(Last update -main text or comment: O3.18."14)
According to recent threads on the TMP 18th C forum (18th Century VSF?, The Seige of Vechta, 18th Century Sci Fi, Steam Tanks and War Wagons, Anyone Ever Tried 18th Century Air Balloon Wars? Advice Wanted for Basing Hot Air Balloons French SYW Steamtank?) and the SOCDAISY group, there is currently a surge of curiosity, if not deep interest, about the spicing of Lace Wars battlegames with a few Sci-Fi elements.
I have been for more than 50 years now oversatiated with 'historical accuracy' (it began when the French Military History Societies I joined filled their Journals with knowledgeable but boring articles about the shako plate worn by the Xth rgt of Napoleonic French infantry in winter 1808, and the like). Thus it was not only refreshing, but a real real illumination to discover the concept of *fictitious* 18°C countries and uniforms in Grant’s ‘The War Game’ and Young’s ‘Charge!’. Firstly it eliminates national characteristics, which can lead to arguments over how faster this army marched or shoot than that one, and dispel any uneasiness the feeling of ‘blaspheming Holy Historicity’ may cause. Wargamers often feel oddly liberated after taking that plunge.
And then with your own fictitious mini-country you are a creator. Nowadays to paint a fully historical army is no longer meritorious: with all the resources at hand on the Internet, the exchange of information by the forums, everybody and his brother can do that. With your own brainchild Imagi-Nation you *create* something totally personal. It's like writing a novel instead of merely, passively, reading one. Among the 6+ billions of humans the only YOU can describe the flags & uniforms of your country, they are unique. Envisage it like increasing endangered biodiversity! And the history, mores and idiosyncrasies of a fictitious country may be funny to imagine and develop.
I got the 'Lacepunk' idea from the 'JamesBondesques' gadgets of the old TV series 'Wild Wild West': why not having such in my dear alternate mid-18th C.? Thus I enjoyed the use of such gadgetry by the hero of The Scarlet Pimpernel (and to some degree of Jack of All Trades).
Update O7"12: relevant links gathered in a post on the Royaumes de l'Imagination Australian forum.
Update O3"14: N.B.: on my blog, to keep all information bits relative to a given topic together I tend to treat each post as a 'folder', with the initial messages (generally edited & amplified afterwards) as the first 'file' in the folder, and to add new 'files' as *comments*. Totally Google-reader unfriendly, since the updates are not spotted, but a complement to 'labels' to easily and exhaustively retrieve later all information relevant to a given subject. Thus this very 'Lace Wars Sci-Fi and Fantasy' post of sept. 2009 has more than trebled in its main message and is developed in now 149 comments below about diverse (yet hopefully relevant) topics:
Some 10 late 2010 ones (we are now limited to 4,096 characters / comment) are devoted to suggestions about the adaptation of Japanese OVA 'Hellsing Ultimate' to a mid-18th C. (quasi-)European setting (such as Pangaea...) and to what miniatures are propitious to conversions to specific characters & types....
Older and more recent comments try to address, at least on a preliminary level, among other topics:
. Munchausenian steamtanks & APC, munchausenian animal-based war engines, air power and H&M warfare;
. Earthlings on Mars, Martians, origin and nature of life on Mars, Christian clergy on Mars: missionaries or demon hunters;
. Demons and political correctness, biology and ethics of vampires, reproductive strategy of long-lived species (Elves...);
. Minis and painting for 18th C. vampires, werewolves and undeads;
. Intersection of parallel universes, 'Hellmouths', aluminium and 'supernatural' creatures;
. War Hammer Chaos Gods <-> 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse <-> 3 'functions' of Indo-European mythologies, the 5th Rider <-> the 'Triple Goddess';
. Computing engines, automaton orchestra;
. Wargaming in the 'Monster Blood Tattoo' Half-Continent;
. SYW Horror / Pulp; 'zombies' vs 'ghouls': choice, conversion and painting of appropriate miniatures;
. 18th C. 'Roused Rabble & Rioting Mob';
. Munchausenian realization of Da Vinci's designs: Tortoise tank, helicopter, ornithopter;
. 'Lace Wars' Hellsing Ultimate
. Origin, characteristics and biology of various 'undead' types;
. Links to relevant threads on diverse forums;
. A draft of listing of 'Lovecraftian' miniatures (search also Mc Farlane's Spawn action figures / Twisted Fairy Tales for *huge* creatures / Old Ones; and CP Models);
. Playing 'Chaos in Carpathia', 'Strange Aeons' and 'Malifaux' in the 18th C.;
. 'Credible' non-humans in 18th C. settings;
. 'Anatomy of winged and egg-laying Mammals;
. Bioweapons for 18th C. Pulp and Sci-Fi (updated O8."12 there)
. Inspirational movies and RPG
. Swashbuckling on Mars or in Mu
. In defense of 'cheesecake' on table-top in 'alternate 18th C.' games
. Scandinavian Huldra and appropriate figurines
. PP Cygnar Tempest Mages as Lacepulp special agents / forces
. The Gulliver group & 18th c. Torchwood?
. Origin and biology of Shambleaux
. Lacepunk, Clockpunk... with links
. The Chevalier d'Eon as a Lacepulp character
. In Her Majesty Name in the 18th C. and Alternate History 18th C. female soldiers
. Historical Lacepunk weapons
. A self-propelled gun on a reversed Fardier hull
. Robida-inspired Lacepunk heroines in miniature
. Using 'Victorian Horror / SF' IHMN rules in the 18th C..
. IHMN companies ± inspired from French movies...
.
.
But as for going further and adding Science-Fiction elements…
- Lacepunk - Munchausenian contraptions?
- Space 1745 -tricorns on Mars?
- Female soldiers for the Lace Wars (now that's SciFi!)?
- Castle Falkenstein 1745 [Lacepulp?]- sorcerers, werewolves and zombies?
With reference to ‘steampunk’ (Victorian Sci-Fi = Sci-Fi in the Age of Steam), Lace Wars settings including Sci-Fi elements can well be labelled ‘Lacepunk’.
(Milady de Winter's skyship)
I like Lace Wars warfare and wargaming as they are, and would not add Sci-Fi elements in an
unrestricted manner. If you introduce historical or Sci-Fi Victorian technologies in a mid-18°C background, you’ll merely end wargaming historical or Sci-Fi Victorian battles, or even WW1, with minis wearing tricorns: may be fun once, but no more (the French comics series "Empire" -see at the end of this post- is a graphic example of Victorian Sci-Fi in Napoleonic uniforms; here is another video example -also here). A 
combination of flying frigates (right: these based on an authentic 17th C. project by the Jesuit Francesco Lana) and steamtanks can be eye-candy, but if I wished to play late 19°C wargames I’d merely do so, albeit probably using fictitious minicountries as proxies of the historical Powers (some 40 years of Cold War were fought in that way by at least one side, yet with real countries and casualties): thus I would not put a sacrilegious hand on History, nor change in any blasphemous way the Holy records and battle honours of historical units (to design fictitious uniforms similar enough to historical ones to make ‘identification’ obvious, yet at the same time original, would be an additional pleasure).
Then, I’m not to the slighest hostile to *spicing* a Lace Wars background with a *pinch* of Sci-Fi. As a matter of fact, in the height of my gaming days, I ‘masterized’ a ‘Spies vs Counterspies’ RPG campaign set in 1745 (using the D&D rules with some input from ‘En Garde’, specially to proportionate the characteristics of gunpowder weapons). ‘Advanced technologies’ were the object of most of the errands: «Your mission, if you accept it, 
is to steal /retrieve the prototype /working scale model /plans of the Puckle machine-gun /Paixhans howitzer /Chassepot rifle / Babbage computing engine. This paper will autoignite in 5 seconds». Of course descriptive designations were substituted to historical names, e.g. ‘Fusil Culassier a Repetition’ to ‘Chassepot rifle’. Actually the background itself was fictitious, the adventures being of the ‘Cloak & Rapier’ / 'Swashbuckling' genre (3 Musketeers…: some inspiration from the Flashing Blades set): I had to suppose that the Fronde of the nobles had be so successful that by the mid-18°C 
France was no more centralized, policed and the nobility no more under royal control than historically a century and a half earlier. The whole idea sprang from the collision between my fondness for the WAS period and the discovery of Victorian ‘James Bondesque gadgetry’ in the ‘Wild Wild West’ TV series..
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Such «more or less almost likely» prototypes are illustrated as:I-Weapon Systems, II-Ground Mobility, III-Naval Warfare and IV-Air Mobility.
..Even historically, there was the fashion during the 18th C. for "Classical" inspiration, such as Saxe's Legion. Many of these used those neo-classical style brass helmets in place of tricornes. Therefore, it is not beyond the realms of possibility for a monarch to field 'modern' scythed chariots. A conversion of Eureka ‘Triumphapedes’ to Ancient Persians-like scythed chariots (the seated soldier driving instead of pedaling) can be envisaged; see also the comment below posted on O1.10.08. Along the same vein, an improvement over manhandled simple rocket lauchers, an interesting contraption (possibly a variant of the 4-horses Triumphapede'?), the Belisarius' Katyushas Chariot.
Similar to an Ancient war chariot , without scythe blades or spear heads since it is a long-range missile platform; slightly longer, and open at the rear. Almost at the center of the chariot, slightly excentred to the right, a solide pole 5 feet tall: atop it, swiveling on a simple joint, a tight bundle of 6 rocket launchers, 3 abreast on 2 tiers. For the safety of the men and horses, the chariot runs at an angle of the target and the crew crouch when 
all the rockets are fired at once; then, having the multiple launcher on a kind of metallic shield with the edges raised at the rear and along a good part of its length (like a very elongated coal shovel) would be safer and allow a 360° arc of fire. As soon as the rockets are hissing toward the enemy the chariot races away to reload at ammunition carts: a kind of caracol / harassing horse archers manoeuvre at several hundred yards range. With a troop of such chariots, the sheer number of rockets -specially with fragmentation / schrapnel warheads- would 
make up for the lack of accuracy of individual missiles, shredding the ranks of the enemy (already unsettled by the sight and banshee-like screams) by a hail of explosive warheads.Aberrant sand surfers with wooden spoked wheels 'reversed' -2 in front, a wheeled rudder at the end- & converted weapons and crews,could represent a different approach of fast-moving weapon platforms; bogdanwaz fielded a larger version of armed 'landcraft' under sails (functional 'Land Yachts', far faster than racing horses, are known since the mid 16th C.).An interesting sctachbuilt airboat -though imho the 'balloon' is too small with regard to the hull, unless this last is made of Lightwood.
A great steam walker: its wooden construction looks more 'Horse & Musket' than 'Victorian', but unfortunately the lack of Rococo decoration is more 'Napoleonic' than 'Lace Wars'..
If a member of the Gaslightrules Group, look at this Steam coach, rather similar to a Lacepunk 'blackkettle', though I should have painted the under-frame in the same color as the coachwork; also this spectacular 'VSF in the Age of Reason' photos album, with steamwagons and Munchausenian airships!.
This excellent model of steam wagon looks too ‘advanced’ for the 18th C. (even fictitious): as set, the guns have to be breech-loaders (if successful may be the final version would have looked like this 'Tortoise tank'?). I’d prefer a single carronade in the front, with a limited arc of fire (‘13bis’), sliding back to be muzzle-reloaded. Thus the engine to be displaced backward; the ‘point defense’ swivel gun with 360° arc of fire, of course. The headlight is far too 'modern' for the 18th C., and some all-round protection (swinging-up mantlet in front, like the cover of a warship gunport) -planking covered with cuir bouilli? Could look great painted in the 'Golden Compass' cab dark red- would make the whole look better, more 'operational'.As a matter of Steamtanks, the 'pre-VSF' wargaming reference is the GW arsenal with the (light?) Mk4 and the (heavier) Mk5. Both suffer the GW syndrome of 'hypertrophied' major weapons , but this can be easily remedied (earlier models of Hellblasters, Hellstrorms, mobile mortars... were far more 'sensible'). Both could benefit from a 'tender' to increase their autonomy, btw. (Note that if the steamtanks and warwagons crews minis cannot be directly used, a lot of 'special' weapons -multibarrelled pistols and muskets / Repeater Handgun, blunderbuss, long musket, Hochland long rifle. with scope... deserve to be salvaged an re-used). Among the tempting "variants" to entice the enterprising converter one would be a 'bridge-layer' -such steamtanks are obviously unable to cross even minor obstacles: the turretless Sigmar's Hammer could provide the basic chassis and de Saxe described an ingenious articulated bridge in his 'Reveries' (wealthy converters can use the Revell ponte di fortuna , if they can manage to articulate it in the middle: given the difference of scale, such bridge could support the heaviest steamtanks). The Alter Kamerad and Unfehlbar may interest some daring mechanists. Yet the most tempting is an APC to carry the accompanying infantry and chiefly the 'assault engineers' (probably wearing a full cuirass like H&M military miners, but with same helmet as the steamtank crews: that of the Clermont-Infanterie with a thicker, more padded turban ) needed to clear the pass of those clumsy contraptions; the worst solution would be to put the body of a 'warwagon' atop the hull of a steamtank, allowing to keep the main gun of the steam vehicle: even ignoring the fact that open-toped APC are out-fashioned, the whole looks ridiculously like a double-decker bus threatening to overturn at any instant; rather remove the hull cannon to leave room inside, open the top of the hull (Unfehlbar fashion?) and have the infantrymen inside just high enough to shoot (through crenellations?) -remember to have doors or to modify the front to a drawbridge, the rear of the contraption is blocked by the engine; but the most 'advanced' design (specially appropriate for the assault engineers) would have an 'enclosed' APC, such as the hull of this scratch-built steamtank: replace the light gun by a mere swivel-mounted amusette and have a drawbridge at the front; open loopholes through the 3 'crosses' on each side- you can ever have blunderbusses permanently set there, 40K Chimera -fashion.
