Ne Plus Ultra - 18th century Europe campaign idea

No one would ever ally with me! hahah

But those are good points actually. I'll take my division into the woods.....

LOL Martin you explanation leaves with one choice and one choice only!! YES!!!

Martin you explanation leaves with one choice and one choice only!! YES!!!

Which one?

Fenwick does not sound terribly Germanic or French, or Dutch. How about Vjenwijk (Dutch), La Fonique (French) Vernwik (German)? Or you could stick with Fenwick and claim to be some kind of European coastal state affiliated to the Island Kingdom of Albion (my fictional campaign version of Britain) which would give you red as your base infantry coat colour.

Hmmm could I get dark blue coats and red pants?? hahah

Mai oui, Monsieur!





Officer:



Union vs Confederacy? No problem!

Which one? Fenwick does not sound terribly Germanic or French, or Dutch. How about Vjenwijk (Dutch), La Fonique (French) Vernwik (German)? Or you could stick with Fenwick and claim to be some kind of European coastal state affiliated to the Island Kingdom of Albion (my fictional campaign version of Britain) which would give you red as your base infantry coat colour. wrote:

All of them or how ever you figure it out!

The spirits (or sprites!?) of Reisswitz, H.G. Wells, Lawford/Young and the Grants all meet in this wonderful idea.

Are we using e-Spencer-Smith sprites?

Sounds fantastic.


Blessings

Phill

Have you thought about what kind of small state you want?

Think of western Europe around the Rhine mainly, so the options are north German (Protestant - Brandenburg, Holstein, Pomerania, Hesse, Mecklenburg, Saxony, etc), Low Countries (Frisia, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg), South German (some Catholic -Bavaria, Wurttemburg, Austria, Baden) and French. I'd be okay with some British inspired states like Hanover or even some southern states inspired by Spain, Italy, Papacy etc. There's scope too to have a Spanish Netherlands kind of set up so Catholic yellow or grey coated troops in the NW.

I've decided that the map whether fiction or real will compress the overall geography of western Europe into a small area but each state would retain its relative position more-or-less, to the others in our real world. Some scope for changes but mostly keep to a layout everyone is familiar with so players can dive in with reasonable understanding and expectation of the 'world's' layout.

An option we can have is people hiring out parts of their armies as mercenaries, probably at the brigade level, so player X hires a brigade of troops to player Y and when Y fights a battle, X commands that brigade.

Morsey - it's your choice! British/Hanover/Swiss inspired = red coats, French/Saxony = white, Dutch/German = blue, Austrian = grey. I'm open to variations as well so if people want a bright yellow army or bright green they can have one.

Well Martin, those will do nicely. Would it be possible to be a French allied, French Speaking minor country (like say, Switzerland?). Anyway, I want to be Catholic and French speaking. I don't fit with Protestant virtues and culture...... blah!

Why limit yourself to one spirit or one woman eh!?

I like the white uniforms and the pope is relatively cool, so I think I'll request to be in the running for mini-France.

I am staying at the Paris hotel and casino in Las Vegas this October, if that helps.

I will be a Protestant and British/Hanover/Swiss inspired Red Uniforms.  A big castle a large Defensive Army to keep them barbarians away!

Is that asking too much?

Mark, some kind of minor allied French Duchy on the Rhine or Mosel would fit, maybe a Luxembourg type region. Or further south near the French-Swiss border. French-ish troops ought to wear white though. The Swiss wore red. Not sure the idea of Swiss and Catholicism goes together well!

Due to the popularity of Louis XVI almost all European courts used French as the official diplomatic language and any ruler who couldn't converse in French would be a very poor fellow, so everyone can be assumed to speak French. Some will speak English, Dutch, Danish, German, etc in addition!

Neal, sounds like your state is going to be quite southerly, maybe around the Austrian-Italian region.

A useful map here; the Holy Roman Empire before Napoleon scribbled it out and started over.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/HRR_1789_EN.png

On the Upper Rhine we have several potential French-Swiss influenced areas.

