More Steampunk: IHMN Companies

Today I had a better read of "In her Majesty's Name" and specifically the rules concerning the creation of "companies" which are the factions in the game.  I also got my Castle Falkenstein RPG figures out of the cupboard - which was good as it reminded me of some figures that I'd forgotten I had - like the Victorian Detective (aka Sherlock Holmes) from Salute 2000, or the Flintloque Zombieski Cossacks.

Rules suggest 3x3 playing area and 250 pts.

First up was the British Rifle Company:

Figures are Redoubt Zulu wars range facing a Castle Falkenstein Mystic/Mage. 

	Based on US Marines
PTS		QTY	PTS
43	Officer	1	43
5	Tough	1	5
29	Gunnery Sergeant	1	29
5	Tough	1	5
2	Bayonet Drill	1	2
80	Marine X4	4	20
8	Bayonet Drill	4	2
20	Marine	1	20
-2	Congreve Rocket Gun	1	-2
7	Rocket Grenade	1	7
14	Spare Grenades	2	7
13	Navy Corpsman	1	13
20	Marine	1	20
5	Marksman	1	5
249	9 Miniatures	TOTAL

Next up were the Naval Landing party for which I used the British Army chart since  have a gatling gun model (not shown).  Against these were the Society of Thule (wicked Germans who meddle with Zombies).   The first picture shows off the problems of focusing on a hand held camera (ought to get the Tripod out), whilst the Second has a Wizzkids Brass Golem and the Pax Limpopop armoured bicycle. 

Figures otherwise are Redoubt Enterprises - Brtish and Wargames Foundry - Germans

	Based on British Regulars			Based on Society of Thule			Tongs
Total PTs			Total PTs			Total PTs
57	Captain		39	Dr Kobalt		55	Master wu-jen
10	Inspirational
			30	Thule Feldwebel
29	Sergeant					30	Tong Lieutenant
5	Tough		104	Jager X4		1	sword
2	Bayonet Drill
			45	2 Jager with flamethrower
80	Riflemen X4					24	Dragon Warrior
6	Bayonet Drill		26	Jager		10	Dragon Tattoo
			5	Marksman
40	Riflemen					45	Yeti
0	Machine Gun
			249	9 Miniatures		84	Boxer X7
				Plus Zombies
15	Field Surgeon					249	10 Miniatures
5	Erudite wit						Yeti
249	9 Miniatures

To try and get a better feel for the "rabble" argument I turned to the Tongs.  Even here points still go as it is tempting to field the yeti, if only to have a nice miniature on the table and whilst the Boxers at only 12 points would seem to fall into the rabble category the total points soon go.   Interesting to note that the companies are mostly coming out at 9 miniatures, somewhat less if you go for the specials.    

Finally a picture of the Castle Falkenstein blisters from Soldiers and Swords so if you see them in a bargain bin it is worth a rummage.  These are Dwarves and Mystics - the most useful for steampunk skirmish are probably the Prussian Soldiers - who I have (but not in blister) and need to photograph. 

Not the best photography but wherever I was I seemed to get flash bounce from the plastic blister packaging. 

Steampunk - Once upon a time there was a roleplaying game

As part of the catch up then I'm covering somethng I got involved with last month.  I did a kickstarter for some figures, specifically the Empire of the Dead Requiem.

A long time ago - well early 90's there was a roleplaying game called Castle Falkenstein that was steampunk plus magic.  I liked it and the theme - I even GM'd a couple of sessions but the White Wolf World of Darkness games (Vampire, Werewolf) were the fashion at the then RPG group and it had limited interest.  Very much it needs people in the right frame of mind and the GM needs a setting that the players want as well.  Needless to say I bought all the books and even managed to get some of the "official' figures out of bargain bins at conventions.  For other figures I scoured various fantasy ranges along with historical ranges from people like Wargames Foundry.

But in some ways the steampunk feel went back earlier than that.  I'd always enjoyed films that featured say Nemo and the Nautilus.  Go back to the mid 80's and was re-reading the Hawkmoon stuff by Michael Moorcock - we were playing alot of Call of Cthulu RPG at the time but the GM had lots (possibly all) of other stuff put out by Chaosium (which is how I got started on the Pendragon).  When a toy shop was having a clearout I got a couple of zoids with a view to converting them.  These may may excellent 'steampunk" vehicles.  I think I have the giant worm pictured below and another one that flaps wings (view to making a Gran Brettanian Ornithopter from Hawkmoon).    

One of the blogs I follow is A conflict of Interests and I found myself agreeing with the comments about wanting the steampunk aspect in preference to the Gothic werwolves vs Vampires.   

Not blogged about here but something I was very taken with a couple of years ago was the Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West game.  Now sadly part of history as I suspect licensing issues means that nobody else will be given permission to reprint it.  One of the groups was the Chinese Tongs - always part of pulp fiction.  The Empire of the Dead Requiem Kickstarter had a couple of free figures that I really wanted - the Dragon Lady, so I ended up backing the project.   

I have the PDF of the rules but not really had chance to go through it yet.  I watched the kickstarter (or Nickstarter to be more appropriate) for the figures for In Her Majesty's name.  The free figures for the various financing options were less generous than the Westwind offer and the basic factions were of less interest or ones that my Castle Falkenstein stuff might cover.  

I have bought the rules though.  Very interesting on a first read through and definitely my sort of game.      The mechanics and construction rules seem fairly sound, and the campaign system whilst somewhat simple looks as if it will work and the whole thing has that "feel" of the campaign and tabletop skirmish game that had appeared in the Legends of the Old West.  

Honor & Intrigue

Not much to say on the figure front as I have been sidetracked a little into the gaming offshoot that is roleplaying.

My copy of Honor and Intrigue from Basic Action Games arrived a while ago, although I got my printed copy from Sphärenmeisters Spiele in Germany.  Just short of €37 including postage, which was far cheaper than any other availability (which I think was ordering it from the states) I had seen to get it in the UK as a printed product.

Setting is essentially swashbuckling - so that loose time period and setting that encompasses the Three Musketeers (Thirty Years War) through Pirates with a dash of Casanova, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Zorro thrown in.

I've skim read it all probably 2-3 times by now, and am currently dissecting the mechanics and generation system to fully understand them.  From a roleplaying viewpoint, then it is pretty much going to be a "play off the character sheet" system, but I suspect does need players who like the genre, a bit of storytelling and who can think on their feet regarding free raises and bonus effects etc.   

Going through the film list set me off on taking stock of what I already had and one that I might only have in Video format - Le Bossu...

I got a (secondhand) copy of the DVD fairly cheap off Ebay, which I then had to watch to remind myself of how much I enjoyed it.