[Chaos] Dwarves engineers enjoy a flattering repute, thus some Fantasy models such as the Leviathan Goliath (with spoked wheels) and even the OG Steamwagon (Chinese?) could be converted to Lacepunk engines; with some restrictions, a crane to load the bomb into the barrel and *two* 'steam tractors' to move it, the GW Dreadquake mortar could be a spectacular (if highly unreliable) Munchausenian piece; after 'deChaosation' the magma cannon could perhaps become a superheavy flamethrower (pulled by a steam tractor [# -> disarmed & 'humanized'] to long moves, pushed by it in battle); the steam landship looks too 'medieval', but maybe after conversion to 'rococo' decoration could become a gaudy mobile command post?
The Russian movie 1622 features an interesting tank, though the power source is unclear -then, since the movie also features unicorns...
A basic tenet of VSF / Steampunk is that whatever seemed possible then actually work: the same applies of course to 'Lace Wars Sci-Fi'. Perpetual motion was indeed seen as a possibility by then -it was still in later times. thus this horseless carriage would be functional -if not reliable?- in a Lacepunk setting. Or would it use Vril energy, known as a Hyperborean (Extra-Terrestrial, ultimately?) heritage for more 'Pulp' spicing -though for the 'libertine' 18th C. I'd have a preference for Orgone! The video game 'Empire Total War' offers a few 'advanced' engines of war: multiple rockets launchers, Puckle guns, percussive shells...
'Munchausenian' (for Western Europe) biologically-based weapon platforms, such as the use of Jingal elephants (or 'worse') & Zamberek (or rockets-launcher) camels, 'bullocks & elephants' self-propelled 'artillery wagons' (though I harbor doubts about some details: I'd prefer a far heavier piece on a 2 axles 'Navy' carriage, multi-spoked wheels for the wagon and a less 'modern' front protection (Thanks GWZ); or this Indian contraption: 'A block of one hundred musket barrels mounted in five rows, with a stubby 6 pounder cannon on each side…the whole thing on a fairly normal wheeled carriage' {even more bizarre than the Russian Russian 'regimental gun' combining a 3-pdr cannon with 2 Coehorn type 6-pdr mortars pointed horizontally (used as caseshot- or grenade-throwers?)} on a Western European theatre of war, bringing there totally new troop types requiring additional rules, are best treated exactly in the same way as balloons and steamtanks (see O2.28."08 comment below).
Update 12"10: those curious about the good Baron Munchausen's improvements on the war engines depicted in the Da Vinci Code and the experimental weapons designed by that young Colonial Benjamin Franklin to use the power of the thunderflash of lightning, should absolutely subscribe to that Etherograph Gazette entitled 'Gaslightrules Group' (it's free) to peruse and enjoy Jeff "bogdanwaz" W's. two portfolios of fascinating and inspirational illustrations entitled 'Age of Reason' and 'Ben Franklin's War'. A partial report of B.F's Wars is generally available there; the author reposted most of the inspirational photos on his blog.(Now, about celeriferes and with an ample pinch of salt, a work of work of passionate dedication).
For such 'Benjamin Franklin / Mesmer 'electric' weaponry' , among "Colonel O'Truth''s marvelous VSF models the Galvanic Field Gun (below), in animal draught and without many rivets, could well appear in a Lace Wars battlefield (preferably with bits of rococo decoration).
While Wrath of Kings VSF Herald of Blood, converted with a tricorn, would make a great 18th C. adventuress wielding a short range 'thunderbolt thrower'.
An 'alternate' century of Benjamin Franklin, Galvani, Mesmer, Volta... has to know Galvanic weapons.
An 'alternate' century of Benjamin Franklin, Galvani, Mesmer, Volta... has to know Galvanic weapons.
...
Indeed all is a question of *scale*: the few Ferguson rifles and the single ‘Turtle’ submarine did not change the nature of warfare during the AWI, because they were used on a very limited scale. Gaming-wise, they could appear in a RPG, make a cameo in a skirmish game, but would be ignored in at battle scale. Thus IMHO historically Victorian and Steampunk technologies can well be already present in a Lace Wars setting, but at a so limited scale they could not change in any way everyday life and the nature of warfare. In a Lacepunk setting, weapons as well as engines and machines of common use by historical or Sci-Fi Victorian times (= Steampunk technological level) should only exist as single prototypes, working models or drawings, according to their degree of ‘futurism’. They can spice a RPG, appear as minor elements in a skirmish game, and would be totally ignored (or be merely 'ornemental', but inefficient) in a large battle - more like a a costly encumbrance on a battlefield, actually: a ruler fond of mechanical novelties can keep trying and fielding them, but their repeated failure would prevent their widespread appearance. ‘Historical’ 18th C. was not devoid of ‘Military Innovations’ -how (in)effective being another question: one could indeed be tempted to combine them, at ‘experimental’ level, with earlier to contemporary ‘less realistic’ projects in the hope that the whole would work better than the parts?
Note that the introduction of a few experimental contraptions would not be 'wild Sci-Fi', only a rather mild 'What-if?'. By the early 18th C. steam engines were already used to power mine-draining pumps; unmanned hot air balloons had flown; marine propellers were an old idea (just the 'reverse' of a watermill - illustrated in Byzantine manuscripts!), fully formalized and materialized by 1750 (Bernoulli...). Meaning that Cugnot's Fardier and Jouffroy's Pyroscaphe, the Montgolfiere, Bushnell's Turtle (nice 28mm model) and Fulton's Nautilus could have be built 50-60 years earlier, and immediately improved. The Heliograph, Chappe's telegraph... required nothing unknown by 1700 -or even by Da Vinci's lifetime!
The same for individual firearms: the (repeating!) Girandoni air rifle could have be designed 50 years earlier: identical to a 'normal' rifle in 'large' battle games, but the ideal sniper / assassin weapon -no noise, no flame, no smoke- for 'skirmishes / adventures' games. Preloaded cartridges were used by the early 18th C., Puckle placed them in a removable revolving cylinder; thus a 'revolver' using a firelock was perfectly feasible -indeed working prototypes were built at the the end of the 16th C.! By Lace Wars times, for sustained fast fire it should have a removable cylinder, and the barrel could be rifled: a rather delicate, very expensive but workable flintlock handgun at least equivalent to the early Remington (maybe more cumbersome? Then with the lever replacing the hand crank of the Puckle design set under the barrel, for additional grip). It would be the Lace Wars equivalent of the Thompson SMG, while historical early revolvers such as the Stopler (built in1597!) (with preloaded cartridges) and the Collier (both improved with the Colt mechanism associating the rotation of the cylinder with the cocking action), with their barrels rifled, would be the Uzi of the time. Such preloaded cartridges would also make contraptions similar to the Billinghurst Requa Battery and Ripley (nicknamed 'Ellen'?) volley guns perfectly workable during the WAS. For ordinance pieces Chevalier de Folard's canon de 24 très court predates the caronade by several decades.Such 'departures' from 'our time-line' require only a slightly increase of a single individual curiosity: an extremely minor 'historical accident' with 'butterfly effect'.
Now, discreet and powerful, a crossbow is still a weapon of choice for an assassin
Clockwork Punk: automatons? Doctor Who Micro Universe offers two clockwork men.
Not all discoveries and 'futuristic' inventions are to be of warlike nature; yet very view, if any of them will never be given a military use...
A Lacepunk setting with potentially Lacepulp spicing: a 18th C. 'post-apocalytic' land (a quarantined island, more likely).
Another possibility is to introduce Sci-Fi technologies allowing interplanetary travel (typically to Mars) but perfectly useless in a planetary atmosphere, leaving both everyday life and warfare totally unaffected- at least on Earth.
For instance, suppose that the antigrav capacity of ‘Lightwood’ at sea level (barely) balances its own weight: useless on Earth, Lightwood not being hard enough to be used in cabinetmaking, carpentry or ship building, and being anyway extremely rare and expensive. But let the antigravity increase with the cube of the distance: you’ll just have to rise your airtight capsule high enough with a balloon (*not* a dirigible, so the vehicle can emphatically not be used as an airboat) -actually a pair of balloons, or a number of pairs. In the upper levels of the atmosphere the balloons will be progressively emptied (interestingly Jules Vernes uses water electrolysis to furnish both oxygen and hydrogen) and in the void will be used as sails catching the ‘aether wind’. Since we require to have both the anti-g capacity of the Lightwood and the access to the power of the aetherwind increasing with altitude, it is tempting to have more than a coincidental correlation between the two: Lightwood would use the aetherwind power to become antigravitional. Without an 'aether keel' they will have to be lowered on either side of the hull, otherwide the aether wind would tilt the conveyance over. As a spaceship the machine is perfectly manoeuvrable, and if the aether wind moves fast enough and gives constant *accelaration* (then, why not?), can reach a respectable speed (shaped with craftmanship into a gutter, Lightwood keeps an almost 'normal' gravity in the inside, whatever the actual acceleration of the vehicle...).
Nonetheless to keep crew and passengers well and alive during the interminable travel, they would have to be in some ‘hypersleep’, perhaps obtained by the combination of voodoo drugs and electric mesmerism (fitting well in a 18°C background).Somehow at the end of the journey the 'sails ' would be set so that the aether wind 'sucks back' the spaceship instead of pushing her, to slow her down below escape velocity (inversion of electric charge in the material?). Landing would be rather uncontrolled, as for our earliest space capsules, the partly refilled balloons acting as parachutes/ delta wings/ kites. Better to ‘land’ on water –on our Mars its indeed fills the canals, which intersect at very large lakes– then to finish the journey using the emptied balloons as (collapsible) sails, complemented by oars [or a manpowered screw-propeller] (the ‘boat’ can be the size of a galeasse: hull 1 m = 1.1 yard long in 1/60! Probably as squat as a medieval nef or carrack, so 370mm = 1.22 ft wide in 1/60: quite a modelling challenge…).
Given the distance, time of travel and cost, settlement on Mars would be extremely limited. Indeed only rulers of very powerful and overwealthy countries would tempt the adventure, and only if obsessed by a world-conqueror passion or a paranoid fear to be outraced in a domain that could one day turn out to be important. Thus at most you’ll play the FIW, or skirmishes between small rival explorating columns like during the early stages of 19°C exploration /colonization of deep Africa, with Martians {e.g. the excellent Parroom Station minis -now available through Brigade Games; the Imperials, Warrior Women and Corse from ‘Dead Earth’ Bronze Age minis seem to complement them well} as natives –hostile, merely curious, allied or enlisted as sepoys. If the Martians developed large Kingdoms and some advanced technologies (airboats, e.g.) it would be more similar to the Anglo-French competition over India in the 18th C., but with far, far less 'white' ('Human', here) troops.
May be quite enjoyable and refreshing, and without any interference with wargame campaigns on Earth (unless you bother to check the Treasury of your warring countries, of course).Possibly the Aberrant Games Vatacina Guard Lt., who seems to wear a tricorn, could provide the basis for some 'Human' officer (clearly a grim and grizzled veteran NCO, promoted to commissioned rank when transferred to the 'Native' troops).
(I would not have missed an opportunity to post a photo of female fighters!)
Tin Man: 'Wild ride of a lovely maiden'(also available in a more Barsoomian 'topless' version)
To expand the diversity of Martian types, unfortunately, the RAFM S1889 'official' range (including at least some of the original GDW S1889 minis) is rather bland and uninspirational; specially, their Colonial (Native) troops look even more WWI than Victorian, and offer far too few subtypes. Blackhat is unlikely to duplicate in 28mm his 'Martian Empires' 18mm range, that includes Askaris. Too bad, with at least 2 Terran Major Powers in competition and the climatological + ethnocultural of a whole planet more than a single type of Native troops are required. Now, since we are dealing with Sepoys... European rulers sometimes 'carried' an 'exotic' uniform from a continent to another, dressing Poles and Bosniaks as Turks, West Indies Blacks and Pondicherians as Algerians. Thus, after an appropriate headswapping (with Elves in their 'typical' suppository-shaped helmet?), various 18th C. historical Indian sepoys could well be 'martianized' -paint them with thin tights under the pants. Then, with a suitable skin color, Alternative Armies Dark Elves of Catalucia Light Infantry, with their not-totally-human features, can be used as Martian Sepoys. Certainly not too hard to make them compatible with Parrom Station Martians. Wonder if the A.A. Catalucian Cabaleros can ride a Parroom Plorse?
. As a source of additional 'free' Natives, given the similarity in facial features, to use Elves as ‘erzatz’ Martians is almost a ‘classic’: a recent post on the TMP described an interesting conversion from a specially propitious set (a good view here). Rackham’s style is certainly not suiting everybody's taste, but here its very ‘oddity’ is a plus: some 'Elves' could be used as bases for conversions to another Martian ethnical group.
. Reaper 'Andromedans' would have a lot of 'Martian' potential, if they were more than 3 'characters'= only an extremely skilled (and stubborn) converter can build a little army; perhaps with another skin color (and maybe greenstuff noses?) they would make great Martians.
. Another possibility is provided by the Eureka (now by the Tékumel Club) warriors from Tekumel; imho the ‘heavy’ Tsolyani are more suitable (e.g. to be converted to ‘musket + pavisa’ types) than the soldiers of Yan Kor, who look more like ‘humans in odd Ancient dress’– 100% personal of course.
. Then what about Privateer Press Skorne 'Horde'?
. The female warriors of Sphere Wars Alliance also look appropriate.
. The female warriors of Sphere Wars Alliance also look appropriate.
