"Imaginary Countries" Topic

Do you make up your own countries and your own private imaginary army. I do, and many have heard of Princess Trixie of Saxe-Burlap Und Schleswig Beerstein. The Yahoo group, Society of Daisy, a group devoted to humor and whimsy in wargames in general, and to imaginary armies and whacky units and generals in particular is engaged in a project to register and "get these things down" in the files and to bring them together to allow their creators to participate in a grand campaign, remeniscent of the IWG's or International Wag Games of Yore. If you are intersted drop on by.

Persons who are firmly in the grip of reality and absolute accurace and realism in wargames are advised to approach with caution.

The madness may be catching.

Also try "Old School Wargaming"

link

Robert Henry

The problem with making up your own country is that Homeland Security will not admire your hand made passport, and will detain you at considerable length at the airport. If things go really badly, they may send you to one of their facilities in another country you may not have heard of.

Making up your own country is easier than you think. Good starting place here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand

MJS-

But wouldn't the homeland security also be fake?

We currently play an ECW campaign in an imaginary county, and one day I will have my own 18th C. German Duchy! I am thinking yellow coats with red facings…

I already have my own country. And it's not imaginary.

It's called Polynikistan, and it's up by the Hindu Kush somewhere. But we've never bothered with an army up to now, as we've never had a war. That's mostly because nobody knows how to find us.

Favorite imaginary country: The Grand Duchy of Fenwick

Their uniforms are more 1300s than 1700s, but who's to say they wouldn't keep them around for a few years?

I've always wanted to do this.

It's hard to justify the time and money, though, and harder still to get one's friends to participate.

I have always been annoyed by imaginary armies, ever since I entered my AWI armies in an MFCA competition, and was beaten by silly painted armies, from imaginary countries. I still insist that I painted my stuff better than them! 8^)

One advantage, though, is that there is no one to argue with your buttonhole lace.
Or mitre caps.
Or flags.

I made plans for such a thing after being inspired by "Setting up a Fictitious War" in the April 1987 no.47 Miniature Wargames.

It was/is going to take place on the island continent of Nunowit, using a map like the Warfare in the Age of Reason's Sport of Kings map that uses geographical "movement areas" and not roads and rivers. Depending on how many areas there were, along with national practices, these would represent provinces, shires etc. of the major kingdoms; or independent duchies or principalities for the smaller groups of areas.

The Germanic areas are named after beers, the Latinate areas named after wines, (the "Austrians" a mixture of both), and the Nordic and Russian areas named after ice hockey players. The British and Gaelic areas are represented by alcohol-related and historical names.

Players could provide their own specialist guard units or the like (but not be mandatory), but I'd like to provide almost all of the figures myself. I'm about half way to where I'd like to be. They're 25mm WSS and Grand Alliance figures that are in a mix of historic and passably-historic uniforms and coloura that can be still used for historic games. (I suppose this would be more difficult for the Napoleonic and later 19th C. players, but it works fine for 18th C. uniform styles and colours.)

And I've found a good way to make interchangeable flags to switch between historic and fictional (that the players would design themselves). I've used wires for the flagstaffs that I believe are used for flower arranging (or the like) from the White Rose hobby and craft stores chain; and there's a certain size of brass tubing (that I believe is used by railroaders or model car & airplane guys) that fits perfectly around the metal flower-wires. It's not so loose as to see the flags swing around while moving the figures, but not too tight to be a struggle to insert the wire into the tube either. I had used plastic tubing of the same size of opening to start, but it was too wide so that it made it look like the part of the flag stuck to the pole (the hoist) was 5"/13cm thick relative to the figures. The much-thinner brass tubing looks just fine.

P.S. Polynikes: is your army going to be trained by two British mercenaries and a lost Gurkha by any chance?

P.P.S. Mexican JS: have a little trouble crossing the border into N.J., did we? I hope that none of the figure-stuffed condoms broke while they were "questioning" you.

And, as John the OFM can tell you, coloura is Latin for "colours".
;^)

To Sam (and others): it doesn't have to take a lot of time and effort. You probably have enough figures already on hand to get started. For my own Duchy of Hesse Seewald in the 18th Century Holy Roman Empire, I use SYW Prussian troops as stand ins. The Herzog von Hesse Seewald sells his services to the ruler of a country called Germania (Prussia), who is at war with the alliance of Gallia (France) and Imperium (Austria). Germania's key ally is the island nation of Britannia. We use the Latin version of the countries' names as a tribute to Brigadier Peter Young, who wrote "Charge". As you might guess, I have figures painted up as units of Prussians, French, Austrians and British which all stand in for the Latinized kingdoms mentioned previously. It's a quick and easy way to get started in fictional warfare and campaigns.

Other people, such as Nemopholist, prefer to paint their figures in rather inventive imaginery livery. At one time, I considered painting a unit in yellow coats with red facings and white small clothes. They would have red hair, white faces and red noses. Yes, they would be the Royal McDonalds Regiment. That is one way to get started. Or you could have fun with German sounding words and have units such as the Flabergast Dragoons or the Gesundtheit Grenadiers and similar sounding names.

