"Fictional 19th century armies?" Topic

.. More directed at the VSF crowd but ….

I read a few messages lately about different fictional 19th century armies that people have built or are thinking of building, I my self am tinkering with Union ACW mini's (28mm) for Graustark line infantry (see Space 1889 soldiers companion or the original George B McCutcheon books). I am very curious to know who else has similar projects in the works (or have completed), what army are you building, what mini's you are using to do it … or are you making something TOTALLY new. Al would be of interest.

I did an army for each of Graustark and Ruritania for a Space 1889 game long ago – Graustark consisted of Frontier Franco-Prussian War Prussians done in French colors, and Ruritania had Frontier FPW French done in German colors. I also had some Frontier ACW troops done up in green for Fenian Legion forces. They were done up for Soldier's Companion, so each was an army of 2 20-figure infantry units, plus a 12-figure cavalry unit, a couple of guns, and a few Staff/High Command figures. The Fenians were just a single 20-figure infantry unit.

I eventually EBayed all but one 20-man Graustark unit. I regret that.

The Chinese really lend themselves to VSF, kites, clockwork marvels, black powder rockets ,brontosaurus suvival from the remote Mongolian steppes mounted with howda etc.

I also have an itch to do something with Ottoman Turks (think Baron Munchausen) or a generic Muslim army. Not sure which direction to take with the contraptions though?

I have 'created' several late 19th century 'fictional' armies for my colonial campaigns, including the armies of the Sultan of Marzibar (An African island state drawing inspiration from the Egyptians/Turks), the British Colony of Dammallia (African colony inspired by Kenya and the territories run by the Cecil Rhodes), the German Colony of Mankanika (very obviously based on Tanganyika), the Khanate of Gaziristan (very Afghan in origin), and British Chindia (a hybrid of China and India).

More information can be found at:
link
and
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I also have two very old, small South American armies (created with 15mm Peter Laing figures) that were based on the armies of Chile (game name = Cordeguay) and Peru (game name = Polyguay) during the War of the Pacific.

I have a small Zendarian army (West Wind and FPW-Foundry) in a light blue scheme and a small force of FPW jaegers in rifle green to depict the opposition i.e. Duke's of Streslau forces. [duke of Streslau is the king's brother who wanted to be king etc, Plus some sailors.

I had plans for more but alas I was out of money!

I've got a small army representing an independent Irish state for my VSF games. The bulk of the army is made up of Renegade ACW with my elite unit made from Foundry's FFL troops from the Mexican Adventure line.

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I do some Prussians as well using the Renegade WW1 Early Germans

arnicarealestate.com/prussia.htm

I am doing up an Irish Republic force, ca 1885, for interfering on the Yank side versus Canada.
My troops will be RAFM Soldiers of the Queen, but in Rifle Green.
MY VSF element will be the Eureka Bat Winged Brits from Eureka's Pax Limpopo rnge, in green, but with sky blue facings.

I am also thinking of having a Quebec rebel force, composed of Papal Zouaves.

Hi William

Great idea to use Papal Zouaves for Quebec forces but they would be more likely to have been fighting on the side of the "establishment"( ie Federal) as the Church was very conservative wanting nothing to do with republicanism or independence. Remember that the original function of the zouaves was to defend the Pope against the Italian unfication forces. I would suggest you use ACW union troops that have the baggy type of tunic and paint them up like Garibaldi redshirts but in light blue and white instead.

The idea that I have been toying with involves the re-appearance of the continent of Atlantis in the middle of the Atlantic in the mid 1870s. I want them to be slightly more advanced than the rest of my possible armies. I had been also thinking of using Zouaves as well. I had not considered using some British colonial types before. But that is a thought after seeing Bob Cordery's site.

I want to be able to recycle my ACW collection so when, is very important in my mind. At 15mm can you really tell the difference between a three band Springfield and a two band trapdoor Springfield?

It would allow me to use Zulu Brits, Ironclads, and Franco-Prussians. Lots of possibilities, I just have not really figured out the rest of the Atlantian forces. I don't necessarily want to game with hordes of natives.

My thinking is it might be quite a bit of fun to have Earth's newer cultures up against one of its oldest that is a just a little better armed than they are. Possible alternative figure types might be Japanese or Chinese national troops from the Boxer Rebellion.

Nathan

I actually like the idea of my own little Electorate being created/carved out about 1600 and being absorbed about 1880. It sits in the Carpathians somewhere between Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Mountainous and small not really worth the cost to absorb by any of the larger entities until quick firing breechloaders are plentiful.

In that scholarly work, The Universe in a Nutshell, Professor Stephen Hawking has indicated the possibility of multiple universes and timelines in fact being a reality! So is Vulgaria a figment of my own over active imagination or a whisper, which I am privy to, from another time in space?

Synflood,

Is this the same Vulgaria that featured in the famous Vulgo-Silistrian War that was reported in the pages of Kriegsspiel News? link

Glad to see the Imagi-Nations Freedom Fighters are not restricted to the 18th C.! TMP link
They recently contaminated $even$ a few Napoleonics:
TMP link
TMP link
JL

I was always fascinated by micro-states and Germany seems to have room for plenty.

My favourite is Grand Fenwick, created by an English Knight in 1370 and still in existence in the late 1960's.

In version of the Multiverse it' on the Swiss/French/German border and manages to stay retain it's independance by mostly follwoing the Swiss example.

In my world, it's occupied by Napoleon but is free again in 1815. It joins the FPW against the French, but avoids being absorbed by Bismark. It's location means that the plot lines from Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang and The Great Race feature in it's early 20thC history.

It stays out of both World Wars by virtue of being too small and closely tied to Switzerland to bother with.

