Siege of Augusta Acquisitions

I had a really great time at Siege and between my dad and I we found some really good deals.  I also setup the table for the following weekend's first official playtest of When the Navy Walked.  It features the German Foot StormTroopen against the Martains controlled by the Overlords.

The Rules...


The Germans are late WW1 figures irregular I believe which I obtained at the convention.

Here are the Martians which are 15mm Colonial Egyptians that I also picked up at the con.

The Birth of the Landships (Excerpt from When the Navy Walked)

The Birth of the Landship

For years, men had dreamt of exploring exotic locations. Many young scholars would research the hieroglyphs in Ancient Egypt and marvel at the designs of the gods in their flying machines and massive land crawlers.  It was through the efforts of a career sailor in the Spanish navy named Captain Juan De Medco that the wood and steel behemoths of the waters began to walk the land.  Through the supposition that naval tactics could be employed on land by creating walking ships the Landship was born.  Furthermore, it was hypothized that these landships could be mixed with infantry, cavalry, and artillery units to form a sort of movable fortress.  Juan De Medco began to discuss his ideas with his superiors who in turn spoke of the ideas with their superiors.  Eventually, the idea of employing naval tactics on the land began to take shape and inventors from all over Spain began to discuss the various means to which one could achieve a workable Landship. 

Late in the year of 1872 in meeting after meeting, Captain De Medco began to feel he had given his country an edge and had developed a legacy for his children.  Still his heart was not satisfied and he felt something was missing after his wife of thirteen years had passed away leaving him a widower. Fortunately, for the captain, a young French noblewoman with long blonde locks and a ravishing body wooed the captain.  The affair only lasted weeks but it tore up the lives of all involved.  The Spanish authorities discovered that the young woman was a French spy working for the court of Napoleon II.  When the Spanish government learned of the affair through their spies, they court marshaled Juan De Medco.  He was locked in a Spanish prison where his treasonous crime was quietly forgotten.     Captain De Medco had been a pansy and his life was turned inside out for nothing but a tryst.  It was not long before every Spaniard despised the name DeMedco.  All except for the Spanish government who had quietly began making prototypes of several Landships.

In Spain, the steel poured into molding vats to create the first landship.  Dubbed the San Barco de la tierra the ship was little more than a destroyer but it was impressive nonetheless.  It was a marvel of engineering prowess and a breathtaking piece of deadly art.  The ship appeared to be a normal wooden steam-powered vessel from the waterline up including water wheels on both sides for propulsion but from the waterline down a series of cranks, gears and wheels moved on treaded oversized wheels turned by the generation of smoke from the belly of the beast. Still, the ship moved too slow on land and proved to be more of a curiosity than a workable design. 

Nevertheless, the Spanish were patient and even as DeMedco was starting his affair, inventors and dreamers were working on ways to make his dream a reality.  After several failed attempts, a device was invented that allowed anthracite coal to be used to burn hotter and faster thereby allowing for larger and larger variations of landship.  Combined with the newest in coal burners and pressure chambers this anthracite technique was exactly what the Spanish needed.  The Cite Burner first awoke the landship and quite literally stoked the fires of life.  Unfortunately, the names of the man or group that invented the Cite Burner have been lost to time.  Refitted with the new Cite Burner and a retooled boiler on December 12, 1874 the San Barco de la tierra the world’s first Landship was born.  Several sister ships were put into production and soon the Spanish had a small fleet of the beasts.

Pleased with their small landships and ready to test their inventions on the field of battle, the Spanish declared war with the nearby island of Crispo citing that the Crispians were responsible for raids against the British.  Of course, the Spanish had secretly conducted these raids months earlier.  The Spanish began their field tests, as the world looked the other way.  It was on a morning in April 1875 when the world’s first landship got its first taste of human blood.  Little did this island-nation know that they did not stand a chance against the monstrosities they now faced as their sentries picked up the movement of the fleet of small ships.  When the ships left the water and started to move across the very land the natives became panicked and surrendered.  A successful first run proved encouraging and after the swift defeat of the natives on Crispo the Spanish government secretly planned to test their new weapons of war against their Portuguese neighbors.

