Enlightened Imaginations - Army Building

Having cleared my schedule and my painting table (updates coming soon of recently finished projects, which include Russian Civil War Tschankas, 19th century imaginations naval forces, and some shore fortifications), I am now returning to a project started three years ago, prior to finishing my PhD and starting life as a professor.

I have begun the process of assembling and painting the Armies of the Principality of Bombastia, and the Duchy of Poppenheim.  These are to be based (loosely) on the armies of Peter the Great, and Charles XII. I am using the Wargames Factory "War of the Spanish Succession" figures for the infantry, which is the first part of the project.

I have, from a purchase made under the original ownership of Wargames Factory, but delivered after the company changed hands, a dozen boxes of infantry, each capable of modeling 36 figures.  As I am planning on building 24 figure units, that will give me 8 full size units, and 2 half size units for each side.

The two warring powers represent (in my fictional Imagi-Nations history) separate states, based on older medieval fiefdoms, that would eventually be absorbed into the more modern state of Furstenberg.  Because of the historical ties, and due to a restriction imposed on the Furstenberg states by the church, during the 17th century wars of religion that wracked Balkania (see the War of St. Helga's Baptismal, in the general history of Furstenberg, the armies of any of the Furstenberg powers were not permitted to employ grenadiers in field battles.  Because of this, there are no units in either army that bear the classification of Grenadier.

However, Poppenheim could employed converged regiments of elite infantry (pulling companies from line battalions), and Bombastia would frequently converge the elite flank companies of the regular infantry battalions, as well as having formed standing regiments of elite infantry.  It is important to know that although these units may have appeared in the Furstenberg "Grand Tally of Arms" (the best surviving record of battalions and regiments under arms, during the 17ths and 18th century in the seven provinces of Furstenberg) as alternatively "Heavy Infantry" and "Guard Infantry" they were routinely referred to as Grenadiers by the officers - many of which had trained in the arms service of other nations..

Here are the first photos of the first battalion under construction, a Poppenheim unit.

That picture shows four stands, each 60mm x 40mm and with six figures. The command stand features three musketeers and a drummer, standard bearer and an officer.

 A different angle, showing the figures face on.

An image showing a ruler for reference, and a fine Balkanian tobacco pipe, used to assist in the painting process.

Assembling the 21 musketeers took about 40 minutes.  And I wasn't rushed (ref: Balkanian smoking pipe).  The three officers took a little longer, maybe 20-30 minutes for all three.  In all, less time than it would have taken to clean metal figures.

Guns of August, After Action Review

ODMS Convention Page

The convention was a great success, from the perspective of the staff. I can only hope the gamers felt the same way! (comment about your experience, please!)

On Thursday we got to the hotel (a day before the official start) to meet with the hotel staff and make sure everything was ship-shape. The tables we rent were late getting there, so some of the ODMS guys helped to set them up right, so that everyone's games would go off with a minimum of disturbance over the weekend.

After all the setup (and getting the hundreds of sodas and snacks loaded into our Hospitality Room), there was a round of boardgaming in the gaming area (the tables have to be broken in, you know). The Vendors continued arriving all evening, from all over the eastern half of the US, and set up their fantastic wares.

The Thursday night boardgaming was terrific. I played a really neat game of Reef Encounter (polyps anyone?), and then proceeded to totally Borg out in repeated games of Commands & Colors: Ancients (for those who don't know, Richard Borg is the designer of C&C:A).

The Reef Encounter game was with Anita, Heidi and Jeremy, and was a lot of fun. Jeremy was king Shrimple, getting his prolific shrimp all over the ocean floor, and it turned out that his Parrot Fish ate the most coral.

The C&C:A games were mostly against Wayne, but I also played against John Snelling as well. the battle was the same for each game - the Battle of Leuctra. Every time I played the Theben army, and every time I got the Sacred Band killed off by the Spartans. The first game was the most humiliating, as Wayne's Spartans totally eviscerated me in about four turns. I actually won a game or two, but still lost the Sacred Band each and every time. I guess they weren't that Sacred after all.

