rides to the rescue.
Extracts from the report by Lt Algernon Carmichael-Jefferies of the 22nd West Kent Lancers on his three week reconnaissance mission to the Southern uplands of Mars.
Our investigations into the geography of the fourth planet have given rise to the theory of the 'Martian dichotomy', the distinct difference in the topography of the north and south hemispheres. The north is relatively flat and low-lying with occasional massive shield volcanoes. There have been several reports filed into the creatures we know as the Olympians, who inhabit the regions around several of these extinct mountains, centred on the heights of Olympus Mons, the surrounding lava plateaus and the bordering flatlands. These have been performed by the survey and exploration teams of several nations, most recently the Imperial German expedition.
My small expedition recently performed a covert investigation of some of the southern uplands to look into the race of Martians found there, their 'empire' (for want of a better word) having its capital city in the Syrtis Major Planum. Linguists are still working on the materials we brought back from the red planet, as yet we are not certain what they refer to themselves as or how that would translate to the Queen's English, so we refer to them in this report as the Syrtians.
Our first encounter with the Syrtians was, as would be expected, with their border defences. My team spent the initial part of its reconnaissance mission observing a large fortification on the outer limits of their territory. It would be recognisable to an Earthbound scholar, being similar in design to many European castles with its crenellated walls, high towers and central keep. But, with a nod to modern technology, many of the towers sport gun turrets of various sizes while the walls are lined with gun mounts.
During our travels we observed other forts and castles of differing size and shape, all sharing common design characteristics. One design that we saw on several occasions was of a small octagonal fort, maybe 100 feet in diameter. Some had large artillery turrets, others a battery of small air defence turrets while one we tracked from distance had what appeared to be a giant siege mortar at the centre of the courtyard!
Most Syrtian settlements of any significant size have massive defensive walls – they are clearly a culture that spends much of its time at war, or at least expecting to be so. Again, these edifices are not far removed from those on Earth, with defensive towers of various types, both open and roofed. Some have, like the fortress we first observed, been fitted with weaponry, both open gun mounts and turreted cannon.
…
The Syrtians practice an organized religion of some description, although to what deities they pray we do not yet know. We came across a six-sided stepped pyramid temple situated in a remote northern part of the Syrtis Mayor region, where six lava-carved canyons met at a single point. In basic concept it vaguely resembles the temples of the Mayans on Earth – does this indicate some ancient link between our two planets? This appears to be a common design, and we found similar examples in or nearby to a number of cities and towns.
So, our first encounter with the Martians of the Syrtis Major Planum is with their various fortresses and other defensive installations. Today we've added no fewer than 20 different new items to the Small Scale Scenery range to represent these edifices. There is Tal ul Hassabi Fortress, the one that the noble Lieutenant first came across, and several smaller forts. And there is a plethora of components – gates, walls, towers, bastions and a central keep – to allow you to build your own fortress or walled city, and there are also three different pre-designed sets.
As with all of our other Scall Scale Scenery items, this new set of buildings works perfectly as scenery for Land Ironclads or Imperial Skies games, so you can recreate battles between the Syrtians and colonising forces from Earth over the terrain of Mars.
SSS-1002 – Temple of the Six Valleys – £4.00 GBP
SSS-1100 – Tal ul Hassabi Fortress – £6.50 GBP
SSS-1101 – AA Fort – £3.00 GBP
SSS-1102 – Bombard Fort – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1103 – Turret Fort – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1200a – Four-sided Fortress – £5.50 GBP
SSS-1200b – Six-sided Fortress – £11.00 GBP
SSS-1200c – Eight-sided Fortress – £15.00 GBP
SSS-1204 – Syrtian Fortress Keep – £2.75 GBP
SSS-1201 – Syrtian Fortress Walls (x4) – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1201a – Great Bastion – £2.00 GBP
SSS-1201b – Tower Bastion (x2) – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1201c – Gun Bastion (x2) – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1201d – Turret Bastion (x2) – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1202a – Syrtian Towers Hexagonal (x4) – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1202b – Syrtian Towers Hexagonal with Roof (x4) – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1202c – Syrtian Towers Octagonal (x4) – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1202d – Syrtian Towers Octagonal with Roof (x4) – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1203a – Great Gate – £2.50 GBP
SSS-1203b – Gates (x2) – £2.50 GBP
Background image by Handiwork Games; desert mat by Geek Villain.