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Post by slave2gaming on Jan 26, 2016 10:39:41 GMT
Hey guys,
We had some discussions over the weekend about starting the Russians, does anyone think this is worthwhile?
Id thought of something much bigger than the standard forces, maybe 5 - 6 elements of Infantry with a commissar leading them.
Anyway, it won't be for a while, we'd like to get a few more lines of British and Prussians. But I'd still be interested in hearing what people think of these.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 26, 2016 10:52:53 GMT
Hmmm before the Russians, how about some Americans?? With broadbrim hats and gasmasks, for those Texan units out there?? I'd love to have AQ scale Russians and French for that matter. Please do those along the way!! At present all I can do is 1/72 or 15mm true figures for those armies. Oh, whilst dreaming, French Foreign Legion with gasmasks?? Sorry - I can work with anything you guys do, but I'd think there be a bigger audience here in the States for American as you're next 'army'.
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Post by slave2gaming on Jan 26, 2016 11:38:59 GMT
No probs in regards to the US, I don't think that there will be any problems with doing US next, but my concern was simply that there are already US troops. My biggest concern with the US is that with most people having them already I didn't think this would be as good business move to remake the US. I know this is going to sound very business-like, but basically what I can sell will help to pay for more figure in the AQMF and if an army isn't a big seller, it might make it a bad decision financially, I don't want to head the same way as AOW (no offense intended). To be honest I'd love to hear what other people think future army could be for S2G, I believe that Black Hat Miniatures are talking about French & I'd sort of shied away from the French for that reason. Anyway, I know there a few more pieces coming for the British and Prussians before we move on, we'll see where it all goes.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 26, 2016 12:27:04 GMT
Ah good point - but my thought was the unique look of Texas units as opposed to the 'regulars' of USA. Although one could use the standard AD infantry type, I believe there would be a groundswell for gasmaked Texasians, as well as their horse units. Also, there is probably a small need for Armored Infantry, but I throughly see your 'business' approach, we all want you folks to 'live long & profit'. To that end, the Russians would most definately be a welcome addition I believe. Large elements could be build by a standard 10 figures per pack or 15 if you really want to increase pack size. Let us buy more packs to build those larger element units or not - more flexible. No commissars intially. If the line catches on, a second type of 'post-revolution' figures could be made to include that specialty command figure. There'd be no commissars in 'Tzar' Russian in the AQ world. That said, I suppose the rest of the AQ forum could declare the revolution has happened, but IRL it wasn't until late & postwar 1919 that this would come about. Hope you get some ideas from this raving, after all I'm madmorgan for a reason (LOL)...Enjoy!
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Post by Quendil on Jan 26, 2016 12:55:33 GMT
I'm not sure what your hope are for the 18mm line of miniatures you are doing as the AQ market would be limited, as long as they can be used in other games you should be fine. Now your 28mm Elves and Skeletons should appeal to the oldhammer market.
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Post by scottwashburn on Jan 26, 2016 17:06:04 GMT
At the time of the invasion the Russian Army was still trying to recover from the humiliating defeat by the Japanese in 1905. Like all of the humans, they would quickly discover that swarms of infantry armed with rifles are nearly useless against the Martians. Heavy weapons are needed and unfortunately, that was something that was still in short supply for the Russians even as late as 1914, despite help from the French. The wide open spaces of the Steppes is not going to help them much against the Martians who, seemingly, don't have any real lines of supply. Nor is "General Winter" going to be an ally since the Martians come from a far colder planet than Siberia.
Not sure what that all means except that the Russians are going to have a hard time of it.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 26, 2016 18:46:44 GMT
Agreed. I'd not been doing much with French guns for the Russians, which make sense. I suppose you could actually have lots of French stuff supplied in the AQ world by the French, including uniforms. Hmmm an AQ 'French' company or two is not out of the question for Russian front.
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Russians?