Friday came, and there were plenty and plenty of miniatures games, as well as a whole lot of board games. I had to leave the convention in the afternoon for a few short hours, but in the evening when I returned, I got to run my "Neil Thomas" rules Napoleonics game. It was an a-historical scenario - set in 1813 Saxony, with a British force facing off a French force twice its size, trying to buy time for the Prussian command in the area to arrive and help against the French. The British were played by Paul Knight, the Prussians were played by Scott Kidd, and the French were played by two players new to the rules, whom I did not know, but whom were real gentlemen to play with. The game went well, with Paul playing the role of a British commander very well (form a defended and anchored line of Infantry and hold it against repeated French assaults). The Prussians finally arrived, and the French decided that they had enough. My apologies to my players for not providing some really good player aids (the game needed quick-reference sheets).

Saturday came, and during the day all I did was to help out with the convention (spending many hours in the morning working Registration and meeting many of the great gamers who came to play at our show). In the afternoon, I got to spend a few short hours enjoying the hotel swimming pool (highly recommended) with my Daughter and some friends, and spending time talking to new gaming friends as well. Very nice.

Saturday afternoon, our Boardgaming room was a complete hit! It was filled to overflowing with boardgamers playing old and new wargames, and the Euro-games library that we had in the Hospitality Suite was really put to good use, with a bunch of gamers checking things out (most popular - SmallWorld and Steam). Tons of gaming in the Hospitality suite as well - Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, and so on.

On the Wargaming front, everything from the old SPI classic 1918 to the much newer Washington's War were being played. There was also the double blind Axis and Allies game (each player only knew where his own pieces were, not even his allies). Neato.

Napoleon came and visited the convention on Saturday afternoon, and stayed until about 5:00 or so, when he gave an address to the gamers and bid his Adieu. Afterward, the great Guns of August Raffle took place, and thirty great gaming prizes were raffled off.

Saturday evening brought a new round of gaming for all involved, and I got to run my game of The Sword and the Flame. It was a total fun-fest, with the Anglo-Indian army attempting to rescue a small command of Miners waiting for transport down a river, and suddenly attacked by hostile hill tribesmen. This time, the British and the Indian troops were able to rescue the miners. A few casualties, but it was a successful operation.

Late night Saturday there was more gaming. Card gaming, to be sure. Plagues and Pestilence, which I (miraculously) won. I almost never win those kinds of games, because there is almost always a "pile on chuck" phase, but this time I drank some excellent imported beer, and played it cool, while my fellow Medieval City Builders were busily destroying each other with mongols, vikings and bubonic bonbons.

Sunday came, with more gaming and final shopping in the great Guns of August Hobby Bazaar, and afterward the vendors started breaking up and heading home, and the final games were played, and we all sang hey nonny nonny and bid each fare-thee-well until the Williamsburg Muster.

It was a great time, and I hope you can make it to our next show!

Tags: wargaming, Tags: boardgaming

Balkanian Jitters

Excitement grows at "Gaming with Chuck" in anticipation of the Wargames Factory figures for War of the Spanish Succession being released. Of course, that is not what the staff of GwC are planning on using them for. Actually, a small war (The War of the Pumpkin-King Succession) between two Balkanian states is planned for these figures, although the uniforms of Poppenheim and Bombastia (curiously) mimic the uniforms of the Swedish and Russians during the Great Northern War.

A great set of photos from a wargame of that OTHER conflict (GNW) is located at this Ilkley Lads associated website. Very nice 28mm figures, some in game shots, and some in (apparently) posed shots. All very nice. I like the paint jobs on the figures, and the basing is interesting.

A much later matchup between the Swedes and the Russians was in 1808-1809. There is a terrific website that details much about that war (with a lot of good resources). The pictures of the lovely Poppenheim and Bombastia female troopers in this posting come from that website (where they were Erroneously identified as Swedish and Russian troopers).

