Steam Wars And The Start Of A New Force

The Derby Game show afforded me the opportunity to pick out some new figures for a larger project that I had been thinking about for a few months now.  Coronasan has written a rather good set of rules (simple and very quick) for his steam wars figures to be used with.  He and I have tried these rules a couple of times now in the shed, and they have done very well.  I have used his Prussian Scrunts and played against his Meridian Empire forces.

It was about time I set myself the task of gathering my own steam wars force.  As the British and German (Prussian) forces have been taken, and as I wanted something a little different to play, I decided to take on a naval theme.

Derby was my first opportunity to look, first hand, at some of the miniatures that would do the job.  Lots of manufacturers are out there, but not many have naval figures in a late 19th/ early 20th century period.

Therefore easy head swaps, and a very loose approach to the theme, would be best to stop myself from getting too frustrated with lack of little naval men.

The main force comes from the lovely people at Black Pyramid Games (along with plenty of spare heads for any swaps I would need to make).  Their Tea wars range supplied most of what I needed as troops and big guns.

Tiger Miniatures helped to increase the number of support weapons with their recoilless gun and machinegunners.

Black Pyramid’s resin range has a lovely towed gun set that fits in well, and when painted, will be a nice big piece on the table.

Some varied ‘Pulp’ style seamen are useful for crewmen and command figures.

The Lead Adventure range supplied a steam robot or two which are armed with what looks like old ships cannons.

West Wind brought this out just days after Derby.  Its from their empire of the dead range and with Naval heads where the westwind ones should have gone looks like it will fit in well.

I wanted a naval force because I wanted to get away from steam tanks and have some land ships and boat like vehicles on the board when we play.  I have yet to find many that do the job but that’s half the fun of a project like this.

The west wind ship was £25 but was smaller than I expected…  At this size a squad of them would look good but at that price I am unlikely to get more than the one.

One happy accident was that the guys at west wind miss picked the contents of my ship.  A rogue turret appeared in my pack instead of a set of wheels.  Quickly and easily remedied, with a new set of wheels being sent out by West Wind, it did leave me with an extra turret (designed for the ships next release later this year).

Said turret, with some of the Black Pyramid Ether Weapons stuck on, looks like it was made for my old Brass Coffin by Ramshackle Games.  This rather large vehicle has been sat in the shed for over a year with no clear purpose. It is a large, unarmed, vehicle that doesn’t serve as a tank or a transport so has no clear place in a game.  Now it will be a heavy support vehicle for my new naval force.

I wonder how long it will take me to get these on to the painting table…