Pulpy Retro-Sci Fi - War Rocket

War Rocket is a quick and simple retro-sci fi space battle game, by Hydra Miniatures,  This is a tie-in
with the existing line of 28mm retro-sci fi miniatures, and soon to be a game, Retro-Raygun.

There are currently five factions to the game.  Each are distinguished in the game by the movement style of their ships and visually by the era they are inspired from.

The Galacteers, the good guys, are inspired by 50s era jet airplanes and fly around accordingly.  They boast some of the fastest rockets in the game.  In fact their strength is their Class I War Rocket.  Their weakness is that, most of their weapons are in their forward arc.  All but the largest of the Galacteer rockets have any weapons covering their rears.

The Imperials are inspired from the 30s era Flash Gordon series.  They are similar in game performance as the Galacteers, but slower, less maneuverable but are some of the best armored ships in the game.

I find the Imperial Class II War Rocket one of their best rockets, especially with the extra forward gun upgrade.  The Class IV War Rocket packs a wallop, but is incredibly slow.  Best if one buys the Atomic Engine upgrades.

The Class I Imperial War Rockets are tough but very hard to maneuver and only seem to work well in large numbers.  In small numbers they find themselves outmaneuvered by most every other rocket out there.

The Valkeeri appear to be inspired by 40s era pulp magazine spaceships and have a unique movement type called Pulse Movement.  I describe it best as movement similar to your rocket in the old video game Asteroids.  Where Valkeeri rockets can change their facing along a straight line movement.  Valkeeri ships are almost as tough as Imperial and their larger rockets often pack more of a punch than the Imperials.  Their speed is roughly just behind the Galacteers.

The mysterious Zenethians are inspired from 50s era flying saucers and their Saucer Movement pretty much allows them to have most if not all of their weapons always on target.  Their weakness is their paper thin defense.  Best to buy force fields on the larger craft.

Inspired by the War Rocket collection, I picked up this really cool old re-issue of a space station model kit from Lindbergh models. 











It makes a nice centerpiece and objective for playing War Rocket. Also the two shuttles on the landing pad snap on and off easily and could be mounted on a standard flight stand. They are about the size of a Class I rocket.









The newest faction is the Space Pirates.  These sleek and fast rockets have wide weapon arcs and a unique movement style.  Sticking with the pirate theme, I kept in mind the Jolly Roger flag and went with white and black, or the metallic alternative.  I used Reaper Adamantium Black as the base and gave them several coats of P3 Armor Wash, thinned with acrylic floor wax.   Then used Reaper True Silver and Polished Silver for highlights.  They look quite dark and stealthy, yet pulpy, under normal lighting and very shiny under a flash.



 
















Another project I had been working on is a Mother Ship for the Pirates.  I found this re-issue of an old AMT model kit.  It makes a nice 'static' target for the relatively faster and more maneuverable War Rockets.  However, my idea for this was to use the mother ship rules in the War Rocket rulebook, but to allow this ship to move forward one hex at the beginning of every turn (essentially all models on the table move back one hex) to simulate it's slow speed.  The other nice thing is the shuttle included can be mounted on a flight stand and used as a Class I or II rocket.

The newer releases come with some cool battle damaged and pirate decals.  It's molded in glow-in-the-dark plastic, but I primed mine grey, thinking I'm going to paint mine to match my Space Pirates.