. If they are of adequate size, the Phoenix Icons Jaffas in skullcaps (maybe provided with a ‘Martian’ helmet by headswapping?) could provide a good basis for a conversion to (armored) Shieldgunners; could not be as ludicrious as the RAFM ‘Renaissance European Knights’ Canal Martian Infantry that are often used as the basis for this troop type, anyway…
. And what a merry opportunity to field 'Martian Amazons': Maidenhead Babes that time forgot & Ferals, Shadowforge Tribals & Dionesian Maenads, Reaper Andromedans completed with
converted Black Orc Games Donellas and even simply some ‘Black Amazons’ but with an orange skin?
converted Black Orc Games Donellas and even simply some ‘Black Amazons’ but with an orange skin?
(for a synthesis see the O3.14."08 comment below -add Dark Tree 'Shadow Elves' and Gamezone 'Dark Elves' with some Calvalcade Amatzl Warrioress and GW Amazons, Armorcast (L&L) 'feathered' female Lunar peltast, and Privateer Press 'Skornes' to pseudo-Tekumel types; update: O7."11 updated summary and a rant on TMP, see also these Wood Elves).
Edit sept."12: the new Red Planet Martians are humanoid but even away from 'our' human form than the S1889 (Rafm, Parroom) ones; which does not preclude their appearance in a rich extraterrestrial ecology. No females, but supposing an extreme sexual dimorphism as in Burroughs' Opar the equally hooved but cute Raging Heroes Praying Mantis can provide appealing ones.
While I suggested in a previous post to envisage the appearance on a mythical 18°C european 
theatre of operations of a few native oversea units, here the distance and cost are such that even myself wavers… Then, as a source of 'prestigious exoticism' "E.T. Sepoys" would be head & shoulders above any 'imitation janissaries' or 'Giant Black Guard, Caliphe fashion'. And, if your small unit of Martian light infantry on Earth behaves on the tabletop just like any historical body of Croats, Grenzers or Jägers, why not?
theatre of operations of a few native oversea units, here the distance and cost are such that even myself wavers… Then, as a source of 'prestigious exoticism' "E.T. Sepoys" would be head & shoulders above any 'imitation janissaries' or 'Giant Black Guard, Caliphe fashion'. And, if your small unit of Martian light infantry on Earth behaves on the tabletop just like any historical body of Croats, Grenzers or Jägers, why not?
Choose the uniform of your Martian Askaris / Sepoys!
(variations on a drawing of Redcoats in Canada with the GraphicConverter ‘color permutation’ utility)
Would apply, not only to the RAFM, but also to the Parroom ones if you give them Hungarian-like tight trousers by paint conversion: nail varnishes and, specially, thick *wall* paints are very convenient for such ‘dressing’.
Then Mars offers you the possibilty to enjoy 'Tricorn' wargaming with dirigibles without any alteration of warfare on Earth: suppose that on Mars 'Lightwood' is more efficient (less interference with the Sun's gravity?) or / and eatherwind penetrates down to the ground (less perturbations by the solar wind?) so can be somehow used to increase the anti-grav. properies of 'Lightwood'. Thus you may have there (and there only) perfectly functional dirigibles. The marvelous 'Cloudships of Mars' may be inspirational for modellers, with suitable modifications. For the Martian models, on 'Cloudships' substitute the sails with propellers (maybe a nacelle with multiple screws in tandem -an interrupted endless screw, actually- on each side of the hull), to have another (non-ramming) type of 'Screwgalleon'. Then have both types hanging under an ovoid balloon (larger in the front, almost pyriform, and switched backward for the 'hullcutters', in order to balance the extra weight of the bow and leave a field of fire to a possible 'lob gun'; overall shorter and more 'rounded' for them, more elongated for the 'galleons'); for increased 'character' the blades may look like bat wings and the woodwork could look like Aztec masonry and use only pegs and dovetails.
On the opposite, for the Earthling models, with quasi-historical decoration of the enveloppe, the hull would have a "typical" 'gondola' shape (more than in the 'Munchausen' movie), and helicoidal screws would be used for propulsion. Banish any Victorian technology and weaponry: no rivets, no steam engine -noisy, dirty and supremely inelegant. Only swivel guns and 'historical' 18°C. naval pieces carriages: with the balloon above, cannons don't need to be raised at high angle; at most, to increase the arc of fire, put some on 'barbettes rotantes', specially if on sponsons. Note that in 'Space 1889' purely Human designs are fast but rather small, here the equivalent of early 19th C. gunboats (British Channel 'Sea Fencibles', or 'Jefferson'), notably smaller than the 'galleys' and 'gondolas' used on the Great Lakes during the AWI. Larger models (e.g. for troop transport) would be modified, partly rebuilt and totally repainted -to suit the Human requirements, propellers and tastes- Martian Sky Galleons.
With a large ovoid balloon above to make it fly (Lightwood not being sufficient) this one could be a nice private pleasure craft; of course in case of need it would be requisitioned and receive 2 very light guns and 2 heavy jezzails on swivel mounts, and be loaded with explosive or sharply (multi-?)pointed items to be dropped on 'hostiles'. Similarly this (soon OOP) Freebooter 'pirate boat' if with a 'Rugby Union' oval-shaped ball instead of a mast.
A far-fetched "narrative gimmick"? Indeed, but one allowing to wargame in a Lacepunk setting 'on Mars' while keeping wargaming 'on Earth' totally unadulterated !
For an 'Ancient' level civilization in such 'Lost World' Tékumel miniatures are ideal;
see also the new Bronze Age 'Not Red Martians'.
For warmachines, the GW Elves and Dark Elves bolt-throwers look fittingly 'odd' for mobile field pieces, while Megalith scorpion (and probably catapult) could provide the 'fortress artillery'. The poses of Tsolyani light infantry seem fitting for war engine crews.
Scratchbuilt Umbar-type ships with 'bat wings' sails would nicely add to 'exoticism'.
But then, does one have to go that far to encounter such a world – without any risk of ‘spoiling’ warfare elsewhere?
.Not necessarily: by the mid-18th C. exploration of the Pacific Ocean by
Cook and La Perouse is still in some uncertain future. Thus, the existence there of an immense 7th Continent (called by most of its inhabitants by the justified and ancient name of Mu, often rendered as 
Lemuria by European explorers) is still a likely possibility. For some reason –a geostationary disturbance in the troposphere allowing the aetherwinds to reach ground level?- Lightwood displays its full anti-g capacity (probably the Lightwood tree grows only there, btw) and dirigibles are more or less functional in its sky, but there only. Its inhabitants are fully humans, but at least a large ethnic group is obviously different from all other races on Earth, and its various ethno-cultural subgroups display striking similarities with the VSF Martian cultures…
Additionally –in an other part of this Continent, an exceptional convergence of ‘ leylines / telluric lines’ allows Magic to work (well, sometimes and somehow, at least) but again, only there and nowhere else on your planet.
For various reasons (including simplicity –no conversions required- and ‘logical parsimony’ –see comments) for me I should not have there the extraordinary Martian fauna (so much the more as this continent is intended as a setting for wargame campaigns, not for skirmish level / RPG adventures), only our familiar horses, bovines, may be according to the region musk oxen, reindeers, yaks, camels and elephants. The flora, on the other hand, may be quite spectacular and extraordinary (contributing to the aesthetic appeal of the table-top) specially in the jungles.
What I should emphatically NOT allow would be flying mounts / riding flyers: they would totally alienate the nature of warfare, and it would be hard to explain why they are restricted to this part of the Earth surface!
Such ‘Antipodial’ setting offers all the potentialities of any ‘Extraterrestrial’ one, without the
storytelling ‘complication’ of space travel. And provides an excuse for wargaming '18th C.' cavegirls in fur bikini and rival 'Amazon' cultures.
Alternatively, this so far Unknown Land can be an underground 'Lost World', a la Pellucidar. .
.Utterly monstrous graboids roam there.Not necessarily: by the mid-18th C. exploration of the Pacific Ocean by
Cook and La Perouse is still in some uncertain future. Thus, the existence there of an immense 7th Continent (called by most of its inhabitants by the justified and ancient name of Mu, often rendered as 
Lemuria by European explorers) is still a likely possibility. For some reason –a geostationary disturbance in the troposphere allowing the aetherwinds to reach ground level?- Lightwood displays its full anti-g capacity (probably the Lightwood tree grows only there, btw) and dirigibles are more or less functional in its sky, but there only. Its inhabitants are fully humans, but at least a large ethnic group is obviously different from all other races on Earth, and its various ethno-cultural subgroups display striking similarities with the VSF Martian cultures…Additionally –in an other part of this Continent, an exceptional convergence of ‘ leylines / telluric lines’ allows Magic to work (well, sometimes and somehow, at least) but again, only there and nowhere else on your planet.
What I should emphatically NOT allow would be flying mounts / riding flyers: they would totally alienate the nature of warfare, and it would be hard to explain why they are restricted to this part of the Earth surface!
Such ‘Antipodial’ setting offers all the potentialities of any ‘Extraterrestrial’ one, without the
storytelling ‘complication’ of space travel. And provides an excuse for wargaming '18th C.' cavegirls in fur bikini and rival 'Amazon' cultures.Alternatively, this so far Unknown Land can be an underground 'Lost World', a la Pellucidar. .
As another ways to access such Unknown Land, think of Oronegro: according to the travel logs of the ships reaching it (or leaving it to be seen again) and to its position repeatedly assessed by all known methods this country is located somewhere in the North-Eastern coast of Brazil. Yet, while the place is settled since 1492 no land expedition through the jungle as yet managed to reach it; and the native Kaxad Empire controlling its surroundings is still unaware of any other 'White' population. Now, to reach or leave Oronegro ships have to travel under an aurora, suggesting the possibility of a Bermuda Triangle -like 'portal', though 'safer'?
For an 'Ancient' level civilization in such 'Lost World' Tékumel miniatures are ideal;see also the new Bronze Age 'Not Red Martians'.
For warmachines, the GW Elves and Dark Elves bolt-throwers look fittingly 'odd' for mobile field pieces, while Megalith scorpion (and probably catapult) could provide the 'fortress artillery'. The poses of Tsolyani light infantry seem fitting for war engine crews.
Scratchbuilt Umbar-type ships with 'bat wings' sails would nicely add to 'exoticism'.
With a ‘Cosmos 1745’ setting we ‘displace’ *historical* tricorned minis in space, and if not in time, at least of genre by using them in a quasi-VSF game. 
What about a symmetrical ‘poaching’ of minis (only this ‘symmetry’ justifies the insertion of this § here, since they’ll end in a ‘non-Sci-Fi’ background) from their intended VSF games to ‘normal’ Lace Wars battles? Painted in more 'exotic' colors {'ventre de biche' coat & green lemon trousers?} (here they wear a quasi 'French of the FPW' colors pattern), these OTW ‘England Invaded’ Turk soldiers could well be used (with the addition of a huge bayonet) as ‘Charging Irregular’ Fanatics. The mask then would not be a protection from lethal gases, but some form of religious obligation (‘heretic’ Muslims could fight for a Christian State: the Haschishins did it on occasion, during the Crusades). Or these minis could provide an outfit of suicidal lepers –there was such a knightly order in Christian Jerusalem. Actually the two ‘motivations’ can be combined nicely.
What about a symmetrical ‘poaching’ of minis (only this ‘symmetry’ justifies the insertion of this § here, since they’ll end in a ‘non-Sci-Fi’ background) from their intended VSF games to ‘normal’ Lace Wars battles? Painted in more 'exotic' colors {'ventre de biche' coat & green lemon trousers?} (here they wear a quasi 'French of the FPW' colors pattern), these OTW ‘England Invaded’ Turk soldiers could well be used (with the addition of a huge bayonet) as ‘Charging Irregular’ Fanatics. The mask then would not be a protection from lethal gases, but some form of religious obligation (‘heretic’ Muslims could fight for a Christian State: the Haschishins did it on occasion, during the Crusades). Or these minis could provide an outfit of suicidal lepers –there was such a knightly order in Christian Jerusalem. Actually the two ‘motivations’ can be combined nicely.
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Speaking of uniforms, the 'alternate' 18th C. 'spiced' with either Fantasy or Sci-Fi elements described in novels such as 'L'An 2440' (1770!) and the far more recent 'Monster Blood Tattoo' is a potential source of uniforms – probably for light troops, given their 'oddity'. I posted in a comment the fictitious army I devised after reading ‘For the Crown & the Dragon’.
The ‘Temeraire’ novels are "reimagining the epic events of the Napoleonic Wars with an air force of dragons, manned by crews of aviators". Warfare would so alienated that the historical differences between the WAS and Napoleonic practices become negligible, so the series may be inspirational for some ‘tricorns’– but one would no longer be playing Horse & Musket games at all! An aerial element would change the ‘face of battle’ far more drastically than the invention of gunpowder did, so if you wish to give the idea (or ‘merely’ a Dinotopia-fashion pterosaurs-riding Air Cav) a try, better to invent a reason to forbid the flying reptiles to live outside Mu in the Pacific Ocean (or on Mars!) : see 01.15. "09 comment below. (In short, flyers if allowed at all have to be used very cautiously, their introduction having potential effects even more drastic than that of gunpowder: all 'traditional' fortifications are instantly obsolete, tiny creatures with fire pots can easily burn down a wooden war fleet without running a risk at all, CiC cautiously in rear can be marked as priority targets... Thus if 'Da Vinci' helicopters or 'Air fusiliers' (converted GW 'birdmen of Catrazza': with its all around pad the 'Volontaires de Clermont' helmet should be fitting for hazardously airborne infantry as for steamtank crews, and as 'experimental types' they could receive 'engineers' weapons': multibarrelled pistols and muskets , repeater handguns, blunderbusses, hand mortars / grenade throwers, large bore shotguns, musket/short rifle combos, light 'Perry' amusettes with folding rest, Hochland long rifles with scope) are introduced, they should be inefficient and their contraptions probe to failure.)
