Somewhere in Europe, 1947 - Weird World War 2

An encounter battle between US (Colin Hagreen, who also took most of these photos) and my Soviet forces, somewhere in Europe, 1947...the US were led by HellBoy!

US troops advance into a village, taking cover behind the new Sherman armed with twin lascannons (above). US engineers have found that they can fit a Sherman with twin lascannons of the same power as a single US 76mm, doubling its hitting power.

However, also racing to take the village are Soviet Naval forces, riding on T-34 Hovertanks. After overrunning Nazi UFO research facilities, the Soviets adapted the T-34 hovertank for amphibious formations, it has a massive Klimov turbofan in the center of the tank, necessitating moving the turret to the rear The rear tank below is armed with the good old Russian 85mm gun, the front one with the Ultrasonic Vibrocannon anti-infantry weapon. (This gun mashed Hellboy into a vibrating pulp before being taken out by the Rooseveldt Organ US Rocket tank - sadly neither Hellboy nor that US tank have been released from secret US files)

Uh Oh....not a good time to throw two pairs of snake-eyes ( 4 x 1's, below) - a twin lascannon Sherman spectacularly misses a fast advancing T-34 Hovertank. 

Soviet naval Infantry, supported by T-34 Hovertanks and an SU-123 Railgun hovertank destroyer (below), counter a US tank advance. Crews are not that keen on the (H)TD owing to the massive discharge from its railgun capacitor tube (on turret) omn firing which, if the earthing straps are not on the ground at the time, can fry the crew too.
 

The lighter gunned but twin lascannon (better hit probability) armed Shermans vs the bigger single gun (bigger impact when hitting) of the T-34/85 hovertanks provided the major slugfest in the game,  higher Hovertank speed wasn't really significant. The Soviets eventually won this encounter by the clever strategy of throwing better dice. Riding on the tanks also allowed them to get Naval infantry into hard cover faster than the US troops.

But by far the most fearsome weapon was the US double-rocket launcher tank. The Russian tank destroyer's railgun also put some big hits on the US forces but also recorded some spectacular misses.(Gruntz rules,  adapted a bit, 300 pts a side)

Update - Russian spy photographs have identified a strange figure watching the fight. Next time, things clearly won't be so easy for the Soviets.....

28mm New Byzantium "Hard Sci Fi" force

To match my Arabic style "lower tech" (aka wheeled) Sci Fi force I am starting New Byzantium's higher tech one, using the French Legion Etraterrestriale as a model - so, in true Francophone style I have got 2 light grav-tanks (Antenociti Skorpions), with big railgun. Also on the force, with the infantry squads, will be SAWbots (front) and the hull from a 15mm Combat Wombat catamaran style vehicle which I will use as a platform to place some form of support weapon (or maybe a medevac) on.

I've put an Old Crow Gecko and some of my Arabs (GW Tallarn Raiders) in the pic for comparison in to give an idea of scale.

Haven't decided on camouflage yet, but probably a deserty style one (the FFL use a nice 3 tone brown one I've seen. I'm keeping the Arabs a simple light weathered khaki). I also haven't yet decided on the infantry, I don't want far-future nor do I want a "day-after-tomorrow" styles

On the far right are some of the 25 Russian sailors I have been touching up (oo-er missus) for Weird World War 2

Weird World War II T-34 Railgun Tank Destroyer

Next up, the T-34 Tank Destroyer with Railgun. It fires a frisbee shaped very hard steel disk, which generates lift at a very high velociy, so has a far longer range than a shell. The downside is that the disk can catch a gust of wind and drift off course.

The huge capacitors generate a massive charge on firing, so the crew are always a bit nervous that it may earth on the tank, and several crews have been smoked this way. It takes time to recharge the capacitors from the engine, but the extra range on the open steppes is felt to be worth it.

Weird World War II T-34 with Vibrocannon

More Weird World War 2 from the Workbench

T-34 Hovertank with Ultrasonic Vibroccannon Anti-Aircraft gun, shoots a concentrated burst of low frequency sound waves in a variable directed beam, which shakes the aircraft apart and can ignite bombs carried.

Also useful on infantry as it turns their innards to mush.Unfortunately if beam is absorbed or deflected or range is too far, it merely turns them into Zombies.

25mm Sci Fi Technicals

I seem, by various means, to have acquired a number of different "Techncal" type vehicles. These are (L-R) Antenociti Warthog, Old Crow Gecko, Void Junkers buggy and Old Crow Goanna.

The Antenociti vehicle is quite large and relatively comfortable and is earmarked to be the HQ of my Sci Fi forces (GW Tallarn Raider figures for size comparison).

