Sci-Fi-SS my personal madness

This is the first draft of a timeline to explain my use of WWII armour in a Gruntz setting. It's not supposed to be an addition to the existing Gruntz universe but a parallel one where my games of Gruntz will take place. I figured the only way to explain Sci-Fi weaponry on late War equipment would be that the technology was gifted / taken rather than being invented. To that end I've created this rather improbable story with a few ideas taken from Star Trek and a certain H P Lovecraft.

The earth in my setting is a backwater planet outside the fringes of explored space. The story starts not long after the start of WWII with Germany at or close to the height of its expansion into Europe. The space faring races have a loose political framework called the Galactic Council with its own law enforcement military which is drawn from its members. As with most political organisations there are thousands of rules and directives most of which are followed only by those member races that want to. There is one however, the 'prime directive' which all agree to and is enforced. It states that first contact of an emergent race to a member of the Galactic Federation must be made by the new race. This is to protect them from exploitation and destruction of their culture and identity before it has a chance to fully develop.

The Nassam are a very small member of the Galactic Federation but they have very big ambitions. Unable to increase their influence through military means and without the natural resources to force any meaningful political alliances they have concentrated their efforts into exploration. The exploitation of raw materials in unclaimed systems on the fringes of inhabited space provides a steady income. By following this path they have also uncovered artefacts of immense age belonging to a disappeared race whose domain had included not only everything within the known galaxies but possibly beyond.

So here is the timeline for the birth of the NSL (New Swabian League)......

The Nassam exploration cruiser orbited the earth as they scanned it for signs of the artefact. Although the planet was inhabited and therefore technically off limits there was a distinct possibility that it was the resting place of a piece of 'old ones' technology. Ownership of that and the secrets it might unlock would put the Nassam in a much more favourable position within the Council. Preliminary scans looked good and a stealth team were dispatched to the south Polar Regions which were the source of the strange readings being observed. When the team returned they urged excavation of the region despite the fact that the planet was populated.

Unable to keep such a large scale mining operation secret from the other members of the Galactic Council it was decided that contact should be made with the local inhabitants. The breaking of pretty much the only hard and fast rule the council had was a risk worth taking given the size of the potential prize. That decision looked liked a good one. With the planets inhabitants in the grips of a world war their intervention stood a chance of remaining covert. A little off-planet aid to one side would not only tip the balance of power in that sides favour but also give them far fewer conflicting interests to deal with. The provision of some out dated technology to these backwater savages in exchange for an item they couldn't possibly understand the importance of. This was going to be the most lucrative deal in Galactic history.

It only took a few short Earth months for the forces of Nazi Germany to start fielding superior weapons and armour. Tanks made from strange alloys that were impossible for enemy shells to penetrate, guns delivering ordinance that sliced through the best of defences like it was paper. Rockets delivering devastating payloads with great accuracy from launch sites thousands of miles from the target. As the resisting nations fell huge numbers of prisoners of war were transported to camps at the South Pole to work in terrible conditions in a massive excavation effort that nobody knew the purpose of.

Just as things were going well for the Nassam pure chance took a hand. A routine patrol fleet from the Galactic Military arrived in local space. The Nassam cruiser had no choice but to break contact with Earth and run for cover. For their plot to be uncovered at this stage would be a disaster. They would be expelled from the Federation and their crime would mark them as an outlaw species for a very long time. Things went from bad to worse as the patrol reported back to the Council that they were suspicious about the speed of technological advancement displayed by the warring planet. They would halt their patrol and be investigating it as best they could without risking discovery.

These investigations took an age. Hampered by the need for secrecy findings were minimal. As things were reported back to the Council great debates were held trying to decide if there had been any meddling in the affairs of Earth. Arguments were put forward claming that there must have been given the speed of development. The Nassam politicians were at the forefront of the view that war increases technological advancement and whilst it did seem fast there was no concrete proof that contact had been made by any outside forces.

During all this time the population of Earth continued to fight, die and dig. Just as the war ended with Germany in total control of the planet the artefact was uncovered. Nothing remarkable to look at it was subjected to intense scrutiny by the best scientist the planet had to offer. The artefact has disturbing effects on the minds of those trying to unlock its secrets. Most of the scientists suffered nervous breakdowns or committed suicide however a few, possibly because they were insane to start with, begin to make fantastic discoveries in all fields of Science and medicine. With nothing more to be gained from its presence and the Galactic Council unable to prove anything their military vessels are recalled from the Earth for fear of detection.

With the war now over the planets dictator renames his people as the New Swabian League. It consists mostly of territories conquered in battle with a few wartime allies holding their own homelands as provinces. With nobody left to conquer the NSL scientific programme is redirected towards space. Modification of the late war rockets used for long range bombing is a simple matter and within months military communication satellites are placed in orbit. The field of biology has undergone a terrific period of discovery during this very short time as well. Countless experiments on prisoners of war have lead to the creation of soldiers genetically modified to feel almost no pain and withstand nuclear and biological attacks on the battlefields. These are ideal candidates for survival in the harsh environment of space needing only minimal life support systems to enable them to function.

