LandshipsSpurious Victorian Armored Fighting Vehicles
Breakthroughs in power technology in the late 19th Century made possible large steam-powered fighting vehicles as early as 1880. Upon hearing of German experimental models, the British established the RNLS (Royal Naval Land Service) in 1882, and the French and Americans soon followed suit. The German landship sent to Ouargistan for testing so awed the native chiefs that the other powers had to bring in landships of their own to save face, launching an absurd arms race in the primitive subcontinent. This is the fictional universe for the Landships of Ouargistan games.
In the photo, the HMLS Ogress clatters across the Ouargi plain, gunports open, spar torpedo at the ready. Click for a lovely larger version.
This page features photos of some of the land ironclads built by members of the Ouargistan group, plus technical details, battles, and miscellaneous information.
David had read H.G.Wells' "The Land Ironclads" in his youth, and occasionally mentioned the possibility of adding steam landships to the play, but it was Charles who actually showed up at a game with a "Panzersteemerkampfwagen" of cardboard, soon to be named the Wilhelmina von Holstein.
David became inspired, and went round to craft stores, sewing shops and dollar stores, buying dress-snaps, bobbins, pounce wheels, cheap toy tanks, plastic candy baskets and anything else that was dirt cheap and looked useful for building landships. Then he gave everyone a "kit" of miscellaneous parts and tools plus loose specifications and some pictures xeroxed from T.B. White's Tanks and Other Armored Fighting Vehicles - 1900-1918, set a date for the big battle, and asked everyone to build at least one landship. The result was phenomenal. There were eight handmade landships on the table, plus a smaller truck with a gun and a heavy cargo truck carrying a giant statue of Theodore Roosevelt. Everyone had a great time, and the group played several more landship games, adding a few new designs, before the novelty wore off.
SMGS Wilhelmina von Holstein"Der Dampferkampfwagen," the first of the Ouargistan landships
Click for closeup views and modeling information.
HMLS Ogress and Ogrette ClassThe British progenitor and her descendants.
Click for closeup views and modeling information.
HMLS SinuousArticulated design for difficult terrain
Click for closeup views and modeling information.
HMLS BehemothThe Dreadnaught of the dessicated main
Click for closeup views and modeling information.
The American LandshipsUSLD Miskatonic,USLS Lexington, and USLS Inquisitrix
Click for closeup views and modeling information.
El-Ahrairah"The Bronze Bunny of Ouargistan,"
Rajah Rabiid's ill-starred masterpiece of Prussian engineering and native craftsmanship
Click for closeup views and modeling information.
The Velocipede Torpedo"The Pennyfarthing Morpheus"
Click for closeups and Torpedo models to print out
Miscellaneous and Future LandshipsClick to see miscellaneous projects
Landship Battles"Hissing steam and clattering iron, seaborne thunder brought to land"
Click for battle descriptions and photographs.
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Building a Landship |
Landship Rules Downloadable rules for landship battles. |
Terrenes |
Kipling's (or somebody else's) |
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The H.G.Wells' 1903 fictional description of |
Strand Magazine Illustration
| After writing this prophetic story, Wells became embittered when the army rebuffed his offer to help develop an actual armored fighting vehicle. Read the original 1903 story by clicking the links below (warning: contains some racially offensive terminology). |
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The Land Ironclads
Part 1 |
The Land Ironclads
Part 2 |
The Land Ironclads
Parts 3-5 |
Photos from Readers who have used the Major General's techniques to create model landships, ships and buildings.
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LANDSHIPS - WAR OF THE WORLDS - BATTLES - LITTLE WARS - BOOKS, FILMS - KIPLING - WHAT'S NEW
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Copyright©1998 David Helber. No commercial distribution of images or text from any page on this site without written permission.