Elzwehn Update

Elzwehn is the name of  the steampunk / dieselpunk LARP that my friend and I are creating. I'm also using it for my steampunk / dieselpunk miniatures project.

Before I begin my update, here is a little inspiration:

Similar to the aesthetic I envision (especially the Germanic "bad guys").

The project has begun to take shape. I debated a bit whether I should use Oddzial Osmy (O8) 3mm or Irregular 2mm. I went with 2mm because Irregular allows you to order small quantities (sorry O8, I don't need 15 tanks).

I also ordered some felt and cork tiles from Michael's so that I can make some battlefields. While the flip mats and markers are easy to use, they don't look quite so nice. I decided to return to modeled terrain.

For rules, I am using a variant of Age of Heroes. I am incorporating some ideas from my experiment mashing together Age of Heroes with Hell Hath No Fury. This new variant will use the activation rules from Squad Hammer, although I'll try out a couple of tweaks I just devised.

Steampunk Battles

As I mentioned last time, my LARP friend and I are working on new LARP rules inspired by TankLarp. Things are proceeding well - we have the basic combat rules (essentially a mash-up of Amtgard and TankLarp) and even an outline of class rules. I don't know when we'll get to playtest; COVID is just too rampant in my neck of the woods right now to risk meeting.

But this latest craze of ours has me thinking about a new miniatures project. Given that our current setting is more turn of the century, I started poking around with steampunk rules. While I do have In Her Majesty's Name, I don't want a 1:1 skirmish. I'm looking for something with 1 base = a squad or 1 vehicle.

I recently picked up Land Ironclads. I'm still perusing it.

It may be more armor-heavy than what I am looking for. I primarily want infantry battles (like our LARP) with a smattering of heavy weapons / armored contraptions. I will probably end up modifying Age of Heroes but hope to use LI's unit stats as inspiration.

Rules are one quandary I'll need to solve, but the second involves miniatures. I am really tempted to get period-specific miniatures. This flies in the face of my generic army approach, but I am haunted by visions of steampunk walkers and tanks clanking across the battlefield while infantry scurries from cover to cover. I am pretty sure I'll do it in 3mm, although 6mm or 10mm are tempting. I just feel that vehicles will be too large in those (comparatively) larger scales. I do like the LI vehicles offered by Brigade Models, or I could just get some WW1 figures and give them a paint conversion.

I am also thinking of a new (actually old) approach to the battlefield. Lately, I've been using flip mats with dry erase markers. However, I am now in a mind to creating a felt battlefield like I used to use. Here is an example:

Felt field, pot scrubber woods, cork hill (upper right), and a village made of cardboard and balsa wood.

Stay tuned as I ruminate about this new project.

Miniatures with My Wife

Lately, I've been experimenting with skirmish rules. I wondered if I could create a game that she would enjoy to play with me. I broached the subject and she expressed some interest. We discussed what would be the perfect game. Some points we came up with:

1. Uses dice (rolling dice is fun, after all)
2. Some miniatures (it's prettier)
3. Easy and quick set-up (primarily my requirement as I tend to set up the games)
4. Game play between half an hour to an hour

While Mice and Mystics tends to fail on points 3 and 4, I think it is because of special rules and the complexity of the scenarios. If we strip it down to the core rules, I think it will work.

I then asked my wife about what the setting should be. Her answer? Time-traveling, talking cats that wear clothes and hats and go on adventures. She sent me a picture of Victorian-looking cats to illustrate her concept.

Now I have images of a steampunk cat version of Time Tripper but with dogs as the enemies. Actually, it sounds like fun. But where can I get miniatures of steampunk cats?