The Christmas Pudding Factory Incident AAR

The Xmas FUBAR Game has been played, and prefacing this with a thanks to HG Wells for penning War of the Worlds first published in full in 1898...😊...

Martian Tripods 'Red' and ' Green' on the the Move December 1874!

The Forces

Humanity

8 x Steam Powered Armoured Wagons

1 x Heavy Auto Cannon (no -1 at long range as pre-sighted prior to the battle)

1 x Tesla Gun (no -1 at long range as pre-sighted prior to the battle)

2 x Steam Powered Blimps (One Bomb attack each arriving Turn Two)

The Nasty Martians

2 x Tripod Fighting Machines

The Objective

The Martians have Eight Turns to exit one Tripod from the opposite tabletop edge to the one they start on, the Tripod must have at least one functioning Weapon System.

The Battle Report!

Late December 1874 and Sir Blythe-Hamilton-Pants formed up the troops of his 7th Steam Power Armoured Detachment in advantageous positions to fight advancing Martian Fighting Machines. He selected uneven and marshy ground well to the South of Little Tinkle on Clyde for the battle. This terrain plus a tributary of the Clyde River would help his cause, the battlefield was split by a metalled road running North/South and the tributary was spanned by one of Brunel's wonders!

It was mid morning when the Evil Martian Tripods lurched into view and halted appearing hesitant on the skyline. Using this pause Sir Blythe-Hamilton-Pants gathered his men and read them a rousing declaration from her most Imperious Highness Empress Victoria! The men were buoyed by the words and prepared for action!

The Tripods known to the British as 'Red' and 'Green' had spent several days trekking across the English countryside to reach their objective, a Human Factory located in Little Tinkle on Clyde. The Martian High Command had methodically calculated that the destruction of the Facility would break the unexpectedly high spirit the Humans were showing when facing their Fighting Machines! The two great machinations halted to survey Human defences located near a stream along a roadway as they came into view. The Humans took this pause as hesitation but it was not, the Martians spent a few minutes to plan their attack, they quickly determined these men and their puny machines could easily be swept aside so they ADVANCED!

The peace and quiet of the English countryside on that serene winters day was shattered by the roar of the Martians Machines powerplants and sounds of their rocket fire!

Reacting to the Martians attack Sir Blythe-Hamilton-Pants ordered his vehicles and Blimps to deploy with for his artillery to give them covering fire!

The air resounded with the noise of Steam Engines running at full speed, explosions, the Pew-Pew of Lasers, shouting, screams of pain and the clang of hot metal on the cold armour of the Martian Fighting Machines!

The battle played out quickly. Soon the burning wrecks of several Armoured Wagons lay upon the field of battle but the defenders were elated as they appeared to score telling hits on the closing Behemoths!

With the two Fighting Machines virtually upon the defences of the 7th Steam Power Armoured Detachment one of Sir Blythe-Hamilton-Pants Engineers triggered off one of the two mines they had buried in the fields, 'Red' disappeared in a huge fountain of earth generated by several hundred weight of TNT! A huge cheer erupted from the British lines and there was much excitement among the defenders at the sight of the explosion but their high spirits plummeted as the smoke haze cleared and seemingly unhurt the Tripod with its Red Eye glowing fiercely continued to close on them.

Any regular fighting men would have fled at this point but the elite 7th urged on by Sir Blythe-Hamilton-Pants doubled their efforts and fired at the Martians Machines as the literally 'walked' over them! Again damage was inflicted on them but alas not enough to stop them!

The battle was over and it resulted in a victory to the Martian Invaders. Even though Human losses were comparatively light they had not been able to stop the advance of the Fighting Machines which continued on Northward in the direction of the Puddin' Lady's Christmas Pudding Manufacturing Co Factory!

Post Script...

Although the battle was lost the campaign was saved thanks to the ingenuity of our Hero, Captain Darling. Yes the Christmas Pudding Factory was saved! On hearing of the defeat of Sir Blythe-Hamilton-Pants Force Darling engaged the services of well known landscape artist Edward Wilkins Waite who quickly whipped up a full size and totally realistic painting of the Puddin' Lady's Christmas Pudding Manufacturing Co Factory which Darling cunningly used in a clever ruse to fool the Martians! The full size painting was put in place a mile south of the real factory and the Martians on seeing it blew it to smithereens! Convinced they had completed their mission successfully they reported the details to their Leaders. 'Red' and 'Green' believing their work was done withdrew albeit leaving the real Factory in tact and producing its precious wares! A huge well done and pat on the back to Captain Darling, yet again he had pulled the Empires bits out of the fire!