In Switzerland there's Neuchâtel and Neuenberg with Mühlhausen being a Swiss  state wholly within France. Then there's Besançon, Mömpelgard and Colmar which are all linked dynastically to Württemberg. Further north west is Grafschaft Salm ("GS"). Further north still are places like Strasbourg, Nassau-Saarbrücken, Wissembourg, Landau and such which are all as much French as they are German in this period.

I think of those, Mömpelgard is my favourite sounding place!

Morsey - sounds like a Hanoverian satellite Dukedom is your thing. NW Germany on the Lower Rhine.

And here's the Holy Roman Empire in 1648 at the close of the Thirty Years War. We can snaffle place names and ideas from either map:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Holy_Roman_Empire_1648.svg

Nice map this is going to be fun!

Ok I'd be up for France, France-like minor state, or Bavaria. Martin, I want a uniform that is loud, distinct, and certainly recognizable! I want everyone to KNOW it's me!!!!

sounds great Martin, I figured you would place me in a proper position.

May I be assigned the Duchy of Nassau?  As Duke of Nassau, with my capital at whatever you choose to name it (perhaps Weisbaden?).  My new forum avatar is actually Prince Karl of Solms-Braunfels, who founded the city of New Braunfels, Texas, about 1845, but I'll look for something more period of a duke of Nassau.

If not, perhaps Saxony if that fits your campaign concept better. Either would be fine with me.

Thanks!

I was working on the basis of this for you:

https://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/t1379-ne-plus-ultra-18th-century-europe-campaign-idea#12940

And please keep your Napoleonic avatar, this campaign won't be starting for a good while and when it does it'll be at a slow pace.

All right, sir. Thank you.

Perhaps the French would be behind trying to form a European "Union" under their domination, whilst the Austrians, to keep their power base would prefer a "Confederacy" of small and highly independent states.

There is a modern group following the original ideas of Young/Grant etc. (from the 1960s) called "Emperor and Elector". They play using figures, but there are some particularly great little countries.

http://emperor-elector.blogspot.co.uk/

My favourite is the Kingdom of Wittenburg

http://tidders-kingdomofwittenberg.blogspot.co.uk/
Have a look at previous posts. He is a master of the behind the scenes characterisation and storylines that Diggers is talking about and has built wonderful sets for his figures including the inside of palaces. Wonderful stuff.

Enjoy

Phill

I'd rather avoid references to reality as much as possible. We'll grab bits of European history, uniforms, names and such as suits our needs but the world will be fictional. There may well be power blocs working at an international level in the lands around the states we play but their politics would be on a much higher level than our self-serving agendas!

We could have the higher level politics intervene via random events the umpire can draw cards for such as the King of Franconia publishing a letter in the press asking for mercenaries in his upcoming campaign against the Holy Rhenish Empire and any player who offers a brigade would see his honour score go up. Things like that.

The names of real major states like Britain, Prussia, France and Austria would be concealed behind thinly veiled fictional versions such as Albion, Brundenberg, Franconia and Osstereich. The Holy Rhenish Empire could be a conglomeration of loosely co-operative states who display nominal allegiance to the ruling house of Osstereich, the Hubsburgs, but who still find time to squabble among themselves over matters important to them such as borders, trade and the length of wigs.

Have you considered having occasional large wars involving the NPC major powers, Diggers?  Historically, involvement in these as allies, the provider of mercenaries, or sometimes both, was the main military involvement of the smaller German states in the 18th C.

Which major power(s) to support, and on what basis, could make for some interesting player decisions in both the diplomatic and military sense.  It would also allow you to occasionally fight larger battles if you felt like doing that.

If you haven't read it, German Armies: War and German Society, 1648-1806: War and German Politics, 1648-1806 (Warfare and History) by Peter Wilson is an interesting examination of this aspect.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/German-Armies-Society-1648-1806-Politics/dp/1857281063/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431519998&sr=1-1&keywords=german+armies+wilson

Martin (J)

It might be interesting to model larger powers and we play as the minor states, occasionally caught up in the diplomatic tangles of our bigger brothers.

I think you'll find that diplomacy at the level of your peers will be plenty enough! Modelling larger powers means I model them which adds immensely to my workload. Have a read of some of the posts in the blogs linked to above by Phill; these imaginary nations exist completely in a vacuum without world powers and I think they and the campaigns are better for it.