Sunday 12 January 2014

Eylau Sequence: Micro Tank battles in 20:1 scale

Every now and then something comes along that surprises you in a good way.

The Eylau Sequence is a wargaming universe that does just that.  It focuses on combat between MGVs - Miniature Ground Vehicles - tiny tanks that are only millimetres long. The miniatures are larger than life at 20:1 scale, which is certainly novel.  The MGVs are basically tiny drones - difficult to spot, and capable of intel gathering, sabotage and combat. The best way to hunt down the enemy MGVs is to field your own.

Terrain can include dead insects, oil patches, fungus and other objects which are "supersize" compared to the tiny MGVs.  This would make for some fascinating tabletop setups and allow for a fair bit of imagination. 

 The "upsized" 20:1 minis allow for some fascinating terrain ideas. The pebbles could be liquid such as "oil drops" and I can see MGVs navigating a dead ant. (All photos linked from the WTJ Gallery)

 The MGV designs are quite unique. They might make for interesting 6mm sci fi hovertanks or even spacecraft. They even have a paint guide.

The "factions" do not involve sci fi elves or an Empire of Mankind - nor the thinly disguised WW2/Cold War factions beloved of "hard" sci fi games  i.e. the neo-Germans, neo-Russians etc.  No, instead we have Selangor (a Southeast asian alliance) and Australia as the primary players in the "war", with Australia's ally the Medditeranean states (capital city: Malta!). California, and Japan (with super-powered MGVs) are neutral but protect their own interests.

The MGVs have active camoflage and are equipped with with a primary and secondary weapon - which could be kinetic cannon, energy weapons or missiles.

I'm not going to review the rules as they are free here - in fact they come in two levels - one "skirmish" level which might have half a dozen or so units per side generally in hunter-killer
pairs; and an "operational" level  game where there could be dozens of MGVs on each side in large "formations".
After whinging a lot about "generic" games the Eylau Sequence is a breath of fresh air.

The miniatures came about based on an e-book of the same name, by the founder of the War Times Journal.  Annoyingly I don't have a Kindle but at $1 it would be worth it for the "fluff"factor, which DOES interest me.

Anyway, check them out at the War Times Journal site.  I already have a million incomplete projects but these minis are tempting me a lot - and have a unique universe I am actually interested in learning more about.  I don't usually promote miniatures or a game I haven't tried myself, but this sort of creativity deserves recognition. 

6 comments:

  1. I have posted The Eylau Sequence for free at eylau.com, including the current rules and other stuff... to be further expanded with new miniatures in coming weeks. Feel free to email me directly if you have any questions.

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    1. Nice! I was actually searching for the minis the other week, after being reminded of this by the "Risen Empire" (Scott Westerfeld) and the dust-mote sized drones combat in the opening sequence....

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  2. Spent the weekend working on the MGV rules, plus the latest sidebar photo features some new Australian MGVs - I'm running a few more 3D printing tests to make sure everything comes out okay and then should be ready to release them.

    http://www.eylau.com/gaming/mgv/index.htm

    Cheers,
    Jim
    webmaster@wtj.com

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    1. Thanks for the update; this sits alongside the Quar as one of the few unique "takes" on the wargaming genre.

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  3. Hey EM, feel free to email as you have time, I'm looking for a bit of sci-fi input. Tks.

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