Some Pictures...

 Artillerymen of the 7th Steam Power Armoured Detachment zero their Heavy Auto Cannon in  on the approaching Martian Tripods!

The Crew of the Detachments Tesla Gun too laid in their sights on the looming Martian Machines...

End of Turn One Picture

The Martian Tripods advanced firing their rockets at their Human foes without achieving any successes, the outranged Humans advanced their Steam Powered Armoured Wagons!

End of Turn Two Picture

The Martians continue to advance, they destroy one of the Armoured Wagons on the road with rockets, the men of the 7th fire their first shots scoring no damage on the Fighting Machines!

End of Turn Three Picture

The Martians draw level with Brunel's bridge and using their Lasers they knock out another Armoured Wagon on the Human's right flank. The British Blimps launch their Bombs at the Tripods but inflict no damage, the Artillery on the other hand scored hits and the Martians took damage, nothing significant though!

Even through the Martians were advancing remorselessly and inflicting casualties on the 7th Steam Power Armoured Detachment the remaining Humans continued too put up a stout defence!  Here four active Armoured Wagons continue to engage the Tripods!

During Turn Four the Human triggered a mine consisting of several hundred weight of TNT, it created a large crater but barely scratched the Martian Machine, it scored a single 'Speed' hit...also in the picture a Steam Powered Blimp engaging the Tripod with its Rapid Fire Gun (eg Machine Gun)...

Turn Four

This picture is mid turn just before the Mine Attack on 'Red'. The second Armoured Wagon on the Human left is destroyed and 'Green' now has an open run to get passed the defenders! 'Red' engages the Heavy Auto Cannon...

'Green' having destroyed both of the Armoured Steam Wagons on the British right simply 'strolled' over them in Turn Five!

Turn Five and the Tesla Gun Crew fired at point blank range at 'Green' but were unable to disable it, it swept passed them and out of camera shot!

During Turn Five the Martians were passed the British line of defence but still attracted fire, several hits were scored on the behemoths inflicting more damage but still they soldiered on! 

Tally Ho!

Turn Six and 'Green' reached the Martian objective, eg exiting the tabletop, a Victory to the Martians!

The situation at the end of Turn Six and the game!

The Martian Tripods seemed to win an easy victory but they took a bit of damage despite having a 2+ saving throw on a D6 for any hit; 'Green' was only one speed hit away from being immobilised taking three of the four allowed and 'Red' had taken half of its allowed Speed and Steering Hits

Summary Stuff!

Okay we've played a smaller version of this scenario before but never had both of my Big Martian Fighting Machines on the table at once! I'd like to play this again sometime mid year as I think it is pretty well balanced. This was not an easy win for the Martians both Tripods were damaged  and they were very lucky as they had to consult the Breakdown Table three times and each time luckily rolled the 'power surge' result so neither one was handicapped by the 'Breakdown' results! Plus there were plenty of Human assets still in action, only three out of eight of the Armoured Wagons were destroyed, both the Blimps were still in action and only three out of a total of eight Artillery Crewmen had become casualties, the British still had a lot of firepower at games end! Be ready to read about a rematch later in 2024...

Next Time: Captain Darling's Grand Tour Review or a way overdue AAR or two!

1/56 Tsar Tank Kit - BUT for VSF Gaming! - Review and Build Starts!

Hello! Yes I'm still here just been very busy with real life stuff and some 'other era' gaming!

Back to my favourite gaming genre though, VSF. A couple of unrelated things came together recently; my admiration for the ill fated Imperial Russian 'Tsar Tank' and my liking of Miniature Scenery's products...yes Miniature Scenery have produced a 1/56 scale flat pack Tsar Tank, oh yeah!

The Tsar Tank!

Image from Wikipedia...

I won't bore you with the full story of this behemoth (a quick net search can give you that) but it turned out to be an expensive failure. I do say failure but it may not be the best word for it, in 1915 when it was built Armoured Fighting Vehicles were in there infancy and many prototypes got even less further than this so I look upon it as a step in the development of AFV's.

