Pretty little ships for gaming

Some days ago, I had the idea of searching for little wooden ships, of that kind that usually can be found at coastal towns' touristic souvenirs shops, for these perhaps might be useful for wargaming purposes. Well, this afternoon my wife and I have gone to the town of Sitges for a walk, and I've taken some advantage to search and pick up a few samples. These can be inspected at: what-if-catalonia.blogspot.com/2010/06/likely-useful-little-ships.html.

Not so easy as expected

A couple of new chronicles come to add some voltage to the explosive situation in the Principality of Catalonia/Galatea, whose occupation by the Two Crowns' forces appears not to be a pleasant walk in countryside, as some believed it would be...

Besides, one individual Character gets a little sweeter perspective on his immediate future, and a new one makes apparition in scene: an unexpected one, as promised -in fact, so unexpected that even I was completely unaware of his upcoming performance!!! (that's what happens when you're combining a conventional strategic level campaign with a cryptic artifact such as Mythic GME System!!)

Read, if interested: Breaking News and To Hell with orders

Hurtshog Artur von Frankzonia

Der Hurtshog Artur von Frankzonia with his batterie d'artillerie.

If you please, go to....

http://campaignsingermania.blogspot.com/

Respectfully,

Bill

Hurtshog Artur von Frankzonia En Bataille

See Chapter 1 of 2 with briefly captioned photographs here, if you please:
http://campaignsingermania.blogspot.com/
-----
Proxy Battle for Arthur, the second one, if I am not mistaken.
Respectfully,
Bill

The lonely Principality, invaded

11-18 July 1713

By 11-18^th July 1713, confusing and contradictory news started arriving from the Principality of Catalonia/Galatea, where the Two Crowns' armies had begun moving to occupy that territory, in application of the Peace of Utrecht terms. At first, nothing seemed to point any eventual disturbation to the occupying forces: what-if-catalonia.blogspot.com/2010/06/invasion-begins.html.

Midsommer

Duke Karl Frederick of Tradgardland and his Ducal Household bids a Good Midsommer to one and all. May you all enjoy the celebrations,bonfires and dancing wherever you are...

1741..War in Pangaea

It is the summer seaon of 1741  and war has broken out  in the continent of Pangaea..Nouvelle Champagene's army,  under the able  Marshal Merlot invaded the Electorate of Katerheim and the Commonwealth of  The United Provinces. A bloody battle was fought outside the city of Ornaje , both armies were mauled and  fell back.Merlot has now united his force with a fresh force and is, this Sunday confronting  His Melcastrian Majestie's Army of South Pangaea outside the  the badly despoiled city of Oberkatzer in North Katerheim..

http://passageoflines.50.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=1206
&
http://passageoflines.50.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=1207

Meanwhile  the  Ikeonia army , in the province of Straslund has decided upon a preemptive attack upon the Reichs Army   and has met them outside the town of Feuerbach in South Pappenheim. .
Read Pz.Ferdinad of Ikeonia's declaration of war here:
http://passageoflines.50.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=1223

When History merged Fiction

On the first weeks of July 1713, sighting of vessels flying a previously unknown set of ensigns was repeatedly reported to naval authorities in Western Mediterranean. This caused some logical expectation at first, along with an undeniably worrying degree, for the rumours about a new Corsairs of Berbery leadership soon arose. The fact is that the flags shown by such vessels were long known by sailors of all around Mediterranean shores, but their arrangement on ships was plainly unusual -and this was the feature mostly contributing to the rumours propagation.

The first known sighting was reported by a British brig in the waters between Menorca and Majorca; it was a small and fast armed Xebec, whose crew responded to the British vessel requests by raising a courtesy Union Jack on their foremast as a salutation, but ably avoided all the brig's approaching attempts and quickly disappeared eastwards into deep waters. That same ship was a few days later reported by a Genoese merchantman to be sojourning in the Sardinian harbour of Alghero -apparently undisturbed by the local authorities. A third sighting was reported by a Provençal tuna fishing ship, whose captain stated the xebec was undoubtedly heading towards Monte Cristo waters.

