The Contest With No Prizes -- Lucky Winners Announced

Alas, there are no lucky winners. No one took me up on my generous offer of no prizes for figuring out the three word plays embedded in the short story "Murder on the Hochflieger Ost." For the curious, here are the answers.

You may recall that I said there were three embedded word plays. One involved an artifact, which I though everyone would get. One involved a location, which I thought would be harder. The last one, involving a character's name, I though would be all but impossible.

The Artifact
When explaining why the plans of the aether battleship are of no use to the French, Renfrew explains that they do not include the plans for the analytic engine which makes the ship so powerful. The analytic engine in question is the Improved Babbage, Model Three Hundred and Sixty.

IBM-360? Nobody caught that? Really?

The Location
Gabrielle's false business card lists the address of her appraisal firm as 13 Rue Madeleine, Le Havre, France. In the 1947 James Cagney World War II espionage film 13 Rue Madeleine, that is the address of Gestapo headquarters in Le Havre.  

The Name
Etienne Villon thinks of Gabrielle Courbiere as having the strength and majesty of a mountain, and when he thinks of her as Mont Courbiere he likes the sound of the name.

Francois Villon is probably the best-remembered French poet of the late middle ages, known probably as much for his remarkably adventurous life as for his writing, and his life formed the inspiration for Bertold Brecht's "Baal" and "Threepenny Opera," the Friml operetta "The Vagabond King", and the novel, play and film "If I Were King." Villon's birth name was probably Francois de Montcorbier.

He liked to sprinkle his poems with hidden jokes.

 

Mars Needs Steam Pictures

Last weekend I ran a Mars Needs Steam! game up in the Chicago area and my pal Tom Harris shot some pictures. The game featured the British and German allies against the Russians (with Fenian allies) and Oenotrian Imperial Canal Martians, with a mixed Franco-Turkish force remaining scrupulously neutral throughout. This game also featured the debut of my kit-bashed small British flyer, which I've dubbed an "aerothopter."

Here's a pretty good view of the aerothopter, showing its open cockpit and crew of two as well as its armanent of a 3-pounder Hotchkiss revolving cannon. It is held aloft by two ducted fans rather than liftwood.

Here's a longer view of the aerothopter as flies over some British mounted infantry and scattered woods. The forward part is from a 1950s-era science fiction playset, and includes the cockpit section, ducted fans and grasping arms. The rear superstruction was my own addition, the power plant being part of a terrain piece (half of the power transformer) from Itar's Workshop, which has some very nice steampunky bits. Here's a link to their webpage. The Hotchkiss revolver is scratchbuilt, but there are commercial versions available as well. (I was just in a hurry to get it done.)

The Oenotrian Imperial legions advance, their artillery drawn by massive ruumet breehrs. The figures are all RAFM, Canal Martians for the foot and gashaant-mounted cavalry and elves for the gun crews. The ruumet breehrs are conversion from toy rhinos.



This picture is a little blurry, but it shows a squad of German Venusian lizardman Schutztruppen, with bearded German NCO in the lead. Some German colonial troops are just visible in the foreground. I know, Venusian Schutztruppen were not actually employed on Mars, so this was not strickly speaking an historical game. The lizard Schutztruppen are conversions from RAFM's old line of fantasy lizard  men.


A squad of Fenian infantry advancing in support of the Russian steam tank. They have a shifty look about them and are clearly plotting some outrage against The Crown.






The Russian personalities and leaders, from left to right, the colonel commanding the military forces, his aide de camp, the highly esteemed (and decorated) geologist, and the lady naturalist -- quite unusual in a Russian party but not unheard of.




Another view of the German lizardman Schutztruppen as they secure a Martian village and are attacked by a clockwork infernal device (lower left) unleashed by a renegade human inventor in league with the Oenotrians. The German archaeologist (center) has paused to examine the decorative lawn statue which graces the entryway of the native hut.



Turkish infantry and artillery prepare to advance, supported by a squad of the elite French Garde Rouge (upper left).





Great fun and another successful playtest of the rules.

France in Space: 1889

The world of Space: 1889 has changed a bit in recent years and those changes are reflected in upcoming Space: 1889 works currently in preparation. I promised you a look at those changes and France is a fun place to start.

The Paris Commune of 1871, instead of falling within two months, prevailed and replaced the provisional government with “La Republique Democratique et Social.” The government is still colloquially refered to as The Commune, and its most ideological adherents are called Communards. The National Guard, whose ranks provided the original armed resistance to the provisional government, became La Garde Rouge, the elite shock troops of the Commune in the fighting which followed. La Garde Rouge remains the armed bulwark of the government, controlling the best-equipped units of the army and fleet as well as the intelligence services. They fly a distinctive blood-red ensign in addition toi the tricolor of the republic.

France’s progressive policies bring it into constant conflict with the more traditional and autocratic regimes of Europe, particularly the German and Russian Empires. Traditional Franco-German rivalry is aggravated by unrest among German workers as well as ties between industrial labor organizers and the Commune. Germany and France went to war briefly in 1885 over a border dispute between France and Belgium. British intervention forced France to give up its territorial gains and accept the pre-war boundaries. Tensions remain high between France on one hand and the Anglo-German alliance on the other. France also opposes growing Russian influence in the Balkans, and intelligence agent play an elaborate and sometimes deadly game in the cities of Europe as well as the colonies and native kingdoms of Mars. The Commune supports reform movements throughout Europe and maintains covert contacts with labor unionists, so loyalties increasing break along political and class lines instead of simply national ones.