Her's how the actual prototype Tsar Tank shaped up...
Dimensions: approximately 18m x 9m x 12 m
Weight: approximately 60 tons
Crew: estimated at 10 - 12
Road Speed: 17 KPH
Armament: several Cannons and HMG's in 2 turrets and 2 sponsons

Here's the size of the kit from Miniature Scenery...

Image from Miniature Scenery...

Links for the kit...
Miniature Scenery

Tsar Tank

So to my Tsar Tank, I'll be using it in my VSF games obviously as part of the Imperial Russian army but I'm also hoping it will give my Martian Tripods a run for their money! Not sure what I'll call it or of the 'creation' fluff but I'll get onto that later (the real story is so cool I may go with that but with a different Tsar!).

I plan to build this directly from the kit (there are some optional 3D printed parts but won't use those) except for in two places; I'll add a dome to the top of the upper turret instead of using the kit parts and I'll make some 'pads/tracks' for the front wheels.

The parts, they are well cut in MDF and thick card.There are also three pieces of dowel for axles/gun barrels. The design of the pieces is very clever and minimises any chance of mixing them up by allocating the tabs cleverly (nothing is foolproof though I'm evidence of that!).

Oh and I like the attention to detail in the packaging, the whole pack is designed with a hanger for shops included in the laser cut design (on all of the Twisted range of kits I've had too from them) very cool inclusion...

The assembly instructions are a download and when (if) printed are 36 pages long! There are 96 steps to follow but with optional armaments and upper turrets not all will be followed. They are clear but could have a little more descriptive text (I still managed to make a stuff up while constructing the bicycle wheels but thankfully it's not an issue!).

Here's what I've done so far which are covered by steps 1 to 24 and 65 to 72.

The main hull frame constructed...

Adding the sponsons and starting to 'clad' the frame...

Note the cannons for the sponsons are made from 9 parts (MDF & card) and go together well one can be seen lower right in the picture...

Test fitting cladding...

Test fitting the bicycle wheels, the spoke parts are designed in pairs and you see the criss cross pattern here...

The finished bicycle wheels in 'heritage' green and brass, note I've mixed up the spoke parts they still look fine and we're talking VSF here so I'm not fussed...

I don't usually like covering my builds in multiple posts but in this case because I'm excited to get it out there I will!

Next Time; more on building the Tsar Tank...or maybe something on 'Toy Soldiers'

Little Wars Adelaide 2019 Review!

Well Little Wars Adelaide 2019 is done and dusted! Overall looked as if it was a huge success. Talking to the top dog the number of games and traders was an all-time high. The crowd did appear less than the last time the show was run though.

Colonel Puddin facing down a Martian Fighting Machine manning the Rapid Fire Artillery piece to the last man!

From my point of view, it looked to be a very successful event! It was good to see a huge variety of games in one location. Also having interstate traders in town so you can see their wares ‘in the flesh’ (so to speak) is very nice!

There were only a few games I was interested in having a go at this time but as my War of the Worlds FUBAR VSF Table was so busy I didn’t get a chance! These included a game on the Glenrowan Siege (Tribal Rules), A Gladiator game (Tribal Rules again) and a game covering a colonial battle set in Adelaide Australia (TMWWBK Rules).

Luckily, I have arranged with George who ran the Glenrowan Siege game featuring the Kelly Gang to catch up with him and have a go at it one evening soon...excellent news!

Regarding Traders I picked up only a couple of items (I am on a strict budget);

- From Victoria Miniatures I picked up some wheels and an ammo box from their ‘parts bin’

- From Eureka Miniatures I bought a 1/72 or 20mm resin & metal Sentinel Tank

My FUBAR VSF table kept me busier than I expected! I was planning on running three games during the course of the day but ended up ‘umpiring’ five complete games and running a three turn rules demo! All the players were interested in the rules and everyone enjoyed their game. The coolest thing was when two players after completing their first game decided to swap sides and play again! At one point during the games the Martian Tripod which thanks to a lucky 'Event' had covered 45 inches of the required 72 in just three out of the eight turns suffered a critical hit! A six was rolled on the Damage Table and the player then rolled another six on the Catastrophe Table resulting in a spectacular explosion and a quick game! In another game the British player seemed to spend more time fighting the Breakdown table than the Martian Tripod! All good VSF fun!

I actually think a few people may download the FUBAR VSF rules and give them a go from their comments. The other thing that was exciting for me was my models attracted positive comments even from some punters who didn’t even play the scenario! That was very pleasing!

