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Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please....

 Post subject: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please....
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:05 am 
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Hey ya'll.

With the upcoming releases for Timeline 300 (German Revenants, British Field Guns, German Armoured Infantry, and Martian Flying Machine, phew!) we're soon going to be at the stage where we've fleshed out our first target - the initial range for our 3 starting factions of the British Empire, German Republic, and Martian Hegemony.

Our next target for Timeline 300 is similar to stage 1 - 3 new armies to complement the initial 3 armies.

Currently, those armies are looking like being:

1 - The Kingdom of America
2 - The Feudal Nation of Japan
3 - An army of TRIFFIDS!?



Now, we've got a few ideas of what each of those factions might have available, but if anyone has any cool suggestions, we'd love to hear them.


THE KINGDOM OF AMERICA
=================

Defeated by the Confederate States of America in the Civil War, the United States of America were pushed to the edge of chaos. Ultimately saved from destruction by the newly-proclaimed King Lincoln I, the Kingdom of America is a resurgent regional power.

Unit ideas:
- Steam powered mechanical horses? (Steam Cowboys)
- Big wheeled tanks that look a little bit like paddle wheel riverboats?
- Giant mechanical spider?
- "The Great Emancipator" - King Lincoln riding about in a giant robot that looks like a giant robotic Abraham Lincoln. The pilot sits pulling levers in the cockpit, inside the stovepipe hat bit...


FEUDAL JAPAN
=========

Japan, ruled by Emperor Meiji the Great. This army is an excuse to make steampunk "gundams".

Unit ideas:
- Peasant mobs
- Samurai Infantry
- Steam Powered Gundams!


TRIFFID ARMY!
=========

My own personal nebulous idea, I think it'd be fun to have an army of carnivorous plants. They'd have a different style of resource management to everyone else. Instead of having permanently deployed mining machines, any formation would be able to plant their roots for a turn (stay still and not do anything) and suck up nutrients to build new units with.

Unit ideas:
- Bitey Triffids
- Ranged Attacky Triffids
- Floaty Spore Triffids
- Really Big Mega Giant King Triffid



===========================

Anyone and everyone, please feel free to poke fun at our ideas, suggest your own units, etc.


Oh, also we've just invested the cash to get our own plastic bases (Epic-like, but bigger, 6cm x 2cm) cut and cast. We're totally serial about this nonsensical game.

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:51 am 
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Like all those ideas. The great emancipator sounds hilarious! I take it the spider might be along similar lines to a certain will smith movie?


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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:05 am 
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For the record, I think Triffids are a dumb idea...

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:14 am 
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CaptainSenioris wrote:
Like all those ideas. The great emancipator sounds hilarious! I take it the spider might be along similar lines to a certain will smith movie?

Maaaaaaaaaybe.

Any additional ideas?
We need ideas for units that would be instantly recognizable as American / Japanese / Triffid, the more stupid the better!

zombocom wrote:
For the record, I think Triffids are a dumb idea...

Tiffids are awesome. Probably tasty, too.

Other options for the third army would be?
Italy (religious/mystical/papal theme)?
France (wooden land ships/age of sail theme)?
Scotland (Braveheart theme)?
Venusians (Naked ladies with enormous breasts theme)?

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:00 pm 
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I Think maybe the idea of an underground culture, the story been that with all the drilling the underground
nation has had enough and declared war on the the surface dwellers ;D

They could be either be MOLEMEN ;) LIZARD MEN ;D OR MONKEYs for my own personal taste ;D

But molemen sound like just the ticket, plus the drilling machines the molemen use would be
pretty cool ;)

Not to sure on the triffids ::)


To the surface my brothers, into the mole machine ;D

Regards epic


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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 8:34 pm 
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Great to see that you are making progress (checked your web store out, too). Here are some inital comments:

To me, Japan in the 1870's would be centered around a "catching up" theme. Old mixed with new as in...

Samurai riflemen, commanders carrying samurai swords

Land frigates with wooden decks (equal guns, susceptible to enemy fire)

Gundams would be great. The challenge would be "steampunk gundams" if that is what your going for.


I'm initially not sure about the "Wild wild west" theme for the Americans. Steam T-fords?


I'm equally not sure about Triffids. The rules' idea sounds fun, but how many would be willing to collect an army of vegetables.

On a side note, I miss air balloons and zeppelins.

Keep up the great work!

/Fredmans


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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:11 am 
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Triffids are a good concept, but it's hard to give them a good motivation. Perhaps they'd be better as the creations of a rogue scientist faction who would take to the field to command their Vegetable armies?

Actually, I think I just described the plotline of a "Pinky and the Brain" episode.

I also like the Molemen idea.

