Monday, September 26, 2011

Mars Needs Steam at Hurricon

I just returned from Hurricon in Orlando, FL. Very good show, well-attended, and a great atmosphere of relaxed fun. I saw some old friends (Frank Frey, Richard Borg), made a bunch of new ones.



I also ran three games of Mars Needs Steam – really big games, this time with a full assortment of steam-powered war wagons, troops, monsters, and scientists. I had about eight players each for the first two sessions and twelve for the last one. Exhausting but a great deal of fun.



Me and Frank Frey. Frank provided the figures and terrain for the games at Hurricon.

Most of the troops and terrain were supplied by Frank Frey, and they looked very good. I added a few French to the mix and purchased a couple surplus Star Wars models to stand in for German walkers. They look pretty good as-is, but I’ll have them heavily modified as steampunk vehicles by their next outing.


Prussian Infantry follow the advancing walker. You can see from this picture of the unmodified Star Wars toy that it has tremendous conversion possibilites.

The game pitted French, Americans, Confederates, Prussians and Bavarians against reach other. It featured a delightful number of double-crosses and lots of laughter in every game. And I actually have pictures this time!


A French naval landing party mans a 20-pounder field gun. In the background is a rare photo image of the beautiful but deadly French spy Gabrielle Courbiere.

This first batch of pictures were provided byone of those new friends, the lovely and vivacious Daylina Miller, a major figure in the Tampa steampunk scene, who I met through Frank Frey. We had a great talk about zombies, of all things. She had some nice things to say about the game on her Tampasteampunk blog. Check it out here.



A French automitrailleus prepares to move down the road and flush out the enemies of the Commune.

I'll have some more pictures from the game tomorrow, the next batch from Phil Tortorici.

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