The Century War Concept

The Century War Concept
The Century War concept has been dancing in my head for some years. The WW1 and WW2 added together with psychic powers and strange technology. It all boiled into a game activity after three things were added together. For that I have to thank Topo Solitario. I had his Steam Mechs under my scissors for some time now. This was the perfect moment to start building them. Adding to this, I had the Warm Acre miniatures sculpted by Gavin Tyler to give me ideas for my Pulp Universe. His miniatures of WW2 soldiers have the right feeling to play pulp era games. They have this Vintage feel without being unrealistic. I urge you also to check his minis. I also played for the first time in these last days the Warm Acre game Hour of Glory and I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality and finesse of the system and playability. To glue this together I am using the excellent FUBAR - One Page Rules - with some minor changes to work with the universe. These rules are very easy and enjoyable to use. The major modifications are the psychic shields and the Vehicles (mecha and human energy powered tanks). These rules are displayed in the next post. I am also using the very nice tanks from Fiddler's Green. If you like papermodels and want to play with 28mm very cheap vehicles, you should try them out. The Opel Blitz is a beauty, and if you create an account, you'll have access to 3 free models! I'm finishing it and soon I'll show it here. Chip only has one WW2 tank (the Panzer III), but if some of you buy it, I think that he will add some more. I'm counting on you all! ;)

The Universe: The Century War
WW1 never really ended. The 1917 French army riot was exploited by the Germans and they pushed forward again. The French army collapsed and the French front routed. The Allies' luck was that the 300 experimental British tanks (the mythical Mark I's) were on the front, ready to be deployed. These beasts faced the pivotal German attack and were able to slow it down sufficiently to give time to regroup the French army and to create a counter-attack. New trenches were made and the front was moved a little further into French territory. During these events a strange thing happened that would change the face of war and technology forever. A German shell destroyed the engine of a Mark I. To the crew's dismay, the tank kept on moving. As they tried to grasp the reason for this, they stared astonished to the tank driver, seriously wounded but still driving the tank. A group of Stormtroopers attacked the tank and took it. One of the crew members was able to escape. The German commander also understood that something was strange with this tank and reported it to his superiors. After some "interrogation" they understood that it was the personal energy of the driver that maintained the tank working. Heavy research was invested in this by the Germans. But not fast enough to be of any use in the war. The German military scientists learned that human energy could be tapped in some extreme conditions and be added to another machine with an electric component. A machine with a debit of one HP could be augmented by human energy to ten times this power. And other avenues were possible. Electricity technology was now open to new realities and electronics was forgotten. The British read with interest the report made by the tank's crew member who was able to escape, but little was done about it.

The war went on with low activity until 1922. The French and British weren't able to create a major counter-strike and Germany was on the brink of economic breakdown. Two things were decisive to end the war. The Russian revolution of 1917 put them out of the war. The insertion of Lenin by the Germans in Russia was fundamental to create a civil war. The White Russians against the Bolshevik. Germany betrayed the secret pact they had done with Lenin and sided with the White Russians. The Allies weren't keen about siding with the Bolshevik so they maintained themselves out of the conflict. The Italians, under the sway of a new man, Benito Mussolini, changed sides and allied themselves with Germany. Peace was achieved with a thorn France and a powerful Axis. But peace would be so ephemeral that some historians prefer to join both World Wars into just one: The Century War.

In 1927 Adolf Hitler, supported and pushed up by a strange Bavarian Organization became the German Chancellor. His powerful speeches about German superiority and sacred right to dominate Europe, push the British to rise their military presence in France. In 1928, Germany initiates a surprise attack against the French. The Century War has begun. New weapons were about to be revealed. The Panzerkampffußgaenger PzKF1, a gigantic mechanized robot, controlled just by one man rolled against the Allies. Luckily for the Allies, they had a unit of special troops defending that position and some of the PzKF1's still had some development problems. They had to withdraw, leaving three Mechs behind. In 1930, almost all France was no-man's land. In the brink of a terrible defeat, the British unleashed their Walkers Mk I, a modified copy of the PzKF1's. Nations would deviate their resources and research into this new amazing technology breakthrough. Human energy and its capabilities would force governments to hunt down their citizens who were capable of tapping into their energy.
The Russian would create their witches. The колдунья (koldunya), capable of repulsive energy.They would later develop energy shields and proto-levitation. The capability of rising huge vehicles 50cm above ground.
The Germans would implement the human engines to paradoxical extremes.
The British would follow the Germans and also create the Gunmen. Units of men that would use their energy to shoot a blast of Tesla energy through a weapon that replaced their severed hand.
The Italians would develop a strange kind of teleportation.
The Americans would transfer their soldier's heads and spines into a tank, creating the fast and armoured Mechboys.
And the French - a thorn and desperate nation - would develop the zombies. A helmet capable of infusing electric energy into one's body, maintaining it alive despite all kinds of fatal injuries.

The horror was unleashed. Desecration of human life was again in the order of the day.

And soon, more will follow.