Designing Fantasy Land Ironclads Part 1

 Hi!

I've spent a bit of time looking at my scribbled notes and ideas about the design processes and possibilities for a fantasy Land Ironclads setting and thought I'd use this post to work out some of my ideas!

My initial aim is to get my Dwarf and Orc landfleets built and into action so I'll be looking at them initially and post a bit about what aesthetics and type of play they will be aimed towards.

The Dwarves specialise in engineering and have no magic or magitech, relying on the tried and true steam engine to power most of their vehicles, with a few exceptions so they will stylistically be lumbering and slow moving classic tank designs with a majority of their firepower aimed forwards to suit their defensive nature. The smaller vehicles in the landfleet are the Ironclads, well armoured and armed but slow. Similarly the heavier Anvil class is basically a beefed up version of the Ironclad with heavier armour and guns and are intended to plod forward and blast anything that gets within range of them.

But I also have the Warhammer and Battle Forge classes, proper cruiser level Land Ironclads who will be able to dish out serious amounts of firepower while trundling around. While the Warhammer has a single medium turret and two medium gun barbettes, they also have a pair of light gatling turrets to deal with any marauding infantry trying to sneak up on the flank. The Battle Forge is a bit of an oddball with a heavy gun turret but also a very powerful broadside which doesn't fit too well with the modern Dwarven approach to battle.

Ironclad Formation

I still need to make more cruiser level Land Ironclads for the Dwarves and plan on making a couple of big Battleship levels as well but am currently pondering on how to make these look. One of the best things about working in such a small scale is that I can make machines pretty quickly and easily and with the nature of an industrialised people who are fiercely clannish, they will have a fairly wide variety of styles and makes of warengines depending on which Hold they come from. 

The Dwarves also make use of walkers so I'm going to make a bunch of War Golems to give the Dwarven forces some more mobile contraptions and am contemplating making some larger Living Ancestor class Golems for a bit of fun!

There's also the Airfleet to think of as I already have a Dig bomber and some Gyrocopters to buzz around and annoy opponents and suspect that I'll be beefing this branch of the military up as well...

Finally I want to add some specialist Land Ironclads to my collection in the form of a carrier and possibly some heavy artillery too to give me a really large selection of stuff to choose from for the upcoming campaign.

The Orcish Horde is a very different beast.

Titanosaur Gun Wartowers

The Orcs are a culture that thrives on war but are largely nomadic and use vast lizard like creatures to act as their weapons of war so I've got several small and medium level Warbeasts done already but feel that the Orcs will also be getting some experimental and very unreliable Land Ironclads too as they attempt to modernise their forces. 

Gamewise, the Warbeasts will be quicker and probably more manoeuvrable than the clanking Dwarven machines and better suited to rushing forward and getting into close combat with their opponents, relying on the combat prowess of the Warbeasts to crush enemy formations. This will probably mean that I've got a lot of sculpting ahead of me as the beasts will probably be quite cheap gamewise as they're a bit fragile so need numbers to make up the deficiency in lastability.

Orc Formation

I've currently got Necrosaur and Titanosaur gun wartowers which will form the bulk of my forces but will give the force more options by including rocket wartowers and twin titanosaur heavy gun batteries to give them some long range punch. Coupled with lots of infantry and cavalry, the Horde should fight quite differently from the Dwarven defenders.

Land Ironclad wise, the Orcs will be getting some Orkish style scraptech. Bodged together from all manner of sources, the Orcish Land Ironclads will be formed of a fairly readily available small class and rarer but heavy cruiser classes to act as mobile command and bragging bases for the Khans to lord it over their followers and as already mentioned, they will be pretty experimental with some interesting weapon options ranging from spar torpedos to the Eye of Gorath!

Necrosaur Gun Wartowers

The Orc airfleet will consist largely of Darkwings and Wyverns, small to medium sized winged lizards which will be available in considerable numbers as they will rely on swarm attacks to wreak havoc on their opponents. 

Fluff wise, the Orcs in Aeroth are actually Gorathian's, a race imported from another planet by the Elves long ago to act as soldiers in their army but The Death caused by the thrice cursed Elves use of the World Killer Engine to defeat a mysterious foe has left them trapped on Aeroth and desperate to get back to their own world, or failing that to conquer this new one. They are a largely nomadic culture but do have several permanent settlements which are more like military camps than anything else. They have subjugated the Goblins and use them as manual labourers who farm, raise flocks of smaller creatures and generally act as cannon fodder in Orc attacks.

Thus far I've spend more time thinking about the Orcs and Dwarves than I have the Elves and Human Barbarians who make up the other two major factions in the game but here's some ponderings on them too!

