"Tintin Imagi-Nation Wargaming" Topic

Definitely not an original idea but the start of my dabbling into Tintin Imagi-Nation Wargaming! Specifically 15mm interbellum/early-WW2 gaming at this point. But given my ADHD who knows where it will go from there: I can see myself branching out with this idea into Medieval, Napoleonic, WW1, Cold War, Ultra-Modern… I'm positively boiling with ideas! Inputs, idea, inspiration more than welcome!

P.S. This one is 15mm Sci Fi only by a serious stretch of the word (I can't really see myself waragming "Explorers on the Moon"). I do however consider this board as my home on TMP where I always get enthusiastic reactions and great feedback! So I hope you guys will indulge this cross-posting…

Bob Cordery has both Borduria and Syldavia in his Imagi-world of 1891:
link

Nice. That's a few BF109s then…

@MajorB

Inspirating stuff there… I'm looking to keep it stupid simple, so no intricate fiction ending up being more complex than real life for me. But definitely worth reading! Thanks.

@Reactionary

It IS the only canon Bordurian (or Syladavian for that matter) vehicle!

I'll probably stick to a single one though… My drug of choice is platoon sized games, so no need for a full squadron of them. In fact I can hardly justify using any plane miniature at that scale. Except maybe as a objective in a crash site or airfield scenario (so no FoW 1/144 mini for me)!

Been dong this for twenty years with my rules "The Shattered Century." Twelve countries, all Imagi-nation, ground, sea, air, army level game.

This is really interesting. I completely agree with your comments on historical wargaming. Nearly all my projects eventually go down the imagi-nation route for the same reasons you mention.

I'd love to hear what figures you end out using for the various protagonists. Have you found a good figure for Tintin? The Captain? Snowy?

@OSchmidt

I certainly don't claim having invented the imagi-nation concept, nor its use as a wargaming background, nor using the Tintin universe as such.

Just presenting (well introducing so far) my take on it, hopefully getting some interesting ideas back and may inspiring others like I'm so often inspired by other people's work!

@Daryl

Starting your own nuclear program IOT to bomb Brussels and erase Moulinsart Inc. out of existence is probably the cheapest alternative if you want official Tintin miniatures :-D

Having the actual comics characters in miniatures isn't really my focus, but I would certainly love to have them round up this project if someone as an idea!

Theyre out there!
Im at work so filtered; but from memory Lead Adventure miniatures have some steampunky Tintiners and either Artizan or Copplestone have "boy detective and dog", pretty sure they do the thompson twins too

@latto6plus2

Copplestone has them in their Gangster ranges, indeed… Only they're 28mm :-S

Of course – missed the 15mm bit. LAF are 28mm too.

Paint em bronze and put em on a 15 mill scale plinth?

A quote from your web site:

"I'd rather tell family and friends that I'm playing with toy soldier in the world of Tintin than I'm playing with nazi toy soldiers! If only for the sake of having to explain/justify less".

Really?? Have you actually had to "justify" playing WW II games and/or scenarios. I've been a wargamer for many years and i've never had anybody challenge me, belittle me, or make me feel that I had to "justify" my hobby. I've had people ask me questions about wargaming and the reactions ranged from indifference to genuine interest, but never negativity. In fact, I *welcome* that curiosity. It gives me a chance to talk about one of my favorite interests and my neighbor's son became a favorite opponent once he was introduced to wargames. You'd be surprised at the number of people who'd want to try military simulations once they knew that such a thing existed.

@Shadow…

OK, justify is probably not the right word. But face with outsiders curiosity and "what are you actually doing?" questions, I'd find it less comfortable to explain I'm collecting "nazi toy soldiers" than, for example, Tintin ones. Not saying it would automatically be misunderstoodn but it would require some more explanation. Call me lazy I guess!

@latto6plus2

That's actually quite a good idea…

Damn right it is.
My wargame fantasy is to commision sculpts of myself – on rearing horse in napoleonic uniform pose and in "hailing soviet taxi" pose for just that purpose.

One day…

@Shadow

A couple more idea on the subject of that whole "justify playing with nazi toy soldiers" thing…

"Controversial" is a very subjective notion: based on your (part of a) country of origin, religion, background, upbringing, some thing are controversial others aren't.

