"Little Wars Melbourne Games & Traders Updates" Topic

With Little Wars Melbourne coming up in less than three weeks now (May 25), we thought it would be good to promote some of the lovely games on offer – brought to you by the hard-working volunteers from our wargaming community. Over the weeks on this thread, we'll be posting game pics and details, as well as the odd trader, that will be there on the day.

The day, itself, is organised to have games run from 10am until 4pm. After that, people are welcome to breakout their own games of whatever they like – wargames, boardgames, cards, roleplaying – up to 10pm at night. There'll be a pizza run for dinner, and there'll be a few of us to chat/gossip away into the night. ;) If you're interested in coming along, entry is FREE and you'd be most welcome. Check out further details on our website/blog: littlewarsmelbourne.com

GAMES:
Little Wars – Battle for Hook Farm

We are going to do The Battle for Hook Farm, as featured in HG Wells, "Little Wars", but with 40mm AWI figures using Black Powder. Players wearing jackets and boaters would be nice, but it is not compulsory. We will, however, have an original copy of "Little Wars" on display with the game.

Golden Die – 28mm Spy Game

A participation game where the players will all have one secret agent ( MI6, CIA, etc) and work together to fight the evil Dr D and his minions…We will prepare handouts and simple rule/character cards, so everyone can just rock up and play. We will use an action based D6 system (very simple) and the players will have golden dice for special actions (high tech spy gadgets, luck rolls etc)

28mm Superheroes

Hotshot Heroes! Vile Villains! Horrible Henchmen! When superpowers clash, will Super City be saved or destroyed? When Robot Armies attack, when the dead walk, when gods clash; will you be a hero, or grind the city beneath your heel? This fast-play game allows players to take on the role of heroes and villains from comics, movies and television battle it out in classic four-colour style!

SAGA – 28mm Samurai and Dark Age

Attack on the Ida-Ryu faction – 1581AD

Battle of Anglesey 1098AD

6mm Battle of Leipzig

Leipzig will be refought on a grand scale with a 3m x 3m playing area (representing 10 miles x 10 miles) and 405 unit bases, including (feel free to count them) 54 Russian batteries. We will be using a modified form of Fast Play Grande Armee.

ANIMA: Tactics, is a small scale skirmish game played across the world, it features almost every genre of fantasy you can imagine as powerful heroes go into battle aligned by personal ethics or organizational ties. Learning Anima is extremely simple and fast, players take control of teams of three or more characters, each a individual unit with unique abilities. The basics of the game take about a half hour and even when your up with the rules the game will usually play in an hour or a little more.

Traders:

The Combat Company will be bringing a ute-full of goodies to the event. We'll have a nice mix of tabletop wargames with staples such as Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, and new, popular games such as Infinity, Warmahordes, Malifaux, Dystopian Wars, etc, and a selection of hobby tools, accessories and paints. As this is our first ever event in Victoria, we'll also be running a ‘save 5% off + pick up at the event' promotion for our Victorian customers (and anyone else planning to travel interstate!).

--->More updates soon!

Update – Games:

28mm Pirate Skirmish Game – Mike (NWA)

This is a public participation game using "Legends of the High Seas". Players: 2 – 4. Game time: 2 – 3 hours. Three sessions are planned for the day. BYO pirate crew (200 Doubloons) or a scallywag pirate crew will be provided.

28mm Bolt Action: Germans vs Soviet Naval Brigade – Mark

Get to know the popular WW2 skirmish rules. Mark will be running a couple of easy-to-learn sessions over the day. Give it a try and run a platoon or two. If you're really nice to him, Mark might even be convinced to wear his pickelhaube…

King Kong Adventure – Ian

Travel to the mysterious Skull Island and take part in the great hunt for the King of the Jungle himself. The Mighty – KING KONG.

Take on the role of CC B. DeVille and his troupe of actors and film crew, the wily sea captain and his trust crew, the creepy island natives, Rocket Morton and his Rocket Rangers as they zoom in to save the day or even Kong himself.

Traders:

Joe Dodgy's Dice and Games will be bringing a massive pile of gaming goodness including, but not limited to, Boardgames (Rio Grande, Fantasy Flight, Days of Wonder) Card Games (Steve Jackson Games, Asmodee, AEG) and Tabletop Miniatures Games (Mongoose, Bolt Action, Battlefront, Ares).

Join the discussion on what you'd like us to bring on our facebook page – facebook.com/joedodgy or make sure of it by placing a pre-order on our website for us to bring on the day!

MORE DETAILS AT littlewarsmelbourne.com

Looking forward to being there, I'm very happy to see so many games and traders coming along to help us.

Nic Eureka Miniatures

Avatar by Gaslight: Victorian Science Fiction on Venus – Neil

As the first Ether ships took to the Cosmos brave explorers stretched out mankind's reach first to our neighbouring moon then the red planet Mars. Our other neighbour the planet Venus also drew ether ships to explore it with its mysterious surface hidden by a dense cloud cover.

It was the French Ether ship Providence commanded by Manuel Le Febrevere of the French Cartographic guild that first penetrated the cloud barrier to discover Venus' secrets. Le Febrevere discovered a hot, steamy planet covered in dense jungles, ravaged by massive tropical storms and populated by savage beasts of enormous size. Indeed so dangerous was the jungle terrain that Le Febrevere himself was killed in an unfortunate encounter with a giant Lizard creature.

Those first reports on Venus brought back to Earth by the Providence showed that in addition to the terrifying beasts that roamed the jungle there appeared to be two races of intelligent creatures that inhabited the planet. The first was a race of humanoid lizard like creatures, utterly barbaric, violent and merciless. All attempts to communicate with these creatures failed totally.

