Victorian Science Fiction - Rule Sets

In Her Majesty's Name by Osprey

Published in the familiar Osprey-format soft cover edition, In Her Majesty's Name (IHMN) pits "adventuring companies" of a dozen or less figs against each other as the various powers of the Victorian era engage in the Great Game.

With two expansions, IHMN covers Europe, the new world, Africa, and Asia, with everything from the Zulu Nation to the industrialists of America to the Hellfire Club in England.  Very straightforward mechanics combined with an easy-to-use engine for generating custom characters and equipment.  Highly recommended for fast play skirmish for squad to platoon scale.

In Her Majesty's Name - Core Book (British Adventurers, British Army, Prussian Occultists, US Marines, Foreign Legion, British Communists, Egyptian Cultists, Chinese Tongs)
Heroes, Villains and Fiends - First Expansion (Zulus, Apaches, Mexican Army, Mexican Rebels, American Outlaws, American Secret Service, Russian Okhrana, Knights Templar, Hellfire Club, and others)
Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun - Second Expansion (India, China, Japan, European Colonial forces, and others)

Voyages Extraordinaire by Wessex

This is a very compact rule set with a particular focus on individual characters.  Suitable primarily for skirmish gaming.  It is presently out of print.

Voyages Extraordinaire - Core Book



G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

Space: 1889

In Her Majesty's Name - Sourcing Miniatures for Various Adventuring Companies

For the Wild West Show:

A variety of excellent cowboys (Earps, in particular), from Blue Moon through Old Glory:
http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/products.asp?cat=584

Russian Uniforms of the 19th Century

Gallery

More VSF Links

Rules Related Sites!

1889: The Iron Frontier Victorian landship combat rules.

G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Home page The web based home for all that is G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.GASLIGHT rules The G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. list on Yahoo!Groups. A great group of folks who actually play the game. A place to ask questions & bounce ideas around.

Heliograph Incorporated Publishers of the current edition of the Space: 1889 tabletop RPG & Transactions of the Royal Martian Geographical Society.

Le Grand Cirque A VSF racing game, often run at conventions. Highly recommended, considering I finally won a game at Historicon. The complete rules, charts, links to recaps, etc.

The Sword and the Flame Classic Colonial wargame rules by Larry Brom, currently available in it's 20th anniversary edition.

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Incredibly Useful Colonial & VSF Miniature Gaming Sites!

The Amazing Adventures of the Red Shadow Colonial Adventure Wargaming in Africa 1880-1920.

Articulated Rot & Steam Launched Drivel Contrivances & Conveyances of War in the Steam Age!

Bryan Broocks' Victorian Science Fiction Page 15mm goodness as well as his Victorian Views of Mars Page.

By Jingo! Colonial History & Wargames Page.

The Colonial Angle Colonial miniature wargaming site.

Colonial Wargames (15mm) site by Bob Cordery.

Dogs of War GASLIGHT page Part of the Historical Hobbies site.

Dortmund Amateur Wargamer Victorian Mars Patrol pages.

The Empire Club Conquerors of the Lost Continent!

German Colonial Uniforms  "This website is intended to give an insight into the uniforms of the Imperial German Colonial and Overseas Forces from 1884-1918 for the English speaking wargamer, modeller or military historian. Until now there has been very little available in the English language on the uniforms worn by German forces in these obscure but fascinating side shows of the Great War and Colonial Era."

Major General Tremorden Rederring's Colonial-era Wargaming Page Enjoyable Victorian-ear warfare with hobby miniatures. This is where the "soda bottles to zeppelins" article can be found!

The Miniatures Page A Web-magazine for Miniature Wargamers. Covers it all: historical, fantasy, sci-fi, etc.

Morval Earth The Lost Victorian Colonies in Morvalistan.

Nap Nuts Singapore The Colonial Science Fiction section of their site.

Patrick's Hobby Shed A blog about his experiences with VSF, Zombie games & more.

Ponape! Victorian Piracy and Adventure in the South Pacific!

The Shastapsh Chronicles A VSF blog with lots of inspirational photos.

Sir Peter in Africa Home of the Madison Gamers: Exploits in Darkest Africa.