To take a totally unrelated example: gay adoption became legal in Belgium nearly 10 years ago without much of fuss while the same piece of legislation made the news (and talk shows, and protests, and lobby groups and church services and every other forum you can think of) for months in France (Brussels and Paris aren't 200 miles apart, and both countries have a very similar background/culture when compared with pretty much any other part of the world).

Certain aspects of WW2 are much more sensitive in countries that were occupied by the Germans (I'm not saying that countries that weren't didn't do their share – and much more – to fight nazism). A miniature related example this time: a couple of years ago some GW produced 40K orcs (orks?) with Stahlhelm and Stielhandgranate, they didn't cause much of a stir in the UK but lead to a full blown manure storm in the French gaming community.

Not withstanding those considerations, my blog statement about playing nazis is probably just me projecting my lack of comfort with the notion on other people rather than an actual reaction I'd get from those people…

I certainly have had to explain to others why I am interested in playing games about war. I've even had to rationalize it to myself at times. I also won't game certain conflicts because of the distaste I have for some aspect of it(TYW, ACW,WWI). Am I being intellectually inconsistent at times? You bet. People don't have to be ultra liberal hippies to find it in questionable taste.

>>my blog statement about playing nazis is probably just me projecting my lack of comfort with the notion on other people rather than an actual reaction I'd get from those people…<<

That's very understandable, especially if the person you're speaking with is a war survivor. I certainly wouldn't suggest playing a wargame with someone had spent time in a concentration camp. My uncle, who was on Iwo Jima during WW II, didn't like the idea of my cousin and I playing paintball. So OK, I got it and never discussed it with him again.

"I also won't game certain conflicts because of the distaste I have for some aspect of it".

I get that too. I won't play any wargame that's about any conflict that has happened during my lifetime.

Very cool idea. It'd be awesome to have proper Tintin figs too.

That's very understandable, especially if the person you're speaking with is a war survivor.

I survived a war including having a sniper bullet whizz by my head (I felt it's "wind" and heard it hit the ground in front of me) and my house peppered by shrapnel while I was in it.

I don't mind people wargaming Balkans wars though. Don't even mind if they want to play Serbs or even such vile units as Arkan's Tigers if the scenario demands it.

Hey Trojan and shadow

My 2cents…I think it is respectful to be sensitive of the term nazi, or jap in Gaming or in public. My wife is a Japanese citizen…I am a USA and Italian citizen. Her father was eight when the USA fire bombed his town. It didn't matter to him who threw the first punch. He lost his home and some neighbors and friends who had nothing to do w the war. He was crushed when his daughter chose me instead of letting him arrange a marriage, and even more so that I am an American citizen (mostly) (Yes, japan still has those arranged marriages). I'm slowly building a rapport, but it isn't easy. I'll never mention the war directly with him, even though I lost a great uncle in the pacific.

He wouldn't understand wargaming anyway and I think he would cry if I gamed pacific battles in front of him because he didn't understand, and it's a subject that still hurts him to this day.

Italy is still dealing with national socialism, and I vote in every election against those candidates…it's a delicate subject for some of my family over there who hate " nazis"…

The world is complicated and just cause stateside we can say whatever we want…some places would rather not talk about ww2. Japan doesn't really teach much about ww2 I'm told by my wife. In many respects I want to teach her…but the Japanese culture is very complex, U can say a lot with just one word, and it's better to give her space on a concept of silent uncomfortable truths.

Meaning she knows, it's just too uncomfortable to talk about because she is ashamed for her country.

Wargaming is an escape, historical or scifi it's all fantasy, as no one gets hurt.

@Tango

Nice!

The moustachist party did however come to power in Borduria after WW2… So I'll use the "hourglass" symbol for my not-WW2 Bordurians:

And the moustache one for the not-Cold War ones:

(Brussels and Paris aren't 200 miles apart, and both countries have a very similar background/culture when compared with pretty much any other part of the world).

