The Joy Of Inventing Worlds & Countries.

Below, General Opel

                'The Bastards' complete with pipe-cleaner plumes. The uniform is a historical Napoleonic one but the flag has the 'Sacred Whale' beersteiner from the Jonah story and the regiment's title based on the mishmash of original recruits to defend the capital of Beerstein from the Undead hordes.

                                                   The Undead proved fun to make and paint.

                             The Tricorne regiment (Accurate American revolution British and converted copy of crescent US Cavalry flag bearer).

                                                   The archbishop made from a Timpo Arab.

   An Airfix hero who lost a 'life' in the latest campaign. Characters normally get at least two lives so they can return for a future battle (unless they are captured by an enemy occupying the ground they fell in; then they are either POWs or dead meat).

   Drakos is no longer with us but he can be recycled with a new name. His armor was upgraded for the last game.

                       Timpo Action Pack converted British heavy dragoons on AIP horses.

       These are Beersteiner grenadiers, (BMC and Marx). General, Opel offers encouragement much needed to pursue Drakos into the unsavoury jungle.

 I have to say that the effort put into making maps of fictitious countries, inventing characters, uniforms and scenarios I am finding an endless source of enjoyment. Why is that?

  First off a caveat: I love history and reading about past lives, events and wars. But in my imaginary worlds I incorporate the historical in the fictitious. British redcoats become part of my nation of Beerstein but have a change of flags, another level of creation. In historical games the outcome is already known, except that wargames might change the outcome so it is then a kind of 'small f' fantasy game. So why stop at that?

  But there is also a liberation in making entirely new uniforms or combinations from different cultures and times. There is no reason, for example, not to include animal helmets like the Aztec 'knights' in 19th century European type uniforms (haven't done it yet).

  There is also a rich fictional source of inspiration. Lord of the Rings is just a starting point which can be combined with other canons such as Warhammer fantasy. However, I don't set out to 'recreate' the great battles of Lord of the Rings. Then there are the many SF stories, including time travel, alternative timelines and parallel universe travel.

  The other thing is I include a random generation of events from the mundane to the 'slightly' crazy which we roll for every 4 map moves (if we don't forget). I have around 150 possible chance events that I can determine without a 150 sided die (although I have a hundred sided one) by doing it on line with a percentage generator. Some of the events I remember happening in past campaigns included a Fezian force coming to help Bogavnia against Beerstein. (This later developed into Bogavania Rump becoming a client of Fezia as Bogavania lost a lotof land to my Beerstein). Raids by Patra (Ancient Romans, Greeks and Egyptians) against Fezia and Fritzerland attacking Beerstein were other events. There is also the risk of inclement weather, disease outbreak and so on. Discoveries of more gold and silver are handy too. More recently disease broke out on one of my ships, killing some of those on board. Adverse wind conditions delayed fleets. The Silver Horde (Mongols with allied centaurs) kidnapped the daughter of the Fezian sultan. He (Mat) has prepared a force from his frontier garrison, to take some Mongol land to force them to return his daughter. How the Mongols will react we don't yet know.

   American Civil War Federals have appeared 'from a portal' too offer services to Mat's Bogavania. Also there was a chance of war again breaking out between Beerstein and Bogavania/Fezia but this was resolved by diplomacy. 

  The present campaign has added excitement as we don't know who inhabits various islands until we land on them. So far we have the Dread Island Undead (who I have managed to wipe out) and my smaller force has landed on Skull Island (King Kong's domain). How do I deal with a giant ape, assorted dinosaurs and Stone Aged natives? Mat's Fezians have landed on the Stellar Republic's island. They are 17th century Dutch types but with some Aztec and Patran descendants thrown in. The latter give me the option of using my Supreme mounted Greek cavalry, of which I conveniently have four units. We rolled dice to determine the numbers and composition of Stellar (named after their single star flags) forces. The bigger the island the greater the chance of larger forces.

  We are presently beginning map move 10 of the campaign. There will be two more map moves after that and then we roll the dice to see if the campaign continues. After a campaign we roll the dice to see how much time happens between the last and the next campaign. We are presently at 18th century levels of development but there is no reason we don't continue to other later eras but with older technology pockets still present. I have plenty of ACW figures to use for a mid century jump. (A major influence on me here were the campaigns of Frank and Ross Perry and Frank's, friend Ken who I have mentioned in other posts).

  Between campaigns or just for a change Mat and I play other wargames, especially the Funny Little Wars battles set in late Victorian to early 20th century and with semi-fictitious armies but we also play ACW and SF.

  For those who have seen my art work on this blog and at Joc's Cartoons blog and FB page you will know I like making art. Recently I saw that Bill Making Stuff has been making zines. I have already experimented with zines (mini comics and magazines) but now I am thinking of tying them into my wargames. When I have enough pages I'll make the zines and might include photos of my actual figures and battles.

A NOTE ON WARGAMING IN 1/32.

As I wargame on tennis table plus sized tables and sometimes in the garden I find I can comfortably conduct wargames with a few hundred figures. The thing is I see the figures as more individuals although also part of units. As our games are often character driven the larger size also adds to character recognition. Unlike many other wargamers I didn't especially transition from smaller scales to1/32. As a teenager I briefly collected and painted Airfix and Esci HO figures for ACW wargames. My friend Pete and I only ever played a couple of games with them as we didn't properly work out Terry Wise's rules.

 Prior to that, as primary school kids we played countless primitive wargames with 1/32 WW2, ACW, cowboys and Indians and anything else that came to hand. We had a strange movement system of being allowed to move ONE figure per move and marbles were flicked/rolled from the position of one figure and a tom-bowler from a cannon, or we used the matchstick firing gins and other devices. In my mid 20s in the 1980s I discovered a group called ACOTS and got right into 54mm wargames using DICE and TAPE MEASURES and owing a lot to Donald Featherstone's rules.

  I soon also had a Warhammer 40k period with 28 to 30 mm human sized figures plus various monsters and aliens.

  I have built on all those experiences and borrowed from several rule sets. From the view point of fantasy wargaming, although toy soldiers of any kind are getting scarcer in op shops (charity shops), there are often plenty of toy monsters, vehicles and buildings. For example, I made some giants from jointed Hulk figures. (So far giants have not appeared in our current campaign although King Kong will have some of the attributes of a giant).

 The best thing is being able to wargame regularly is because of my wargaming pal, Mat, who lives just a few houses away. He got interested in wargames through his Games Workshop Chaos 40K army. But he is happy to play with the 54mm scale historical and fantasy armies that fill a few rooms in my house and garage.