Low on money in their coffers from funding the war against the Portuguese the Spanish turned to Gustav LeRule the brother of the French noblewoman who agreed to pay a hefty ransom for the Spanish captain.  It was not for his sister that he paid the ransom but for the ideas floating around in De Medco’s mind.  De Medco was not interesting in helping only the French, however, and after escaping from LeRule he began selling his ideas to the highest bidder.  The wealthy aristocrats in Germany, the British Crown, and the French noblemen, the Russian Czar, a few Chinese Warlords and the Japanese purchased his ideas.  Very soon, the Great Powers had working Landships of their own designs.  These landships were the pride of their respective nations.  The leaders of the Great Powers met in secret to discuss the shaping of other nations and set about divvying up the known world without regard to the current occupants.  Shortly after these meetings, the landships began to carry vast armies to Africa, the Middle East, China and the Colonies of the Americas.  By 1876, the conquest of the world has begun.

Super Bowl

I just wanted to say, Go Colts!

Snippet from When the Navy Walked

I apologize to everyone for being away for a while from the blog. I have been working on my Victorian/Edwardian Science Fiction Rules and have also had a bad stomach bug.  It is my intention to publish these eventually through drive thru rpg and possibly other means of pdf distribution.  While I do not intend to make a bunch of money on this project and I do wish to share my work with everyone out there that is interested I also do not wish for my work to be freely distributed. I present you with this snippet of my work from When the Navy Walked - A Wargame of Victorian and Edwardian Science Fiction.  This will be in my book and is covered under Intellectual Property Copy write law.

The History of the World to 1919

In the early 1870s, man believed they were alone in the universe, that the Aether contained nothing more than the emptiness of space and the void of life.  The great reaches of space awaited the conquest of the Great Powers, as did the barbarian nations of Africa and Asia. As expansionism unfolded on the Earth, so too did scientists and inventors dream up ways of exploring and conquering the Aether. 

It was in 1872 that the great British scientist and inventor, Lenard Albert Langston had discovered the Aether Engine. Shortly thereafter, the militaries of the Great Powers began sending small craft out rigged with the turbine engine - called LL’s Aether Displaceror or LLAD - into the reaches of the Heavens themselves.  Unfortunately, these first attempts at space travel failed as the cabins were not pressurized and the crewmembers on board the Aether Ships quickly began to suffocate in the grimness of near Earth orbit.  It was concluded that due to the lack of breathable air in the Aether that nothing could exist outside a planet.  Furthermore it was concluded with observations of the heavily bodies in our solar system that nothing could live in the harsh climates of these planets except for on Earth.  The greatest minds among mankind had concluded that humanity alone were the guardians of the universe, that mankind reigned supreme in the folds of darkness, that man was the only sentient intelligent living creature in the universe.  Therefore, with expansionism and conquest on their collective minds the Great Powers turned their attention to the conquest of the world believing that nothing existed outside in the black void of space, they were wrong.  

The Podcast Continues

The party is finally out of Dungeonland!  This weekend the gang will be adventuring once again in Forgotten Realms as they journey to Chult to take on the Yuan-ti and try to discover the insidious secret kept by the Naga wishing to reopen Hellgate Keep.  I noticed there are something like 200 subscribers to the podcast which completely amazes me since I started this on a lark.  I want to get some feedback from you guys my fans.  What do you like about the podcast?  What do you dislike? Have you listened in on the characters as they made their way through the strange world of Dungeonland?  Comments welcome and appreciated.

The Two Greatest Superheroes Ever

Images used without permission and are the property of DC Comics.

Escape from Dungonland

Our heroes bravely risk life and limb as they battle Dee and Dum, rescue an Enchanter with a connection to the realm, and finally come face to face with the Queen of Hearts!

Episode III up!