Tuesday 15 December 2020

Imagineering as diversion and escape...

 I really enjoy imagineering. This blog was born out of it and the fun that brought through Emperor v Elector. I have enjoyed thinking of Tradgardland backwards and forwards in time from the 1750s where it began, It grew out of a love of Copenhagen and Denmark with other Scandinavian touches.

Currently much of my gaming takes place in a Europe where Germany never unified nor Italy too. No 1870, no 1914 or 1939 I guess. I haven’t thought through all the potentialities and anyone could drive a truck through inconsistency after inconsistency. However I guess the that’s not the point. I’m not some reasoned history forum but a place to escape and relax. Volare Cantare is based upon thirties travel posters with a look of time and place sans the nasty bits.

The Empire ( neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire) has survived in my world into the twentieth century with a patchwork of states with the governance and bureaucracy of the 18th Century. Jazz Age interwar look ( preceded by Arts and Crafts Movement for the 1900 armies) with none of the rising menace. 

Albion has her queen, colonies and more .  Maple Leaf Country stands guard against the Star Spangled state who has her own worries with Spain and Russia having territories with land borders to her. Fun not worked out to the nth degree but a convenient mixing pot of my interests. Tell us about your imagineering...

23 comments:

  1. Alan, and this is why I do enjoy your blog. My own take on all of this has been similar, a petty German state in the 17XX's, my love of Canadian and American history, a sense of the absurd, all stirred up with a love of toy soldiers. Thanks for a good post to start my morning!

    Eric

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  2. I like the depths people go into in engineering their Imaginations

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  3. Hi Alan- I'm really glad you've developed Projects in the realms of Imaginations- such a lot of fun, inspiration and delight. Continue enjoying what yo do. Cheers. KEV.

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    1. Cheers Kev. Just been enjoying the Test from Australia on the wireless.

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  4. I do like a bit of Imagineering! Most times the imaginary worlds never get further than an outline or map, but occasionally they blossom into something. I do like your late 19th early 20th century projects.

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    1. It is fun to jot down ideas and sometimes they take off.

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  5. Tradgardmastare,

    I’ve been imagineering for years, and find it one of the stimulating aspects of wargaming.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  6. I'm still dipping my toes in the imagineering pool. I've taken the real world Gammertingen and created a Barony of it in the HRE, set just after the 30 Years War. I added fantasy elements to the whole things, tucking in elven enclaves into the corners of the 1400's map of the Empire. I decided that much of the consolidation that historically happened between 1400 and 1650 has not happened, leaving a wonderfully baroque quilt of principalities of varying sizes and importance, perfect for adventuring.

    I've recently started a second idea using South American, focusing on Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and parts of Brazil. I want to do a three-tiered history, running a boardgame as Europeans establish colonies, then a miniatures campaign as the established colonies fight amongst each other, teetering towards independence. This project will take me a couple years as it is on a back burner, but as I finish other projects or have some spare time, I work at it.

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    1. Really interesting ideas which are filled with gaming potential.

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  7. One of my set of ImagiNations is borrowed from the Bronte family and extended forwards: https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/gaming-the-bronte-family-imaginations-of-glasstown-angria-gondal-and-gaaldine/

    The other ImagiNations are a bit like Tradgardland being European but based on my FMS or Forgotten Minor States of MittelMittel Europe in the 19th Century, mostly so small you can't find most of them on an old or new map -
    https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/19/scrap-napoleonics-ready-to-scrap-forgotten-minor-states/
    And 20th Century when FMS of Verdigris split into Verda and Griza (with added Esperanto and tanks)
    https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2020/06/28/verda-versus-griza-pound-store-plastic-soldiers-20mm-interbellum-fms-skirmish-now-with-added-esperanto/

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    1. I like the escape via ImagiNations from ethical worries (no Nazis necessary) and also from the historical button and rivet counters.

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    2. So true on both fronts in second post and I do like your FMS. I hope to see them in action in 2021.

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  8. I understand completely the desire to fashion a world that took another path. One of these days I'll resurrect the Grand Duchy of Hetzenberg.

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    1. I will look forward to seeing the Grand Duchy’s return...

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  9. I have had an interest in the little imaginary countries from literature (Ruritania, Grand Fenwick, etc.) as far back as I can remember. And still enjoy following blogs like yours, especially with all your various excursions into different lands and times.

    But I guess my main interest has always been fantasy, so I have concentrated on that (and sci-fi/space opera), which is another form of imagineering.

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    1. I recall your imaginations with great affection and your scenery for them too..You are correct in what you say in the second paragraph.

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  10. I’ve never managed to get Imagi-nations on the table. At school we talked about a Grant inspired campaign. We each came up with countries based on the main SYW participants and wrote diplomatic (and sometimes undiplomatic) exchanges in English lessons creating alliances and trying to cone up with a casual belli. Saxe-Blitzengratz, Hellenburg-Dürsenberg, St Justinian being 3 of the 5 states (can’t remember the other two. Scurrilous rumours were circulated about the drug-addicted Tsar of all the Russias which may have got back to said ruler causing faux-outrage. Sadly we never got further.

    At the moment I have is a cast-list of characters who either appeared in one ECW mini-campaign and/or will appear in another. The names, mostly riff off the real Sydenham Poyntz, include Sydenham Hill, Lord Beddington Lane (husband of Lady Therapia Lane, Colonel Crofton Park, Thornton Heath, Earl S’Field, Cannon Street, Thomas Ditton and Theobald Grove. Most bear an uncanny resemblance to places on the Transport fir London map. Other participants will include Sir Reville Hawood, Lord Darcy Bussell and the mercenary Bruno di Tonnioli for the Cavaliers; Leonard Goodman (sturdy Essex yeoman), Sir Bruce Forsyth (Covenanter), and Leveller Jeremiah Corbynne for the Roundheads. No doubt Prince Boris of the Right, I mean Rhine, will make an appearance spouting random Latin phrases.

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    1. At school we had clubs and societies on a Friday afternoon. I played that mediaeval skirmish game which was around 1978 whose name escapes me. I briefly ran “ Bunnies and Burrows” a roleplaying game. Diplomacy was popular too. I like the Grant campaign ideas as well as your cast list awaiting a play...

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  11. I like the idea of wargames set in imaginary lands and times. It is a good counterpoise to serious history so I indulge.

    Alas I am too lazy and unimaginative to work out the details and write a narrative to drive campaigns in a game. Instead I invent vague back stories to explain a scenario or mini campaign, name characters and so on, all too often coming up with details AFTER! the game as I write it up.

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    1. A different approach which works really well as your blogs testify.

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