Imaginations

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

I think the genre tends to gravitate towards eras/regions where there is a sufficient state of flux for "anything to happen"; where states can still be quite small but also "interesting" in terms of foreign policy, allies, imperial partners/overlords etc; and political/cultural/racial attitudes are still sufficiently in a state of flux to allow players as free a rein as possible.

Obviously the further back you go in history, then the easier this becomes. Thus, Tony Bath's original book on setting up a wargames campaign focussed on the Ancient/Mediaeval world (Hyboria); 18th Century Germany allows you all sorts of Bishoprics and smaller states where you can, literally, be "master of all you survey", whilst still being free to choose a foreign war to get stuck into, and take advantage of military advances to raise all sorts of new and (for the times) outlandish troop types. Modern(ish) Africa/Arabia allows you to be a bit of a freewheeling "upstart" (Ghaddafi, Mugabe, whoever), whilst the late 19th Century in Eastern Europe (Ruritania etc), or the N W Frontier allows you to either tweak the nose of the nearest Imperial power, or gain the financial/technological benefits of being its friend.

One of the things in favour of the 18th Century is designing your own uniforms, which can be based on those of a real-life major (or minor) national, or entirely your own invention.

[Count Belisarius]

To answer sensibly.... As said i think the core started with the Grant et al stuff and for a lot of us the first Ayton was the starter. I've recreated my Imagination chaps in Dark Age, early medieval, 18th and 19th century and SciFi... And more to come..

Like the sound of EB and Tim with the medieval stuff.. Never really thought of 20th century stuff up to now but the Swans will be passing through Ayton in 1938...

A

[Buff Orpington]

I think we've pretty much hit on the core reasons. Looking at the real H&M period, it was full of small states of which few but its immediate neighbours had ever heard of. Colonial adventuring offered more of the same and in the 70's it was sometimes hard to keep track of what some African nations were calling themselves. All of these mean that it is no great stretch to add in a few more. The real enthusiasts like Henry will rejig entire continents and fill out a well defined back story.

WWII doesn't offer that scope, there were so many nations actually involved that it would be hard to come up with some imaginary ones and they would probably turn out to be proxies for the real ones.

[Essex Boy]

Edit......evidently Tim and I were writing our comments at the same time.

No you wren't....
Has anybody seen you at the same game eh? or even under the same cavalry charge....
How can you be seen together is one of you is always missing ( I.e lost )

NO?...
I fort so....
I rest my case.....
You are both the same person, but one of you is in drag....

I just haven't worked out which one it is yet though

Oh dear. Was it the red or the white this time bro?

[Jeremy]

Edit......evidently Tim and I were writing our comments at the same time.

No you wren't....
Has anybody seen you at the same game eh? or even under the same cavalry charge....
How can you be seen together is one of you is always missing ( I.e lost )

NO?...
I fort so....
I rest my case.....
You are both the same person, but one of you is in drag....

I just haven't worked out which one it is yet though

Oh dear. Was it the red or the white this time bro?

Yes

[Zenbadger]

Ruritania has been a strong thread in Western culture for a long time. The idea of a small, overlooked country somewhere in central or eastern Europe has been a staple from The Prisoner of Zenda right through to The Mouse That Roared. As a packaged concept it was practically made for gaming.

[Essex Boy]

Oh yes, I forgot, I have a 42mm imaginary European regiment from around 1900.

Iain

[grizzlymc]

Damn you Jeremy, I was going to give that answer.

Also, I think that the unifications of Italy and Germany sort of put the kaibosh on euro imaginations.

And then there are those bishops pricks.

[Etranger]

If you read Norman Davies' Vanished Kingdoms (excellent read BTW https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/ ... ope-davies), the last remnants of these 'Ruritanian' states survived into the 20th century. Of course we've still got San Marco, Lichtenstein & Monaco as examples of modern European micro-nations even now.

[grizzlymc]

Yes, but it's hard to imagine Liechtenstein Panzers pouring through Andorra. Better to do Peru v Ecuador, Paraguay vs Bolivia or the Soccer War.

I have always had a hankering to do Argie, Bolivia and Peru Vs Chile in the '70s.