We've been trying out a number of rulesets, and I'm still working out what "New Byzantium" would look like in general - latest thoughts are:

1. The regioinal (Thematic) forces comprise mainly of light vehicles like these, representing the light cavalry of a Byzantine army, and infantry in light APCs. The heaviest regional forces are light tanks and light air support (drones)

2. The "Rapid Reaction Force" are the elite light regiments (Trapezitae, Turkopoloi, Vardariots, Gianitzaroi etc) - a similar makeup to regional forces, but much better trained and with better aerial support. They can make planetfall relatively easily.

3. The "Tagmata" or central army has rarer, more powerful forces at hand:

- The Klibanophoroi - the heaviest armoured vehicles
- The Kataphraktarii - main battle tank troops
- The Varangian Guard - infantry in heavy power armour
- The Latinikon - a sort of armoured "Foreign Legion", weaponry not so heavy as the Kibanophoroi but more likely to be used as backups for the "Rapid Reactiion Force"

The 15mm game is probably the only one where heavy Tagmatic forces will be involved, though - for the moment I'm building a regional skirmish force in 25mm.

The above troops belong to their deadly enemies, the forces of Wadiya

(See earlier thoughts here)

Weird War 2

In 1945 the Russians overran the part of Germany where Flying Saucer research was being done, one result of that was the development of huge Klimov Turbofan engine that they have retrofitted into the T-34 tank, creating the T-34/85 Hovertank - ideal for open country and amphibious warfare. As you can see, they had to put the heavy engine in the centre for balance reasons, re-siting the turret at the rear. They also had to put a massive air intake fan where the hull machine gun went.

(I converted a bunch of Plastic Soldier WW2 T-34s tanks for my "Standard" Sci-Fi IFV/APC chassis, using other turrets -see pic over here - but, of course the other big application is for Weird World War 2. The tracks are turned around for the skirt, I reversed the engine air intake and turret, and mounted a cut off idler wheel where the hull machine gun is as an auxilliary forced draught fan)

Of What is to come....

As mentioned in my last post, both my SYW Tricorne and 1848 Balkan era opponents are currently indisposed, which has brought those 2 campaigns to a halt, and in the interim the Caribbean has beckoned.

But that is not all - as I have mentioned before, I am building a Sci Fi force too, and here are its latest recruits - 6 x 15mm Antenociti Workshops' Skorpion light tank with catamaran hulls - I had to have it for that hull!

On the left for size comparison are (front, L-R) a Brigade Models Lynx APC with Old Crow turret, and a converted 15mm Plastic Soldier T-34 with Brigade Models Twin Gatling turret, and behind (L-R) are a GZG hover-bot and GZG Wittman Medium AFV. The Skorpion is a bit bigger than all of them, is quite a lot taller, and looks very mean with a noticeably large gun :)


These new additions will serve as medium armoured but fast tank destroyers, carrying a big punch, and are the heaviest AFVs available to any Armoured Cavalry force, as they can still be easily transported and dropped quickly into hot spots. The bulk of the regional fighting is done by the older but trusty HoverT-34 IFV with its various weapons pack loadouts (autocannon, gatlings, missiles, tank destroyer gun etc). Only the central army has heavier armour.

So far we've tried Gruntz, Tomorrow's War and Hammers Slammers rules, they all have plusses and minusses.

(I've just tried washing on camouflage on 2 tanks, as you can see it needs quite a bit of toning down - next step to drybrush over it - though it looks far less contrasty in "real life"  - though mnust say I've actually grown to like the simple desert sand scheme, so maybe I'll just leave them all plain).

Future Byzantium

Plastic Soldier's T-34 conversions with various turrets in a Hammers Slammer game 

( photo by John Treadaway)

I dabble in Sci Fi gaming in 15mm and 28mm, with small forces like my 15mm lot above (spot the T-34 conversions)  and (I am ashamed to say) I am imagining what Byzantium might be like in the future, as a way of building a structured, comprehensive force with a backstory model. Of course, it fits beautifully:

- Varangians - mercenary very heavy infantry (with Space Axes as per EE Doc Smith's "Lensman" series)
- Latnikon/Normans - mercenary armoured cavalry, whatever cavalry comes out as
- Skythicon/Turcopoloi - mercenary light cavalry, whatever cavalry comes out as
- Gianitzaroi - mercenary light infantry

Mercenaries in the future may of course be Aliens  (not Alans) :)

Added to that the home grown elite forces (Tagmata) with an extremely heavy cavalry force (klibanophoi) and regional (aka planetary) forces (Themata), with border region warlords and their Boukellarii ("biscuit eaters - effectively huscarls). Mixing up my Byzantine eras I know, but hey....

And then there is the Navy, with Dromons and Greek Fire.....

But despite all this, my overwhelming urge is to put kepis on Space Troopers and call them the Legion Etraterrestriale :)