The Elves are masters of Magitechnology so have access to all manner of arcane weapons of war. Their frontier forces make plentiful use of Earthbound Dragons. Twisted and mutated descendants of the true dragons are fast moving and capable of carrying Powerlances mounted on their scaly backs. Next up there is the Landfleet, beautiful but deadly grav vehicles who use Liftstones to float effortlessly over the landscape and powered by Earthpower, an arcane energy that the Elves contain within great crystals and allow the vehicles to move, fire weaponry and in some of the larger and specialised classes shield them from incoming fire.

The Elven forces will probably find themselves outnumbered by pretty much any opponent but their long range and deadly firepower will balance the scales somewhat and their rapid moving and oft times shielded vehicles will tip the odds in their favour more often than not.

The Elves also have access to the largest and most powerful of airfleets with dragonrider wings and great flying barques that can rain down destruction upon any foe with near impunity so there's plenty of interesting stuff to play around with!

As for the Barbarians, they specialise in Elemental magic so can summon great elementals to crush their foes so there will be a number of different sizes and types of elemental to make ranging from stone elementals armed with massive boulder throwing and combat potential to fire elementals capable of searing opponents to wind elementals who specialise in bringing destruction on airfleets.

They also make use of warbeasts like the Orcs so will have chariots and wartowers armed with small shard guns, elementally charged weapons that fire iron bolts at great speed and capable of transporting infantry. 

I've also got loads of other stuff to work on, be they the Sea Demons, Daughters of Leviathan, the Horned Folk, Children of the Moon, Followers of the Worm, The Knights of the Eternal Light, the City States, the Order of the Tower, Grey Elves, The Stygian, The Fallen, Mercenaries and more! 

Hopefully I'll get chance to flesh out each of these forces but I want to get the Orcs and Dwarves finished first as well as delving into the setting I've been creating as well so apologies for all the rambling but I've found it rather fun to start getting the project moving on so do expect more Land Ironclads updates soon!

All the best!

A Dwarven Infantry Regiment Arrives

 Hi!

Slightly later than hoped for but here's some pics of my completed Dwarf infantry regiments for my Land Ironclads project!

Constructed from two sheets of EVA foam and scored to give a bit of detail, they are a quick and easy way to give me some really cheap and effective figures for my game!

1st and 2nd Brigades of the 17th Dur Zamor Guard

I need to make at least another regiment of the little guys and add some light artillery to give them some support but I'm quite pleased with the newest additions to my forces and hopefully I'll be able to add some opposing Orc regiments to try and storm the defences of the Great Wall!

Annoyingly I seem to have run out of bases to build any more so I'll need to purchase some more but that will give me the excuse to build more Ironclads, heavy artillery and all manner of other Dwarven inventiveness before they arrive. I've got to start making some Orc warbeasts and I'm also messing about with some Orc warengine concepts so they can get access to some Land Ironclads too, preferably of a super unreliable nature!

I'll add more stuff here as I get them finished so watch this space but in the meantime, All the best!

Land Ironclads Revisited

 Hi!

It's been a really busy few weeks and I've found myself seeking to get some hobby time in my much needed holiday.

Instead of working on the other gubbins I have, I have decided to revisit my 2mm Land Ironclads project with a vague aim of putting together enough stuff for my Dwarves and Orcs to play out a bit of a campaign in the coming year.

I'm currently working on getting a regiment of Dwarven infantry put together but will be building a load more stuff for the upcoming campaign as I got to thinking about having the Dwarves defending their great wall in the Axebite Pass against a mighty Orc Horde led by the mighty Khan Krull, chosen of Gorath!

There's a lot of fun bits and bobs that I have planned for the coming months including scenery and lots of warbeasts, war engines and flyers as I plan on starting small and building up until I can play a cataclysmic battle for the wall between scores of regiments and engines of destruction clashing including siege engines and all manner of interesting gubbins.

I'll try and get the infantry finished this evening and will showcase it tomorrow so watch this space and I hope to add some new units in the coming week.

In the meantime, All the best!

Seasons Greetings from Farpoint!

 Hi!

Well Christmas is almost upon us and following that a three week enforced holiday for me!

Before the festive shenanigans begin, I wanted to take a quick peek back at the year to see how I got on with all things hobby related.

First off, to date I've painted 139 assorted figures, scenic gubbins and whatnot in every scale from 2mm to 28mm and above so from that perspective it's been a productive year, primarily driven by my three months of lockdown in March to June. This is an improvement over 2019's total which is fab!