At the end of the day the win tally was the Evil Martians four wins to one win for Her Most Imperial Majesty’s Red Coats (keeping in mind that the scenario is biased to the Martians to keep in the theme of the War of the Worlds book where the Tripods were pretty well immune to humanity’s Weapon systems).

Here are a few pictures from my ‘Table’...

Set up and ready to go!

The first game of the day gets under way!

The British attack balloon closes in on the Martian Tripod as the Armoured Steam Wagons deploy...

The Tripod about to exit the table turns and gives the British a final salvo!

Colonel Puddin resplendent in his Dark Continent gear (his last posting) commands the men of the Royal artillery...

More pictures from the day covering the Games and Traders are on the Little Wars Adelaide and Little Wars Australia Facebook Pages!

Next time; Hmm now that’s a good question!

Little Wars Adelaide 2019 - AARs & Game Update

Not long to Little Wars! On Monday we played the Martian Attack FUBAR VSF game in preparation. I wanted to check I had everything required for the day ready and to record the table layout. It all went very well we played two games; one ran for 65 minutes lasting the full eight turns and the other went for only 20 minutes lasting only three turns.

Game One

Dave took the side of the Evil Martians and Al the stout British defenders.

Initially Dave charged forward and was able to score hits with on the British damaging two Armoured Steam Wagons while suppressing their Artillery. The British on the other hand were having issues with their Activation and hit rolls and then when activating hitting their target.

On turn five one of Al’s vehicles imploded due the result of a required roll on the Breakdown Table! Meanwhile the Martian Tripod suffered some superficial damage while effortlessly gliding forward firing at every opportunity.

Turns six and seven the British continued to fire on the Martian Tripod which arrogantly halted for a turn to fire all of its weapon systems causing havoc amongst the British. Then on turn seven came the crucial roll, the Martian failed its activation roll (a one in six chance) giving it a activation penalty for the next turn!

Turn eight and the Martian within easy reach of it’s objective failed to activate, game to Her Imperial Majesty’s Army...”Rule Britannia...”

Game Two

Al’s turn to take control of the Martian Tripod!

Turns one and two the Martian powered forward at full speed firing rockets while on the move. The Tripod scored a couple of hits on the British who took on a strategy of just lining up along the edge of the table and firing for all their worth!

Turn three and the Martian had to consult the Breakdown Table due to encountering rough ground and it resulted in a power surge gaining an extra 10 inches of movement...in three turns the Tripod had advanced 48 inches of the 72 it had to cover in the allotted eight turns to win the game with next to no damage. Things were looking bad for the British!

The plucky British ignoring the martian good luck opened fire in their half of turn three. Several hits failed to even scratch the Alien Fighting Machine but one hit required the Martian to roll on the Damage Table...a six that required a roll on the Catastrophe Table...another six...BOOM a critical hit, the Tripod toppled over leaving a twisted heap of Illudium on the green fields of Ol' Blighty!

A few pictures from the night...

During our games I found a couple of ‘things’ which needed to be addressed to ensure smooth games on the day;

A Typo on Martian Force Sheet regarding weapon special rules that was amended

A turn grid was added to both Force Sheets

Added the Human available weapon attributes to the British Force Sheet

Created labels for Suppression, Speed and Turn markers

Created a label for the Martian Heat Ray ‘reload’ marker

All set to go now! Given the above I may should be able to squeeze a fourth game in during the day, I need to allow a bit of time between games so I can check out all the Vendors and other Games!

Don’t forget less than three weeks to Little Wars Adelaide so if you can make it roll up on the day and support the show to ensure it’s future! Here's the website...

Little Wars Adelaide 2019 Home Page

and even though I don't use Facebook there is a site there too...

Facebook Little Wars Adelaide 2019

Next Time; probably a report from Little Wars!

Scratch Another Martian Tripod - Captain Darling Adds to his Tally! - Wrecked Martian Tripod Marker

At the height of the Second Great Martian War mankind's newly developed war machines were turning the tide against the technologically superior Martians. Attacked from the air as well as from the land the Martians were surprised by the Humans successes so they designed a new class of walkers themselves, these remote controlled units were called Drone Tripods. The new smaller Drone Tripods were armed with only a single weapon system but they gave the Aliens more machines on the ground enabling them to occupy larger tracks of land. But these Drone Tripods were also less well armoured than the full size machines and therefore much more vulnerable to the new  Armoured Wagons employed by the Human armies!

