Imaginary Countries

Most of us who game with miniatures have seen it. Your Napoleonic British Infantry are beset on all sides by the Nasty Evil French (TM) and are forced to recoil. An onlooker studies this, and offers one of two gems: "The British did not lose a tactical engagement in the Napoleonic Wars", or "The 214th Foot never would have recoiled in that situation". Having pontificated to their own satisfaction, they weigh anchor and ponderously move off to view another game.

Of course the 214th Foot never would have recoiled...or would they? It's not written in any of the histories, but a lot of the histories available to the casual historian/gamer don't cover much earlier than 1792. How does he know what happened to the 214th Foot in, say, 1743? Or 1708? The answer is that he probably doesn't. Besides, how does he know that's the 214th Foot? Perhaps it is the Duchess of Periwinkle's Own.

The troops we put out there represent historical units. To the best of our ability we research their uniforms and paint them in what we think was available on the day. We are aided by uniform guides, deserter reports, regulations, and so on. And we discover that some of these might not reflect what was worn on campaign, and so some of us throw in the touches to show that these are troops on campaign, not back home on the parade square. Some of the touches I've seen have included patches on the knees and elbows, the occasional different color breeches, fading some of the coats, and making others a little more dramatic, and the occasional hat that isn't quite regulation. Some gamers (I, myself subscribe to this) have a rule of thumb: the greener the unit, the more likely its uniform will be regulation. The ones to watch out for are the ones who look ragamuffin. Those are veterans who have been up to the pointy end of the stick a few times.

Now the other cure for the pontificating spectator is to create an imaginary country. Then you can icily inform him that he is watching the Duke of Creosote's Own, not the 214th Foot, and the chances of war have caught up with them.

Wargaming is replete with a lot of imaginary countries. There are two groups on Yahoo that spend time with the concept: Old School Wargames, and Society of Daisy. Both follow a similar approach. You pick a period, you raise some historical units but give them fictional names, and you go forward from there.

I've created a couple of different imaginary countries, the Electorate of Hesse-Bindlestiff, set in the 18th Century, and a Napoleonic country, Gottingen-Hoff. The process was different, but the essentials were the same.

Gottingen-Hoff came about from a night creating a map. I don't remember too much about that night, but tequila was involved. That might explain the glaciers next to the coral reefs. But the country was sort of a France, complete with Revolutionary Council (but much more benign than the historical France). I chose France not because of a liking for Napoleon, but because the doctrine the army used happened to fit the way I game, very aggressive and very fluid.

Side-bar: a number of years ago my friend Jeff and I were visiting a local hobby store. They had a game of Napoleon's Battles going on, and we were invited to take part. This was the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in 1809 (a historical battle). Jeff was given some French, and I was given a corps of Austrians. This particular group of gamers were 'average' gamers: i.e. there was the enemy, you march right up and smite him. Jeff didn't do that. Amidst many screams he paused, brought up a second division, and outflanked the Austrians at the same time that he assaulted them frontally. They'd never seen this before, and were amazed how even in Napoleon's Battles he swept the ridge with ease.

In my case, I came up through some woods, put scouts out, saw all the French in the world ready to pounce on me, and instead of pitching in and getting my troops gloriously slaughtered, turned around. The French player pursued, and I smacked him back with a counterattack from Hussars and Grenzers. That gave me a headstart, and I got clean away.

Fast forward a couple of months. The Northwest HMGS put on Enfilade, and the guys who played Napleon's Battles that day were doing Wagram. I was called and offered a corps of Austrians as I am a "nice cautious Austrian commander". For some reason this sends my gaming buddies into paroxysms of laughter. I declined.

Back to imaginary countries. We're creating Saxe-Schweinrot, a minor German principality mired in the early 18th Century (the colors include a red pig rampant on a field of greens (apple in mouth optional)). The Prince has been to Versailles, or as he puts it "I've been over to the future, and it works!" He has a palace, a princess, perhaps a mistress (almost required), a palace guard that spends all of its time coming to attention and saluting, but has no combat value, and an army that he rents out at reasonable rates.

The army is the key thing for imaginary countries. Unless you're going to draw a map (use Campaign Cartographer if you do), you don't need the rest. Settle on a color scheme. 18th Century choices include Prussian Blue, Austrian White, Russian Green, British Red, or some variation of those. The French, for example, wore an off-white, while the Dutch, in the early 18th Century, went with undyed wool. And you'll need flags (why you have a drawing program on your computer). Elaborate hand-painted flags were the norm in this period. Remember, as long as you can paint the army consistently you don't have to be too crazy. I mentioned the above countries as you can paint the units up in historical uniforms, swap out the color stand for your made-up flags, and there you are.

So Saxe-Schweinrot is going to be, oh...French/Austrian in color (colored dyes are so expensive), which means white uniforms. But you like the idea of units dressed other than in white. You have pink, green, a medium blue, and so on. Great! Those are foreign regiments in the service of your country, though in your imaginary world those are units raised in minor countries in your service.

Now you spend a few minutes coming up with names for the regiments, and, more importantly, your generals. Here is where you mine books and other places. Tradition almost demands that you keep to a theme, and that if you use foreign names, you make sure there are some jokes involved. You don't have to explain the jokes, but they're part of the fun. An example: I lifted Major General Stanley from The Pirates of Penzance from Gilbert and Sullivan, and after he had considerable success (and captured the town of Umbrage in one game) he became Lord Stanley of Umbrage (for having successfully taken umbrage). See what I mean about puns and jokes? Other names I've seen on the battlefield: Marquis of Frothingrage, General Findandrun, Sir Hugh Hellforleather the famous cavalry commander, and so on.

Now you add some history to your army. You're in an imaginary part of Europe, so that means you can ignore the parts of European history that you don't like. This is what's so good about the 18th and 19th Centuries! There were a lot of tiny little states populating Germany, and yours can be one of them. And as you fight battles with your new army you will have units that distinguish themselves (and gain battle honors), and others that are best left in garrison to face down the populace). One acquaintance went so far as to make 6"x6" flags to decorate the walls in his gaming room, and as units gained experience and honors, attached little streamers with the name of the battle on the streamer.

All right, you've built your army, you have a history, maybe you even have a map. Now we get to campaign with them. And you can either find a willing and nearby opponent (I was lucky that way), or you can build what I ended up doing after I moved to the Midwest, building a second and competing army, complete with fake history, flags, and so on. Either way works, and the campaign system you'll use is for another time.