Yet again chance plays a part. As if working to some hidden plan this is just the time when the artefact linked scientist make breakthroughs in technology that give them the building blocks of non FTL interplanetary travel. The NSL wastes no time in building an experimental ship in orbit which is dispatched to the moon for field testing. Given the dictators desire for military conquest it is crewed by elite troops and packs the latest weapons available. Whilst in testing these ships notice the return of the Nassam exploration cruiser but remain undetected themselves.

When it is obvious that the NSL are not going to keep their part of the bargain and hand over the artefact the Nassam bluff at military action; thinking that the Earths population would still be in awe of their technology. The plan fails totally as whilst the Nassam’s ships attention is diverted by endless discussion and bargaining it comes under attack from the experimental vessel of the NSL. Taken by surprise the crew are no match for the suicidal dedication of the NSL and the Nassam loose control of the ship. With this new cruiser as a template, its computers full of valuable information and the planets rulers and scientific elite under the sway of the mysterious artefact; NSL military expansion in space is just around the corner…..

I like to be different. ;D

Remember this is not trying to be an addition to anything others have done. It's all in my own little universe where I can make up the rules (and frequently do).

To be fair I didn't know that NSL was a term from GZG so I may change that to avoid confusion.

I like this idea very much - good to see some Lovecraftian influences slipping in there too!

As an aside.....

I'm no longer using New Swabian League as that's already out there. I'm now calling my Sci-Fi-SS dudes the Neo Teutonic Empire or NTE

OK

After a couple of games I have a couple of conclusions about trying to use FoW stuff in Gruntz.....

Infantry - This is the part that doesn't really work. The game is designed for single based figures and whilst you can use the multi based FoW stuff I think that you loose a little bit from the game. It does work and might be OK if both players used them but I think I do favour single basing.

Tanks - Whilst these work fine within the rules I'm finding that scale is a little bit of an issue. A lot of the 15mm Sci-Fi stuff seems very big in comparison. I'll probably continue using my Pz IV's and StuG's etc but to make it 'feel' better I'm going to downgrade them a bit from medium vehicles to light.

Transports - These don't really work but that is because there is a difference between a WWII transport and how a transport is designed within the game. The Sd 251's provided mobility and some protection from small arms fire however within the Gruntz rules a transport is pretty much a tank without a main gun but with troop carrying capability. For that reason the small cheap transport that I'm trying to represent doesn't really exist. Not sure what I'll do here. I'm going to fiddle with the points costs a bit to see what I can come up with.

EDIT: To be fair in a Sci-Fi setting the role of cheap transport doesn't really exist as I suspect it would be replaced by just giving the Gruntz jet packs!

Other stuff - Not tried the Pak 40's or 88's yet but they really should work out ok.

Mecha - Whilst ther are no Mecha in FoW (funny that!) adding a couple really does 'Sci-Fi-up' the figures so you wil have to invest in a couple but it's a minimal cost.

Air-Support - Gruntz only really has VTOL style transports within it's rules. So the idea of modding up a ME 262 just isn't going to work. There is no place for tank busting aircraft or bombing runs like there is in FoW. So if you want something here then there isn't really a WWII alternative. Helicopters from the later FoW Vietnam range would work if you have a force from that time period but WWII is a bit early for that.

Short version......

So if you want to do it you can save money by using your tanks and suport pieces from FoW.
You can get away with multi-based infantry but it's not ideal.
You may also find yourself wanting heavy tanks (although I've not tried using Panthers, Tigers and even a Ferdinand, E-100 or Maus as they might look ok as the bigger stuff)
You may need to get some form of VTOL air support if you want that.
You are going to have to buy some mecha and potentially some power armoured infantry if you want them.

It's still early days yet but I feel that mediums struggle too much. I need to either find a way to reduce the points by making them light and having more or I need to run heavy tanks instead.

As a chasis the medium is fine but it's outgunned by pretty much everything. Heavy tanks have better guns (as you would expect) and specialists have equal or better guns at the same or a slightly reduced cost.

Given that a specialist is cheaper than a medium to start with it leaves medium tanks out in the cold a bit.

This may be just me pointing them up wrong or not knowing how to play them properly at this stage. Need a lot more test games to be sure.

I also think that the ranges for the weapons are a little short. I don't expect 'proper' ranges on a tank gun as that is a different game than we are trying to model. The problem I have is that a Gruntz unit can combine fire to completely negate the long range penalty but a tank can't.

But again, this is after two games so nowhere near enough data for a solid conclusion.