June 1874: On a fine summer afternoon Captain Darling and Lieutenant Carden-Loyd were chatting with other officers of the 12th Light Triambulator Squadron after a splendid luncheon in the Officers Mess. After their meals while they imbibed on a fine port and drew on their pipes an Orderly burst in announcing a Martian Drone Tripod had been spotted in the vicinity! While many of the officers appeared worried a broad grin formed on Captain Darlings face enhancing his ruggedly handsome features and he turned to his second in command Carden-Loyd, "Well Squiffy that was a fine repast care for some Martian Tripod for desert?" Carden-Loyd known as a bit of an eccentric as he was often seen drinking from his boot when not in the Mess was eager for action and leaping from his lush Chesterfield announced "I certainly am Ol' Man and if I don't bring this alien fellow down before you do you can butter my behind and call me a biscuit..."

Together the two men had the engineers stoke up their Armoured Triambulators and headed off for an afternoon of Martian hunting...

Two hours later both Darling and Carden-Loyd were photographed by the wreckage of the rampaging Drone Tripod, Darling scoring a direct hit on the its evil eye bringing it down in a ball of flame... 

Creating a Martian Tripod Wreck Marker

I will be using Alien Dungeons Tripods (now defunct there's a new owner of this product range) in conjunction with my own Giant Martian Machines for some future games. I bought these kits as soon as they came out as they are fantastic looking and injection molded so great to build and adapt! I knew they would come in handy one day, here's one of my completed kits...

Now I really would like a Tripod wreck marker so with one of my best friends Pinkysil I made up a mold of the top of one of the AD Martian Assault Tripods and cast up a few 'Tripod Heads'...

 Then used the left over Tripod kit parts and some styrene bits and pieces to finish up the wreck markers...

Blog Picture Update...

I have now restored the pictures to 70 of the Blogs 90 posts so we're almost back up to speed...hopefully by my next new post every old post will be sorted out!

Next time, some Gallic stuff

Martian Tripods - And Then There Were TWO!

Well completed the second Martian Tripod. Thanks for your input on eye colour! My partner favoured GREEN so in the words of Rumpole "she who must be obeyed" got the final say!

The colour I used was Humbrol #50, Green Mist worked okay I think...this Tripods base got a bit gory...

Two Tripods, a mighty force to try to defeat indeed!

Alrighty next job to complete two old Armoured Steam Wagons!

Catch you all next time..

Stop That Tripod! FUBAR VSF AAR

I wanted to try my Little Wars FUBAR VSF scenario during one of our Monday night soirees since there’s no Little Wars here in Adelaide this year. This game pits a superior Martian Tripod against a Human forces featuring Armoured Steam Wagons, Guns and an Aeronautical Conveyance so there’s lots of variety and hopefully it looks the business! The objective is simple the Tripod needs to cross the length of the board and exit from the opposite side to which it entered.

Period Photographs of the action between Flying Column Z and Martian Tripod X...

Situation

June 1875

Essex England

During the summer of 1875 the (evil) Martian Tripods ravaged the England countryside laying waste to everything that crossed their paths impervious to anything Humanity fielded against them. Unbeknownst to Alien Invaders Her Imperial Majesty’s finest troops were being equipped with the latest weapons of war fresh from docks of Liverpool and supplied by the United States of America. With these modern machines of war the British planned to put an end to the Martian Tripod’s rampant destruction of their homeland!

On June 22^nd five Martian Tripods were identified converging from different directions on the small Essex village of Little Tinkle. They were being shadowed by Troopers from the 5th Steam Powered Hussars using the latest Marconi Wireless Sets to keep their superiors "in the know" as to their activities. In response to this information foreshadowing a coming together of Martian Tripods the British Imperial High Command dispatched their elite Flying Columns to intercept them. One Martian Tripod was hard enough to deal with let alone several working in coordination! Every effort had to be made to stop the Martian Machine’s joining into a united force!