Hope some of these ideas hellp

I used to have a vaguely Austrian country called Rolytania-Hervania (after my real name, Roly Hermans). THhe uniforms were cornflower blue, and the figs were mainly Spencer-Smith.

Eventually I decided to go the realist way, and they became Bavarians.

I still have them in a box, though haven't played with them for a good 25 years now!

To Sam from Nemopholist.

Well Sam, I don't know if you classify me as a friend, but as I've already told you, I've already "gone along" and have several mythical armies, so if you ever want to do it, I'm a waitin for you.

The Principality of Saxe-Burlap und Schleswig Beerstein- (Pink coats).
The Kingdom of Flouice- (Looks like 7 years War French)
The Electorate of Bad zu Wurst (Prussian- almost, only with red pants, and old style grenadier caps. A strange sort of "twisted cross" is in the background of all their standards

My latest- and newest—-

The Republic of the Neverneverlands. (National Motto- "When You wish Upon a Star." – The national symbol is a loveable stylized rodent with a broad smile. The Guard Unit is The Mouseketeers" and the battle cry goes M-I-C-K-E-Y….

Oh Yes, I forgot

Alte and I are friends and both involved in the project. His Rgmt McDonald has inspired me to great Envy. I already make odd conversions (like one regiment in a three rank volley line which has little flags all hanging from the end of the muskets that say "Bang!" on them, and another with little loops of fine thread holdign the corks in in another. But now, after hearing about his McDonald Regiment I am consumed with envy and intend to proceed forwad with my own matching regiment-

You've all heard of the Polish winged Hussars. Well theyre in one of my armies also, but I'm going to make Lord Donefor's Horse a Hussar regiment. I'll be using the Prussian Hussars with Mirliton, but like that plate we've seen of Zieten with the little mast with the wing on top of the busby, Lord Donefore's Horse will have a little mast with acrosspiece, and a parrot on it. Another on the shoulder.

I'll probably paint them as the Prussian Schwarzhuzzars, that way with the eyepatch and the deaths head on the Mirliton — They can be the Princessely Pirateerical Hussars, (or the Royal Buccaneers— recruited from a grange that charges top dollar for its corn).

The Poles also used to "paint" the bottom of the horses and so my Polish Hussars are also. (I'm not making this up, remember it's Poland), and rather than paint the horses of my own new Hussar Regiment, I've decided on something better.

They'll be mounted on Zebras!

To Andy Gamer

Good idea! I thought up that myself about a month ago. My reason for it though was for my 30 years war army. That way I can change the flags which show alignment at will and get double duty out of my regiments.

I sure would like to paint up some armies like this, but historical gamers are scarce enough that I don't see it happening anytime before the next ice age. I'd do it in 6mm—the armies are relatively easy to assemble and paint and so you can have the Germunian Empire without having to have them double-duty as actual Austrians.

I just had a strange thought. Among many…

The reason we have the uniform pallette we do is because of the limited number of dyes used back in the 18th C. So, we have natural dyes for red, blue, and few others. White is … white. Thus, Prussians are blue, because the dye is available, British are red, French and Austrians are white/grey, and all the little minion states are variants of the same colors, and for the saem reasons.

So, why not take your "real" regiments, and make up a command stand for your imaginary friends, and give them imaginary flags?

For example, take a Prussian regiment, and add a command stand composed of a Prussian officer, British drummer with its silly hanging fake sleeves, and a Prussian standard bearer, with a nice ornate flag with imaginary armorial doo-dads?

French uniformed troops can have red or blue coats, if foreign. So, take your standard Irish, German or Swiss regiment in French service, and add a completely bogus command stand.

This way, you can make up "real" regiments, and with the switch of a command stand, you can do the von Ginsberg Regiment of the Grand Duchy of Wogastissburg-Schlempfenbuettel, or the the Diocese's Own Archbishopric of Schwartzschwants Regiment.

To John the OFM: great idea on the command stands. It was something that I was considering, but I hadn't fully figured how to do it. This is very helpful.

To Nemopholist: you are welcome to borrow my idea for the McDonald Regiment. I would be honored.

That's a good idea, John, making entirely separate command stands for the fictional clone units and even being able to use different nations' figures mixed together but painted to match the "real" units' uniforms. (Are the Royal McDonald's clones?) But out of cheapness and painting-hating I'd rather stick to using the interchangeable flags rather than making entire command stands when it comes to converting the historical ones to fictional. (And BTW, how did you know that all of my friends are imaginary?)

This is quite an old site (pre-2001), so not all of the internal links work, but it is about a fictional-setting campaign run for a few years by Frank Chadwick, the author of the Volley & Bayonet, grand tactical rules.

It can be quite inspirational as well. And it includes a decent-looking set of campaign rules called "Duke, Elector, King". I haven't played them to know how they work in practice, but other friends thought they sounded good too.