Now, what about *female* Lace Wars units
-not really off-topic here, since the idea is as ‘weird’ as that of colonies on Mars? While in my wargaming days I had no scruple to build, paint and field a huge ‘Amazons’ army in an ‘AncMed’ setting, I feel the very idea of «jeopardizing the Charms of Aphrodite on the Fields of Ares» totally alien to the European mid-18th C. ethos. Then, as the fancy creation of some Queen or Princess (a French Queen, following her husband to the Crusade, raised a body of female followers dressed ‘like Amazons’ and ‘ready to fight as such’)? Or, in the ‘Age of Enlightenment and Liberation', some form of ‘Women’s Lib’ mercenary warband? Then, Robida in La guerre au vingtième Siècle prophetized that women would be enlisted in the Territorial Army: thus female Regiments are indeed a Science-Fiction feature in a Lace Wars setting….
-not really off-topic here, since the idea is as ‘weird’ as that of colonies on Mars? While in my wargaming days I had no scruple to build, paint and field a huge ‘Amazons’ army in an ‘AncMed’ setting, I feel the very idea of «jeopardizing the Charms of Aphrodite on the Fields of Ares» totally alien to the European mid-18th C. ethos. Then, as the fancy creation of some Queen or Princess (a French Queen, following her husband to the Crusade, raised a body of female followers dressed ‘like Amazons’ and ‘ready to fight as such’)? Or, in the ‘Age of Enlightenment and Liberation', some form of ‘Women’s Lib’ mercenary warband? Then, Robida in La guerre au vingtième Siècle prophetized that women would be enlisted in the Territorial Army: thus female Regiments are indeed a Science-Fiction feature in a Lace Wars setting….
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A full range is under development for years and grows slowly; it is not on display on the Eureka site since it’s a kind of ‘private venture’ variant of E100; its appearance on the general market is currently partial and irregular. Note that the 'Sandra' range introduced Lace Wars gamers to Navel Wargaming, already popular in the Fantasy community.
A full range is under development for years and grows slowly; it is not on display on the Eureka site since it’s a kind of ‘private venture’ variant of E100; its appearance on the general market is currently partial and irregular. Note that the 'Sandra' range introduced Lace Wars gamers to Navel Wargaming, already popular in the Fantasy community.
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The ‘Sandra' range is a ‘spin off' from some Eureka Female Pirates minis, and of course a very ‘irregular' unit can be built by mixing ‘tricorned' such from a variety of ranges; painted in uniform colors, they would make a good ‘Charging Infantry' (in WRG parlance) Militia unit: headwapping (later concealed under a ‘dog collar' necklace) can increase the available diversity. 
Useful «Tricorned» (or bareheaded and in suitable dress: ‘land' breeches…) female Pirates appear afaik in (at least) 31 ranges :
(btw, I was glad to discover that I'm not alone with a -very long-standing, in my case- taste for 18th C. ’fighing sea wenches’ and piratesses') "Pirettes"/ daring "Piratexxes"?(the Alderac E.G. 7th Sea range- cf. the 'tricorned piratess' mini on the right- being unfortunately OOP, though a few seem to be occasionally available
Armalion/Fanpro had 4 D. Schwarze Auge female pirates, a leader and 3 sailors -OOP?
The Assassin one is also OOP, but appears on e-bay)
Black Cat Bases (a few characters),
Armalion/Fanpro had 4 D. Schwarze Auge female pirates, a leader and 3 sailors -OOP?
The Assassin one is also OOP, but appears on e-bay)
Black Cat Bases (a few characters),
Black Scorpion (again, a few characters), range in expansion,
Blue Moon (id°),Brigade Games (for 1 or 2 useful characters and parts of 2 sets of 'Ladies'),
Bombshell Meagan, if given a tricorne,
Blue Moon (id°),Brigade Games (for 1 or 2 useful characters and parts of 2 sets of 'Ladies'),
Bombshell Meagan, if given a tricorne,
Bronze Age Minis Female Pirates –currently 12, most very original,
Center Stage Bethany looks closer to 40mm?
Center Stage Bethany looks closer to 40mm?
(too bad Crusader as yet offers none!)
Eureka Miniatures ‘Pirate Ladies',
Fenryll (only 2 so far),
Foundry has a a few,
Four A minis have at least Alexis (+1 alas in 40mm),
Freebooter: characters -probably too large and of a special style? See also,
Hasslefree?,
Irregular Miniatures 'Lady Pirates',
Freebooter: characters -probably too large and of a special style? See also,
Hasslefree?,
Irregular Miniatures 'Lady Pirates',
Magnificient Egos offers a 'Pirate Queen' (OOP, see Valiant),
Monolith Designs (1 or 2 characters, 1 Lady),
Monolith Designs (1 or 2 characters, 1 Lady),
Moonlight (1 or 2 'living girls'),
North Star had at least one, and will offer new ones for 7 Seas? One already.
North Star had at least one, and will offer new ones for 7 Seas? One already.
Rebel Minis has at least one,
Stronghold Miniatures (id°),Tales of War: Grace, Lady, Marlene, Mary, Melinette,
Tradition with a few sailor girls,
Valiant (Pilgrim, in tricorn if not in 'classical' pirate outfit),
War Crow: Da Silva,
Tradition with a few sailor girls,
Valiant (Pilgrim, in tricorn if not in 'classical' pirate outfit),
War Crow: Da Silva,
WestWind Productions (50 Fathoms with Pinnacle: again, for 1 or 2 ‘characters' at most -OOP?).
(too bad these are in 54mm!)
Hope some 28mm manufacturer will judge 'Pirates' and 'Pirates 2' inspirational!
Giving those with a slouched hat or a silly bicorne a *tricorne* would make them looking more '18th C.': there is a spare tricorne in some 'pirates accessories' set, but Wargame Factory WSS plastics are an abundant and cheap source of conversion bits.
Giving those with a slouched hat or a silly bicorne a *tricorne* would make them looking more '18th C.': there is a spare tricorne in some 'pirates accessories' set, but Wargame Factory WSS plastics are an abundant and cheap source of conversion bits.
Then, according to my 'Ancient' experience, numerous enough «Pirettes» 'characters' can provide a spectacular irregular warband, in the same way as suggested for a (male) mixture of pirates, highwaymen and smugglers. Tabletop units must 'show' their nature: thus, a regular close order regiment has to look as if ready for a 'clones war'. Even if representing the same historical unit at the same nominal scale, figurines from different sculptors show differences, not only in the rendition of the human body, but in the size and details of hats, of weapons... Thus, miniatures from any other manufacturer can be included only for 'special characters', mounted officer, drummer &c. On the opposite, a fully irregular bunch has to appear as an aggregate of individuals, all as different as possible. Here clothes and weapons are personal issue, thus variations are *expected*; people vary widely in height (there would be a difference of # 2.5mm between '28mm' miniatures of Sarah Shahi and Sigourney Weaver) and bulk (compare Kate Moss with Pamela Anderson). In this case the wide differences of style and interpretation of 'scale' between manufacturers are precious; so much the more as one can easily gain (or lose) ± 1.5mm by playing with the thickness of the bases (variations of bases thickness are obvious when the minis are in a display case, but disappear on a playing surface). Thus any figurines within the 25<->30mm or 28<->33mm ranges are fully compatible. Even more, indeed: an old French sailors song (telling a Jackaroe-like story) states that a girl was barely 15 when she dressed as a man and joined a ship crew: thus a few members of a totally irregular warband / ship crew, or of a collection of individuals, may still have to grow; on the other hand, people taller than Sigourney Weaver by 8 inches or more *do* exist. In a 18th C. setting, if Militia maybe give it a more homogeneous look by dresses in uniform colors, at least for the upper garments?.
Otto of the SOCDAISY has a unit of: «Tradition has, in the Suren/ Willie French Early Napoleonic Range, figures for Italy & Egypt. One of them is a figure of Madame Foures-Bellitote 'a la-Hussard'» as Princess Trixie’s Own Hussars (in tight breeches, riding astride 'man-fashion' but probably unarmed?). Badly illustrated on the manufacturer's siteeems to, unfortunately, but she appear in St. Maurice. I also read somewhere (unable to retrieve the ref.: Phil Olley's preparation of Sittanbag 2006, no longer on-line?) that among their 18th C. military types they have an ambiguous, Chevalier d'Eon-like young mounted officer:?
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I wonder which minis will be used for the Scandalusian Guard Gretadiers?
Then, additional types of 18th C. female soldiers can be obtained by seemingly not too difficult conversions.
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I wonder which minis will be used for the Scandalusian Guard Gretadiers?
Then, additional types of 18th C. female soldiers can be obtained by seemingly not too difficult conversions.
Shadowforge, specialized in very appealing 28mm female minis (I’m no longer building an Amazon army –for that, between them, Eureka and Maidenhead, my treasurer thanks Any Power Above), offers three very interesting characters -really Monte-Cristan agents-
in their ‘off-topic’ Laughing Monk range: hopefully to be expanded. Will they do a full Lace Wars army, as a complement to their fantasy and Sci-Fi ones? Indeed, following these three very good 'I emphatically never saw that "Brotherhood of the Wolf" movie' female adventurers, I was hoping for some 'I emphatically never saw that "Pirates of the Carribean" movie' female marines. Unfortunately, their 'Lady Jane Rifles' (left) are cruelly disappointing: not only the girlies wear a ludicrous hats, but with their baggy gaiters they seem to suffer from elephantiasis!.
3D Models has 'Napoleonic' female soldiers actually in tricornes -equivalent to the 'Sandras' in smaller size; 1/72 but of use as nubile Maiden Guard / Princessinjugen?
Too bad this Hussarette was Chick Challenge "limited edition"! Somehow she would make a nice pair with the female member of the PP Cygnar gun mage strike team.
The Hinterland (excellent) Victorian Hussarettes, unfortunately, are 'tagged' late 19th C. by details very difficult to erase or hide (conversion may be less difficult for the mounted lancers?)...
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Is the Freebooter Assassin # 2 female or just effeminate? No doubt about the feli/mi-nity of the 3rd, and even less for Bella Cigna and the Queen of Shadows.
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.The London Warroom mysterious Zuffur Plutun Hyderabadi Women Sepoys are unfortunately not illustrated -and now the LWR is down: will Brigade Games re-introduce them?
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Conquest has a few armed, if not actually fighting, female colonists; similar minis may appear in other FIW ranges, e.g. RAFM has 3 poses of 'female settlers'. Foundry offers two 'armed matrons' as part of the Revolutionary mob. Btw, any armed guerilleras in Napoleonic ranges (other than the uninspiring Redoubt ones)? In the same 'mobilized female civilians' category, Eureka has an AWI female gunner, French revolutionaries and Napoleonic Tyrolean women.In the same vein, OWS has a 'Highwaywoman' on foot and mounted (on a horse, I mean); (Foundry also has one, greatly improved by the addition of a tricorne).
Conquest has a few armed, if not actually fighting, female colonists; similar minis may appear in other FIW ranges, e.g. RAFM has 3 poses of 'female settlers'. Foundry offers two 'armed matrons' as part of the Revolutionary mob. Btw, any armed guerilleras in Napoleonic ranges (other than the uninspiring Redoubt ones)? In the same 'mobilized female civilians' category, Eureka has an AWI female gunner, French revolutionaries and Napoleonic Tyrolean women.In the same vein, OWS has a 'Highwaywoman' on foot and mounted (on a horse, I mean); (Foundry also has one, greatly improved by the addition of a tricorne).
Black Orc Games’ «Mousquetaire Feminin» is too skinny and would need a tricorne; Black Hat "Duellist" (hidden in a SF range) is better proportioned, but unfortunately bare headed and in a rather static pose
Too bad the cute Bronze Age ‘Female Werefox’ in ‘human form’ is not in a more active pose…
Then, some 'armed' female minis NOT intended for the 18th C. may be pressed into service:
.Old Glory has a set of Female Cossacks (of doubtful usefulness imho: perhaps as Light Cavalry, after shortening drastically the 19th C.-looking oversized plume of Yrina? But even after costly head- or torso-swapping with the 2 dismounted minis in fur hat, the diversity remains poor; Artizan could provide an officer on foot); Foundry had (has?) a rather cute Cossack Lady.
Amazon Minis offers (offered?) an interesting all-female Harem Guard with musket (Brigade Games also have Daughters of the Desert on foot and horse); Hasslefree Nubian Harem guards look so good but have hand weapons only; for an officer Asmodee has a nice Sarrasine; see also Resina Planet. Hartwood offers some cute but dangerous 'oriental' girls, Reaper has useful 'Arabs'..Eureka female Black soldiers are unfortunately not of use, given their pose and weaponry; too bad the 'Female Orcs' Dixon rendition of the 19th C. Amazons of Dahomey is so *disappointing*. More faithful to the contemporary photos, after addition by 'paint conversion' of shoes, stockings and perhaps a blouse (transparency effects on a dark skin!) to field them under our climate, how well they would have satisfied the mid-18th C. European taste for 'exoticism'!
.A kind of light troops can be provided by these ACW female Zouaves, though they would look less ‘19th C.’ with a greenstuff turban around their chechia. The range also includes the corresponding 'character'.Unfortunately Hinterland (dismounted) female Hussars are too obviously 'Victorian': their 'modern' guns, ammo pouches... would require heavy conversions before they could be turned into 18th C. Pandour Maiden Guards...
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Freebooter Minis offer with their ‘Arquebusieres’ what could be used as a Lace Wars "Warrior Princess"’ Own Unit. Blue is fitting for blondes, but even it it means painting them as brunettes, what about substituting blue with dark pink and white with a very clear 'Victoria's Secret' bleu turquoise, for some Leib Standarte Prinzessin Nathalia? Or *black* and scarlet, for any color of hair? Their 'slashed' shoulderpieces can make them specially fitting for a 'quasi-Spanish' Imagi-Nation.
.For campaigns in an ‘alternate Africa’ («Afrodizia?»), Black Amazons –including good Obelisk ‘Zulus’ - are available.