The second race of creatures was a race of humanoid parrot like creatures that lived on the amazing floating mesas above the dense jungle. These Parrotmen called themselves the Na'vee. The Na'vee were not immediately hostile to Le Febrevere and his crew and they were able to open a basic dialogue and exchange gifts.

It was not long before other countries joined in the exploration of Venus. Very soon the planet was visited by the British, Americans and Prussians with several countries establishing small outposts for trading and exploration,however the harsh climate took a heavy toll on these settlements as the hot temperature bred disease and the number of deaths was very high.

The extremes of the Venusian terrain and the tyranny of distance would have limited the Venus expansion to a few small outposts for some limited trading and scientific exploration, however two significant discoveries would forever change the level of interest mankind had with this steamy hostile planet.

The first was the discovery of the giant Orcas Levitatus, a species of giant whale like creatures that flew through the skies of Venus. These creatures dubbed "Ghales"(gas whales) like their earth cousins provided an array of commodities not least the Levitatus oil, which had many beneficial properties including a cure for gout.
Ghaling stations were established on the creatures migration routes and a small industry began to flourish.

The second and by far the most significant discovery that would forever alter the lives of humans and Parrotmen alike was the discovery of the rare mineral Unobtainium. This powerful mineral provided an immense power source far surpassing anything on earth. Unobtainium opened up the expansion of the new technologies and enabled great strides to be made in the aerial conveyances and ether ships that had previously only been available to government military of the extremely wealthy. It also unfotunately could be used as a terrible weapon and the great powers looked to secure their own reserves on the planet.

This unfortunately brought the humans into conflict with the Parrotmen as the Unobtainium was most concentrated in the ore veins that coursed through the floating mesas that the Parrotmen inhabited.

Great atrocities were committed by the great powers as they strove to secure Unobtainium. The Parrotmen were driven from their homes and in some cases massacred. The Parrotmen are now (with a few notable exceptions) hostile to humans and most human outposts have a significant military presence.

The great powers conspire against each other to secure the riches of Venus. This conflict takes the form of espionage and intrigue, a kind of "cold war" exists between the nations, but in the vast expanses of Venus far from home, battles are fought and men die, and these events never make it to the front page of The Times or The Washington Post.

Avatar by Gaslight is a Victorian science fiction/ steampunk public participation game with 28mm figures and the ruleset "Gaslight".

Just a couple more days!

More games:
WW2 Aerial – Karsten

Infinity – Ryan et Crew

Dystopian Wars – Ryan et Crew

Wolsung – Ryan et Crew

Force on Force – Falkland Wars – Peninsular Praetorians

The Scarlet Pimpernel, using Flashing Steel rules (Ganesha Games) – Andrew

Traders:

wargameminiatures.com.au

At War Game Miniatures, we offer you quality figures and war gaming supplies from around the world. We are constantly looking for interesting and value for money items, for the war gaming table and stock a wide range of Hinchliffe figures, Warmodelling, plastic models, buildings, terrain, flags, paint, brushes, trees, grasses, spears, transfers, war game rule books, 20mm WWII Figures, 15mm Ancient Figures, Bronco 1/35, JR Miniatures, and ESLO Buildings and Hills,Vallejo Pigments, Dystopian Wars, Woodland Scenics, AK Interactive products.

We will have scenery, figures and model supplies at Little Wars Melbourne.

Please contact us if there is anything in particular that you would like us to bring as the range is quite large.

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BRING AND BUY will be there, as usual!

link

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Directions to get there:
Nepean Hwy: turn into Mornington Secondary College at the intersection with Mornington Bunnings. (Turn right if coming from Melbourne)

Peninsula link: Take the Bungower Rd Exit, turn right onto Nepean Hwy then left at the next lights.

Once in the school grounds follow the directions to the Pool.

Parking in many locations within the grounds, please obey signs.

Signs will be up from the various car parking locations: follow them!

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Hope to see you there!

Is that AP Dark Tone on those Venusian Blues, Hongihika? I hope Gaslight takes into account the Venusian propensity for playing dead (nah, they're resting!).

Yep, Mr Martini, AP dark tone exactly. Neil's blog on his Venusians, and how he painted them here:

link

I take it you're an experienced campaigner of the Venusian Wars – i.e don't shoot until you see the orange of their eyes, etc?

According to Neil he used strong tone, but there isn't much hint of brown in those shadows. Perhaps he meant dark tone.

If I appear to be an old Venus hand, it must be because I've inadvertently employed some Venusian colonial patois; all my direct miniature martial experience to date has been entirely terrestrial. Perhaps the Venusian connections of a certain venerable British humourist cartel require further investigation. After all, are there not rumours of renegade human ether squadrons serving with the Parrotmen: Monty Python's Ether Flying Circus, anyone? Why else would the crews of patrol craft report hearing human voices wafting through the foetid Venusian atmosphere singing 'In the Na'vee, you can sail the seven skies, in the Na'vee…

I should have made this event my winter war gaming sojourn, wintercon sounds like it will have nothing in particular for me this year. Looks like I will be staying home and saving money, pooh!

regards
dave

Whoops – sorry Henry Martini. Neil does say he used strong tone – I seem to have gotten my 'tones' mixed up. I think this is because I just ordered the Dark Tone myself from one of the traders above. After using strong tone for my ECW/ Early Imp Romans/ Vikings/ Normans/ Modern French/ zombies etc, I kind of felt 'strong' just wasn't giving me enough of a contrast I like from a 'tabletop view'.

I have heard tales of this Monty Python and his crew – I hear they set sail with the scurvy-dogs of Crimson Permanent Assurance, last seen sailing the wide Accountant-Sea…

dave – definitely winter conditions here, 5 degrees tonight. Maybe we'll see you next year!