"Aotrs Shipyards Release: Zirakthargūm Divinity: Escorts" Topic

This month's release is the first vessels for the Zirakthargūm Divinity!

The Divinity fleet and its supplementary 1:144th ground force ground force will be released over the next few months.

The Dwarves of the Zirakthargūm Consortium becames more and more isolatist over the past century and eventually closed their borders twenty years ago. Very little had been heard of them since. Two years ago, the Zirakthargūm re-emerged into the galactic community as the Zirakthargūm Divinity. Following a quiet religious revolution a long time in the making in between the present time and the last contact, the High Clerics of Zirakthar have finally taken power and turned the consortium into a true theocracy.

High Cleric Aegon Runeforger, unhappy with the nes elitism and fanatcism of his three comteporaries, finally saw no option but to flee the Divinity for otuside help. Branded as the Great Heretic, Runeforger was pursued by the Divinity navy and the shooting was he so desparately wanted to avoid began immediately…

The Zirakthargūm Divinity has embarked on a new program of shipbuilding to support the more expansionary plans of the High Clerics. The old Consortum navy was primarily defensive in nature and relied heavily on large cpaital ships supported by a few escorts. This paradigm was not well suited to the new needs of the Divinity, and the first new designs of starship rolled off the newly-minted Divinity's shipyards shortly after its formation.

The first of these new vessels were new escort vessels to replace the older escort that were now coming to the end of their useful lives.

Zāgorn Corvette

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Thorgrim Escort Frigate

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Khazād Destroyer

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Orgrin Light Freighter

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Thangrim Medium Cruiser

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(As usual, photoes are of the Replicator 2 prototypes.)

Next month's release will be the Zirakthargūm Divinity carriers and smallcraft.

Finally, a question. As sharp viewers to the Shipyards will have noticed, all the sci-fi models on the Shipyards store come with some (entirely optional!) fluff; partly because it fits them into my own personal ongoing gaming universe and partly because of Stewart Cowley's space 2000-2100AD being an entirely disproportionate effect on my early development! (Which has left me with the impression that all vehicles should have at least a nominal story!) I could, if there was any interest, add this fluff to the release posts as well. Would there be any interest in that?

Nice stuff. I picked up some more AOTRS ships during Shapeway's shipping sale last month, they arrived last week and look good.

I think the fluff would be ok, but you might want then to break the post up into one per ship, so it's not a massive scroll.

Chris

Hope you aren't scandalized, but I'm tempted to try some of these as 'nefs of a Victorian science fiction variety.

The flat, upper surfaces on some suggest ship decks.

Obviously, the fluff would be of even less assured use, though it wouldn't be the first time I've done cross-pollination. ;->=

Doug

The bows do have a bit of a Martian feel to them and you might interpret the stern as the back of a sailing ship (or a temple on the medium cruiser)… I was thinking maybe gothic space ships rather than Nefs, but I see where you're going Doug (and like it)!

I was trying to avoid the BFG connection; not from dislike, but I've been seeing a lot of DIY ships that have been plenty impressive.

But, yes, saw it as well.

Doug

@TheBeast

Go for it! I don't design any of my models to be used for any particular set of rules or backgrounds anyway, so whatever use folk can find to put them to is fine by me! Aeronefs are not something I would ever have considered, but it's not a period I play myself.

The fluff I put with my models is entirely optional; I do put it out with the models because I feel some explanation of what they are is helpful – and always should be spoken "in-character" as matter of course – and partly because it's something I write as a matter of course for my own gaming anyway.

(Even if I ever get to the point of publishing my own starship rules, Accelerate & Attack, the fluff is strictly optional, since in the manner of Full Thrust, it's designed to be a generic system.

Actually, a lot of the fluff in my own gaming universe IS (a modified version of) the FT background, since funnily enough, being long-term a starship freak*, I pretty much own all of Jon's ranges… And when he stopped putting 'em out fast enough for my liking, I started making my own…!)

*At last count, I personally have about 1300 starships and 1800 small craft and fighters across 32 starfleets… And our gaming group brings about another dozen fleets and couple of hundred starships…!