Sir Rand McNally's Colonial Page.

The Steam and the Flame Victorian Era Science Fiction Version of The Sword and the Flame.

Team für historische Simulationen A German site with a gallery photos.

Trevor's Colonial Wargames Page Military modelling and wargaming, with an emphasis on the Colonial period.

The US Mogdonazian colonization plan - a VSF miniature wargaming site by John Bell.

Victoriana Adventure gaming in a kinder, gentler time: Victorian Science Fiction.

VSF Wargaming - A GASLIGHT powered Victorian Adventure Gaming site.

Yours in a White Wine Sauce! A gentleman's journey into insanity and VSF gaming ... in 1/1200 (2mm) scale.

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Character, Invention & Story Ideas!

How to Draw SteamPunk Machines Really inspirational images.

Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls A site devoted to the topic.
Fantastic, Mysterious, and Adventurous Victoriana Notable and Obscure Characters and Places of popular Victorian Fiction
History of  Robots in the Victorian Era Part of the Big Red Hair site.
The Museum of Retro Technology A collection of photos & articles.

Sherlock Holmes Pastiche Characters "The site is essentially a listing of historical, fictional and canonical characters appearing, or mentioned in published Sherlock Holmes pastiches, parodies and other Sherlockian writings."

VERNE+100 A site dedicated to steampunk. The site is in Polish & English!

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Retailers & Miniature Manufactures!

Armorcast Historical, Fantasy, SciFi & VSF resin kits of buildings, terrain & contraptions.

Black Tree Design (was Harlequin, then Icon, now BTD) Historical (Zulu & British) figures.

Brigade Games Official GASLIGHT figures, as well as retailer for Foundry, Eureka Pax Limpopo and many, many more.

Castaway Arts Colonial troop figures. Copplestone Castings RETURN to DARKEST AFRICA (colonials) as well as his BACK of BEYOND (1920's pulp) miniature line.

Crocodile Games War Gods of Ægyptus miniatures. Great for Egyptian gods/aliens.

Eureka Miniatures Colonial, Pax Limpopo & "100 Club" vehicles & figures.

Ground Zero Games (GZG) Their own miniature lines as well as a U.K. Source for Eureka's figures.

The Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company VSF & Historical figures, vehicles, dinosaurs, and more.

Iron Wind Metals Brand New figures as well as Classic Ral Partha miniatures. Here be 'raptors.

Ironclad Miniatures Some really nice 28mm Steam Tanks!

J & T Miniatures Bicorne, Stockades and Settlements, Merrimack & more.

Jeff Valent Studios Victorian civilians figures amongst other items.

The London War Room Figures, vehicles, naval guns & shipboard armaments, as well as Parroom Station miniatures.

Monolith Designs Terrain & a really neat line of figures in their Disturbia line for VSF nightmares.

Micro Mark Small tool specialist.

Old Glory Miniatures Historical figures, buildings & such.

Parroom Station VSF, Martian & personality figures.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group (PEG) Great Rail Wars miniatures.

RAFM Miniatures & Games Both Space: 1889 & Call of Cthulhu miniatures.

Robert L. Bowling Painting Service: RLBPS A U.S. source for many imported miniature gaming products, including HLBSC.

Scheltrum Miniatures VSF Figures & vehicles, as well as other goodies!

Steve Jackson Games (STG) A few, really neat Steampunk miniatures. Get them while you can! As of August 11, 2003, STG has gotten OUT of the miniatures making business. Direct link to their Warehouse 23 online store searching for: "STEAMPUNK MINIATURES". 

**NEW** Tobsen77 Miniaturen Resin VSF/SF vehicles without crews.

Walthers Model train supplies - bits, flock, tools, the odd model, etc.

Warrior Online for OVER THE WIRE GAMES line of ENGLAND INVADED figures.

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Where Did You Get Those Goggles & Pith Helmet?!

Studio Foglio Online Store Creators of -amongst many other epic works- the GIRL GENIUS comic book series, and purveyors of related merchandise. Village Hat Shop A selection of different pith helmets, as well as many other examples of odd & historical headgear.