The armies are/were 54mm, mainly plastic if you don't recognize the figures. (Alot are the AWI British and Colonials from Accurate, which I think is now owned by Imex.) And while not as fantastical as your plans, Nemo & Fritz, there was plenty of whimsy like the nation of Plutonia that had troops painted with glow-in-the-dark paints.

The battle report links from the campaign newspaper are all still working, so you can read through them for some laughs and ideas. And their map suggestion was quite good too.

link

Enjoy, Andy

Sorry, I meant Nemo and Sam; just confused the posters.

To Alte from Nemopholist.

Consider it stolen. Now… how to start working on the figures. And, of course— the flag.
Let's see— the motto under the central motif of a picture of two all-beef patties special sauce…. Ah I have it "You Desere a Break Today…"

One of the things I am also searching for in Dollar stores is tiny little 30mm figures of toy soldiers like those from the Laurel & Hardy Babes in Toyland Movie….

Don't forget that cavalry units, particularly hussars, can be quite bewildering to pin down simply by coat color. Simply switch the flags, and they are a completely different nationality.

French cavalry in particular seemed to be all the colors of the rainbow.

Artillerists are usefully almost univrsally blue coat with red facings. That might be helpful.

So, all I am saying is that existing historical armies can be quickly fictionalized.

Greetings all,
I have some fictious units in both of my 1788 Norwegian and Swedish armies. I also have several grandiose commanders like Johan Erick Tungruf af Vasterbotten [basic translation of tungruf is 'lard butt'] one of my Swedish brigade commanders. I always think it adds a little bit extra 'realism' to the game! Oh, there was an article in a 1970s 'Battle for Wargamers' magazine about fictious units and countries. Anyone remember it?

Some of the troops of the "Great Northern War" (1700-1721) are wonderful for projects like these.

For example, the Danes had some artillerists in Violet coats with green cuffs.

I've already designed the flags for my imaginary country (as well as some neighbors) — but I've still not decided whether to do it in 15mm or 28mm. I love the larger figures; but I've also got a lot of wonderful 15mm terrain.

— Jeff

Personally, I would prefer to use totally ficticious countries in any wargame period. You can get around all of the evil Nazi/Mongol/Commie rape, pillage and other assorted nastyness and just play!

I am not a Historical War Gamer, I'm a Wargamer. It's all for fun! The history part gets in the way of that. There are boatloads of folks that actually think that this "game" stuff is some sort of actual simulation of anything. I'm not that stupid. I'm not a modeller, and don't want to be! I don't care if I used the wrong shade of metal for my pewter buttons on my 15mm figures. The next guy who points out such a glaring inaccuracy to me is likely to have a pike unit shoved up his ***.

As a wargamer, my troops are representations of whatever they need to be at the moment. Redoing actual battles is less interesting than any of 10,000 generic military situations that could have occured in any time period. After all, those historical battles were actually fought, we know how they turned out! Why waste the time to redo the obvious.

Also fictitious countries mostly avoids the most feared and most hated of all wargamer types – the expert on all things! Yea, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The clown who sits back and kibitzes, enthralling us with extreme trivia and knocking any author, any paint job, any OOB, anything at all that violates his high standards of authenticity and [choke] realism. I said mostly because experts always seem to be willing to rise to the occasion, even in a fantasy world you are makeing up as you go along. Say it ain't so.

Nope, let me defend the meadows beneath Mount Wannahockalugi for the glory of The Kingdom of Lower Slobovia. Let no nit picking microbrain with a nanopersonality stand in the way of the game and enjoyment of the afternoon. If I wanted to play Trivial Pursuits, I would buy the game!

It's all Fantasy in the end! WWII, Napoleonics, Moderns, it's all just old fat men playing with toys, pretending to be a person of significence and power for the afternoon. This is all nonwargamers will ever see it as, and the fact that it is just this, in no way will stop me from doing it.

Hail to Lower Slobovia, Down with the evil North Oliverarians and let the dice roll!

The 1700s has always been a place for this focus. The original 'Soldier Kings' used imaginary countries as well. The chance to use non-standard colors for your units always exist in this century.

I have been playing, with a fellow gamer, a campaign involving Bogavania and Beerstein for some three years now. The countries are medieval fantasy.We calculate the countries coffers by the map hexes they occupy and the resources present. At the end of each campaign we blster existing armies from said coffers.

Beerstein is vaguely Germanic and Bogavania is vaguely Slavic. Beerstein has predominantly yellow and red color and Bogavania has mainly blue and white.

We determine each battle from when our hidden armies meet via set of plastic screw drawers and paper notes moved secretly each campaign move.

Every four campaign moves we roll a 100 sided dice to work out random events, including interference from third countries.

This is all done in 54mm with game size varying from a few dozen figures to around a thousand.

John the OFM, for years I was member of MFCA, even serving on the board and running some of the early War Gaming Conventions. But I have to agree with you about the judging – they were place more weight on pretty than historical accuracy.
Also I like your idea of command stands. The only non-fictional armies that I have are based upon the 19th century. For the lace period I like the uniforms the way they are.