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:41 am 
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given the fey exist in timeline 300, perhaps they should go a bit Artemis Fowl? Triffids might well be their creation (wood elves meet mad science!) I'd note in the origional book Triffids were a product of the Soviets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies_of_World_War_I

Suggests Russia(pre-revolution), Japan, USA, Benelux, Italy, Siam, Greece, Liberia, Canada, Australia, Nepal, India, Serbia, Montenegro, Romanina, Brazil, Portugal on the Allies side

Austro-Hungarians, Ottomans, Kingdom of Bulgaria for the central powers.

That's a great mix of stuff to pick and choose from.

Japan = steamunk gundam. no question. (and steampower rangers?)

USA. It's a bit cliche to have it as a kingdom and have the confederacy win. Let's make it more interesting:
Hmm. the US Civil war was sparked by one man's invention of the cotton gin, making the slave cotton plantations economically viable again (so the south didn't want to give up slavery). His later innovations in mass production helped the North to win the war.
What if, given the tech level in 300?, he'd invented a working cotton harvester? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_picker
Without needing the huge labor force for picking, slavery wasn't economically worth it. With the economic imperative behind them, Southern plantations industrialize as quickly as the north does but tension grows over different tariffs set by a southern democrat controlled Congress. The working black population (and urban poor everywhere) are subtly encouraged and influenced by German Marxist agents. The WWWI Russian Revolution happens in America, with Fascist groups like the Klan, the Southern Cross and the Knights of the White Camelia, fighting Commies who are fighting democrats, who are fighting repbulicans. This quickly stabilizes into Doughboys vs Dogfaces, (roughly isolationist, strong states vs intervenstionalist, strong federal gov) Like the Red vs White war in Russia, there's no convient geographic lines, with he same area being fought over many times.

Tsarist Russia then becomes a very backwards mass peasent army, with very strong mystical elements and mongol bikers. Anything to get away from the 'really big tanks' stereotype.

As for more unusual factions - how about the Astro-Hungarians or the Astrolasians?
(former british empire penal colony on the moon. Rebelled and is now performing lightning raids on scarce resources.)

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 9:07 am 
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madd0ct0r wrote:
USA. It's a bit cliche to have it as a kingdom and have the confederacy win.

Cliche is actually kinda half the point of Timeline 300 - it's as much a fond pastiche of Steampunk/Alternate history as it is a serious setting.

Quote:
Let's make it more interesting:
Hmm. the US Civil war was sparked by one man's invention of the cotton gin, making the slave cotton plantations economically viable again (so the south didn't want to give up slavery). His later innovations in mass production helped the North to win the war.
What if, given the tech level in 300?, he'd invented a working cotton harvester? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_picker

Honestly, I'm not sure whether we want to get into discussing slavery all that much.

I was thinking about firebombing the entire Confederacy with martian atomic disintegrators so we don't have to talk about it. :whistle

Likewise, have the British Empire (sort of) in this setting, but we've not really delved into whether or not the British inventi concentration camps when the Boer War kicks off.

Light and fluffy, trumps serious discourse.

Quote:
(and steampower rangers?)

Pure genius.

May I have your permission to use this idea?

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 9:18 am 
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Rug wrote:
The underworld/ Hell/ Satan et al.

I actually really like this one.


Looks like Triffids are out, though.
Not enough love for Triffids. :-(

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:17 am 
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I like the idea of a former moon colony as raiding pirates...

And steam rangers, that's sweet too.

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:20 am 
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zombocom wrote:
I like the idea of a former moon colony as raiding pirates...

Would you just use a British army suitably converted though, or would they justify a whole new army range?

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:38 am 
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Evil and Chaos wrote:

Quote:
(and steampower rangers?)

Pure genius.

May I have your permission to use this idea?



yes of course. i wouldn't put it in the thread otherwise.

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 Post subject: Re: Timeline 300 - Suggestions for the 3 new armies please..
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 2:05 pm 
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If I recall correctly, the 1870s were the height of the scramble for Africa. What if, in your timeline, there was some advanced but isolationist nation in the middle of the the continent, like Great Zimbabwe or something. As the world (or out of this world) powers start pushing up against their borders, they are forced to reveal themselves.

It's background could borrow from many sources: Atlantis, shangri la, mu, king Solomon's mines, that awful movie Congo (with the evil gorillas). They could be the remnant of a very ancient civilization (tying into some theories that thing like the sphinx are far older than widely believed). You'd have to work to avoid cliche stuff like Shaka Zulu spears vs pith helmets, but I think with some effort you could avoid creating anything offensive.

I even think you could (carefully) incorporate Africa styles into the mix. Grass skirts/shields could really be ghillie suits or made from high strength composites. Ceremonial masks could be helmets for power armor, etc.

It would also be a nice turn if many of the 'age of reason' ideals (liberty,fraternity,etc) still show up in the game, just in an unusual place.


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