I'm really pleased to have made a bit of a bash at my Rusty Robots project that has been well and truly on the back burner for almost a decade now as work has kind of taken up much of my spare time so it was really great to finally see some figures and scenery make an appearance.

I also got some Mechs built to play some Battletech using my own SD sort of style which was fun but ultimately frustrated by a series of badly sculpted infantry that required chucking. Hopefully I'll get back to them in the future and flesh out a couple of lances...

Meanwhile, my fantasy Land Ironclads trundled slowly on and I pretty much finished my Dwarves for the time being and introduced the Vongola City State to the selection of forces I can field. I really need to take a week or two to finish everything up for this project but have as usual galavanted off on a tangent more than once!

Speaking of which, my War of Ashes saw me add a bunch of Kuld but I still need to make more of the voracious little eating machines to give me a proper force. Maybe I'll get around to it during this lockdown if I get my other challenges done first...

I also managed to paint up the entirety of the original Deadloque box for Flintloque, something I never thought I'd do as I'm fairly sure that in the 28 years I've been gaming I've never completed any boxed set before!

Next up, looking at my gaming progress, I managed to play 21 games using six different systems which is also an improvement on last year but it felt like I could have done more, especially if I could just knuckle down and finish off a force or two rather than gadding off on a tangent every five minutes.

This brings me to my mini plan for 2021!

First and foremost, I really, really want to get my Rusty Robots done so plan to concentrate on getting a starter gang for each of the tribes done and a bunch of random civilians, scenery and denizens of The Scrapyard made.

The plan is to get sculpting whenever I can to build as many of the little guys as I can and then paint whatever of them catch my fancy so that I don't bore myself with doing all the same stuff. This may mean a bit of an eclectic mix of odds and sods making an appearance but it can't be helped and if I can put together enough stuff, I can start playing some games which will see rumbles in The Scrapyard making their appearance here which should be fun!

I forsee needing to invest in a hot wire cutter soon to make lots of blocky terrain but it will come in handy for lots of other bits and bobs when I get around to my other plans for the year...

I've got so many things I'd like to do given the time and I figure a three week lockdown will give me a chance to make a bit of a start on them!

It's not all going to be Rusty Robots though this year! I also have set myself the challenge of painting my way through the original Flintloque box too so will need to get cracking to get the 15 figures done and if possible try out a game or two!

Back in the mid 90's after leaving the GW hobby, I stumbled upon Flintloque and have a hankering to paint some more of the chunky little chaps so will be making a bit of an attempt to start putting the collection back together. My buying approach back then was to pick up whatever blister pack appealed to me so I had a very mixed collection with Elves, Goblins, Orcs, Dwarves and all manner of odds and ends but it somehow fitted with the game and I am keen to revisit the joys of Valon and it's assorted races. 

The need to play Flintloque isn't as great as to just enjoy the experience of painting the figures and every so often plonk what I have on the table for a bit of a RPG lite sort of scenario driven wander around the edges of the wars of Mordred.

Lastly (for now at least!) there's Leviathan. It's a project I've repeatedly picked up and put down over the years but never really stopped obsessing about so I figure I'd best use 2021 to finally get it out of my system and work on a monthly challenge I've set myself. I want to paint at least one figure, be it resin or metal from the range every month and see what I end 2021 with. 

I'm not sure if I can bring myself to use the metal figures from the range as they are massive but after painting the resin Dragonbane rider and being pleasantly surprised by just how good it was, I may try using an entirely original figure approach (for the most part as the old Heartbreaker range has lots of goodies that complement the concept!). 

I've no idea how things will turn out with all these options but I look forward to having a go and who knows, the Boar Company may yet ride again with new allies, old foes and more sculpts to boot!

Folks may notice that smaller scale projects are absent from my 2021 plan at the moment. I have found myself somewhat indifferent to 15mm and 6mm for a while now but feel that if the right inspiration struck, I'd have a great time painting those scales again but we shall have to see what next year brings. 

I'll be taking Christmas day off and then starting up my Lockdown 2.0 daily project log for at least three weeks and will see how I get on.

In the meantime, All the best and hope you and yours have a fantastic Christmas and wonderful new year!

Richard

Playing Around With Land Ironclads

Hi!

Well it's been an eventful few days with odds and ends painted but nothing completed but I have been spending a bit of time playing around with my Land Ironclads project.

I've got my own ruleset that I've been working on alongside a few tweaks to the original rules as well but I've got to thinking about the possibility of using either Epic 40k or Battlefleet Gothic as they both would work really well with the concept of a landfleet of massive steampowered behemoths trundling around blowing up each other.