For Natives of an even more ‘exotic’ setting –on Mars or on the lost Continent of Mu - Bronze Age Dead Earth Warrior Women could provide the ‘fighting females’ (Macho Women with Guns?) of an advanced, ‘technological’ civilisation, and their Female Barbarians those from ‘primitive’ cultures. Other ‘primitives’ cavegirls in fur bikini could be provided by the Shadowforge ‘Tribals’ & Maenads and by Maidenhead - ‘Babes’ but also (with the pointed ears ‘normalized) ‘Ferals’. Tin Man 'Cave Girl' is iconic. Cavalcade Amatzl warrioresses, Juza Miniaturas Dark Elf, Rackham (long OOP but now recast) Kelt Fiannas, those not too armored female minis for Tekumel as well as Raging Heroes Blood Vestals (while more 'civilized), Alionas cave babes, Armorcast shamaness and (exL&L) 'feathered' female Lunar peltast, Black Orc Games Donellas, Blood Moon Amazon, Copplestone cave women, Dark Sword wild Elf, Fenryll panther and tiger queens, Freebooter Amazons, Guild of Harmony Vanys, Hasslefree Gayle, Kalee..., Paizo-Pathfinder shaman, Privateer Press wolf riders, bloodtrackers and bloodweavers, Reaper cavegirls, Annazian and with some conversion Isiri (ex.) Red Box (green), Shadowforge Shiva, Sphere Wars Barbara, Zenit Adiestradora and Calo look compatible (While in need of an update, the FUUK! review of 'Amazons' minis is an useful starting point.). Wonder if some shieldless types could be easily converted to receive matchlocks, perhaps with plug bayonets for the ‘fighting hant-to-hand’ poses?
For Natives of an even more ‘exotic’ setting –on Mars or on the lost Continent of Mu - Bronze Age Dead Earth Warrior Women could provide the ‘fighting females’ (Macho Women with Guns?) of an advanced, ‘technological’ civilisation, and their Female Barbarians those from ‘primitive’ cultures. Other ‘primitives’ cavegirls in fur bikini could be provided by the Shadowforge ‘Tribals’ & Maenads and by Maidenhead - ‘Babes’ but also (with the pointed ears ‘normalized) ‘Ferals’. Tin Man 'Cave Girl' is iconic. Cavalcade Amatzl warrioresses, Juza Miniaturas Dark Elf, Rackham (long OOP but now recast) Kelt Fiannas, those not too armored female minis for Tekumel as well as Raging Heroes Blood Vestals (while more 'civilized), Alionas cave babes, Armorcast shamaness and (exL&L) 'feathered' female Lunar peltast, Black Orc Games Donellas, Blood Moon Amazon, Copplestone cave women, Dark Sword wild Elf, Fenryll panther and tiger queens, Freebooter Amazons, Guild of Harmony Vanys, Hasslefree Gayle, Kalee..., Paizo-Pathfinder shaman, Privateer Press wolf riders, bloodtrackers and bloodweavers, Reaper cavegirls, Annazian and with some conversion Isiri (ex.) Red Box (green), Shadowforge Shiva, Sphere Wars Barbara, Zenit Adiestradora and Calo look compatible (While in need of an update, the FUUK! review of 'Amazons' minis is an useful starting point.). Wonder if some shieldless types could be easily converted to receive matchlocks, perhaps with plug bayonets for the ‘fighting hant-to-hand’ poses?
Several 'fighting chicks' intended for totally different settings can become female heroes (heroines scream and need to be rescued) in a 'weird 18th C.' (if a purist, strap a pistol to their thigh or waist, turn the archaic sword into a Karabela or Palas -in Herrschaden they know how to mould tricorns -an a little greenstuff can do marvels): totally unexpected here the Glorathan Ibex Moon Initiate, with her shield removed and a (greenstuff?) cloak wrapped around the left arm; a few of the Darksword Fantasy Females (in tight trousers and boots), as with several of the 600-some Reaper female minis, e.g. their assassin, thief, 'fighting' nuns...; in the same vein (but probably larger): Aberrant Games Dravani & Sister Carmine, Acheson Scarlet Huntress (the sculpting allows to paint a generous cleavage), Adepticon Kommandant, Antenocitis CID female; from Asmodee's (soon Cipher's) 'Hell Dorado': Soeur Eloise and Voyageuse, Ax Faction Darling (a tricorne replacing the hat and goggles, greenstuff garters), Black Hat (Cobalt) Barbarian, Bombshell Mira if given a tricorne, Bronze Age Merc2 (with a converted blunderbuss and a scabbarded sword on the left; the boots and 'cavalry' gloves are OK), from Brother Vinni: Marishka, from Cipher Studios' 'Anima Tactics': Bellith, Celia, Cenette, Dead Moon, Kristen {Valis, her ears 'normalized', would become a good Zorin Blitz for a 18th C. transposition of Hellsing Ultimate}; CMON Abigale (a tricorne replacing the hat and goggles) and Assassin, Corvus Belli Moira, Naga, Penelope... and perhaps some Dark Elves (with their ears filed down) {Infinity Reverend Moira, mainly by conversion of her gun, could become one of the sorellas, the fanatical fighting nuns of Hellsing Officio XIII}, Cruch-Waffle Beatrice, Dark Sword female assassin and thief, DGS Taneyva (paint her skin-thight trousers), Uveyn 
and Erolis, Dwarftales female "squires of Kraakov" (shield removed, double-barreled fowler or turok instead of bow), Enigma Katherine,(left, painted by 51.cent), Fenryll thieves and voleuses, Fiendish Fabrications Agent Lefebvre (despite her goggles), Flying Frog 'monster huntress', Four A BA 11 - Lady Blade (ninja?), Freebooter Brahyn, Raleah, Teniente or Zauberin and also 'huntress' (see also their pirates and recent assassins) {the Arquebusieres sergeant could be turned in the Rip Van Winkle of a Hellsing by Lace Wars times: see also Sodapop}, Hasslefree 'Andreah' (with a 'weapon swap' she would become a fine State / Torchwood agent {= assassin?} wearing a greatcoat over her Mord-Sith-like skin-tight leather suit) and 'Kat', some feminines from Hazgaard, Infamy 'Henrietta' (with a tricorne & garters), Infinity comely Moiras (converted weapons, of course), Ironclad Mina Harker (with rapier!), Jeff Valent Josey, KingdomDeath Pin-up TL Knight, a few of Mage Knight Amazons, Minipainters Nenqua, Newboldworld Valentine could be of use; Paizo-Pathfinder's Merisiel looks a little like the 'fighting female gypsies' of "Brotherhood of the Wolf" and their Assassin is interesting -almost nun-like; Parroom Agatha can be converted to a Highlander; several possibly interesting characters in the Privateer Press Warmachine and Iron Kingdoms ranges (back to poached Sci-Fi minis!): Eiryss, Taryn, Anastasia, Madelyn, the female Cygnar warcaster and the Khador manhunter (& several other female 'solos' and 'warcasters'), now the Khador 'Kayazy Eliminators' and Alexia; but seemingly Rackham is yet to reappear? Raging Heroes 'Van Helsing' Kurganova (with a tricorn) would make a good 'Lace Wars Buffy'. Ral Partha female vampire hunter Tara Kolyana is unfortunalely OOP, ex-DSA rogue would need a tricorne. Rattrap Dark Age Chitin and 'female Forsaken' Haniel, X'Cess & Warmind; Ravage Valkyrie, Reaper Ailyn, Astrid (with a huge arquebuse or musket instead of her guitar!), Chivane, Depora, Grace, Lonnia, Master Spy, Trinia and even Elise (& Sophie(s) -weapons strapped to the back to replace the wings), Calistria and Lodoni -their boots are fitting{Reaper Whitney, converted with a hunting dagger, a one-hand held de Saxe's Amusette, garters and 'fittingly' painted could become a good Seras Victoria for a Hellsing Ultimate in tricornes}, Red Box Ravenna and Reyviande, several minis from
Resina Planet, Sodapop Rin Farrah (to be converted in a 18th C. Victoria Seras? OOP Candy was a challenger), SVFM 'Free Trader', Sphere Wars Lookout, Oteadora and Recaudadora; (StudioMcVey Isabella is nice and seemingly not too difficult to convert -with a razor blades-edged fan or a shuriken in her hand?- but the mini is probably too large); SuperFigs 'LadyBlade'; Taban Ninja & Kandjara; Tablewarfare Islia, Tales of War Buller and Cova; Terragnosis Carrion, Valiant Esmeralda, Westwind 'Lady Luck' (her hat turned into a tricorne), WotC D&D Doomguard, Wrath of Kings 'Gortisi' (would make a good officer for the Freebooter Arquebusieres; probably not too difficult to give all of them a tricorne from the Wargame Factory 'Generic WSS cavalry' plastic set) while VSF 'Herald of Blood' converted with a tricorne would make a 18th C. 'practical philosopher' armed with Mr Franklin 's short range 'thunderbolt thrower', Wyrd Alyce, Cassandra, Justice, Lilith, Sonnia, Viktoria and at least one of her 'alternatives'... All better suited to depict characters, 18th C. monster huntresses / tomb raiders or officers than to build a whole unit. Don't forget to give them pistols -in hand or hooked at the waistbelt or fastened along the thigh (packs of weapons are provided by various manufacturers) -and if appropiate and at all possible a tricorne, to clearly mark the period (WF WSS plastics are an abundant and relatively inexpensive source of tricornes)..
‘Non fighting’ and ‘barely fighting civilian’ 18th C. women appear (if we include some entertainers / performers- wonder who manufactures the 'charmant and full of espieglerie mini of a charming Young Person, riding a horse side-saddle & swathed in a cloak'?) in a good score of ranges: 3D Model Studio for their '3 French beauties' -beautiful indeed, AA Lady Wintermore (on a 'normal' horse!), AEG (±OOP), Aurora street girl, sleeping beauty -with furniture, Beasts of War (Carnevale: promising minis if in the # 30mm range), Black Cat Bases, Black Hat, Black Scorpion –look at the ‘Governors daughter’ (appearing here painted by Jeffrey Cavender as Lady Patronelle d’Anis, the lovely Cavenderian representative in Monte-Cristo), Blue Moon (coach, duellists), Brigade Games, Conquest (‘Last of the Mohicans’, settlers), Degra (a Lady of royal or at least princely rank, interested in ships -or sailors?), Eureka (incl. a cute laundress), Fenryll 'working women' & Gypsy, Fiendish F. (Mother Mutton...), Foundry (not forgetting the 3 among their Victorian 'Ladies of the Night' and 3 among the Knuckleduster Miniatures soiled doves who can well appear in a 18th C. game), Flying Frog (their 'A Touch of Evil' boardgame includes unpainted 18th C. figurines, with several women), Front Rank, Hovels 'Inn staff', Hardwood Ellie (& others), Impact, Jacdaw -already offering two 'camp followers'- (with more to come) / Old Glory UK (and a whole 'Old School' 18th C. civilians range, including ladies: confirmed), Les Higgins (OOP, yet sometimes turn out on ebay), Masquerade, Magnificient Egos, MicroArt (Pratchett's!) E. Wetterwachs,
Minden (riding Ladies &c.), Minifigs (under napoleonic / wagons!), Old Glory (Blue Moon), Old Glory UK, Outcast Figures female 'Napoleonic civilians' (1/72 but can pass as barely nubile girls -children of lower classes were put at work very young), Outpost, Parkfield, Perry, Privateer Press wharf faerie (the 'lure' of the press gang), a few RAFM? (thigh trousers painted on), (OOP) Ral Partha gypsy dancers & Natalia and damsel & gypsy (if you can find them), Rattrap Productions, Reaper and their strumpets and townfolk (could Brigit because of the cuffs, be '18th C.'?), Redoubt Enterprises (see also their ECW range), Resina, Shadowforge for 'Scarlet', Tradition (Willie incl. semi-military vivandieres, -D 13 French Vivandiere (not illustrated, but see below) & D 35 British Sutleress- 'British' buttoned up the neck, 'French' with a generous decollete (as seen in the service of St. Maurice); riding ladies to be painted as honorary colonels while the Sicilian Banditti Girl and D WC 8 Lady in Country Dress with fan or parasol have potential to be converted into vivandieres, as well as, for mounted troops, ladies in tricorn riding side-saddle -initially from their 18th C. 'Boar hunting' set- and in their 'Bonaparte in Egypt' range a lady in hussar uniform, but with skirt and also riding side-saddle {for miniature vivandieres or, more generally, Lace Wars ladies in semi-military dress (daughter of the regiment / regimental god-mother / inhaber's wife / honorary colonel Prinzessin…) see O5.07. "09 comment ; Foundry has 'camp followers' vignette, e.g. Prussian; Jacdaw (/ Old Glory UK) already offers a sultress and will add a 'female hussar'; now, 'Napoleonic' ones such as the nice Eureka cantiniere, Fine Scale Factory’s cantiniere and Warlord's vivandiere (see also Foundry & others) need only to change hat, while Eureka’s AWI female gunner and at least one of their Tyrolean women, as well as Blue Moon’s 'Californian' with straw hat and 2 or 3 of their Romanian women seem propitious to conversions: but no Highlander in bonnet so far -convert a propitious Hinterland female hussar?: here a conversion in the opposite direction}; also interesting women minis in their Civilians and Harlequinade ranges), other from West Wind (Gothic Horror: Elders, nuns)… CFM Mexican women of the Alamo are surely generic enough to be used in 18th C. South-Western Europe, as some of Eureka plantation workers, Blue Moon Californians, Fenryll villageoises, Mutineer Minis female civilians and Perry Spaniards. Cipher's Cordelia and Dinah, Cipher's-to-be Alazais and AOW Mrs Smythe can appear in a 18th C. setting, as could some VAC 'women brawlers'. Among the Bronze Age Bar Maids, some are 'generic' enough to appear in a Lace Wars setting, as are the Redoubt ones. Look also at the unumerable Fantasy ranges: some female characters are dressed in a very generic fashion, specially 'female thieves / rogues' without armour or 'medieval' heavy blades, and wearing close-fitting trousers; some dancing girls and witches are also quite 'atemporal'.(Too bad Blue Moon 15mm does not 'pantograph up' to 28mm their good FIW 'Colonial Civilians' and chiefly the *excellent* 'Civilians' of their Pirates range! Too bad also that the 'barockes' Piepp Minaturen are in (large?) 54 and 45 mm.)
