THE USS LANDSHIP OHIO The “Big O” as she was called began life in the steel mills of Akron/Canton Ohio. Meticulously following plans provided by the US Army all began well but trouble quickly reared its head. The track system would not be available for at least a year and the engine and power train would be significantly longer. But the Martian war was not going well for humanity and time was a precious commodity. The Great Lakes Engineering Works, builders of the huge ships that plied the lakes offered up one of its prime engines and even developed a transmission system for the landship. Goodyear Rubber of Youngstown approached the builders with a unique idea. They had created an all terrain tire, rubber infused in a wire mesh, and believed they could build a monstrous version of it to replace the unavailable tracks. With nothing to lose they gave them the go ahead and designed a drive system to mount the tires and provide increased suspension. In the end twelve of the massive tires, 3 per suspension arm, were required to support the weight of the great vehicle. Even the Navy threw its hat into the ring when it offered up a prototype of a brand new turret, designed for the the next generation of battleships that were still on the drawing board. It housed three 8 inch guns specifically designed to kill tripods. The Big O was a rare vessel indeed. But all of these improvisations caused delays. They had hoped to have her ready for the Battle for Chicago but she wasn’t and didn’t complete her operational trial until a month afterwards.
Finally the big day was here and the “Big O” rumbled out of her assembly bay and headed off to war, with a contingent of Ohio National Guard acting as her escort. The patch worked vessel had more than a few kinks and issues but most were corrected by the time she arrived in Chicago. Her huge tires and unique suspension made her much faster than any other landclads, on flat terrain. But over rough terrain she was much slower and tended to bog down easily. She was still hours away from the front when word came in over the wireless that the Martian’s were starting a new push to take Chicago. Captain Martin order her to make flank speed and “don’t spare the coal boys” and the “Big O” showed her stuff. The US Army was dug in just west of the city preparing for the inevitable. When General Gilbert heard the Ironclad was coming he breathed a sigh of relief, but when she finally arrived, belching thick black smoke he exclaimed “What in the blazes is that contraption”. Still she was better by far than anything else in his arsenal so he posted her where he expected the main attack to come from.
Before dawn the next morning the advanced scouts reported the Martians were on the move. The “Big O” rang to battle stations and the big engine belched to life. When the sun broke over the city the Martian advance could clearly be seen, and Martian Tripods filled the landscape. The “Big O” drew first blood, she targeted the lead tripod, a scout, with the triple 8” guns of the main turret and fired. Two of the three rounds found their mark and the tripod dropped like a rock. A mighty cheer went up from the entire human line and they all realized in unison they might actually live to see tomorrow. The “Big O” leaped forward as Captain Martin chose to decrease the distance in order to bring his smaller guns to bear as well. The Martian’s retaliated by sending three assault tripods straight for the Ohio. The lead one fired it’s dreaded heat ray but thanks to the thick plated armor of the landship it had no effect. The mighty guns roared again, and again the lead tripod was struck, this time by all three rounds. The tripod exploded with a deafening roar as pieces of it flew through the air. The secondary guns opened up on a second tripod and scored a hit but only damaged it, producing a wobbly limp but little else. This display of firepower however did result in halting the Martian’s advance as they paused as if in shock, or pondering what to do about this infernal machine that had interrupted their plans. Captain Martin though, didn’t pause. He kept the Ohio steaming full speed ahead, into the thick of the Martian line. Her massive guns belched fire again, and for a third time a Martian Tripod crumpled to the ground. The secondary guns, now well within range targeted a fourth tripod and with multiple hits, managed to bring it to the ground as well. Apparently this harbinger of death was too much for the Martians, as they slowly turned and began to retreat. The wobbly tripod previously injured tried to escape as well but the damage finally caught up to it and it too crashed to the ground.
Just when it seemed everything was leading up to a human victory, the Ohio, without the ability to scout ahead ran smack dab into a bog. While the unique tires made her fast they quickly sunk into the thick black muck and the “Big O” came to a sudden stop. All attempts to free her from the bog failed and in fact it caused her to sink even deeper.
