldWorksGames. I really like both the figures and the terrain.

Well, I have managed to paint them already! The unit in question is the Shastapshian Black regiment. According to the book, this regiment comprises two companies of infantry, one of cavalry and one heavy gun. I do not have the cavalry yet, but may reward myself for completing this set by buying them. Anyway, without further ado, here is the contingent all together (don't forget to click the pictures for a larger image):

Regimental command:

A Company:

B Company:

Artillery:

I have actually enjoyed painting these Martians, although I doubt I shall win any prizes for the paint job, which just involved some quick block painting, a dip in my version of the dip and a little highlighting to round the whole thing off. The next question is what to paint next. I have more Martians to paint, but may focus on something else for a change, possibly the Normans that were a secondary objective from last month.

Mission: Ooh Shiny - Month 2

"Commander, primary objective achieved, sir!"
"Very good, Captain. Proceed with the next phase of the plan."
"Yes, sir!"

With 2VPs in the bag, we now need to defend Mars from the invaders. The primary objective for February will be painting two companies of Black Hat 15mm Martians for a game of Soldier's Companion. Soldier's Companion is the miniatures game from GDW's Space 1889 setting. It is essentially a set of colonial rules with extras for adding in various staples of Victorian Sci-Fi, including walkers, Martians, Venusians, etc. The whole Space 1889 setting is a rich and fertile playground for gaming and the role-playing game supplements can be adapted to create miniatures games. It is our intention to play a game involving the British colonial powers from Syrtis Major on Mars versus my Shastapshian Martians, so we need painted figures. Steve is producing the Brits, while I work on the Martians. Here are some Martians I painted earlier to whet your appetite:

This is the Black Hat character pack that includes a servant, a scholar, a Martian warrior, not-Dejah Thoris, not-John Carter and a big game hunter. I plan to use these figures as the basis of a Fantastic Worlds game, as well as providing characters for Soldier's Companion. The figures I plan to paint for February are shown below. The first picture shows the battalion command, while the second picture shows the two companies that form the basis of this month's mission.



This mission is also worth 2VPs. I have not defined a secondary objective for this month. It is likely that I shall probably focus on more 6mm Great Northern War activity, possibly continuing to rebase my figures, and making sure that, whatever I do, we get on and play games with those same figures.

"Cover me, chaps, I'm going in."