I think the other half of the country would disagree ;-)
Just to say that your statement about what is controversial and what not – esp. in relation to history such as WW2 – cannot be explained away be referring to countries alone – cfr the recent upheaval about the collaboration during WW2 in Belgian politics.

Back to wargaming (let's not get carried away by politics :-)):
I ran a Tintin game based on the Blue Lotus at Crisis A couple of years ago. I acquired quite a number of miniature cars from the official Tintin line for that game, but yes, they are expensive. If you look at "official" Tintin miniatures, yes these are very expensive as well. Even the Tintin museum in LouvainLaNeuve charges very steep prices.

For the record I live in that other half of the country too…

Yes, of course depending on the scale you choose to make your observation you can see as many similarities or differences as you want.

From a macro point of view I consider north-western Europe (Benelux, northern France, Western Germany) as a fairly homogeneous society with similar values.

But of course from a micro point of view I've got nothing in common with those crazy people living on the other side of the train track!

I know about the official Tintin "miniatures" I considered Tintin rocket as a centre piece for a retro sci-fi game, then I saw the price tag (hence my comment about nuking Moulinsart Inc. being the cheap road to official Tintin minis)

Will you be at Crisis this year? Looking forward to see you guys' games again!

And in the meantime, here's my shopping list for a 1939 Bordurian Army!

I considered Tintin rocket as a centre piece for a retro sci-fi game

I have one in my office – as a reminder of why I went into science and engineering as a career ;-) And yes, ppl often start to talk about it when they come in.

Will you be at Crisis this year? Looking forward to see you guys' games again!

Yes, of course! Our game will be a bit more modest than last year – but will feature a couple of dragons!

Your idea for the early WW2 force sounds a lot like it could do with a mix of WW1 Germans and WW2 Hungarians/Italians from BF.

That way you could also get your "Not Panzer Is" through using Italian L60 light tanks as well… just a thought :)

Good call on mixing WW1 Germans with the WW2 Hungarians

I assume you talking about L6/40? It's also a 20mm gun (i.e. a disillusioned MG)…

What I'm looking for is
- A tank with an actual, even if early war and modest, AT gun (I'd say at least something approaching the 37mm PaK 36)
- Ideally German manufactured
- Produced and exported early enough to be fielded by a very minor axis country as early as 1939

Not sure it's even possible.

You best bet then would be the TNHPS-Pzkfw 38(t)
Stocks of existing tanks were used by the Germans and production continued in 1939.

Trojan

Re Tank colour

I have recently experimented with dark Khaki or British Uniform [Vallejo] for tanks and it looks quite good.

Looks almost WW1 and you could disrupt it with another colour to give a nod to any French influence.

The LT-35 also wound up is several amouries. The biggest pre-war german tank would have a 20mm, unless you consider the PzKw NbfZ IV.

I myself have Freedonia, Sylvania, Pottsylvania, and Zenophobia all mixing it up. I have Vicker 6 tonners, L3s (another big export tank), Christie T3s, a PzKw NbfZ IV, and for giggles the Type 89 Chi-Ro which has the biggest calibre gun on the board.

Yeah, I would say the Panzer 38 would be a good bet.

Another option if you want to consider it might well be the Panzer II… or maybe even the Hungarian TOLDI tanks? They can even be up-gunned (from 20mm to 40mm) if you want to show a historical progression before your next 'generation' of tanks.

link

Oooh! I didn't realise BF now made the Vickers 6-ton… The Finnish also give you plenty of options for other 'not german' Germans as well.

Here's some jolly vehicles in 1/43..
link
and here's what I use for fictional 1930ish campaigns…
link

>>I myself have Freedonia, Sylvania, Pottsylvania, and Zenophobia all mixing it up.<<

"Hail Hail Freedonia… land of the brave and freeeeeee.."

"The last man nearly ruined this place
He didn't know what to do with it
If you think this country's bad off now,
Just wait 'til I get through with it"

"That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard!"

"Get your tutis fruitise (?) ice cream here"

Yes, Hail Freedonia!

Hail Freedonia! Down with Sylvania!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

The Royal Army of Khemed!

Very cool, I may borrow that idea myself!

tissue paper keffiyeh might be less trouble than green stuff.