Even the 5 Foundry female Revenant Elves are in quasi-18th C. dress and can easily be converted; as are a few Mordheim personages such as Marianna Chevaux -and see her conversion to a 'fighting chick'; in a similar vein, giving a tricorn to the WHFB Lahmian Vampire Countess makes her readily ''Lace Wars compatible' -a little eccentric maybe, but as a character Direktorix Katarin Lahmia is indeed out of the common (photo courtesy of 'OIIIIIIIO', the creator of Der Direktorat). At least one of the Alionas Court-elven Maiden can also pass for a 18th C. ‘exotic’ type, perhaps a performer; the same for some Newbold World 'humans' such as Magda -and don't forget female bards and dancing girls from Reaper and others and Gypsies such as the Harwood one. Dark Sword dancing girl and Wyrd performer are more... exotic. Valiant (exMag.Eg.) Bloody Rose would fit specially in a Carnevale setting. Hasslefree -of Barwench fame- has a few non-fighting girls –including a ’Harem’ series {while their Liralith could perhaps provide an officer for the Arquebusieres?}; Eureka offers a (19th C.?) harem set. Tinman Miniatures 'Princesses' would not be out of place there, neither the Fenryll dancers, serpent trainer and even magiciennes. Ironwind offers the classic Ral Partha Slaves auction -as I remember Ral Partha had several others: availability? See also their ‘Slaver’s victims’. Once Reaper had a ‘Slaves market’. Chiltren has at least one set of a similar 'feel'. Other generic ‘harem’ /’captives’ are produced by Amazon minis (see also their ‘Legends of Araby’). I'm afraid the Poison Candy minis are too large -their price is certainly out of scale! Specialized minis at Excalibur Miniaturen -and one from Assassin; Bronze Age offers now two different Harem sets, Cryptlock has slaves, Khorosho / Harwood at least two harem girls, Black Orc Minisculpt one; some medieval bathers would also fit, as would Armorcast (exL&L) nymphs and sirens. Michels Miniaturen "exotic dancers" are 1/72, but girls can be petite. Tin Man has Princesses, one well-endowed, and is starting a series of Nudes. You could also try Fatal Fantasy Miniatures («the scupltor is on the 25mm_Miniatures Yahoo group and has a .pdf catalog»). And maybe some of women in the mysterious MIR ‘Classified X’ set are left 'independent'? Aurora captive, Black Cat Bases Betty, Brother Vinni's captives, Chiltern 'Victorians', Dark Sword 'Amazon' and Shae, several GZG Gentlemens Collectible, Miniature Building Authority Yoder's Dancers... are not far away, as well as two attendants of KingdomDeath Wet Nurse; 'Sacrificial victims' offer another type of 'Damsels in distress' -re. the four (so far) Tekumel captives for a sacrifice.Now, to spice a vignette of your C-i-C's tent, what about a 'French courier' (mounted on a horse; wonder if these two and this one could ride a horse, btw?) and several ladies in their bath tub? And, in an 'alternate' 18th C., could the Mobile Field Theatre and Music Hall of an Imagi-Nation's army already have Cancan dancers?
Between Sci-Fi and Fantasy:
swashbuckling if
not 18th C. in any way, yet Stardust combines magic and a nice 'munchausenian' airship in a very Falkensteinian way: inspirational for 'multigenre Weird Lace Wars'.
But then... what makes a mini -or a setting- "Sci-Fi"?
I'm ready to have Elves, but as a cute subspecies of Homo sapiens, not as pointed-eared immortal Faerie people.
swashbuckling if
not 18th C. in any way, yet Stardust combines magic and a nice 'munchausenian' airship in a very Falkensteinian way: inspirational for 'multigenre Weird Lace Wars'.But then... what makes a mini -or a setting- "Sci-Fi"?
I'm ready to have Elves, but as a cute subspecies of Homo sapiens, not as pointed-eared immortal Faerie people.
What is 'Pulp' and what is not? 'Pulp' adventures are of a type, a *genre* of adventure stories popular in the 'pulp magazines' of the 1920-30, contemporary to the readers: a kind of 'swashbuckling' set later than the 3 Musketeers AND involving secret societies, criminal cults, arch-villains and a dose of supernatural ('Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'The Mummy'...). 'Horror' tales exemplified by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft were published -and thus set- in the same time frame. Given the 'supernatural' element in most 'Pulp' stories, the frontier between the two genres is blurry and both can be covered by the more general calling of 'Pulp'. 'Pulp' contrary to 'Fantasy' suggests neither 'Tolkienesque' humanoid races (Dwarves, Elves, Orcs...) nor powerful wizards and a culture overtly impregnated with the reality of magic: the paranormal / supernatural is *occult*, its existence officially denied; thus, a 'modern' (post-Renaissance) rather than 'medieval' intellectual context.
Now, because the original stories were set in the "20-"30, 'fundamentalists' following their *letter* claim that Pulp and Lovecraftian games can only be set in that same time frame. But these stories were so much the more impressive for their intended readers that they were contemporary: it would be faithful to the *spirit* of the texts to play such games in the 21st C.. Actually for 'Lovecraftian Horror' Cthulhu and its kind were here long before 'us' and started recruiting cultists as soon as the early Humans could be influenced through their dreams; for the traditional elements of 'Pulp' adventures, Egyptian mummies can be resurrected since the New Empire, Templars of Cathars secret successors (guardians of 'Elohim' knowledge, of great Artifacts of Power such as the Spear of Destiny or the Grail...) could exist since the late Middle-Ages. Thus 'Pulp' adventures can actually be set in any period from the Renaissance (Leonardo di Vinci!) on. The name is extremely convenient to describe the *nature* of such adventures / games and "18th C. Pulp" is commonly used, e.g. for years on the NPU wargaming forum. So, what about Lacepulp for 'Horror / 'Pulp' games set during the Lace Wars?
An -almost- *credible* ('Sci-Fi explainable'*) werewolf: an explosive growth of hair, probably of claws and, it's true, of canines (retractile, maybe?); but only 'soft' parts and the general posture are deformed, no ultra-fast reversible modification of the skeleton!
*: mainly psychosomatic symptoms of a periodical cataclysmic crisis, associated with dramatic personality disorders, of kind of rabies? The correlation with night / moon being of purely psychological origin?
This one, on the other hand -and even if available as a beautiful figurine- is beyond the limit of my capacities of 'willing suspension of disbelief'.
Now, because the original stories were set in the "20-"30, 'fundamentalists' following their *letter* claim that Pulp and Lovecraftian games can only be set in that same time frame. But these stories were so much the more impressive for their intended readers that they were contemporary: it would be faithful to the *spirit* of the texts to play such games in the 21st C.. Actually for 'Lovecraftian Horror' Cthulhu and its kind were here long before 'us' and started recruiting cultists as soon as the early Humans could be influenced through their dreams; for the traditional elements of 'Pulp' adventures, Egyptian mummies can be resurrected since the New Empire, Templars of Cathars secret successors (guardians of 'Elohim' knowledge, of great Artifacts of Power such as the Spear of Destiny or the Grail...) could exist since the late Middle-Ages. Thus 'Pulp' adventures can actually be set in any period from the Renaissance (Leonardo di Vinci!) on. The name is extremely convenient to describe the *nature* of such adventures / games and "18th C. Pulp" is commonly used, e.g. for years on the NPU wargaming forum. So, what about Lacepulp for 'Horror / 'Pulp' games set during the Lace Wars?
An -almost- *credible* ('Sci-Fi explainable'*) werewolf: an explosive growth of hair, probably of claws and, it's true, of canines (retractile, maybe?); but only 'soft' parts and the general posture are deformed, no ultra-fast reversible modification of the skeleton!*: mainly psychosomatic symptoms of a periodical cataclysmic crisis, associated with dramatic personality disorders, of kind of rabies? The correlation with night / moon being of purely psychological origin?
This one, on the other hand -and even if available as a beautiful figurine- is beyond the limit of my capacities of 'willing suspension of disbelief'.
Science in a 18°C setting. It was the Age of Reason, the Century of Enlighenment, yet most people still believed in spells and charms. Just before the Revolution the French Court was enthralled by the astrologer Cagliostro who followed the steps of de Saint-Germain, an adventurer who claimed to be an immortal alchemist!
.
- If you want the nature of your games to be unchanged, be as cautious and restrained with Fantasy additions as with Sci-Fi ones: keep them at the very rare individual (RPG, skirmish game at most) level.
- Gamers who allow a little paranormal in their background would be benevolent toward those who prefer to add a few Sci-Fi elements. Many gamers playing a campaign run (in the pure Tony Bath Hyborian tradition) some kind of RPG campaign in parallel. Even among the more historically minded, some playing in a Lace Wars setting introduce a little sorcery in their RPG, feeling it in accordance with the popular beliefs of the era. Thus, following the use by a hostile agent of ‘evil eye’ / bewitchment, a character has too much ‘bad luck’ for a mere coincidence. Such gamers would be sympathetic with those adding a little Sci-Fi spice.
- Fantasy and Sci-Fi are totally redundant. For this reason I have personally be allergic for long to their co-occurrence in a campaign background (as in ‘Shadowrun’ or ‘Castle Falkenstein’). Yet you can play on the ignorance of the characters (and players) of the real origin of the ‘abnormal’. In my Sci-Fi minded Lace Wars RPG the ‘unknown’ sometimes intruded: was the mindless flesh golem a living man controlled by Voodoo drugs /thunderbolt power or really a corpse reanimated by necromantic magic? Was the man always wearing a full mask and gloves, with fur disclosed sometimes, the victim of a ‘Dr Jekyll’ experiment gone wrong or of a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ type of bespelling? Nobody knew, not even me. Yet a balanced project of 'weird FIW' described on TMP, a French possible foray in 'weird SYW' and a proposal of Eureka 100 'SYW zombies' all sound interesting; rumours of werewolves and other unnatural creatures or behaviours come from the Antipodeal Continent: 
vampyrs, monsters and swarms of giant spiders in Pangaea, even a whole 'Underworld' War' in Vorlund? Vampire hunting in Paris and London, fantastic events in Galatea, Wolfman eating peasants (maybe a whole pack of werewolves) in Ardoberg, (were?)wolves in Saxe-Huack and now vampire(s), ghosts (?) in New England, the Pumpkin Patch and witches in the Colonies, a devil in Jersey? 'Cthuluesque' creatures / cults in Nouvelle France, moving images from Old England, Chaos invading a Paris of sorts 
and even 'Horror' in Venice during the Carnevale... Indeed 'Pulp' adventures seem less and less uncommon in 'our' Lace Wars times. Zombies (and other 'oddities') spotted in various parts of British America and in Canada, where Indians challenge 'white' witches and Rangers had to face Malsum the Wolf and his pack; on the island of Pacifica the colons -descendants of Royalist Exiles from the ECW- face very odd Natives; 'Zombies' pirates adventures belong to the same category. The Walking Dead 'Knights Reliquar' *are* somewhere in Europe -watching or being more active? I suggested in a series of posts (conclusion) that Japanese Hellsing (the OVA, emphatically NOT the TV anime) can be converted to great mid-18th C. 'Horror / Pulp' campaign (several Nov.-Dec."10 comments below -Taban 'Lycal' look like Alucard in 'dog' form), as could easily several other players' campaigns set in later periods.As for the location of encounters so spiced with fantasy elements, while skirmishes can take place in 'traditional' Lace Wars settings, for plausibility sake major battles are better restricted to newly discovered, 'mysterious' oversea lands such as 'Melnibonean' Ameri-Go and the Half-Continent.
(reconstruction)
{current leaders: the Révérend Pères de Roopett and Teilhard de Rouston}
{current leaders: the Révérend Pères de Roopett and Teilhard de Rouston}
[nicknamed 'Blackwood' by the skeptical members of Torchwood]
['Torchwood ' already being the self-given nickname of the informal group formed by John Dee -famous for his translation of the Necronomicon (with later Francis Bacon as second and eventually successor) yet still (semi-)officially known by the British Crown only as Bookworm, the 'innocuous' name initially given by Dee to his secret gathering of scholars specially knowledgeable in the esoteric and the occult (because of the time they spent deciphering 'many a quaint and curious volume of a forgotten lore'). 'Torchwood' -a counter-reference to Wormwood- is to become its official name only when the group receives more official support with the creation of the Torchwood Institute; for it Mycroft Holmes is to found the Diogenes Club as a cover, and it will copied far later in America by 'The Threshold'. Since the mid-17th C. those (very few) outsiders suspecting its existence often referred to it -or at least to its 'directorial board'- as the 'Invisible College': a confusion? Probably not entirely. For the time being when in need of 'strong arms' Torchwood relies on daredevil highwaymen ('persons', actually) and rogues with their own demanding sense of honor.
records are prudish and bowdlerized, that's why for instance they don't mention Emily, Harriet & Louisa -yet the very ones who, fast friends of Lucy Lockit, Polly Peachum, Edgeworth Bess and Poll Maggot, put the group in touch with Torchwood- and for a time Moll Flanders -and now her skilled daughter Flora- as members of the Fellowship. Then censorship let slip a quote of a high-rank member of Torchwood affectionately referring to the Fellowship as "Fanny's Brothelhood"). While according to their centuries old tradition England and France are at war, Orlando currently serves the French Crown as the Chevalier d'Eon (and Amber's long lasting friend Geneviève Sylvie d'Isle Dieudonné is in Monte-Cristan service): but patriotic loyalties are irrelevant when facing dreadful supernatural threats.