Jan 26, 2016 19:25:13 GMT
via mobile
Post by spectre07 on Jan 26, 2016 19:25:13 GMT
Scott I have to disagreed to a certain extent about the snow. Yes mars is cold but dry. Very dry. Any snow would be powder like here in Colorado. Russian snow would range the gambit powder to heavy great lakes area snow or sleet which the Martians would still have a huge issue with esp drones and lobotons.
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Post by slave2gaming on Jan 26, 2016 21:41:05 GMT
I'm not sure what your hope are for the 18mm line of miniatures you are doing as the AQ market would be limited, as long as they can be used in other games you should be fine. Now your 28mm Elves and Skeletons should appeal to the oldhammer market. Yep, do agree completely. The Elves and skeletons are available right now, there are new Skellies archers and a leader coming out soon (they're just not painted yet), there are also different elves coming out in the next few months. Our situation is that simply that we thought we could supply some AQMF stuff and help it survive (both Mike & myself being fans of the game). The British and Prussians were actually made in 28mm first in about 2000(and will be sold in the future), and then Mike made the 18mm a year or two later, they've done very little since then, so AQ is simply the perfect fit for them. Ive actually been trying to work out what is the best way to find out what to look at making, so I've been asking lots of questions on here to get ideas. I've talked with 3D designers to make tripods and other stuff, but ATM it's all about research. We need to at least finish the current ranges, but if we are looking to do more in the AQMF front then I'd really like to do the right stuff. All this having being said, S2G isn't my main job and most of the figures that we are starting to sell have been sitting on the shelf of Mike Broadbent for a few years (I painted the skellies for Mike in 2010), so any money we do make is really a bonus. Thanks all for the thoughts on the Russians.
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Post by scottwashburn on Jan 26, 2016 22:39:13 GMT
I can't imagine that the snow would bother the Martian tripods. In fact, having the ground frozen would be an enormous help to them. The drones might have some problems, and I agree that the intense cold weather would simply kill the Lobototons in huge numbers. But the Martians don't depend on the Lobos.
As for French aid, as I recall, it was primarily help with Russian industry and railroads rather than shipping them actual weapons. But that was in real life. No telling what might happen in the All Quiet world.
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 27, 2016 1:18:27 GMT
Hmmm the problem with heavy deep snow isn't so much the snow itself but what you can't see under it. Believe, I'm having first hand experience right now with our 4' drifts and 18" snowzilla this past weekend. So the snow might well conceal things that would unbalance a tripod, slowing it down (ei difficult terrain). And even punching through ice to walk might pose a hazard. Its not that critical to the game, the heavy snowing causes problems as I've already shown with my 'weather' thread. After its fallen, there no reason to really penalize the Mars players with more terrain rules. Yes, I agreed about the French aid - but, in the AQ world the French were keen on prying Russia away from any alliance with the USA and of coarse driving a bigger wedge between them and Britain (as was the case IRL during that period). Having a market for their weapons, uniforms, etc. gave the French some income when faced with the Germans having better tech to sell to the world and being their 'partner'. Despite the infamous telegram, the French of AQ are still wary of their alliance with Germany.
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Post by loyalist on Jan 27, 2016 3:38:53 GMT
No probs in regards to the US, I don't think that there will be any problems with doing US next, but my concern was simply that there are already US troops. My biggest concern with the US is that with most people having them already I didn't think this would be as good business move to remake the US. I know this is going to sound very business-like, but basically what I can sell will help to pay for more figure in the AQMF and if an army isn't a big seller, it might make it a bad decision financially, I don't want to head the same way as AOW (no offense intended). To be honest I'd love to hear what other people think future army could be for S2G, I believe that Black Hat Miniatures are talking about French & I'd sort of shied away from the French for that reason. Anyway, I know there a few more pieces coming for the British and Prussians before we move on, we'll see where it all goes. There are AQotMF models that AD appears to have been planning to make but didn't release: US and British Cavalry, a British Command unit, British Assault Infantry, plus several Martian tripods other than the large ones (Founder, Overseer and Dominator) like the Gatherer and Constructor that were required for scenarios in the rule book. You and Mike want to make 18mm models that will sell to people other than AQotMF gamers (i.e. Martian Empires and other alternative history gamers), so they have to be a bit generic. What we've seen from you so far meets that goal. I doubt that a majority of people who play AQotMF are going to bail and those who are selling off their collections seem to have no difficulty doing so currently at a profit, so there is still a market. Every BEF player will need at least one Command Unit and probably Assault Infantry and Cavalry units, all of which you and Mike are working on. Some of us would like some naval figures as per previous discussion but the demand might not be high enough for you; that said, Black Hat has a very limited selection of Martian Empires naval figures (a gun crew) and no naval officers. I'd love to have a couple of different officers, a lookout with binoculars and a semaphore guy to crew gunboats - there's no source for 18mm models like that now. For Martian figures everyone playing AQotMF needs Constructors and Gatherers, which could be Grenadier size or smaller. It would be nice to have a 6 legged Constructor as in the novel (a "handling machine").
