"Minor nations in Weird World War II ?" Topic

Do you think there would be any interesting weird science inventions or alternate super powered occult beings / weapons created by minor nations ? For example vampires from Romania ? It would be very interesting to see something new in WWWII wargames.

Thanks,

Piotr

Hi Piotr

I think there's plenty of untapped potential there. Every country and ancient race has its own historic folkore of Gods, demi-gods, warriors and beasties. The Norse are a prime example with the gods of Valhalla and beasties such as Trolls

YouTube link

Celtic mythology for offers a wide choice of supernatural and mythological beings and powers that can be incorporated into WWW2.

Cheers
Mark

Romania – third Axis, fourth ally. link

Hardly a minor nation

20thmaine: you are right yet not many wargaming rulebooks include stats for Romanian units. In that sense they are a minor nation just like Poland or Hungary. Quite a few rulesets include just Germany, Great Britain, USA and the Soviet Union, yet such 'minor' nations :) could have seriously wacky weird science or occult based projects.

Mark: On which side would Norse gods/beasts fight ? Would they be a third power to counter the growing threat from the Soviet Union and Germany or would they join the Axis ?
Which is more likely ?

The Doomsday expansion for Secrets of the Reich touched on this a little with the partisan band rules. Palmach partisans with a golem, French with inhumanly tough mutants from nuked-out Paris (a Phantom of the Opera joke?), Swedes with a local water spirit/shapeshifter. I can't think of a good superscience gadget that might fit offhand other than maybe a Czech force using (early versions of) Rossum's Universal Robots, but there must be others out there. The supernatural stuff is easier to milk – every country has its own local mythologies that could be cribbed from. China is particularly rich ground, and they were certainly in the war long enough.

Hmmm, Doctor Fu Manchu taking a hand in things with his usual array of mad science would qualify as supertech too, now that I think of it.

Now you would have a problem with
Transylvanian vampires! Are they Romanian or Hungarian? The two nationalites of vamps would not serve alongside each other in action.

Fighting alongside the Filipino guerillas against the Japanese: The Mananggal

Palestine-Genuius Scientists.

League of Nations/UN-Blackhawk organisation.

China-Warlord coalition under Fu Manchu(from villain to patriot!). He'd assasinate both Mao and Chaing kai shek.

Finland-sissu commando, a penchant for using captured weird equipment.

Italy-Oil Engineering machines that can get to Libya's resources, Roman Eagle-marked tanks, Borgia descendant ruling behind the Fascists Colonial Condotierre, nuclear physics, electronic warfare, mutant sea commando's, more effective Black Shirt Legions.

France- Nephilim resistance fighter, Free French Jean d' Arc Maquis commander, Maginot Underdark, Napoleon IVth FF tank commander, FFL elite commando's.

Central Europe-Vampire/Werewolf anti-fascist coalition, Jan Ziska descendant, Hidden Skoda Doomsday Machine, Winged Hussar Polish flying tanks or radical aircraft,Ancient Order of Wizards of Wallachia, Vlad's 'Impaler' anti-tank round.

Norway-Troll freedom Fighters. Intelligent Wolves.

Egypt-Anubis' Division(from the 2nd Mummy movie), Cyril of Cyraneica:)

On which side would Norse gods/beasts fight ?

Down to the gamer Piotr. Would make a very interesting supplement for the Wiking Division. But equally, perhaps Norwegian resistance? Could be a new slant on Telemark.

BTW, here's an intersting link to Slavic gods and deities:
link

Cheers
Mark

Greece – Automotones – combat robots based on the metal creations attributed to Hephaestus

Holland – Gnome commandos based on the gnome legends from the Brabant region (gives you somewhere to use these bad boys)

link

Norse Gods – would do what is best for Scandanavia – considering the resistance movement there I'd say on the side of Norwegians, Danes etc – so Allies. Except Loki, who would be Axis because he couldn't help himself (has to oppose the Aesier)

Funny you should mention Norse Gods:

davidbrin.com/thor1.htm

How about the Commonwealth specialities?

Welsh and New Zealand remote-controlled bomb-sheep

Kangaroo mechas for the Aussies, and drop-bears for ambushes

Some big lasery sort of thing using a gigantic South African diamond or Indian ruby

Canadian cyborg-wolves and bear-cavalry ridden by mounties

Irish leprechaun detachment for camouflage and deception purposes (OK eventully someone will realise that the piles of gold are in fact landmines)

Scots trained anti-tank haggises (excellent for mountain warfare as they have two legs longer than the others to keep them stable on steep hillsides)

As I understand it, the centaurs and satyrs of ancient Greece morphed into the kalikantzaros; country folks (i.e., almost everybody until after WWII) believed in them up to the '50s. Give your centaurs or satyrs a rifle--a Gras would be good--and you are in business. The kalikantzaroi were rural, and would make good partizans.
Greek gods hid in Christianized form through the centuries. The best known example was Helios, who was worshiped on hill and muntain tops; his sites were taken over by the prophet Elias.
I guess part of my point is that many of these countries had not just one but two or three sets of legendary creatures over the centuries, giving you more variety.
Grelber

There is an old 2000 AD comic strip you might want to catch up on

link

The guys behind AE-WWII have said that Australia will be one of the forces in their Pacific expansion. And they have more of the smaller countries on the way…

Yeah, AE-WWII already has the Russian Liberation Army into a really scary faction. It's lead by a ressurrected Rasputin, who's used his influence to take control of the ROA and get further influence into the German High Command. His creepy offspring have some scary mind control powers and they have exploding demons to support their ranks.

There's more weirdness coming for other countrys too.