Just to the East of Little Tinkle Flying Column Z commanded by the highly decorated Colonel Puddin and comprising of elements of the Queens Own Steam Dragoons and a Flyer from the famous 266 Squadron came into contact with their designated enemy unit known to them as “Tripod X’. The Colonel roared the order to attack but his further words of encouragement were drowned out by the thunder of steam engines powering up…facing the British on the other side of the battlefield with its unblinking red eye glaring ominously on the metallic monster from Mars glided effortlessly forward…the stage was set…the battle began…

Forces

Martians

One Tripod

Humanity

1 x Wong Flyer from 266 Squadron

4 x Armoured Steam Wagons from the Queens Own Steam Dragoons

2 x Rapid Fire Light Cannons

Victory Conditions

Martians: get the Tripod of the opposite edge of the game table to which it starts within 12 turns any damage is irrelevant.

Humanity: to prevent the Martian Tripod completing its objective regardless of losses.

Special Rules

Use the Custom Tripod Rules (Posted on the Blog 10/2/2016)

http://captaindarlingsminiaturesemporium.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/fubar-vsf-rules-martian-tripod-updates.html

Once any Human vehicle has all of its weapons out of action it is eligible to ram the Martian Tripod!

AAR

Initially both sides advanced to make contact but the British fell afoul of technology early in the game and one of their Armoured Steam Wagons suffers from a boiler malfunction and the ultra-advanced super high pressure steam turbine power plant explodes, the sickening roar was heard far and wide and was a bad omen for the men of the Queens Own Dragoons!

Meanwhile the gallant boys of the Royal Avionic Corps flew their Wong Flyer directly toward the Martian Fighting machine to cover the advance of the Dragoons. Their plan worked and they took the lion’s share of the Tripods early rocket fire while its deadly heat ray targeted the Armoured Steam Wagons.

While the Steam Wagons survived hit after hit the unlucky crew of the Wong Flyer had their Tesla gun knocked out by one of the Tripods rockets. In stout British fashion these gallant fliers decided to do their all for Queen Vic and steeled themselves to ram the Alien invader!

The Martian Tripod moved slowly forward but despite firing salvo after salvo at the Wong Flyer was unable to shoot it down while the British armoured skilfully used the cover of a copse to take pot shots at the Martian while taking cover as they reloaded their guns!

Finally the British were able to manoeuvre there flying contraption into a position to ram and twice they flung themselves at the metallic giant! Both attempts failed to damage the Martian machine as they were glancing blows unfortunately the accumulated damage on the Wong Flyer caught up with it and it crashed from the sky the crew perishing in their brave attempts to save Humanity!

With the pesky human flying machine out of the way the Tripod now pressed forward but was not getting everything its own way it had accrued a large amount of damage on its mechanical legs, one rocket pod was put out of action, its heat ray was no longer operational and a third of its smoke projectors were damaged. This was a close run thing!

In a last gasp two British steam Wagons their guns no longer operational also tried ramming the Tripod but without success and both were immobilised.

After successfully overcoming the British gunners the Martian Tripod successfully continued on toward the village of Little Tinkle!

Martians ONE Humanity NIL

Early turns saw the Martian Tripod stand back trying to use it long range gunnery to eliminate the human resistance. Note in the bottom left of the picture the British ASW that broke down!

The Martian Tripod stands back while the men of the Royal Avionic Corps charge there flyer forward!

The Gallant British try to ram the Martian Tripod as their Tesla Cannon was knocked out rendering them weapon less!

The British aerial contingent is down!

 

The end game the Martian Tripod has all but defeated the humans, the gun crews are all dead and only two crippled Armoured Steam Wagons oppose it!

The Tripod spins its armoured head around in disdane to survey the wreckage on the battlefield as it moved off toward Little Tinkle!

Stuff!

I did not enforce the time restrictions on this game and this allowed the Martian to leisurely take on the Humans from long range that was my BAD and won’t do that again next time!

Regarding the rules one nay sayer in our group moaned endlessly regarding the FUBAR VSFs activation rolls and also the vehicle ‘Breakdown Table’. At one stage he said he need do nothing and eventually all his opponents vehicles will breakdown. Well I reckon rules without any sort of Command Control lose a lot during a game as every unit does exactly as you want and I would love to investigate the breakdown ratios of early tanks and planes with their ‘reliable’ petrol and diesel motors during the early 20^th Century but life’s too short. I can just imagine what the first steam vehicles reliability must have been like. Anyway this is water off a ducks back as far as I’m concerned the FUBAR VSF rules have always given me exiting and out there games so I’ll continue to use and endorse them…

Next time we go back to the Great Steam Wars…or perhaps the Imperial Russian Invasion of South Australia I am not sure!