"VSF Boers?" Topic

What would the Boer "schtick" be in VSF? Indians, Afghans, Zulus, etc., can all be into wizardry. Europe and America, of course, have their steam tanks, flying ironclads and aetheric death rays.

The Boers, however, just don't seem to have much that lends well to VSF. They are all good members of the Dutch Reformed Church, and so have no magic, but steam technology doesn't seem to work for them either, IMHO.

On a stretch, I thought that they might have something like D&D clerics, but that doesn't seem too great either.

As a last gasp, I thought that an evil cabal of Boers might have followed Ludwig Prinn to Africa (yeah sure, he was SUPPOSED to have been burned at the stake…), and established an evil Cthulhu cult there. While imaginative, it is a real stretch, and is really only useful as a gaming convention until the cult is exposed, when the British, Zulus, and other Boers will comedown on these people like a ton of bricks.

Any other ideas?

Vince

Well, they're colonists, so they could be Boers who were given the chance to move and put stakes down on Venus or Mars. Using Martian/Venusian "labor" as their backup troops, etc.

If you wanted to keep them in Africa, perhaps they have some flying machines surplus from the row in America, or that fight between France and Prussia?

What about some kind of wind-powered land sailships?

That's all I can come up with…

Hey maybe a tunneling machine!
You know a Boer boring machine?
Bwahahahhaha

Colonists on Mars or somewhere, like the Mormons in Star Ship Trooper. They like to shoot and had pretty modern artillery, so maybe invested in electro guns and artillery. Martian Free State. They were some of the the first Trekkers. How about seeking a heavenly land = hemeltrekker. The Brits push them too hard so they pick up and fly off in their ether powered trekwagens.

Maybe a tunneling machine beset with ennui.

You know, a bored Boer boring machine.

Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck …

Historically they had close ties with Germany. Think of big Krupp artillery with a VSF twist. German mad scientists aiding independent Boer states against the Brits.

Not sure I'd have them using boring Machines for mining as Boers where agriculturalists and very suspicious of foreign mining capitalists who were snapping up all the cheap native labor. The thing that comes to my mind when thinking about the Boers is the Great Trek into the interior. They also have this religio/racist mythos upon which they found their land claims and right to exploit native labor. Could work well with Martians substituted for Bantus.

Also, they were known as great sharpshooters (whether this is true or not is irrelevant, it's the reputation). So I can certainly see them adopting newfangled shooters. So whie the British are marching around with Ironclads and Walkers etc, the Boers have invested in "steam enhanced" anti-landship rifles. A few sniper types with those dotted around will make European/US players careful with their contraptions.

Another idea along these lines would be some kind of cloaking ability. This could be used to move troops around the board without the enemy knowing where they are. Actual tech behind this could range from something that can blanket ares of the battlefield in clouds of steam, smoke screen style, to steam jump packs that have been silenced, or the skin of a mythical/alien animal that has chameleonic properties.

I'd go with small VSF elements like that for Boers, and keep them as a skirmish/raiding force.

A particularly big tunneling machine beset with ennui would be a…

bored, large-bore Boer boring machine

I gave my Boers an improvised torpedo carriage to take out those British land ships. Basically a steam tractor crudely armoured with boiler plate and armed with a spar torpedo.

Think Confederate navey.

….or even navy

Deadly accurate marksmen with superb field skills backed up by German-supplied heavy artillery

I am under the impression (though I might be wrong, I've only read one book(!) on the Boer War) that while they didn't have a lot of industry they had purchased some fairly modern artillery from Germany, so I would consider giving them some German made super-weapons. Maybe even piloted by German 'advisors', with the Kaiser's boys using the war as the ultimate test program.

Another idea is who knows what creatures are lurking in the heart of Africa? Maybe they have units mounted on dinosaurs, Eocene-era critters or something else entirely.

-Will

In our VSF/colonial world the vast majority of Southern Gentry, following their defeat in the Civil War, left America and settled in an area much like South Africa and intermarried with the Boers. They then defeated the British in the 1st Boer war and established the Confederate States of New America. (New Texas, South Virginia and the Transvaal) They then re-instituted slavery and learning from their mistakes in America developed an agricultural/industrial economy based on cotton, diamonds and slavery. All white males have mandatory military service in the standing army and are in the state militia up to age 50. Citizenship can be gained in this new society after a 10 year stint in the Strangers' Legion. The Commandos are an elite branch of this military that show up clandestinely to snipe at the other powers troops when and where ever it suits the CSNA needs.

How about an earlier start to the Boer insurgency and them also lending support to the anarchist cause

them also lending support to the anarchist cause

Despite their own lack of stable government, the Boers would be highly unlikely to back the anarchists, since the latter are very anti-religion.

As for the Boer "shtick", what about Divine Guidance (they know where the enemy's weak spots are) and/or Divine Intervention ("unexplained" breakdowns, illmnesses, stampedes. weather problems, etc. that hamper the enemy). I wouldn't make it 100% certain, but earnest prayer and straight living could help boost the chances.

Thanks much guys, though I think one more bored Boer joke will have me looking ofr the perpetrator on a dark night with a three foot length of piano wire.

Don't forget the wooden handles on that piano wire. Wouldn't want to snip off your own fingers, would you? A mistake you only make once, thankfully.

Signed

Frodo of the Nine Fingers.