However, identity uncertainties didn't last too much, for soon it was delivered an official message to all Southern European chancelleries from the Catalan Parliament -except for the Bourbon Spanish ones, to be honest- containing a formal notification of the new naval war flags adopted by this Principality, along with their detailed description. A few days later, ships from Majorca island were also reported to have switched to the new set of flags, as well as those from Sardinia -this seemed to reflect some kind of consent by the Holy Emperor Charles VI, for both islands were still garrisoned by Imperial troops, so that diplomatic unrest among most Mediterranean chancelleries began fading soon.

Related entries in the Defiant Principality blog: 1713 New Ordnance on Naval Flags and A tense War Council.

An important diplomatic Note from Monte-Cristo

It is our understanding that the presence in the Herrschaden contingent recently attached to Prussian forces, of a regiment of Monte-Cristan Freiwillige created some surprise. The Presipality as a State is perfectly neutral and unaligned, but it is not uncommon for adventurous Monte-Cristan boys (and girls, sometimes) to individually enlist for a few years in foreign service: thus a purely Monte-Cristan unit in foreign service may be perceived as a shocking 'novelty', perhaps marking a change of Presipapal policy. Such is not the case: the creation of this regiment is no more than a purely formal modification of the status of the Monte-Cristan mercenaries already in Herrschadener service.

Indeed, the bulk of this infantry unit is made of Monte-Cristans already in the service of the Direktorat -veterans from the Jowetski legion, volunteers transfered from the Liebrgt. or the redirekted Oebel Dragoner- completed with unemployed MC soldiers from the various and sundry forces disbanded in the general area after the end of the war in Lifonlia. When creating the Monte-Cristan IR the Direktorat did not raise a new unit, merely converged in a body of their own Monte-Cristan soldiers so far scattered among various outfits: a purely administrative step, without any meaning or importance outside the Herrschaden military structure.

As for the cavalry element raised by Direktorix Katarin Lahmia during her sojourn in the Presipality, it is made of individuals serving her not as soldiers of MC nationality but as private persons who enthusiastically volunteered to become her bucellarii. Monte-Cristans greatly admire stong-minded women who broke the chains of sexist prejudices and traditions, and are extremely fond of 'Lady Katarin' as she is affectionately called here. The Presipality is in now way involved or implied in such private affairs.

Nonetheless, to prevent any malevolent comment or ill-meaning interpretation, the Presipapal Palace emphatically stresses that the so-called 'Monte-Cristan' units in Herrschadener service, and every one of their members, are under a carefully parsed contract of SWISS type, and can in no way be deemed breaches in, or infringements of, the traditional Monte-Cristan policy of perfect neutrality.

The Presipapal Palace warmly compliments and thanks the famous military fashion designer and long-lasting friend of Monte-Cristo, David Linienblatt of Tippelbruder, for the great flags, beautiful, inspirational and meaningful in every minute detail, he kindly drew for this new units.
According to Monte-Cristan practice, each unit has a single flag with 'State's' and 'regimental' sides, rather than a set of two flags, one 'State's' and one 'regimental'.

The Raid! : A Proxy Skirmish for The Hetzenberg Chronicles

The Hetzenberg Flotilla slumbers unaware of the danger!

Please see the proxy skirmish over at Lead Gardens!

Proxy Battle AAR

A new Proxy Battle AAR is available at Murdock'S MarauderS.

Herrschaden troops support Prussia!

The Monte Christo battalion in Direktorate service

Herrschaden troops in battle for the first time! A short report may be found on my blog. Their first taste of battle was not a wholly fortunate experience, as their Light Horse were roughly handled by my Rizhskiy Horse Grandiers and the commander of their mercenary battalion fell to the well aimed shots of the Liccaner Grenzers. Of course, the Direktorate will tell a different tale....