And then it appeared. Striding over the horizon it came, a massive three legged monster from another world, a bringer of death, a thing of legends and mystery that few humans had ever seen and lived to tell about it. A Martian Overseer Tripod. The Martian retreat stopped as the rest of the tripods seemed to urge on their big brother to take care of this unexpected bully. Captain Martin realized the grave danger his ship was now in. Going toe to toe with an Overseer was a daunting task in itself, but with the Ohio stuck in the mud she was a sitting duck. Still if the “Big O” was going down it would not be without a fight he vowed to himself. He gave the order for all personnel, not manning weapons, to evacuate the ship, in order to reduce the inevitable casualties………not a single man obeyed. They had been with the Ohio since her hull was laid down, she was their ship, if she was going to die this day then they would go with her.
The Overseer strode purposely toward the immobilized landship, and came to a sudden halt, just outside of the range of her massive guns. Then as if the sun itself had erupted, a beam of energy poured from the Overseer and struck the Ohio amidship. Even her thick armor could not repel the energy of this awesome weapon and it buckled, and then gave way. The beam tore into the starboard boiler room and kill everyone inside. It also devoured the number 3 secondary turret and its crew.
If this had been a prize fight the Ohio had just taken a massive body blow, it had hurt, but it wasn’t a knock out. Captain Martin still had a few cards to play “Lay Steam” he bellowed. He knew he couldn’t get her nose out of the bog, but perhaps he could turn her enough to present the smallest possible target to the huge alien machine. He knew the Ohio wouldn’t be able to take too many more shots like that. He also knew from classified information that the Martian’s “Sun Gun” took awhile to recharge and so he hoped it would buy him the time he needed.
And indeed it did, the steam prevented the Martian from seeing the stern of the Ohio lurch around to align it with the direction from which the deadly beam had come. And just as she made the adjustment the beam sprang out from the cloud of steam, and sliced into the muck where the Ohio had been moments before. “All guns prepare to fire, she’ll be coming through the steam to view her handiwork” Captain Martin shouted into the speaking tube. Sure enough, striding through the steam came the horrible machine, bent on completing the task of destroying her prey. But now she was within range of the Ohio’s guns. “Fire all guns” shouted the Captain and a thunderous noise arose from the “Big O”. Multiple hits pummeled the Overseer, but they were not enough to bring it down. It seemed to shrug them off as if there were mere gnats. It strode forward once again, came to a stop and leveled it’s massive weapon to deliver the killing blow to the Ohio.
But at least one of the Ohio’s shells must have found it’s mark, because just as the alien began to power its weapon a strange shrieking noise erupted from the machine. Instead of the deadly bolt of energy emitting from the tripod, a horrendous explosion occurred, ripping the dreaded machine apart and throwing pieces thousands of feet into the air. The mighty Overseer slowly toppled to the ground. For a few seconds the crew of the Ohio stood in stunned silence. Mere seconds ago their deaths were all but assured, and it took a moment to register the destruction of the Overseer. Then a cheer arose again from the entire line of troops and the men of the Ohio quickly joined it. The rest of the Martian attack force, witnessing the destruction of their leader, turned with great speed and retreated from the field. The second battle of Chicago was over and once again the humans were victorious. The battered Ohio had earned a place in history.
History of the Model:
When AQMF first came on the scene I was one of the original supporters of the kickstarter. While the kickstarter had its issues I did eventually get everything I was promised. I then later added a Landship that I purchased from my LGS. I also purchased other products from Alien Dungeon (still have a bag of flying monkeys that I’ll paint up “someday”). When AD started having issues and it looked like it was going under I was able to purchase two more Landships and a bag of “resin reject pieces” for a very good price. Many of the resin pieces were no worse than other I have purchased (Overseer being a prime example) but there weren’t enough to completely build more than one “real” Landship and none of the metal pieces at all. In the years since I sold two of my three Landships and had pretty much forgotten about the pieces until the current situation offered up extra time that had to be spent at home and so a chance to go through my stuff. I found the bag and determined I could build one, pretty much regulation Landship and possibly a second if I could fine substitute pieces for those that are missing. The main gun turret of the Ohio is a 15mm WWII German turret, heavy cruiser I believe, (that I acquired years ago to do a D-Day scenario and never did) which as luck would have it the turret ring fit perfectly on the mount (but did require the superstructure to be slid back a bit in order for the turret to swivel). I needed something for propulsion and while chugging a bottle of Coke Zero I noticed that the black caps looked like wheels, if you put two together. And so the wheeled Landship came into being. Having grown up in North East Ohio it only made sense to have it built in Akron/Canton with help from Youngstown. And of course with it being the “Big O” then it had to be OSU colors of gray (which the Navy required as part of the deal for the turret) and scarlet red.