Some LOS trivia.
The name for the Nachtmacher grenades was taken from a similar system used in the independent comic book release, American Flagg. The original only involved humans but the grenades or rockets could be set at particular frequencies so that the attacker could wear a visor that could see through it.
The UNE FTG grenade takes its name from the 80s techno song Fade to Grey by the group Visage.
The Mark I Assault Fiend almost didn't make it into the basic set. Artist Rob Prior, who did the Black Box cover said to us that we have to include him, and then put him front and centre in the art. The original conception had a UNE section against 12 Nightmares.
The Behemoth was originally envisioned as an armoured power-loader from Aliens or (what would later be) an armoured version of the APUs from Matrix Revolutions. However, Tom Frank's interpretation was simply too good to not run with it.
The Fantasians were an imaginary empire created by the Canadian government to act as the enemy force for military exercises in the late 1980s. They were obviously based on the Soviets, and found their way into Legions of Steel as a foil to the UNE.
The UNE forces are based on Canadian military organization, circa 1992. A change of doctrine came about with the adoption of the M-16s (C7) and the 5.56mm round for the section. It also changed the tactics. Prior to dividing a section into assault groups one would peel off the corporal the the heavy weapon troopers to lay fire from a flank while the remainder of the section advances.
The concept of the UNE, Machines, Fantasians and Black Empire are Clark's. The Infranites came from Marco and Dave MacKay. However, there was significant cross pollination with Tom Frank writing significant portions of the UNE and Fantasian history.
Tom Meier came to our rescue to sculpt the Trooper, Heavy Weapon Trooper, Nightmare, Mark I Assault Fiend and Behemoth. Apparently, he has never done any other sci-fi miniatures. When we approached him he commented: "There are two people you can trust: the Germans and the Canadians."