I've been 'pottering' away at the VSF Prussians (for Hordes of the Things - HotT), based around those Airfix 1/76th scale WW1 Germans. The box comes with a Maxim, albeit that it is not on the correct mount. However this is after all VSF, a fantasy genre, so.. who cares. I decided to use them as artillery. Why? They have a longer range than rifles, and were certainly more effective that rifles, so counting them as shooters didn't seem to reflect the impact of machine guns on the battlefield.
I also wanted something a little different in the way of a mount. I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks, messing around with bits from the good old fashioned spares box (I'm not into 3D printing you understand, not because I'm some sort of modern day luddite, but simply because I love the challenge of creating in this more practical physical way). I came up with a solution that I liked - there was an earlier 'fail', or an earlier learning experience if you prefer, since discarded, but which lead to this solution. So, one gun on a special sled mount with armoured shield, designed to be pulled into position by some suitable tow (not modelled), and one the good old fashioned tripod.
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| The two MMG 'artillery' pieces, the armoured shield sled mount nearest the camera |
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| The traditional tripod mount |
The army so far is:
3 x airboats
2 x artillery
2 x blades
5 x warband (specialist attack troops with flamethrowers etc)
6 x shooters
... giving a total of 42 points. The goal is to complete a Big Battle HotT army at 72 points.