While at times unpredictable, whimsical Mary Barley-Quinn ('the whore of Nancy who stopped the cavalry': ??) is a precious trump card / wild card of the Fellowship. Dracula would not interfere: two generations ago he left for an oversea land following the trail of Erzsébet Bathory; Genevève's friend Carmilla would help but not leave South-Eastern Europe. Various characters can be added to the cast such as a young Baron Münchhausen, the Comte de Saint Germain, Cagliostro if born some 20 years earlier in this time-line... as well as some incarnation of Jeremy Cornelius, Una Persson von Bek -she would go very well with Fanny's group- and Catherine Cornelius De Barra.]
(As for the French Cabinet Esotérique its field operatives are led by one Guy de Vere known in some circles as El Desdichado, with such 'colorful' characters as Angélique de Longueval and l'abbé de Bucquoy)
.
In addition to secret 'Services' (including those of the Vatican, a still occult Opus Dei among them) and secret Cults, Secret Societies (possibly without paranormal / supernatural elements) can be added to the mix.
On one side the 'real' Freemasons if -as they claim- they are the heirs of the masons of the Temple of Jerusalem they could own the knowledge, or at least the practical know-how, of the builders of the pyramids. And this could be of importance, in the hypothesis: "'Elohim' = true plural (not 'emphatic' singular) thus 'CreatorS' = E.T.; 'Sons of G*d' (angels) mated with 'daughters of Man' -> Nephilim [-> Gibborim] (Elves / Melnibonéans?); educated Humankind -> Atlantis (& Mu); the Flood and the sinking of Atlantis caused by a war between E.T. colonies or hyper-advanced prehistoric 'half-breed' civilizations (the battle of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata); knowledge partly saved (artefacts: the Ark, the Lance of Passion...) -->Pyramids builders." Other (rival?) heirs probably in Agartha? The Freemasons would be, according to the obedience, mainly aligned either with Protestant countries or with the 'rationalist' philosophers. Maybe manipulate Reformed rulers (Great Britain, Prussia). At this time were the -still underground- Illuminati an inner secret circle or already a dissident branch?
Facing them , the Prieuré de Sion. In addition to its first duty of protecting the Sangreal -the bloodline of the son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene who came to Provence with the Saintes Maries de la Mer. Not surprisingly the Prieuré''s fiercest enemy originated as a dissident branch: during the Crusades some members who had joined the Knights Templar had an epiphany and understood the old French name of the Holy Grail as 'San Greal' rather than 'Sang Real'. Nowadays Die Zwielichthelden are the secret descendant of those Templars having taken refuge in Germany. They compete with the Priory in all fields but specially to preserve (and [mis]use?) the Grail –and the Cathars' secret heritage; yet they hate the French Crown and the Vatican as feverishly as the Frères do, but because of curse placed on the French Bloodline and the Church by the last Grand Master Jacques de Molay when burnt at the stake.
Nothing forbids to add the Witchblade (Joan of Arc also is a favorite topic of conspiracy theories) to the Great Artifacts of Power involved…
The Priory *hates* the French monarchy and the Vatican, but uses Catholic countries as pawns.
Could the SYW be the currently visible part of the centuries old underground war between these two secret societies?
As a non-Cthulhuesque Cult with claims of magical knowledge, what about an earlier form of the Golden Dawn / Thule Society led by 'Frater Perdurabo' aka 'The Great Beast' (to be reincarnated, or to reappear publicly, as Aleister Crowley) gathering around it, beside practising Thelemites, a cluster of Mjölnir-amulet wielders, neo-druidists, wicca adherents and worshippers of the Triple Goddess.
Likely to be in relation (or at least trying to make contact) with Agartha and Atlanteans Successors sheltered in the 'Hollow Earth'. Members actively seeking 'old knowledge' in shamanist cultures around the Baltic Sea, in Siberia and as far as Mongolia and North America. An intriguing potentiality is the possible knowledge (and even tries to use in practice) the Vril.
The Rosenkreutz / Rose-Croix may have been an earlier form of the Golden Dawn / Thule-Gesellschaft in Lutheran Germany; may survive as a weak 'fundamentalist / traditionalist' secret Church faithful to its Christian roots?
And what about the Hellfire Club?
As other possible 'factions' what about La Fraternité de Jean le Presbytre, the Sons of the Martyrs, a kind of 18th C. Bene Gesserit, the Bennet Circle and the Children of the Lady-in-the-earth.
On one side the 'real' Freemasons if -as they claim- they are the heirs of the masons of the Temple of Jerusalem they could own the knowledge, or at least the practical know-how, of the builders of the pyramids. And this could be of importance, in the hypothesis: "'Elohim' = true plural (not 'emphatic' singular) thus 'CreatorS' = E.T.; 'Sons of G*d' (angels) mated with 'daughters of Man' -> Nephilim [-> Gibborim] (Elves / Melnibonéans?); educated Humankind -> Atlantis (& Mu); the Flood and the sinking of Atlantis caused by a war between E.T. colonies or hyper-advanced prehistoric 'half-breed' civilizations (the battle of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata); knowledge partly saved (artefacts: the Ark, the Lance of Passion...) -->Pyramids builders." Other (rival?) heirs probably in Agartha? The Freemasons would be, according to the obedience, mainly aligned either with Protestant countries or with the 'rationalist' philosophers. Maybe manipulate Reformed rulers (Great Britain, Prussia). At this time were the -still underground- Illuminati an inner secret circle or already a dissident branch?
Nothing forbids to add the Witchblade (Joan of Arc also is a favorite topic of conspiracy theories) to the Great Artifacts of Power involved…
The Priory *hates* the French monarchy and the Vatican, but uses Catholic countries as pawns.
Could the SYW be the currently visible part of the centuries old underground war between these two secret societies?
As a non-Cthulhuesque Cult with claims of magical knowledge, what about an earlier form of the Golden Dawn / Thule Society led by 'Frater Perdurabo' aka 'The Great Beast' (to be reincarnated, or to reappear publicly, as Aleister Crowley) gathering around it, beside practising Thelemites, a cluster of Mjölnir-amulet wielders, neo-druidists, wicca adherents and worshippers of the Triple Goddess. Likely to be in relation (or at least trying to make contact) with Agartha and Atlanteans Successors sheltered in the 'Hollow Earth'. Members actively seeking 'old knowledge' in shamanist cultures around the Baltic Sea, in Siberia and as far as Mongolia and North America. An intriguing potentiality is the possible knowledge (and even tries to use in practice) the Vril.
The Rosenkreutz / Rose-Croix may have been an earlier form of the Golden Dawn / Thule-Gesellschaft in Lutheran Germany; may survive as a weak 'fundamentalist / traditionalist' secret Church faithful to its Christian roots?
And what about the Hellfire Club?
As other possible 'factions' what about La Fraternité de Jean le Presbytre, the Sons of the Martyrs, a kind of 18th C. Bene Gesserit, the Bennet Circle and the Children of the Lady-in-the-earth.
Emma, a sorceress associated with the Comte de Saint-Germain by the time of Louis XV (cosplay from the Japanese anime Le Chevalier d'Eon): she DOES wear a tricorne, indeed!
Possible 'monster hunters' / 'witchers' / 'sorceliers':
Fenryll Chasseur de sorcières, Valiant (Magnificent Egos) Pilgrim (male and reincarnated as female: Orlando? Note that Orlando is a member of the Lemuel Gulliver Fellowship, the 2nd League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Flying Frog Katarina and Enigma Catherine (painted there, but nothing compels you to paint her with metallic greaves).
Youtubing 18° C. werewolves: Rammstein’s "Du Riechst So gut" and a spectacular scene of shapeshifting from "The company of wolves" (The Little Red Riding Hood revisited).
(For those interested, Crododile Games Ghouls have a very ‘Lovecraftian’ look {'Pickman's Model'} and would made great werewolves {other ranges of ghouls -also and there-are more 'traditional'}; Fenryll Lycan and Masquerade 'Wolfhyaenas' are of the same style.Westwind Jager-werewolves are 'traditional' but very fitting for the 18th C. with their trousers reduced to short breeches. The same with some of WW Lycaons & SuperFigs werewolves -and at least 2 are female, though not blatantly in the 'wolf' form- but you have to buy their human form in modern dress; the Noble Knight 'Streetfight' ones require some conversion. Acheson Vincent Malakov, Mortebrume 'Bipede', D&D Minis werewolf lord and Valiant Wolfwere are impressive, the Corvus Belli Ogre werewolf even more so but armored; WotC D&D also offers a *female* werewolf, Otherworld a manly male. The cute Bronze Age "female Werefox" can well pass for a 18th C. (lovely) lycanthrope (Werevixen?: no 'tale-telling tail'!); too bad her mini ‘in human form’ is not in a more active pose, she would have made a good adventuress / vampire slayer. Uncle Mike (Strange Aeons) werewolf turned giant during the shapechanging, so probably his trousers now look like breeches.
'Naked' werewolves can be appear in any setting: Reaper, Heresy, Otherworld, Black Cat Bases, Black Orc... The 'anatomically complete' SLAP minis ones are perfectly balanced between human and lupine, and females are in the pipe-line. The Wolfen (from the defunct Rackham 'Confrontation') and the PP Warpwolves use weapons and wear some clothes, but then, why not? Some of them could be of use; some Reaper 'Lupines' , as well as a few 'Fantasy Football' werewolves: e.g. Willy Miniatures, look not dissimilar. Puppetwars' werewolves heads and arms allow conversion of human minis in 'period' costume.
A 'wyrd' female werewolf hunter {amazing how adding a tricorne can make a mini '18th C. compatible'}?
A Touch of Evil includes a monster huntress (witchress / sorceliere?). Copplestone castings’ Yetis would make excellent degenerate 'Martense' of the 'Big Boss type for a 'Lurking Fear'-type adventure; for the 'basic' types better to use ghouls -also and there.
Crocodile Games Ice warriors and wendigos, horned carrying weapons, look too much like 'beastmen' for my taste -even with the horns removed they could not make 'Martense'but rather some kind of Bigfoot / Yetis- but their 'howlers' and perhaps 'snowbeast' are more... credible; for those who prefer felines, DGS has a witchcat, and their Alpha Plakhra is original, while Reaper 'Moor Hound' is specially impressive; discussion of other 'Big Foot / Sasquatch' minis there.
'Naked' werewolves can be appear in any setting: Reaper, Heresy, Otherworld, Black Cat Bases, Black Orc... The 'anatomically complete' SLAP minis ones are perfectly balanced between human and lupine, and females are in the pipe-line. The Wolfen (from the defunct Rackham 'Confrontation') and the PP Warpwolves use weapons and wear some clothes, but then, why not? Some of them could be of use; some Reaper 'Lupines' , as well as a few 'Fantasy Football' werewolves: e.g. Willy Miniatures, look not dissimilar. Puppetwars' werewolves heads and arms allow conversion of human minis in 'period' costume.
A 'wyrd' female werewolf hunter {amazing how adding a tricorne can make a mini '18th C. compatible'}?
A Touch of Evil includes a monster huntress (witchress / sorceliere?). Copplestone castings’ Yetis would make excellent degenerate 'Martense' of the 'Big Boss type for a 'Lurking Fear'-type adventure; for the 'basic' types better to use ghouls -also and there.
Crocodile Games Ice warriors and wendigos, horned carrying weapons, look too much like 'beastmen' for my taste -even with the horns removed they could not make 'Martense'but rather some kind of Bigfoot / Yetis- but their 'howlers' and perhaps 'snowbeast' are more... credible; for those who prefer felines, DGS has a witchcat, and their Alpha Plakhra is original, while Reaper 'Moor Hound' is specially impressive; discussion of other 'Big Foot / Sasquatch' minis there.
(from Carpat'land) Fiendish Fabrications has 'authentic' Old Carribean zombies, Studio Miniature has an 'all periods' zombified priest, Armorcast Anti-Pope and Strange Aeons evil priest already have quasi-undead facial features, Alkemy Caelina has potential.
Black Cat Bases have skeletons in 18th C. uniform and tricorne to escort AA '18th C. skeleton gentleman' carrying an occult grimoire.
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(Defunct) Mississinewa Miniatures had good-looking zombie dogs, as Wyrd still does, Gamezone zombie wolves, WotC D&D a gravehound..
Cipher "Jaws" with a little paint conversion, Privateer Press wardog, GW "Thing in the Woods", Sphere Wars Sorrep, Maelstrom Maru and Zenit "Battle Hyena" would make great 'tamed' armored warbeasts of the "Brotherhood of the Wolf" famous Bete type, while Raging Heroes 'Cyberwolves' do have potential, but require some conversion (+ spikes on the hinges &c.) to change their mechanical parts into pieces of armour with spurs; WotC D&D Minis Vampire Dire Wolf, Reaper Moor Hound as well as GW LotR wargs and their chieftain can become interesting 'wild' beasts of the Gevaudan type; some Alkemy Khalimans could be used as 18th C. werepanthers.
Animated scarecrows seem peculiar to (British) American Colonies.
As for Vampire Countesses less well known than the GW ones mentioned above and the new Isabella, Avatars of War, Black Cat Bases (vampire queen in rococo dress!), Custommade, Freebooter, Mad Puppet, Resina Planet, Valiant each have at least one -although only the BCB is really in 18th C. dress; Freebooter Lady Death and JoeK Baroness are perhaps a little 'too much'? The coat of Freebooter Chaos Sorceress has a 18th C. look; Crocodile Ice Witch, Gaspez Banshee, Magnificient Egos Tyranta, Rackham Azael, Reaper Terezinia, Red Box Dagny, Thunderbolt Elf Lady, Tinbits Daughter of the Night and Zenit Thetis could also play the part; the Foundry female Revenant Elves in addition wear clothes more suitable for the period (would make great 18th C. witches with their ears 'normalized'). Freebooter witch has a certain charm. West Wind (and to a lesser degree Blue Moon) have several female vampires and richly offer for both their potential retinue and their opposition. Wrath of Kings 'Blood Dancers' do have potential here. Now, if you could give her a tricorn... PP Alexia is a good (not beheaded! Galanterie oblige) Headless Horsewoman, and Reaper 'Steampunk witch' would become a comely 18th C. one.