Victorian Science Fiction and Steampunk Gaming Links

• 19th Century Sudan
  Great Blog on building Sudanese Campaign armies with Perry Miniatures.
• 20mm Gamer
  Nick Grant’s “De Ludis Bellorum Statunculis Plasticis Gestorum” (Concerning Games of War waged with Plastic Figurines): 20mm plastic figure gaming in Christchurch, NZ.
• 28mm Victorian Warfare
  “A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” – Rudyard Kipling
• 5 Guys and a Lawyer
  Colonial Gaming in NW Ohio, USA…
• Adventures In Lead
  A blog dedicated to the hobby of miniature wargaming set in exotic “Indostan”, a distant land bearing remarkable similarities to 18th Century India during the Seven Years War…
• Amazing Adventures of the Red Shadow in Africa
  Serving in Algeria in true ‘Beau Gest’ and French Foreign Legion style! (Part of the War Flag website).
• Anderson Collection, The
  Willie Anderson’s great blog with lots of pics on 28mm Gaming of the Punic Wars, Medieval, American Revolution, Crimean War, ACW, and Colonial periods.
• Anglo-Zulu War Historical Society [AZWHS] & AZWHS Journal
  Interesting Historical Site with lots of info about books on the Zulu Wars amongst other things. Includes Ian Knight, well known author, as Honorary Vice-President and publishes a regular Journal.
• Archive Of The Colours @ War Flags
  Not to be confused with ‘War Flag’ – great selection of Flags by Tom Gregg covering Medieval to Modern times, includign lots of good 17th & 18th Century and similar flag images.
• Atlantis 1881 – Victorian Science Fiction wargaming
  Victorian Sci-Fi Wargaming in the mythical continent of Atlantis!
• Australian Colonial Wargaming Yahoo!Group
  This group is designed to encourage exploration of the colourful world that existed in the era of Australian colonial history around the 1880’s to 1890’s, when the colonial governments of Australia feared that a Russian invasion was imminent. We are hopin
• Back of Beyond Times – a Pulp & Colonial Gaming Newspaper
  A pulp adventures and colonial gaming online miniatures magazine.
• Bagamoyo Expedition
  Crushing Abushiri’s Rebellion in German East Africa with Darryl Smith. Historical background & resources for gaming in German East Africa.
• Blackpowder Wargaming Rules
  Published by Warlord Games.
• Blaze’s Corner of the Web
  Basic beginners painting guide for Colonial Wargaming.
• Bob Beattie's The Steam and the Flame
  Victorian Science Fiction.
• Bringing Up the Rear
  Greg Novak’s Odds and Sodds on this and That!
• British Empire, The
  Stephen Luscombe presents lots of historical information, timelines, maps and photos, as well as a TSATF campaign system and useful sets of action and event cards for use with TSATF.
• British Empire, The [Alternate Homepage]
  Alternate homepage for Stephen Luscombe’s website with links to sections not accessible from the other homepage.
• Bulgarian Artillery 1878 – 1918
  Great site detailing Bulgarian Army Artillery during the Balkan Wars and WW1, including ordinance captured from Turkey in the former and so on…
• By Orders Of The Great White Queen
  A Colonial & Darkest Africa Wargames Blog featuring TSATF and a nice tutorial on making quick and easy Jungle Terrain…
• Campaigns in Germania
  18th Century diplomacy, campaigns, battles, intrigues, story-telling and more set in Europe and Colonial Territories using historical military miniatures, model terrain and the imagination.
• Cape Wars Yahoo!Group
  The Cape Frontier Wars – The Yahoo home for the historical miniatures gamer to discuss the several Cape Wars (also known as the Cape-Xhosa Wars and the not so nicely named Kaffir Wars) that took place in South Africa during the 1800s.
• Castaway Arts
  Specialising in quality 19th Century Colonial figures covering many periods/areas, including a painting service, and they stock the TSATF too!
• Chinese Name Generator
  Put in an English Name or Phrase and presto…!
• Colonel Hud's Colonial Blog