I need to do a bit of brainstorming to see what works best but if nothing else, it will give me an excuse to paint up the last odds and ends from the stuff I have for the project and I'm keen to keep working on my assorted landfleets.

I must admit that I'm missing working in such a small scale as it's really forgiving when sculpting and I have tons of ideas that I wouldn't mind putting together, be it monstrous wartower, steampowered land ironclad, magitech construct or even technological walker!

I'm going to do a bit of playing around with doodles and plasticard to see what I can come up with as my Vongola and Dwarves only need contraptions and some super heavies and they'll be complete. Next up I have to get my Gorathian Orcs finished and then I'll see if I can add an ally contingent of the human settlement of Pinecliff for my Dwarves. It will involve some infantry, cavalry and even the odd contraption provided by the Order of the Tower!

I'll get a bit of doodling done over the course of the next couple of days and post my progress here before tying to sculpt some of them!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 73

Hi!

I've managed to get the last two of my Dwarven Land Ironclads finished at last!

Firestorm Class Rocket Ironclad and Battle Forge Class Command Ironclad

The Firestorm is a development of the Anvil class Ironclad which the Dwarven engineers have developed to give their landfleet a long range support vehicle. Armed with a battery of Firestorm rockets which give the vehicle its name as well as two sponson guns to give it some direct fire defences, the Firestorm is a rare design still undergoing trials but the fearsome amount of devastation it can bring upon its target is making it a popular choice in Dwarven expeditions.

Battle Forge

The Battle Forge is an old design amongst the Dwarven Landfleet as most of its firepower is concentrated on the vehicles flanks giving a terrifying broadside but only one heavy turret mounted on a turret with a limited traverse means that it often struggles to bring its full weight to bear when in the defensive form of combat the Dwarves tend to rely on. Combined with a traction assembly that is barely able to move the behemoth at much more than a walking pace means that it is only a matter of time before this class is retired for the newer and more advanced designs.

With that being said, the Battle Forge is a venerable design, still popular with its crew so it is expected to be in service for some time to come.

I've had this vehicle for a while in pieces as it just didn't look right being so tall and stubby but I finally decided to get it painted and into a game as a somewhat obsolete design that till trudles around blasting at stuff.

I think the problem is that I should have gone for a 40x60mm base and stretched the thing a bit with longer tracks and a lower hull which I suspect will be how my next heavy hitter will be based once I finalise a design for it!

Here's the Battle Forge compared to the Capo di Capo from the Vongola city state:

Capo di Capo and Battle Forge

Both are older designs which rely on broadside volleys to crush their foes with only a single turret mounting heavy guns with a traverse. Game wise, the Battle Forge will be a bit of a beast with tons of guns and armour but moves at a snailspace.

Speaking of games, here's a few shots of the two full armies in action:

Vongola and Dwarven landfleets engage

I'm going to try out a game of my own devising in the next day or two which takes elements from Song of Blades, Full Thrust and several others to see how the two armies work. I do need to look at putting together some infantry and cavalry but am not too sure how they'd fare against the destructive power of such mighty iron beasts!

Lancia class Ironclads

I'm interested in seeing how a fast but not very well armoured force works against a very heavily armoured but slow one. I suspect that I'm going to have to finish the last two of my Vongola heavy ironclads to even things up a bit as the Dwarves have currently got the advantage in firepower.

I'll also need to get some more scale suitable scenics finished as the two landfleets need some objectives to fight over too!

Dwarven Ironclads and Gyrocopters engage a formation of Lambo class Vongola ironclads.

I have got some small steamtanks for each side and really should get them painted up too but feel it's important to see how the bigger vehicles cope. There's also some more air assets for the two forces needing painted up but I shall get round to that eventually too.

 Dwarven and Vongola heavies steam towards each other

I have also got my Orcs who will play very differently from both of my existing fleets as they use living transport in the form of giant lizards but they need quite a bit of work before they are a suitable fighting force of their own so maybe I should aim to get them done at some point in the coming months.

 Vongola Zephyrs scream towards a lumbering Dwarf dig bomber

Looking at the original forces from Leviathan, I still need to work on designs for the Barbarians and the Elves, not to mention a host of other interesting races and factions who are vying for control of Aeroth too...

Vintage Aerial picture!

In other news, I've finished the papertech versions of the light and medium Mechs from the 3025 tech readout:

Papertech!

Clint, Hermes 2, Vulcan, Whitworth, Blackjack, Hatchetman, Phoenix Hawk

Valkyre, Firestarter, Jenner, Ostscout, Panther, Assassin, Cicada

Locust, Wasp, Stinger, Commando, Javelin, Spider, Urbanmech

I'll try and get the heavy and assault mechs done next so watch this space and they will be added to my Papertech page asap!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 36

Hi!

