In 1988, GDW released a great game called SPACE 1889. It's one of those games that will not die. Rightly so, it was an amazing setting. Flying ships soaring over red sands, Human Imperialists vs Martians and against each other. There was a board game, an RPG, big battle rules, a boxed set for aerial combat: It had everything! For about a year, there were regular releases of great background books, each with a mediocre scenario. For a few years after that, fans kept producing material for the game, and as the Internet grew, SPACE 1889 gained in strength. Now it's all available again, and companies are even producing new product for the system. When the rules were first released, I was struck by how similar the Fantasy Warriors Wood Elves were to the Martian Steppe Nomads.

This being the case, I have used them to grow my Martian forces. The figures are organised into 20-man units, based singly for use in skirmish games or in Role-Playing. I have units of Spearmen and of Swordsmen. They are semi-uniformed, in that shields in a unit will be the same colour, and clothing will tend to be a shade of the uniform colour. Banners and poles are replaced with wire and printed paper flags. The Spear unit commander was armed with a Colt Navy pistol from Guernsey Foundry. Oddly enough, both the pistol and the figure were designed by Mark Copplestone, 10 years apart, for different companies. The figures are well-sculpted, crisp, and flash-free. They look great, and are a joy to paint. Singly or en masse, they look convincing in the role, and are quite menacing foes for the Human interlopers. Space:1889 is Frank Chadwick's registered trademark for his game of Victorian era space-faring The Rules and Background are available at Heliograph's SPACE 1889 site.