It came to me this morning in a flash. If I am planning on doing 24 figure battalions for the Balkanian conflict, then I can certainly do 36 figure battalions. That would amount to something like 24 Musketeers (including officers, etc), on four stands. Plus a stand of 6 Pikemen (actually the officers, etc, could be on this stand), and a stand of 6 Grenadiers (that could be peeled off for converging). All on stands 60mm wide by 40mm deep. Ooh. Shiny.

Principality of Bombastia

In the tradition of a long line of articles about Balkania, Gaming with Chuck now presents information about the early 18th century army of the Principality of Bombastia.

Bombastia is a petty state, found within the Simian province of Furstenberg. It is populated mainly by Ethnic Urbs, who are almost all uniformly gourd farmers. While the economy of the region was never a glowing powerhouse, during the early and middle part of the 17th century, the Urbs of Bombastia fared pretty well. Then the pumpkins stopped coming quite as early, nor blooming quite as big. By the end of the century, almost half of all the Urb farms in the region were doing very bad. Because of this, manpower willing to serve in the army of Prince Peter of Bombastia grew and grew. Finally when the Crisis of the Pumpkin-King Throne of 1696 precipitated the War of the Pumpkin-King Succession against the Duchy of Poppenheim, the army of Prince Peter was quite sizable and ready for the conflict.

The progression of the war saw the Bombastik infantry progress from regiments featuring central companies of pikemen, surrounded by musketeers, to all-musketeer units. While Grenadier companies were converged together to form grenadier "regiments", there were also some standing regiments of Grenadiers in the army. In fact, this is in sharp contrast to the strictures of the Edict of Boomplatz. The Prince often explains away his violation of the Edict by claiming that the armies of the Principality are not proper armies of greater Furstenberg, but the droits of nobility, due to him as a peer of the margravate. Curiously, the Prince's foe, the Duke of Poppenheim, does not even bother to explain away why he has Grenadier companies within his armies - also strictly against the codes found within the Edict.

The cavalry of Bombastia consists of dragoons and armored cavalry, but also of units of Cossacks from two main Urbik tribal areas within Simia. The Dukon Cossacks and the Arzov Cossacks both have feudal agreements with Bombastia, and the Prince's family.

The artillery of Bombastia differs from Poppenheim chiefly in the employ of small 3-pounder regimental guns, attached to an infantry regiment, nicknamed "pot guns". The nickname comes from the fact that the original Pot Guns were crafted, during the heyday reign of Ivan Badinov during the 30 years war. During that time, the last of the Patchouli people were rounded up in Eastern Simia, and forced to give up all of their metal and metal objects. This was first intended to disarm the Patchouli people, but it had the unfortunate effect of rendering them Pot-less. The captured Patchouli Pots were subsequently melted down and poured as small cannon for the Badinov's army. These pot guns were passed down from regimental commander to commander, until today they are still part of the regiments (which have a history going back at least fifty years to the 30 years war, and some much farther back).

Tags: Great Northern War,
Wargaming,
Miniatures,
Russia

Grand Duchy of Poppenheim

In the grand tradition of Emperor vs. Elector, Gaming with Chuck presents the Grand Duchy of Poppenheim, a petty state of the Furstenberger province of Simia - located smack dab in the middle of Balkania.

The ruler of Poppenheim during the War of the Pumpkin-King Succession was Grand Duke Charles. He comes from a long line of gourd farmers in the Poppen line. His ambitions were to expand pumpkin patronage to not only the middle class, but also to the growing ranks of gourd-artists among his citizenry. During the Pumpkin-King crisis of 1696, he came into dispute (over the throne of the Pumpkin-King) with Prince Peter of Bombastia, which quickly resulted in armed conflict.

The three branches of the Poppenheim army were the Infantry, the Cavalry and the Artillery (not uncommon for European armies of the time, such as that of Sweden). In the field, such an army was often divided up into three "battles", corresponding to a central division, and two wing divisions. Within these, cavalry was not infrequently mixed with infantry, and it is a mistake to consider these divisions as the separate and flexible organizations found later in Napoleonic era armies.