Hostilities resume in Unkerlant

Spring is here, so the troops march again in our Unkerlant campaign. More at:
http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/search/label/Unkerlant
-J

Der Hurtshog Artur von Frankzonia and Gallian Allies March!

Der Hurtshog Artur von Frankzonia and Gallian allies march to put down rebel Frankzonian forces!

See: http://campaignsingermania.blogspot.com/
for the story and more photos.

BTW! It's good to be on the march again. Thank you Arthur for the opportunity to do a proxy battle for you.

Respectfully,
Bill

Call for plots

Logistics of my projected 1713-1714 Catalonia campaign are experiencing some technical difficulties -although I expect we'll have them solved in a few days. The matter is that, after some play-testing, it was realized that a good logistic support would be needed to run the campaign, so that a gaming friend offered himself to adapt the whole to a CyberBoard gamebox, and this is to become quite hard to do -more than expected.

This is why I've been, in the meanwhile, developing in my blog some chained short tales, which are intended to bring some individual characters to life. However, there is no aim to derive my campaign into a merely narrative story (on the other hand, I'd be noticeably uncapable for such a huge enterprise, due to my English language knowledge shortages!) Inversely, I'm planning to simultaneosly develop that campaign in several fronts, so that it potentially becomes an inspiration source not only for miniature wargaming scenarios, but also for roleplaying and/or pulp gaming. The campaign rules are to conduct bigger armies moves, while the already created individual characters stories will be growing and mixing, either by narrative speculation or with the aid of Mythic GME tables -kindly provided by a Valencian reader, roleplay gamer. An ambitious plan, no doubt. In spite of its magnitude, I believe this all may be appropriately guided if done without any hurry, delecting oneself at every step by itself.
So that it is still possible that my Galatea Principality birth's date might still delay a little bit --and even more delayed might be its chronological encompassment to the rest of EvE Imagi-nations!

In the end, I'd like to ask for a couple of things to all those of you that might be interested in plunging a bit into your own Imagi-nation's recent History through mine. If any of you would somehow involve your own country's History in my Defiant Principality's birth struggle, please let me know your plot suggestions, whatever their nature:

1 - For example, you might will to introduce one of your imagi-nationals into my ever-developing storyboard, with some specific mission you would imagine.
2 - Another way of inter-connecting Histories might be getting the country as a whole openly involved in the campaign, in this or that sense -however, I admit this one to be a bit too compromising for you, depending on tje involvement degree!
3 - Finally, I'd love to contact players running Spain, France, Britain and Austria proxy Imagi-nations, in order to *consult* to them eventually arising issues that might concern their respective Imagi-nations --or simply to discuss and agree eventual interactions produced during the campaign.

Last but not least, I've started drawing some cartography of my Imagi-nation, as you can see by the image attached, specifying the imaginary names I'm to be using. Following Jean Louis suggestions, I'm in the job of assigning mythological names to each of the Crown of Aragon states: ie Galatea for Catalonia, Pyrene for Aragon, Hesperia for Valencia and Gymnesian for the Balearic Islands. Other names already chosen too are Scylla for Sicily, Arborea for Sardinia, Gallia for France, Brittany or maybe Albion for the UK, and Eiberia for Spain (Castile). Otherwise, cities and towns will be probably assigned their actual Roman, Greek or Pre-Roman names, or closely similar ones.

Age of Unreason...

Strips 8-10 are now on the Archduke Piccolo blog spot (http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com).
Here's #8

As ever, click on the image to enlarge...

Is to be a girl? ...a boy?

After having tested our Catal... [ehem] ...Galatan campaign rules, and while waiting for a gaming mate to have an appropriate CyberBoard gamebox finished to run the campaign, I couldn't avoid to keep dealing with my child future appearance and attitude, as you can see through this TMP board: theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=200139.

In the meanwhile, one daring Miquelets partida has managed to capture a quite special French officer: what-if-catalonia.blogspot.com/2010/06/prisoner.html.

Cheers,
Lluís