Chinese Lunar New Year

Lunar Tuesday this week started off with a new player engaged in resource gathering on the moon. , the first scenario in the first edition Lunar rules book. Player 3 will represent the CNSA in the ongoing campaign. 

CIA lunar report:

Brief hostilities broke out this week between a Soviet 3 man medical team and a Five man Chinese Taikonaut self proclaimed geology team. Sources claim they are engaged in espionage, in spite of Beijing still refusing to acknowledged any presence on the moon what so ever. NASA video surveillance recorded a no holds bared conflict for salvage rights over a newly scattered supply drop. Video shows the Cosmonauts deescalate the situation through hand signaling and compromise of the jettison materials. 

NASA reported to the Lunar Associate Press Science Editorial (LAPSE) this afternoon “ I’m not sure what the issue is with the CNSA? They know they’re there. We know they’re there. The Soviets know they are there. What’s the point of  sending a man to the moon and just not claiming the accomplishments?” 

Editor’s note: it has been brought to our attention that the Soviet team is composed of a 2 man and 1 woman team that is frequently mistaken for three men. 

Further reports of an Improvisational Joint Operation between CNSA and NASA teams working a newly exposed Wingnutium ore site went unconfirmed as communications interference disrupted the video feed from the mining site frustrating international intelligence agencies. 

The Moon's Dark Side.

"Lunar Tuesday" is now an event, even if the Rolling Stones missed that song title.  

Our extremely local gaming group has decided to meet after work to continue the campaign.

This week we played Scenario 3 from the Lunar original rules book again but instead of a Structure defense, the Americans were striping parts from a LK lander to fix the low gravity Espresso machine back at the Roanoke Lunar Colony. The game was stacked against the Cosmonauts as the Astronauts were ready for a fight because of the caffeine withdraw.  

This is a lunar American Sniper team armed with a Mass-Shot-Gun and a Gym-sock filled with moon rocks (Improvised weapon).

This heavily armed Strike team carried a Net launcher, a less-than-Lethal but more-than-comical improvised mass launcher, and the most deadly weapon in their inventory a portable mining drill. 

 

After about 4 rounds of Warner-Brothers style physical combat, the Russians bowled over with brute force and no short order of capitalist comedy gave up the lander to the Americans.

 

Updated Soviet Cosmonauts Pictures

 

For all Mankind-of?

NASA Mining Survey Team Attacks a contested Lunar Outpost's Soviet Occupants.   

Tuesday September 4th 1983 Diplomatic envoys met in Helsinki yesterday to discus the unprovoked attack on Soviet Cosmonauts by NASA prospectors at the famous Tycho Lunar outpost and Transmitter relay for planetary communications. Details are a bit cloudy at the moment as Houston control at the Johnson Space center, NASA is claiming that the Cosmonauts in question had set an ambush for the prospecting team. The Kremlin in contempt claims that the team dispatched to the area was a medical team, unarmed and responding to a distress call near the facility. No permanent casualties have been reported by either side.     

NASA's approach to the Tycho Transmitter relay

Mining Claims in amicable Resolution between Kremlin and Huston Mining teams.

Disputes of unclear mining rights still causing tension between nations on the Lunar surface. Houston disgruntled after a Soviet team runs over American Flag on mining site with Lunar Buggy and claiming the site is not designated for capitalist ventures. Dmitri Solgar quoted at site" Clearly if this area was claimed by capitalists, there would be a Larger sign of demarcation, like a welcome to sign, a McDonald's, or a strip-club. We honestly didn't see anything of the sort. 

 So a friend and I started the scenarios in the back of the first edition basic set (LUNAR by Black Site Studio). He the Soviets a peaceful Medical team building a Hospital on the Moon, He claims and me a Blood thirsty Gun toting American Cowboy-Prospector-Capitalist, He also claims. Most of that is true, except the gun part which we can't afford at the moment. For now I have just been using a mining drill as an effective self defense weapon.   

The first scenario is a simple snag the supply drop where we grab what we can and get it off the board. Soviet's walked away with that win by one token of supplies. 

The second is a Mining scenario where we prospect for an unspecified element, I designated Wingnuteum a rare element used in the process of building Ultra-Widgets and the secret ingredient in Tang. It ended up being a tie somehow despite drilling the hell out of some cantankerous rock. 

The third scenario was a combat conflict that somehow a NASA mining team and a Soviet medical team got pitted against one another over a disputed Building that neither concluded we could actually use after we beat the hell out of each other. The Soviets out numbered opened a communist container of whip-ass on the over confident Americans. The Americans won the scenario but we concluded it was simply because the number of people I had near the facility at the end.

China 🇨🇳 On the moon?

 

In spite of conflicting reports the United Nations Lunar Over-site commodity has confirmed that the Peoples republic of China has been on the lunar surface since at least 1981. Denial of the presence of Chinese Nationalists landing and having no place on the moon has been the Communist government's official stance since the early 1970's stating that efforts to promote a healthy domestic economy and the prosperity of their people is the leading concern of Beijing. Both the Kremlin and the Pentagon speculate the rouge of secrecy is so claims to the Lunar surface can be filed officially once a foothold is established that can't be easily disputed. Both the CIA and KGB seem to have monitored Coded communication on and to the Northern lunar hemisphere. No official declaration that would make a lunar outpost subject to the United Nations regulatory watch dogs has been filed. 

 

 

 

Commissar (陈) Zhoa 

Image of Takionaut Star Taken by Astronauts on Patrol near Sea of Storms

Image of Takionaut Flag Taken by Astronauts on Patrol near Sea of Storms

Technical Specialist Li (李)

Security Specialist Chen (陈)

Senior Geologists Yang (杨)  and Huang (黄) from the University of Tianjin

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Improved NASA Team Pictures

I wanted to get clearer pictures of the Figures I'm working with so I touched up the magnification and changed the lighting. Hope these look better.

This is a side by side comparison of the NASA figures and the Taikonauts. Seems to be a difference in Height?!

The Bear Has Landed

 

 

 

After the First Lunar Landing by Alexei Leonov in July of 1969, the proven LM3 module has become the work horse of Soviet Lunar Exploration. Unlike NASA's LM module with continual improvement on design and efficiency, The Kremlin has continued to scout the lunar surface with this aged lander while exploring efforts to create a heavy lift extraction vehicle to return valuable raw materials from the Moon.    

LM3 module in Storage in Kazakhstan Launch Facility, awaiting component check, pre-launch, 1975.  

Unpacking desperately needed Medical supplies for Zvezda 3 Mining Colony. Once unloaded Titanium ore will make the return journey back to the orbital command module in the emptied Crew compartment. 

Gang-way of the LM vehicle

External Control Panel used for Automated Orbital return sequence. 

Builder's Note: This Kit like most of the ones from this site was an afternoon Project. A lot less time than I spend on the 5 man teams for the game Lunar. there is a lot of flash and sprue clean-up. The model is fairly sturdy sans the support struts which after priming become brittle. They support almost no weight so I just glued them back. I highly recommend pinning the Landing gear to the chassis. 

I painted this craft Gunmetal silver to look like the museum pieces from the museum displays on line, in spite of knowing the craft would have been covered in white paint to keep the internal temperatures manageable by its crew. It just looked more "Soviet" in this color. All Decals were cannibalized from old 1/48 Soviet aircraft models and Rub-on transfer lettering.