I haven't decided how it survives the period from the 1970's to today.

link

Is this the same Vulgaria that featured in the famous Vulgo-Silistrian War that was reported in the pages of Kriegsspiel News?

No different Vulgaria--not sure where they got the name but I freely admit to pilfering it from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Yup

Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang and The great Race are great sources for late 19thC / early 20thC scenarios.

Uniforms, naval gunboats, airships, drunken princes etc etc …

I've run several campaigns of Space 1889 built around Ruritania and her neighbors. The premise I used is that a rather dim scion of the House of Radziwill got lost on the way home from the Battle of Vienna in 1683 and liberated the Ruritsi from the Turks, establishing a royal dynasty with limited intelligence and a bad speech impediment.

For table-top battles, I used WWI Austro-Hungarian troops as infantry with a unit of kepi wearing Zouaves in light grey uniforms as light infantry. I used Napoleonic Polish lancers as cavalry including the Eureka unicycle uhlans. I also used some Polish Haiduk infantry to represent mountaineer militia. I am working on a unit of WWI Belgians, including MG dog cart to represent the Royal Walloon Guard Regiment.

For Graustarkiers, I used Old Glory Boxer Rebellion Russians in white and khaki. For Transbalkinia, I used WWI Serbians painted in a light brown color. I also picked up a unit of Old Glory Montenegrin WWI infantry that will join one of the fictious armies.

I have pictures and a battle report from one of the games posted on the Gaslight Yahoo Group under the file "Two Roads to Zenda." link

I'm going to try Ruritania in 20mm plastic using Waterloo's 1859 Austrians.

Don't forget Laurania (invented by Winston S Churchill). It is an ideal alternative to the more Central European/Balkan countries normally featured in fiction. The book also includes descriptions of the fighting in the capital city during the overthrow of the dictator and an account of the Lauranian Navy's fight with the capital city's habour defences.

See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurania

I forgot to add the following to my previous message:

For more information about Laurania (including names of important characters and information about Laurania's armed forces) go to link

Quote:

I also have an itch to do something with Ottoman Turks (think Baron Munchausen) or a generic Muslim army. Not sure which direction to take with the contraptions though?

Have a look at Warrior Miniatures' Engaland Invaded figures. Although there are only 5 varients, the Turks ate perfect for a late 19th century Munchausen-style army.

link

Add some heavy artillery, steam automatons covered in brass and steel, plus something big and nasty (perhaps a huge armoured steam elephant…..) and you have a unique army. Having painted up a unit of these, I must admit that this is an army that I entend to do one day …. just not this year!

We just got back from Radcon where we did "The Battle of the Grand Canal" using modified Dark Elves as Martian heavy muskets. Worked pretty well too. Here are some shote. The Martian closeups didn't have enough light.

picture

picture

picture

Startroop

who's dark elves did you modify and what all did you do to them?

They were GRENADIER Figures, Dark Elves with arquebow. They say they are 25mm but they are more like 28mm as they tower over my older 25mm British infantry. That isn't all bad though becuase in the Space 1889 RPG, they are supposed to be taller.

To convert them, I trimmed off the hook for the bow and most of the figures had a ready arrow on the stock, so a trimmed that off too, leaving enough for a sight. They all had a quiver, so I painted it so the fletching for the arrows looked like a leather pouch cover. As they all had quivers at their sides, it worked pretty well.

The basic color scheme was ocher yellow for skin, IJN green for cloaks, trousers and other cloth, a couple kinds of brown (Mahogoney Red and Flat Earth) for pouches and gloves, Mahogoney Red again for boots, glossy black hairand flat black for the iron on the arquebow to make it look much like a wheel lock. There were some little accent colors and thats all.

I kinda lucked out on this because I was at Trumpeter Salute last year and a dealer was either going out of business or stuck with all this stuff because I was able to buy approximately 150 arquebowmen plus leadership, plus 26 Dark Elve Cavalry, plus 30 spearman and command stands (like 247 figures in all) for like $40. USD

Startroop

These dark Elves now carried by Mirliton??

link

??

fozzybear,
only Startroop can answer definitively -but my guess is that he haunts the VSF board more frequently than this one. Yet the answer is certainly "YES":
.similarity of minis (for what we saw of the converted ones: better pics would be appreciated and certainly enjoyable),
.similarity of designation with very specific vocabulary ('arquebow'),
.the Mirliton Amazons are indeed the old Grenadier ones: here I can be affirmative,having painted some 100 of them.

JL

Those would be the correct Dark Elves DE08. I also used the Eldar Command pack for the officers as well as some of my RAFM Martians. In the same buy there were 30 some spear figures that we wood elf that a used to add to my motley collection of Hill Martians. I also used a half dozen Rafm Sheild gunners to flesh it out. I know have all the Martians I ever could use.

THis whole Space 1889 thing is a departure for me as for years I did (and still do) 15mm ACW (over 2,000 figures at last count). I like side trips though ;-) I also have British 15mm WWII. I started haunting this board to learn how to paint my British Naval Infantry.

I have been thinking of doing 19th century Burgundian and Swiss armies. This would be a kind of historical fiction type thing with Burgundy being recreated after the congress of Viena and a subsequent remilitirized Swiss. I would throw these into the Franco-Prussian and other 19th century wars along with there own conflicts. I think of the Swiss looking like American Civil War Union but in red and blue. The Burgundians could have a mixed Prussian French look to them in white and dark blue.

le2001
Please share with us when your project progresses, would it be at first only at the level of ideas and design.

As I alwyas add: "Blog, blog, blog!"
(Once someone replied: Beer, beer, beer!")

Cheers,
Jean-Louis
aka (by Lace Wars times) Louys de Monte-Cristo
link

There were some requests for some pictures of the Martians I came up with. The first weren't so good. I have upgraded to average ;-)

link