  The very occasional scribblings of a table top gamer . . . that is to say someone who plays with little toy soldiers. The focus on this blog is the mid 19th to very early 20th century conflicts primarily between European and Native forces in various Colon
• Colonial Angle, The
  Fantastic TSATF site by Steve Winter – including the inspiration for our own Fire & Sword in the Sudan Campaign!
• Colonial Battles Yahoo!Group
  Colonial Battles is a sister Yahoo!Group to Colonial Wars – while the latter hosts allthe discussion, Colonial Battles provides an extra forum for sharing files, large attachements, and such like. Activity is primarily at Colonial Wars however.
• Colonial Wargames UK
  Excellent site with lots of Victorian & Edwardian era historical links, and a PDF downloadable version of Captain (later Major-General) E. D. Swinton’s classic “Duffer’s Drift”.
• Colonial Wars Yahoo!Group
  A mailing list devoted primarily to Colonial Wargaming and warfare in the 1800′s (but also early 20th Century as well). Run by Tim Peterson it includes suggestions for sources, terrain making methods, miniatures, and rules will be common, as will discussi
• Darkest Africa!
  Darkest Africa!
• Defence of DUFFER'S DRIFT, The (by Captain E. D. Swinton)
  Online version of this classic Victorian military handbook that’s material is still relevant today.
• Defence of Melbourne
  Defence of Melbourne
• Din of Battle – A Piquet Blog
  Eric Burgess blogging about wargaming, while solving the world’s problems over fine English ale! Semper Invictus!!! Includes Russo-Turkish & Maximilian Wars gamed using Piquet.
• Dispatches From The Mess
  Gaming blog of Wayne Stack (Stacky).
• Don't Throw Bloody Spears At Me!
  An irregularly updated blog whose purpose is to chronicle various wargaming projects, but primarily forays into the joys of colonial wargaming set in the Sudan.
• Duncan´s 20mm Colonial Modelling
  Painting, reanimating, and customising 1/72 plastic & metal colonial and late 19th Century figures.
• Edinburgh Wargames Group
  The Edinburgh Wargamers do quite a bit of very nice looking 28mm Colonial & World War 1 (incl. Back of Beyond) games. There’s also an occasional mention of Crossfire for their 20mm WW2 stuff too!
• For Queen and Country
  Defending Britain from the Martian invaders! Victorian Sci-Fi Website.
• Free Wargames Rules
  Pete Jones’s Free Wargames Rules Resource
• General Pettygree
  General Pettygree’s adventures on the North West Frontier
• German Random Name Generator
  The name says it all…
• Grimms Hangar (& Pulp Adventures)
  Great site for Pulp & Colonial Adventure inspiration.
• Hive Queen and Country
  VSF – How could “insects” get so huge? How do the individuals function and even more importantly how does the entire Hive work together, communicating and cooperating? Find the most up to date reseacrh and information here!
• INDUS – Miniatures in 28mm
  Wonderful 28mm War in India range…
• Jacksarge's Wargames Ramblings
  Ramblings on wargaming.
• Jackson Gamers' Home Page (TSATF)
  The original Home of the TSATF’s development and play testing.
• Kelroy Was Here
  Kelroy’s Colonial Wargaming Blog
• Liberation!
  Gaming the South American Wars of Liberation.
• Long Lead Line
  Larry’s adventures in re-creating history in the world of Miniature Wargaming.
• Mac's Little Friends
  Mac’s Little Friends
• Maiwand Day
  Being a mostly visual diary of the creation of high quality, historically accurate 25mm/28mm scale terrain for a refight of the battle waged by the British and Afghans on July 27th, 1880, in time for its recent 130th anniversary.
• Major Gen. Tremorden Rederring’s Colonial Wargames
  Reportnn! Saarrr! Possibly ‘the’ Colonial Wargaming Website of the decade when it comes to TSATF! This link goes to the “Way-Back” Time Machine mirror as the original site (http://zeitcom.com/majgen/) is now defunct.
• Miniature Addiction!
  Roundie, from the Auckland Wargaming Club, has his own website & blog of his prolific modelling & painting, terrain boards, SDS campaign, and more.
• Miniature Wargaming: Colonial
  Colonial Wargaming Articles and links.
