"Imagu-Nations Aspects" Topic

I was on a long ride two days ago (almost 1,000 miles) and I had a lot of time to think it occurred to me that one of the reasons I became attracted to Imagi-Nations very early on (30 years ago) to the detriment of historical games is the allure of equality. Someone suggesting that both sides being equal is looked upon in historical gaming as a form of leprosy. In Imagi-Nations it's quite common and it allows you to basically, I have found, carve out about three quarters of any rules set and toss it into the junk pile. Of those rules about half of them were involved in setting up inequalities in a game- my favorite example being the rules that make all French Napoleonics +3 in everything, and then the other half setting up compensating advantages to the non French so that it's not a walkover . Same with Germans in WWII or anything. This means that there can be woefully imbalanced games, but these are scenario dependent and do not affect the "nature" of the figure. This of course makes scenario design much easier.

I see Imagi-nation rules/campaigns as leveling the field. Why limit yourself by history? i've played uneven historical scenarios from '68 on-boardgame and miniature. Now I prefer alternate histories, variants, what-ifs-i want to do things differently with all those formations from Legion to Brigade Combat Teams. Also, the players aren't restricted by a certain doctrine so there are more 'Captains Without Eyes' and the ever-present bad die roll which is very entertaining to the referee/game master. Thanks, now I'm compelled to start a new campaign.

I view it more as an opportunity to do what you want to do without somebody telling you that you are doing it wrong.

I look at imagi nations to do it wrong, on purpose, while having fun even!

I am such a bad boy.

Dear 79th PA and Bashytubits.

Those are also vey good reasons. Used them many times.

Of course… for me…

Nothing is so neat as the jaw dropping wide eyed look when the see the pink coats with brightly colored facings on one side, and they realize that it's NOT an exrreme fading job on a British Regiment.

If I ever get my 18th centuries armies off the ground, I've got some pretty garish uniform colors in mind as well

Dear 79th.

I've found that the best color schemes to paint are where the coat color is pink, yellow, or brown. They look wonderful Pastels are good too.

Agree with the above – for my nascent Imagi-Nation, the Guards infantry brigade has two large regiments, one with yellow coats and pink facing, one with turquoise coats and white facing – while among the Frei-Corps I plan on including Cossacks and maybe a rogue regiment of Saphis or two

Paint Brunswick musicians and you may as well have ImagiNations.

Applause to you Frederick, Turquoise is an excellent color. Haven't done any yet but I've dashed off a few samples on Bristol plate

I know this sounds boring for Imaginatios but for the Princess' Life Guard I used a Surens Fours Bellote figure of Madame Foures riding "En Hussard" but I added on Dolmans and plumes and some other conversions. The uniform s White jacket, White Pelisse, Pink Breeches, white glossy leather boots, white horse reins, mirliton is pink and white with pink plume, and pink facings. Metalwork is silver. This is not a combat unit of course.

Applause also for mixing up the figues. Along with the above I have a regiment of Surens Kalmucks.

On my Ikean (Turkish) Spahi's I actually got real feather plumes form A.C. Moore and affixe small fronds to the helmets.

Trying my hand at sculpting too. Working on Frederick William I's "Giant Grenadiers." No one makes figures of them.

I think I'll use a light Magenta on them, or a raspberry color.

One other thing about my original post. Long about 10 years ago I realized that I had to put some limitations on this. I am speaking of the aspect of "equality" of course but more than that, as far as collecting and painging, I needed a way to STOP! That didn't mean I was going to stop doing imagi-nations, but rather when I had enough for one army and would go on to another Imagi-Nation. I developed this idea you have probably heard of before, but I will briefly go over it again. I also wanted a quick way to design scenarios for a campaign or for games.

What this involved was hypothesizing two "strategic units" basically an "Army" and a "Brigade." The one cannot break down to the other or be built up to the other. An Army is nothing less than a "big bunch of unts" and a brigade is a "little bunch of units." An Army is five line infantry regiments, two elite Regiments (Grenadiers, Engineers, or Light Infantry, your choice and can vary from battle to battle) four heavy cavalry regiments, four light cavalry regiments, one regiment of dragoons, two heavy guns, two light guns, and two wagons. You also may have ONE unit of any type of your choice. That's twenty six units. A brigade is four retiments of type, one dragoon regiment, one light gun, and one wagon. That's seven units.

Armies are the same all over. An Army from Saxe Burlap und Schleswig Beerstein is the same as that from Bad-zu-Wurst. Brigades are the same from country to country but you can have different types of brigades depending on the "unit of type." Thus you can have infantry brigades Elite Brigades (which have three elite regiments), Cavalry Brigades, Artillery Brigades, Siege Brigades, Engineering Brigades, Wagon Brigades etc. Militia Brigades, Frei-Korps Brigades, and all sorts of wild and wonderful things when you get to the Ikeans, the proto-turks.

What this does is make convenient groupings so if I want to have a battle I can simply pick any combination (within limits) and I've got my forces tailor made. In a battle the rule is you can have any two units but only one can be an army. Thus either side could have

a brigade
two brigades
an Army
An Army and a Brigade.

This allows for speedy scenario design, it allows for a reasonable balanced inequality with divergent forces, and it also allows me to quickly determine how much terrain I have to give the weaker side or the number of compensating ease of victory conditions. The power of an army is 3 and of a brigade 1. So if I have an extreme match of say one brigade versus an army and a brigade I have to give the woefully outnumbered side three big benefits, which is lots of defensive terrain, or a benefit of complete surprise to the Brigade which would mean a raid, or a surprise attack against the Army and a Brigade , and so forth.

Great thread here and some super points, it's how I find myself drifting more and more into imagi-nations as I can do as I want and don't have the button counters pick me up as doing the uniforms wrong. You can have proper equal encounters unlike a heck of a lot of historical battles. Great stuff!!!

Dear Jambo1

Yes, I understand. I've never been bothered by the button counters really, but you are correct on the subject of doing what you want. This idea of "equality" is even more important if you move your Imagi-Nations in the 20th century. I have and I never get moral qualms or uncomfortable moods when playing representatives of moral evil like the Communists and the Nazi's it's played for laughs and a burlesque much as the Three Stooges lampooned Hitler and the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup lampooned everyone.

Sort of what my WWII Imagi-Nation Fahrvergnuggen is about.