Animated scarecrows seem peculiar to (British) American Colonies.
As for Vampire Countesses less well known than the GW ones mentioned above and the new Isabella, Avatars of War, Black Cat Bases (vampire queen in rococo dress!), Custommade, Freebooter, Mad Puppet, Resina Planet, Valiant each have at least one -although only the BCB is really in 18th C. dress; Freebooter Lady Death and JoeK Baroness are perhaps a little 'too much'? The coat of Freebooter Chaos Sorceress has a 18th C. look; Crocodile Ice Witch, Gaspez Banshee, Magnificient Egos Tyranta, Rackham Azael, Reaper Terezinia, Red Box Dagny, Thunderbolt Elf Lady, Tinbits Daughter of the Night and Zenit Thetis could also play the part; the Foundry female Revenant Elves in addition wear clothes more suitable for the period (would make great 18th C. witches with their ears 'normalized'). Freebooter witch has a certain charm. West Wind (and to a lesser degree Blue Moon) have several female vampires and richly offer for both their potential retinue and their opposition. Wrath of Kings 'Blood Dancers' do have potential here. Now, if you could give her a tricorn... PP Alexia is a good (not beheaded! Galanterie oblige) Headless Horsewoman, and Reaper 'Steampunk witch' would become a comely 18th C. one.
Btw witches do NOT have to be old and ugly, quite the opposite; most of Uncle Mike's are decrepit, but their 'Brown Jenkin'-like familiars have some 'charm'.
Hasslefree 'NOT Raven' Lenore could be a rather subdued witch, aptly backed by Aberrant Sister Carmine.
Hasslefree 'NOT Raven' Lenore could be a rather subdued witch, aptly backed by Aberrant Sister Carmine.
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Not enough male characters? Mordheim 'Highwayman', his ridiculous 'bonaparte'' bicorne turned into a tricorn, could make a good "18th C. Van Helsing" -using as a cover a mobile theatre: the re-decorated Plague Cart -add a lot of feathers to the horses and the 4 corners of the car and change the driver! With Elvish & Amazon cheerleaders on stage? Painted identically, converted (armed) players of the same teams would ensure in case of need that the 5 girls are not merely 'decorative'; for the driver a beardless dwarf- Musket from Westmark actually, but he would fit with the troupe: give a 28-30mm head to a 22-25mm mini, the disproportion will explain the 'dwarfism': ideally you should have 3 versions of the same character, sited as a driver, on foot sabre & pistol on hand and playing a musical instrument (pipe & tabor?). Shadowrun LM Macintyre and Fenryl chasseur de sorciere would made good sidekicks for the major character; with a tricorn each, Black Army Wich hunter, Armorcast (ex-Spinespur) Booth and Rusted Heroes Jerimiah Black would nicely complete the team. D&D Minis Inquisitor as well as various GW clerical, monastic and inquisitorial types for WH, Mordheim and even 40K, possibly after some conversions, could also be of use. Some 'not 18th C.' minis could become interesting '18th C. Special Agents'.
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(Too bad the Fontegris' "werewolf huntress" is in 54mm, Fenryll does not produce a female version of their chasseur de sorciere and Ral Partha female vampire hunter Tara Kolyana is OOP...O. Bredy 'NOT Anna Velrious' would make a good sorceliere.
As for the very original Precinct Omega's Aliens / Faeries unfortunately they are '40mm'. While -are they Extra-Terrestrials, Elves, vampires (either of the 'Twilight' or the '30 days of night' type), demons / angels / Elohim came from their parallel universe through the Sunydalle Hellmouth or Atlants / Nephilims emerging from Agartha under Shangri-La through caves in Ultima Thule…- the fact they dress (approximately) like 'us" means that they wish, if not to pass unnoticed, at least not to look too 'alien' / frightening.
Now, most 18th gamers tempted by the occasional excursion into the 'weird' use 18-30mm figurines; with reference to such, the Skapyard creations correspond to creatures some 8 feet / 2.4 meters tall: any hope to not be terrifying monstrosities is vain.).
As for the very original Precinct Omega's Aliens / Faeries unfortunately they are '40mm'. While -are they Extra-Terrestrials, Elves, vampires (either of the 'Twilight' or the '30 days of night' type), demons / angels / Elohim came from their parallel universe through the Sunydalle Hellmouth or Atlants / Nephilims emerging from Agartha under Shangri-La through caves in Ultima Thule…- the fact they dress (approximately) like 'us" means that they wish, if not to pass unnoticed, at least not to look too 'alien' / frightening.
Now, most 18th gamers tempted by the occasional excursion into the 'weird' use 18-30mm figurines; with reference to such, the Skapyard creations correspond to creatures some 8 feet / 2.4 meters tall: any hope to not be terrifying monstrosities is vain.).
[Btw, 'fantasy' does not necessarily imply supernatural elements: O8."09 comment, yet is used here with this usual meaning]
A intriguing questions: "Can Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies... breed true?"
What happens when a vampire and a werewolf bite each other?
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.A intriguing questions: "Can Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies... breed true?"
What happens when a vampire and a werewolf bite each other?
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A *cute* Red Riding Hood (converted and painted by DotE -great painting blog!)
Anyway, Fantasy can always be submitted to a 'materialistic / rationalist' transformation into Sci-Fi. Typical of this approach is the "Matheson model" of vampirism: a contagious disease transmitted by biting. Resulting for the parasited host in metabolic *and psychological* changes (when you have to survive feeding on human blood your values / worldview have to be quite different -what is classically translated as 'loss of soul': parasites *can* do that). Indeed while the infection has unpleasant consequences -hyperreaction to the actinic components of solar light, perturbated social life…) it also brings extented (youth and) life -does the parasite stop the natural 'ageing' of chromosomes? Thus *if vampires could breed true* it would even be seen as a symbiosis.
Cf. a wider exemple in the O3.21."09 comment below..
(Now, if I'd have 'real' vampires and werewolves in my campaign, for reasons given in the march "09 comment below, I'd have silver and wood -and aluminium- equally efficient against both types -and also against zombies. Yet, to play safe the monster hunters' blades of choice would be hollow with a piece of wood inserted -in order to introduce wood in the wounds- and with a serrated edge with silver inserts -to introduce silver in the wounds. And they'd probably wear an oversized gorget extending in a surgical collar / neck brace as in Carpenter's 'Vampires': vampires and wolves attack at the throat. Such blades would also have some efficiency against 'psychosomatic' werewolves and vampires.)
The Marquis
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The Marquis
While The_Age_of_Unreason is set in a ‘magical’ version of our past, The Tales of Alvin Maker series on the other hand is parochially yankee (and ‘bicorne’ rather than ‘tricorne’). Did not read (as yet) Fires of Memory - but the soldiers on the cover are in shakos?
‘Jonathan_Strange_&_Mr_Norrell’ is set in an ‘alternate’ England where magic works –more or less. The story unfolds by Napoleonic times, but may be inspirational for a mid 18th C. background –by comparison with what working magic would bring, the cultural and technological differences between ‘our’ 1745 and 1815 are trivial.
The Monster Blood Tattoo series is set in a continent (at least) of its own and despite the vocabulary used is actually Science-Fiction (with an emphasis on biology / chemistry instead of mechanics and physics -some details are reminiscent of "A Planet Named Shayol") rather than Fantasy. Full of wargaming potential, this 'Land' could well be located in the Pacific Ocean.
Lloyd Alexander’s non-fantasy ‘Westmark’ trilogy is a ‘juvenile’ (the poor boy rescues a beggar girl that turns out to be a despoiled princess – they end as Prince Consort and Queen) yet of thoughtful tone, set in an alternate 18th C.: said to be quite good, with RPG and WG potential. No (major)‘paranormal’ features.
But reciprocally Fantasy races (such as Melniboneans) can be 'carried' to Lace Wars times.
In the comics 'Revere' the American hero was a kind of monster hunter.The comics short series The Marquis is a very good, if a little extreme, example of Lacepulp.
Joseph DeLaney's series The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles and among children books G P Taylor's Shadowmancer / Wormwood (heavily catechist) series and Marie Rutkoski's Kronos Chronicles are pure Fantasy set in (implicitly or explicitly) some 'mid-18th C.' background, seemingly without much (war)gaming potential.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies with its prequel & sequel could easily be set by Barry Lyndon times.
The fantasy video game 'Fable' seems to be set in a (loosely) 'tricornes' era -even with a touch of Lacepunk at least in the #III.
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As for the advanced ‘Lacepunk’ technologies above, my suggestion, if you want to give widespread efficient magic a try in your Lace Wars setting, is to have it for some reason (a hole in the ozone layer / tropospheric whirlwind allowing mysterious radiations to reach the Earth’s surface; some unique convergence of ‘geomagnetic lines’…) to have it working only in a Great Britain-sized remote island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
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‘Jonathan_Strange_&_Mr_Norrell’ is set in an ‘alternate’ England where magic works –more or less. The story unfolds by Napoleonic times, but may be inspirational for a mid 18th C. background –by comparison with what working magic would bring, the cultural and technological differences between ‘our’ 1745 and 1815 are trivial.
The Monster Blood Tattoo series is set in a continent (at least) of its own and despite the vocabulary used is actually Science-Fiction (with an emphasis on biology / chemistry instead of mechanics and physics -some details are reminiscent of "A Planet Named Shayol") rather than Fantasy. Full of wargaming potential, this 'Land' could well be located in the Pacific Ocean.
Lloyd Alexander’s non-fantasy ‘Westmark’ trilogy is a ‘juvenile’ (the poor boy rescues a beggar girl that turns out to be a despoiled princess – they end as Prince Consort and Queen) yet of thoughtful tone, set in an alternate 18th C.: said to be quite good, with RPG and WG potential. No (major)‘paranormal’ features.
But reciprocally Fantasy races (such as Melniboneans) can be 'carried' to Lace Wars times.
In the comics 'Revere' the American hero was a kind of monster hunter.The comics short series The Marquis is a very good, if a little extreme, example of Lacepulp.Joseph DeLaney's series The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles and among children books G P Taylor's Shadowmancer / Wormwood (heavily catechist) series and Marie Rutkoski's Kronos Chronicles are pure Fantasy set in (implicitly or explicitly) some 'mid-18th C.' background, seemingly without much (war)gaming potential.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies with its prequel & sequel could easily be set by Barry Lyndon times.
The fantasy video game 'Fable' seems to be set in a (loosely) 'tricornes' era -even with a touch of Lacepunk at least in the #III.
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As for the advanced ‘Lacepunk’ technologies above, my suggestion, if you want to give widespread efficient magic a try in your Lace Wars setting, is to have it for some reason (a hole in the ozone layer / tropospheric whirlwind allowing mysterious radiations to reach the Earth’s surface; some unique convergence of ‘geomagnetic lines’…) to have it working only in a Great Britain-sized remote island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
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(from this forum: re TMP)
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Relevant (well, almost: Napoleonic rather than Lace Wars) to this post, a series of French ‘Bande Dessinée’ (comics, but in ≈ A4 size and with hard cover –what would be called ‘graphic novel’ in the USA?), «Empire»: in the very late 18th C. Bonaparte marched East from Egypt and conquered most of India. By 1815, additionally, and chiefly, technology had evolved sooner and faster than in ‘our’ History (but with constant reference to historical inventors): steam powers artillery tractors, warships, dirigibles and even warwalkers; improved 'steam' Puckle’s machine guns are not uncommon, an ‘Enigma’ coding machine is coupled with Chappe's telegraph and a very improved version (using perforated cards linked by cloth, the invention of Jacquard) of Babbage’s computer is used as a powerful 'military advisor'. Napoleon and Wellington are battling for the control of the Indian sub-continent, the two sides suffering from raids by Afghans in Russian pay, and Mary Shelley is both an English spy and the controller of the 'mechanical general'; a tamed Yeti but no werewolves as yet. Indeed, what is more, magic may work, Kali's Thugs work for the British and as in the 'Van Helsing' movie Frankeinstein meets Dracula! Of the 2 French 'main characters' ('heroes' would be an overstatement!), one is born in India and knew a Mowgli-like childhood; the other claims to be an alchimist who, if not 'directly' immortal, benefits from the fortunate hazards of metempsychosis. VSF with H&M uniforms, exactly what, for me, I do NOT wish to happen to a Lace Wars setting; drawing rather awful, 'Natives' in British service wear Victorian uniforms, but an enjoyable storyline, most vehicle designs are very pleasant and 'realistic', and those of the corresponding inclination would find the background very inspirational.
The same authors published a series «The Secret History» (upper right), between Sci-Fi and Fantasy, following the confrontation of hidden ‘Masters’ from the Neolithic to WWII; the illustrated tome depicts them manipulating the young Bonaparte.
The very inspirational ‘Le Scorpion’ (vertical column right) is set in a 18th C. without truly Fantasy element but with a powerful Secret Society – that obviously doesn’t care for discretion!
Quasi-historical 18th C. is not an unfrequent setting in French Bande Dessinée, mainly for ‘Pirates’ stories –a tradition dating from the Barbe-Rouge (Red Beard) series started in the early sixties, with a current total of 35 volumes. This series has a few elements relevant to Lace Wars mythical uniforms & Sci-Fi, such as Spanish garrisons in the Carribeans still wearing morions, and Barbe-Rouge upgrading his ship with Da Vinci’s machine guns and Greek Fire-throwers.
Then, the New World, Venice, Scotland and humour are not ignored.
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