• Morvalistan, The Lost Victorian Colonies of
  See the adventures of The Honourable Bertram “Binky” Kinglsey-Crowne…
• MurdocK's MarauderS
  An exposition of the Hobby of TableTop gaming. With commentary, notes and other items connected to this hobby.
• Nafziger Collection
  The Nafziger Collection contains orders of battle from 1600 to 1945 with over 7000 individual pdf files.
• Naval Wargames by David Manley
  All sorts of rulesets for large and small fleets & vessels from the Napoleonic Age of Sail, to Ironclads & pre-Dreadnoughts, though to the Modern era.
• New Zealand War History Project
  All the NZ Official Histories on line – NZ Wars; Boer War; WW1 & WW2. e.g. campaigns of 2nd and 3rd Divisions, all the Battalion Histories and Service Arm Histories (Artillery, Transport, Cavalry, etc), plus Navy, Air Force, and Political Histories fo
• Odds and Ends Mini's
  The Blog of Ashok Banerjee and Indus Miniatures!
• Ogilvie VC
  Fetch that single malt from the liquor cabinet, pour yourself a chota peg, put taper to your havannah and sit back in your favourite armchair and return to a time when the Atlas was swathed in the red of the British Empire.
• Ost-Afrika & Kleinkriege Yahoo!Group
  Group is dedicated to the discussion of miniatures gaming of Imperial Germany’s Colonial & WW1 “Kleinkriege” (Small Wars) in its far-flung colonies in Africa, the Pacific, and China, but most especially “Ost-Afrika” (East Afrika).
• Phil Dutré's Frontberichten ["Messages from the Front"]
  Features H.G. Wells “Little Wars” and “Shambattle – how to play with toy soldiers”.
• Principles of War [POW]
  Principles of War Rules include variants for Napoleonics, Colonial, etc…
• Project Partha
  Travelogue of the imagination, following attempts at recreating the sort of armies dreamed of by young teenagers in the early 1980′s using 25mm Ral Partha & Citadel Miniatures figures. Also includes a forum.
• Rabbits in my Basement
  Blog with a reasonable amount of Colonial Wargaming content.
• Rebel Barracks
  Rodger Wood’s blog, in Christchurch New Zealand, one of the Southern Strategists (see seperate link for the latter group’s blog).
• Return to Darkest Africa
  Blog on Wargaming the Exploration and Colonisation of Tropical Africa by European powers from 1850 until 1918.
• Revenge of Carlos Plynkes
  Revenge of Carlos Plynkes
• Rorke’s Drift VCs
  Details on the actions of all the VC (Victoria Cross) winners at Rorke’s Drift – where more VCs were awarded in a single action than any other time in the history of the VC.
• Russian Colonial Wargaming Yahoo!Group
  Russian Colonial Wargaming from the 1600′s through early 1900′s. Suggestions for sources, miniatures, rules, games and scenarios. Inspired by the works of Peter Hopkirk.
• Russo-Japanese War Society
  The Russo-Japanese War Society
• Sahara Sandstorm (54mm Colonial Wargaming)
  Colonial Era Combat Game: 1879-1929: Wargaming The Colonial Era with 54mm Figures at The Army Men Homepage!
• Savage & Soldier Magazine
  The old Colonial Savage & Soldier Magazine is now defunct – however back issues can occasionally be obtained through this website. And all the best Sudan Material has been compiled in the Mahdist Wars Source Books available from TVAG (The Virtual Armc
• Science versus Pluck Yahoo!Group
  ‘Science Vs Pluck’ is a game of the Sudan wars set at a ‘generalship’ level; in which players portray officers in the service of Queen or Khedive, and seek to solve a variety of problems posed by the enemy, the harsh terrain and climate and, indeed, their
• Scott Pasha
  Scott Pasha
• Scott's Wargaming
  Scott Bowman’s place to write about and display pictures of war-games miniatures & enthuse about the fine hobby of war-gaming, and hopefully help or inspire others to do likewise.
• Sergeants 3
  Home of Larry Brom, and publishers of The Sword And The Flame.
• Sherlock Holmes and the Rules with No Name
  Sherlock Holmes and the Rules with No Name
• Side Shows of the Great War Yahoo!Group