The infantry of Poppenheim was organized into Regiments, which consisted of a number of companies of Musketeers, as well as a company of Grenadiers. The Grenadiers from a number of regiments would sometimes be converged together into a "converged regiment". Each of the Royal Duchy regiments were named for the town from which they were mustered. A number of nobles, supportive of the Duke, also raised independent regiments that were known by the name of their patron Nobleman.

The cavalry are also organized into Regiments, with a number of different types. Armored cavalry as well as dragoons are popular (the dragoons still fighting dismounted as often as mounted). Light, irregular cavalry were sometimes hired from the Carfathian mountains to the west, being usually tribal Bosniaks.

The artillery of the Poppenheim army is a strange creation. The individual guns are owned by skilled "artisan" artillery crewmen, and serve the Duke and his army at their own will (and for money). Because of this, artillery is somewhat unreliable, especially strategically. While a gun and crew may show up on a battle, in support of the army, there is no guarantee that it will follow the army on the march to the next engagement.

Tags: miniatures, Great Northern War, Sweden, wargaming

Enlightened Imaginations - Early 18th Century Balkania

A few friends of mine and I share in some Imagi-Nation wargaming activities concerning an imaginary region of the world known as Balkania. In the words of Eric the Wise (one of the original crafters of the concept of Balkania),

Welcome to Balkania! It is a fictitious land of petty princes and minor monarchs, located East of Venice, South of Vienna, West of Istanbul, and North of the Nile.

A good bit of the emphasis has been on late 19th century (roughly from about 1850-1915) period. Look for games, coming up at the Guns of August. Some of my own writings on the topic can be seen here. Notably, I have developed the imagi-nation of the Margravate of Furstenberg, and their centuries old foe, the Earldom of Rumpwhistle (later, after the revolution, the Confederated Cantons of Rumpwhistle). This has been accompanied with histories and military unit information, as well as some wargaming plans. The island of San Balkano was devised to serve as the backdrop for fictional Spanish-American War gaming. More coming about these fictional nations. Other states, created by my co-conspirators, include Trans-Turkylvania, the Kingdom of the Three Sicilies, The Empire of Vulgaria, Kingdome of Payepal, and others.


However, inspired by a desire to do some 18th century wargaming (Age of Enlightenment), as well as all of the inspiring 18th century Imagi-Nation work done on the internet (the activity is not limited to, but is broadly connected to the website Emperor vs. Elector), the editorial staff of Gaming with Chuck has decided to venture into the early 18th Century of Balkania.

Taking the nation of Furstenberg as my starting point, I wanted to come up with a couple of minor states that could serve for Marlborough-era wargaming, using fairly generic armies. This then morphed into developing some Great Northern War armies, but using them to represent my fictional principalities. This is leading to the conflict known alternately as the "Great Northern Furstenberg War", or the "War of the Pumpkin-King Succession".The gently rolling farmland and pasture country of the Simian plains of northern Furstenberg (later to become the agricultural province of Simia) was home to two petty principalities. Those were the Grand Duchy of Poppenheim, and the Principality of Bombastia. These self-styled petty kingdoms were really based around the medieval castles of some local barons, and their dependent villages and market-towns. However, one thing led to another, and in 1696, when the annual Pumpkin Faire was held at the Church of St. Gourdfellow, the judges of the annual Pumpkin-King contest were all found poisoned. The clergyman present, Father Squashnot of the Holy See of Balkania (later the kingdom of Payepal) declared the office of Pumpkin-King to be unclaimed, and the throne vacant. The two competing nobles, Duke Charles of Poppenheim and Prince Peter of Bombastia each claimed the throne, and the gauntlets were thrown. It could only end in war.

The blue uniforms of Poppenheim bear a passing resemblance to the uniforms of the Swedish Army in the Great Northern War.It has been mentioned that the green uniforms of Bombastia can sometimes be compared favorably to the uniforms of the Russian Army from the same conflict. It is not the place of the editorial staff of "Gaming with Chuck" to decide.Anyway, watch for further posting on this project, and also to watch painting progress. The staff will probably wait for the release of the new WSS (War of the Spanish Succession) figures from Wargames Factory before starting this project, but who knows?