"A Very American Civil War" Topic

I have been posting on website about a 2nd American Civil War and I forgot to post on TMP

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Interesting premise. What are you using for figures?

For a 1930's era civil war with odd factions with wildly incompatible goals it is hard to beat the SCW

Too late, Southern soldiers began calling themselves Americans during the First World War, due in part to the deployment to France and Russia.

Now prior to the WW1 Southern soldiers still referred to themselves as Suothern or from a particular State. So a 1900 or even a 1910 American Civil War Two would have been more likely.

You have put a lot of effort into your blog so go for it.

I'll be using 28mm figures

For the South there will be two additional factions. The Democrats (who automatically support FDR because he's a Democrat and has promised help for the South) and the Confederates (who are trying to start up the Confederacy again.

The Democrats will control most of the Southern National Guard and represent to people who run things.

The Confederates will be made up of idealistic young Southerners (who have fallen for the idea of the Lost Cause), the descendants of those who never accepted the loss, and various odd crackpots and strange folk.

A small group, armed with rifles and shotguns, they'll try various symbolic acts (seizing the Mississippi Statehouse for example) in a effort to rally the populace to their side. Hard-pressed to ally themselves with other groups they'll strike quickly, and fade back into the woodwork.

A nice diversionary force that can draw off troops needed for other battles, but not a major player in the war.

Not that I am planning any battle set in the South at this time.

I've always liked the Crimson Skies approach. (Plus, the planes are just so darn cool!) Have you looked into it?

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Kahunna-
For factions, particularly in the south, have you considered what the African Americans will do? Or the whites in reaction to anything they will do?
In any 20th century or later ACW, America's polyglot makeup
lends itself to almost endless factions.

So many personalities of the era ripe for fleshing out how they could impact; J. Edgar Hoover, Joe Kennedy, Huey Long, Lindberg, Earhart, Jimmy Hoffa, on and on…

Not really, I am mainly doing the Midwest. Specifically northern Illinois and Indiana, and southern Wisconsin and Michigan. That's a big enough area for me. Someone else can do the South (Hint, Hint).

Most of your formations should be mixed moto-cavalry with armored train support. Air Corps would probably be 1/3 pursuit craft and 2/3rds ground attack. DC2's and Ford Trimotors abundant, lots of commercial aircraft combat conversions. Same for boats, with the rumrunners and all,the Great Lakes could be PT Boat Heaven.
Don't forget the Akron and the Macon, who gets those?
Not sure what the resources in your campaign area are. Other targets that would be fought over: Fort Knox(who gets the gold?), raids to disrupt Wall Street and the Federal Reserve, any and all assembly line factories. Arms making was diverse and fairly dispersed, where I am in Upstate NY we have Remington Arms and Ithaca Arms but they need resouces to operate.
Someone would invent a 'Sten-like' weapon, Tommyguns ain't cheap.
If the factions have enough money, don't forget foreign arms sales for gold or oil-Cz. T-35's could be really popular.
And European mercenaries, Mexican incursions, Brit/Canadian 'pacification' of certain border aress and League of Nations sanctions and interference.
Some movie stars fought in WWI, Bogie could captain a sea raider…..

The Akron and the Macon belong to the Navy so they would them and they could show up anywhere.

Henry Ford will definately have a bomber fleet of Tri-Motors manned by mercenaries (yet another blog for the future).

The Navy only got four destroyers up the St. Lawrence Seaway before Canada/Brits closed it warships. However they didn't consider the Coast Guard to be warships so plenty of 90 ft subchasers, but with the channel to Lake Michigan blocked by batteries at Detroit control of Lake Michigan is up for grabs.

Certainly lots of foreign SMGs, Machineguns, small tanks and antitank cannons, but those will take time to show up.

As far as resources. Th steel mills and automotive plants of Chicago and Hammond, all the manufacturing capability of Detroit, and on the west side of Illinois the Rock Island Armory which produced several of the experimental tanks of the 20s and 30s and certainly would be a good supply source of artillery and artillery ammo.

Cool stuff! I'd also been toying around with a similar idea. I will read the blog with interest.

-Will

Hate to rain on your parade, but at least one of your basic premises is wrong. Curtis is no longer VP when Hoover resigns. The VP is sworn in on the morning of Inauguration Day, well before the Presidential ceremony. And while Curtis may (or may not) have been the model for Vice President Throstlebottom in Of Thee I Sing, John 'Cactus Jack' Garner was a forceful individual who would certainly have stepped into the breach.

Because of the situation there is no VP swearing in ceremony that morning. Cactus Jack gets sworn in later(and is off somewhere in Texas getting his forces ready for the fight) but Curtis claims his swearing in is not "legal". Remember this is a coup, cloaked in whatever legal trappings that anyone can come up with (Smedley's Business Plot in actual action). It's just that the coup quickly got out of hand.

Since I am not planning on using Texas at all in my campaign. Cactus Jack dies in a "mysterious" plane crash the day before he was to be sworn in. There that makes it look in more like a coup.

Steal a page from the SCW: Cactus Jack demands the pilot load all his gear on the plane, over the pilot's protests. The plane crashes shortly after take-off. The head Nationalist honcho died that way, as did some rappers and their entourage a few years back.

When the pilot says the plane will be over-loaded, pay attention.

Where are the Communist? It seem in that time period they were causing trouble all over the place.

nicely worked out idea, kahunna. It's your campaign so ignore the nit-pickers, let your imagination run riot, and get some troops on the table.
What rules are you thinking of?

I liked the article on rural America. Any more modeling tips for building and terrain for the period? I'm getting set to do another war set in the same rough period between the US and the UK over Canada. So much of what you're talking about is pretty useful to me.

And now another faction for VACW

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You not only have the possibility of coastal actions on Lake Michigan but probably some level of riverine combat. Look at the levels this reached in the RCW- whole flotillas of modified craft battling it out with each other and land forces. Hence why I did "White Water, Red Tide".

Dave G
The PT Dockyard

Lots of possible battles. Naval, air and land battles of all sizes. I'm concentrating on small skirmishes because I want to do them in 28mm. I do have a few ships and boats in 28mm and may get more, after I build up my regular forces.

Sorry for the delay, but I had to do some research for the next blog, which covers the Illinois National Guard.

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I think I might also have President Curtis and his cabinet ambushed and killed by "communist agents" with phony evidence found linking them back to the Soviets. Then have MacArthur declare martial law and a appoint himself leader of the US until such time that the enemies of America are dealt with. I can totally see MacArthur turning into a tyrant, and bad things happening with him being supported and pushed on by Ford.

The biggest monkey wrench is Roosevelt waking up. With him being the elected President I don't think MacArthur would have much support. Unless he was somehow discredited or the election results were "rigged" by commies backing FDR of course.

M.A.C. forces (MacArthur Anti-Communist). Because you need a good acronym or ten.

I would be interested to see which portions of the US people think would back which camp. I can see Texas and Oklahoma with their large oil fields and oil tycoons throwing in with Curis and MacArthur. As for Kansas I can see the state being split with most of it backing Curtis but with Roosevelt supporters in the NE part of the state Lawrence-Kansas City (including the Missouri part). With it of course comes access to oil and a good number of aircraft manufacturers spread out between the three states.

Great stuff! I have you book marked and will be checking it out as it developes. This would be a great miniature game or even a Savage Worlds pulp style RPG.