  This group is designed to be used by wargamers who would like to explore the various other theatres of warfare in 1914-1918 outside of Europe…
• Soldiers of the Queen
  A virtual-museum of Victorian-era British Military Photographs.
• Southern Strategists
  The Southern Strategist Wargaming Group is based in my old home town of Christchurch, New Zealand, and includes a couple of my old gaming buddies from that time…
• Squad Painter
  Fantastic site by Jeff Lower in California, a high quality figure painter who does lots of wonderful 28mm stuff… (and a little 6mm & 15mm).
• Steve the Wargamer
  Steve the Wargamer
• Sudan Project
  Researching the campaigns/tactics/battles from the later Sudanese campaigns leading up to Omdurman…
• Sword Flame Yahoo!Group | The Sword and the Flame [TSATF]
  Group to discuss Larry Brom’s classic colonial rules, The Sword and the Flame. We can have articles on home rules, local rule interpretations, and possible scenario ideas. Painting advice is also welcome as well as reviews of new figures.
• Tales From GHQ
  David Bickley’s blog includes Sudan Wargaming with lots of photos…
• Tanzanica!
  19th century colonial games of the exploration and colonization of Africa.
• Tom Meier's Blog
  The World According to Tom is the blog of the original sculptor of the 25mm Ral Partha Colonial Figures range, who is now sculting new Ral Partha figures once again.
• Tony Stapells' Short Discourse on Miniature Wargaming
  Features 2 Darkest Africa Colonial Games Reports on the ‘Battles’ Page (this link will take you straight to that page).
• Trevor Brabyn’s Colonial Wargames Page
  A colonial wargaming page with a good amount of content.
• TVAG – The Virtual Armchair General
  Patrick R. Wilson proprietor, & publisher of many Colonial related products including; TSATF compatible Gunboat rules, some TSATF supplements, TSNS (The Sun Never Sets) TSATF Campaign, and mostly importantly”The Mahdist War Source Books” (the latter e
• Universal General, The
  Rudi Geudens’ site featuring colonial figures, an mythical Afriborea campaign, and nostalgic memorabilia from the Featherstone/Grant/Bath wargaming era.
• Up the Nile (Without a Paddle)
  John Ansari’s “Sudistan” campaign battle reports and amusing anecdotes.
• US Mogdonazian Colonization Plan, The
  Tod Creasey’s Colonial wargaming in the late 19th century & early 20th century. Mogdonazia is a fictional area of Africa in which the colonial powers, savage tribes, and mad explorers all struggle for control. There was also a second site for this cam
• Victorian Era 15mm Miniature Ranges
  Listing of manufacturers of 15mm scale Colonial Figures.
• Victorian Military Society | SOTQ & Zeriba Magazines
  Historical Society covering the Victorian Military era that publishes “Soldiers of the Queen” Magazine and a dedicated Sudan Study Group magazine “Zeriba”.
• Victorian Sci-Fi 15mm Wargaming
  Alternate Victorian Science Fiction world(s) and campaign from (1888 to 1920), and lots more Victorian Sci-Fi material.
• Victorian Wars Forum
  Great forum discussing all aspects of Victorian Colonial Wars, Military, and related subjects.
• Volley & Bayonet Page
  Frank Chadwick’s Wargaming Rules for large scale 18th & 19th Century Battles incl. SYW, Napoleonics, the Colonial Era, ACW, and Franco-Pussian and similar conflicts.
• WargamingNZ
  Robin Sutton’s inane ramblings on war gaming and other hobby stuff!!!
• Wars of Wine & Cheese, The
  Blog of Prince Lupus touching on several periods including Imagi-Nation gaming…
• Witchhunter.net
  The Strange Miniatures – lots of great Pulp, Colonial, Alternative, and other Miniatures – also the man behind Lead Adventure Miniatures Company!
• You and Whose Army? @ Amazon Miniatures
  Rules & Scenario sections include Colonial Gaming.

No Finecast, please

Forge World Avenger Strike Fighter

Newly released:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/AVENGER_STRIKE_FIGHTER.html

Is it just me, or does that look familiar?

Not that the Crimson Skies planes were absolutely original--see the Heinkel P.1076 and the BMW Schnellbomber II.