Saturday 9 June 2007

Birth of a Nation.... not quite

The brain works in mysterious ways, the wargamers one even more so.....

So to creat a fictional country sounds simple, i got these figures and they are this.... these figures are these.... i want this and i want that...... but then i started thinking....

Why are the armies similar but not the same?
Why do some countries ally with others?
Does topography build the army? or a countries wealth? or its politics?
and is this relavent to the period?

So I sat down and looked how countries of this time are made up. What troop types were available from the countres area's, what supplies are needed to keep an army in the field. Then i started to make up a chart with dice rolls to determine what a country could provide in men and material. Then i provided education, which led to stats for command figures.... each extra factor leading to another idea for inclusion.... it all sort of logically flowed together... then a points system unrolled for a rule set i have yet to adapt....

so i sat down with a pen and paper and rolled up a Duchy, a Grand Duchy no less... with 6 States of various sizes... lots of towns and a couple of Fortresses, followed by an education system unsurpassed in the known world, and over half covered in mountains, which when i began recruiting troops led to an army of well led Pandours, Hussars and Artillery, with mainly Mercenary Infantry units....... all seems feasable, just didnt think i would be Count Dracula

Better get those dice rolling again....

5 comments:

Fitz-Badger said...

Interesting. Will you post the "rules" you used for setting this up?

My League started with a couple of concepts - 1. A desrie for variety, and 2. Names for member states

Bluebear Jeff said...

Shaun,

Welcome to the world of 18th century imagi-Nations. As you make more decisions, you might want to join the 'Emperor vs Elector' group blog:

http://emperor-elector.blogspot.com/

When you're ready, email me at . . . bluebear@uniserve.com . . . and I'll see that you get an invitation. Please send me this blog address when you do so (along with the names of your nations -- prime one first.

One suggestion which you are most certainly at liberty to ignore is to consider painting your countries in historical colors. The Grand Duchy sounds at least quasi-Austrian to me, so you might look at some of their uniforms. The German ones are pretty tame, but the Hungarian troops as well as pandours and hussars are very colorful (lots of choices).

And many other "Germanic" countries used Prussian-style uniforms, so you certainly are not locked into the Prussian colors . . . but could use them if you want.

Of course there is nothing wrong with coming up with your very own color schemes. Remember, these are YOUR ARMIES . . . you are the only one you have to please.

Once again, welcome . . . and have fun.


-- Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein

http://saxe-bearstein.blogspot.com/

P

Douglas said...

That photo. It just must have a story.

MurdocK said...

Sounds like a plan, all that is needed now is the fortitude to see that plan through to completion, the Rheinish lands have many such 'grand' places...then again the idea of Count Dracula would place your imaginary realm in the Transylvanian mountains near the Ottoman empire...

Snickering Corpses said...

If you haven't read any of Battlegames magazine (www.battlegames.co.uk), you might like to get some issues of that as well, particularly Issue 3 and 4. Henry Hyde relates in an ongoing series of articles from Issue 1 to present his work developing his own countries, in a similar detail level to your own.