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 27, 2016 10:12:26 GMT
Yes, love the idea of you folks picking up the slack on the AD ranges as loyalist mentions. As he says, the only Black Hat naval figures are the ones with the gatling gun on carriage. I would like to point loyalist to the Old Glory miniatures line of the Sudan Colonial figures. This has some really nice Naval Brigade figures (15SCB-29, -30) as well as a Heliograph Party (15SCB-27) that work quite well for shipboard and landing figures. In a pinch, you could also use (15WBT-106) Royal Marines, but maybe a little too much period dress for their function in AQ. As far as the tripods, there needs to be more caution there. Black Hat already makes a six-legged 'Handling' machine that will work for a Gatherer easily. As there's no description of the Construction Engines, theres fertile grounds there, as well as the 3 tripods he mentions. British 'Assault' infantry would be nice as well. It becomes a question of what scenario driven figures you think would sell the best - certainly any Martian figures would be welcomed (btw a different version of the Hover Drones would be really cool and there was a 'sneak' drone mentioned in the pdfs) as its the Martian side of things that has a big hole vs the rulebook. Look forward to whatever you folks do & you can't go wrong listening to loyalist on his thoughts.
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Post by novista on Jan 28, 2016 9:07:25 GMT
At the time of the invasion the Russian Army was still trying to recover from the humiliating defeat by the Japanese in 1905. Like all of the humans, they would quickly discover that swarms of infantry armed with rifles are nearly useless against the Martians. Heavy weapons are needed and unfortunately, that was something that was still in short supply for the Russians even as late as 1914, despite help from the French. The wide open spaces of the Steppes is not going to help them much against the Martians who, seemingly, don't have any real lines of supply. Nor is "General Winter" going to be an ally since the Martians come from a far colder planet than Siberia. Not sure what that all means except that the Russians are going to have a hard time of it. If you're going to go down the commissar route, for fluff, make the 1905 Bolshevik uprising a success (ehem), rather than 1917. Local antagonism, could be in keeping with border disputes, Manchuria. Although replacing the fight between Russia and Japan with Russia vs Chinese/Japan coalition, thus spreading along the whole of the Chinese/Russian border. The Martian invasion could put the new 2nd sino war on hold?
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Post by madmorgan on Jan 28, 2016 10:25:27 GMT
Haha, great minds novista - I was going to suggest the 1905 'success' as alternate AQ history. At least yours is a great one - I'm kinda 'mad hatter'. Anywho, you could actually have both the Red and White armies still at it, with the Chinese/Japanese coalition in the mix - enter the Martians and a whole new can of worms. Its doubtful the Red/White armies would work together, but you could have White army holding action with a Red army rear/flank attack - on the Martians of coarse. The other thing would be foreign support, with the Tsars White Russian getting arms and equipment from France and perhaps Germany (small chance that). Maybe the German Foreign Legion type unit or two with experimental equipment to see how they'd fare against the Martians? Visions of Black Hat Tanks and Slave2Gaming Prussian dance through my sleepless eyes... LOL more coffee!
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