With all the gubbins I've been working on over the last month or so I've found myself with a hankering to work on my Leviathan stuff.

There seems to be a bit of interest in the game all of a sudden, especially over on facebook which has been great to see and I am looking to get some of my assorted Aeroth themed projects worked on.

Of these, the furthest forward is my SD scale Boar Company:

Flint, Marik Goldhelm and Grimli

Over the years the Boar Company has fought a series of skirmishes with the rogue sorcerer, Marik Goldhelm and I've really enjoyed building the little chaps but have realised that I've not made anything for them in absolutely ages which I really need to do something about!

Boar Company on patrol

Next up, there's my 2mm Land Ironclads which are themed around my version of Leviathan:

Vongola Zephyrs bomb Dwarven Ironclads

I've got quite a few bits and bobs painted up for each force but my Dwarves need a few odds and ends added before they are complete and my Orcs need lots of infantry and cavalry, not to mention more Wartowers which I'll need to sculpt.

Necrosaur Wartowers face off against Dwarven Ironclads

Finally, there's my 28mm scale stuff that I've slowly been painting up over the last while:

Dwarves fighting an Elf Dragonbane

These have been both an old project and a new one which I've rather enjoyed working on. But how do I combine them together into a more complete sort of narrative?

I think I'm going to keep the 28mm scale stuff true to the original rulebook and aim to put together some small skirmish level games with a half dozen figures per side, much like a fantasy version of Gorkamorka with several fantasy races and warbeasts instead of buggies and bikes. 

This is going to be a bit of a slow burn sort of a project as I have got a fair few bits and bobs for most forces other than the Barbarians but it takes me ages to paint them. 

Orc vs Elf

The 2mm scale and SD stuff will be combined into a more original sort of a version of Aeroth with more tech and will allow me to continue exploring the world and its inhabitants. For example I am now needing to put together a Vongola SD force which is going to be interesting to say the least but it will allow me to play both small skirmishes and larger battles, at least in theory!

Vongola Task Force Coyote

We shall have to see what I can come up with in the coming weeks as I start tying together the disparate elements, projects and random gubbins that I've painted during lockdown!

Obviously, there are some projects such as War of Ashes, Rusty Robots and Flintloque which are very much their own thing which I will continue working on as time allows but I'm keen to see how I get on, especially as there's still no clear idea ho long this lockdown is going to go on for.

I'll post more of my thoughts on the process tomorrow but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 35

Hi!

Here's the latest addition to my Vongola City States!

 Vongola Gokudera class attack Ironclad

The Gokudera is a new addition to the Vongola landfleet. Armed with two light turrets and a pair of heavy guns in a fixed forward firing position giving them a fearsome punch for their size. This heavy armament does have a downside as the tremendous recoil can damage the ironclad if fired too often.

The Gokudera is a rarity amongst Ironclad designs as it isn't steampowered. Instead it has a powerful Black Water engine which the Vongola has developed and incorporated into their new experimental Ironclad.

With these three finished, I only have two more Ironclads left to paint!

 Vongola Ironclads maneuver through the Red Mesa wastes 

I'm really pleased to have got another three tiny tanks painted up and ready to rock. I'm now eying up some gubbins for some Aeronef to give me some more airborne units.

I'm edging towards having all the gubbins for a second project completed in one year which is rather exciting so we shall see what I can do in the coming week!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 32

Hi!

As promised, here's some pics of the latest additions to my Vongola City State landfleet!

 Lambo formation Secondo

Some time ago I played a quick game of Song of Blasters (my own rules bodge) which saw the first three of my Lambo class Ironclads go up against a somewhat heavier Dwarf formation and get thoroughly blown up. I'm quite pleased to have another three painted which should give me some small, disposable Ironclads to draw fire or snatch objectives.

 Lambo class formation Primo and Secondo

Once again, the miniatures are Brigade Models Brunell class war tractors and are lovely little figures that were great fun to paint!

 Task force Coyote

The force is really shaping up nicely and I'm looking forward to adding some more heavy units and I may have to take a peek at Brigades range to round out my larger Ironclads or indeed make a few of my own!

I also want to put together some character based vehicles to represent some of the elite units of the Vongola and will need to rummage out my 2mm infantry and cavalry to add some teeny tiny squishies for my Land Ironclads project too which will give me pretty much everything I'll need for a nice big force!

I'm also going to put together one or two somewhat larger flyers than the Zephyr's that my Vongola currently have.

Zephyr

Tomorrow I'll be posting some pics of my latest additions to my War of Ashes but in the meantime, All the best!