"War of the Worlds British Infantry..." Topic

What uniforms do people think?

Redoubt makes suitable figures in the Home Service uniforms; but a) They're 105p each and b) I've not seen them in the metal and Redoubt ranges vary in quality.

Every other range is from that era is Zulu War based, so they're wearing pith helmets. BTD have a nice bundle that includes infantry, guns, gatlings for 120 quid (minus current discounts) and they also have rockets and heliographs in the same range.

I'm not total averse to the idea of deploying pith-helmeted chappies against the martians, but it just feels ever so slightly wrong somehow.

Has anyone bought the Redoubt ones to tell me if they're any good? Or any opinions?

Redoubt are very nice, but big sculpts; they're pretty tall. Other possibles are HLBS (not on their website, but it might be worth emailing to see if they're still available) which are nicely proportioned and a more normal size, and RAFM, whose Riel Rebellion includes British infantry in the spiky helmet amongst other things. Wessex also do some; I've not seen these, but am told they're a slightly more caricatured style to suit the VSF leanings of the company.

Dom.

I managed to grab some of Ironclad Miniature,s new home service Brits at SALUTE. Very nice indeed, but the guns look a bit modern with a clip on magazine rather than a breach.

Not sure when magazines were introduced?

Although published in 1898, The War of the Worlds is set in the early 20th century – so you could use some of the various 1914 BEF figures, in the service dress adopted in 1904.

By the way, I am not sure that a heliograph would be a good choice for reliable communications in English weather!

the service dress adopted in 1904

Or was it 1902? I can never remember.

Alan Moore's fantastic "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" pits its protagonists against H.G.Well's martians in volume II.

Artist Kevin O'Neill has the Brits in redcoated 'Home Service' rig at the start of the invasion, and B.E.F.-style khaki by the end of it.
(as well as Victorian NBC gear with Masonic insignia!)

Wessex also do some; I've not seen these, but am told they're a slightly more caricatured style to suit the VSF leanings of the company.

See here – link

As an aside, Black Hat are meant to be doing some in 18mm shortly.

I use the Redoubt figures. They are large figures so do not mix well with other makes. Most of the infantry figures are taken from their Sudan range with a change of headgear.Very nice figures though. Some of the Leviathan crew figures are a bit dodgy.

Alternatively Ironclad have a new range out and these are more inline with other 28's.

Pith helmets and the Home Service Dress copy pickelhaube aren't massively different. File off the pugarees, paint them black with a big metal badge in the middle and who is going to know?

The foundry Boer War brits have got Lee Metfords and the later pattern equipment (Slade Wallace? – I can never remember all the different types).

"No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century….."
I think the 1904 uniforms wouldnt be in service at that time.
I could be wrong.
R.

"No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century….."

I think that's when they started watching us. They invaded a few years later.

I've just been painting the RAFM in Home Service helmet. A joy, and they are quite different from a pith helmet in shape.

"I am not sure that a heliograph would be a good choice for reliable communications in English weather!"

No, but Martians don't like bright lights…

I'd always taken the opening words as giving it's setting in the late 1890s as well. It has to be set before 1903 because of the characters reactions to the idea of heavier-than-air flight.

Ironclad's figures look nice from the photos, but there's no gun crews (and lets be honest here -- the infantry aren't going to be on the table long without guns).

I believe Ironclad have many plans for the range…

KatieL,

Interpreting World of the Worlds as an enjoyable 28mm tabletop game sounds challenging. The problem being that the tripods and artillery will be inclined to just line up at either end of the board and pop away at each other until one side's wiped out. Rather dull!

How do you plan to stimulate manovering and make the game more intresting?

"No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century….."

That paragraph concludes: "And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment", so Streetline has it right.

It has to be set before 1903 because of the characters reactions to the idea of heavier-than-air flight.

Thanks to their obsession with secrecy, it was some years before the Wright Brothers' December 1903 flight became known. When Alberto Santos-Dumont achieved powered flight in Paris in 1906, he thought he was the first (and maintained for many years later that the Wrights had done little more than gliding).

Of course, Wells was writing in the 1890s. You wouldn't say, for example, that Nineteen Eighty-Four couldn't possibly be set after 1979 because no-one mentions Mrs Thatcher.

But just as Wells couldn't have known that powered flight would have been achieved in the early 20th century, he couldn't have known that the British army would switch entirely to khaki, either. I expect that he had red coats in mind (I think that there's a mention somewhere in the book of blue artillery uniforms, but I don't have time to check). I was just raising a thought about how to expand the range of options.

There were some handy thoughts on gaming The War of the Worlds in Simon Evans's article "Bows and Arrows Against the Lightning", from an early issue of ragnarok. It's online here:
sfsfw.org/a/05/lightning.php

A good little article there with some inspiring ideas.

Thanks for the link Steve.

"Of course, Wells was writing in the 1890s."

You're absolutely right -- I'm going to blame my poor logic on the fact I've been trying to write CSS all afternoon and it has a certain effect on the sanity.

"How do you plan to stimulate manovering and make the game more intresting?"

The humans can be given mission objectives of just delaying the Martians. The Martians objectives can be more complex than just killing everything -- needing, say, to capture humans and feed off them is going to complicate things..

Given that the Martians are restricted in their resources (they can only have so many fighting machines) it's not unreasonable that they run severe risk of winning a battle at too high a cost.

One suggestion – deviate slightly from the book. Allow infantry to inflict some damage to tripods – slow 'em down, that sort of thing – at close range. When the tripods try to stomp them they can scatter and then regroup, etc.

Otherwise they are just spectators to the artillery-death ray shoot out.

My first look at WotW was Classic Comics, which had the British Army in khaki. SO that's the way I recall them. But then everyone has their own take on it.

i loved Classic Comics. We bought a LOAD of them when the dollar store had them several years ago. Got WoW.

Thanks,

John