Fenwick Travers is no Harry Flashman but …
Posted: October 14, 2011 Filed under: Book Review, Colonial, Early 20th Century, Late 19th Century 2 CommentsThe book tells the story of how and why Fenwick Travers joined the US Army as a Private and managed to gain an officer’s commission after attending West Point. It then traces his early career in the Regular Army, including his part in the Spanish-American War and the Boxer Rebellion.
The book is described as ‘an entertainment’ and it certainly lives up to this billing. Some of the story lines do contain some rather incredible coincidences, and the sex scenes are quite funny (which I hope is intentional), but it is a great historical romp that is entertaining and diverting to read. It is not a great work of fiction, and it is not as well written as the ‘Flashman’ novels (although it is certainly as good as books written by other more famous best-selling authors), but this does not detract from the enjoyment I got from reading the book, and I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the series.
The Imagi-world of 1891
Posted: October 12, 2011 Filed under: Colonial, Early 20th Century, Imagi-world, Imaginations, Late 19th Century 2 CommentsThis is still a ‘work in progress’, and I will be adding more information (including maps) as and when I can.
Imagi-world map suggestions
Posted: October 11, 2011 Filed under: Colonial, Early 20th Century, Imagi-world, Imaginations, Late 19th Century, MIscellaneous musings 2 CommentsI am also considering a suggestion that I make the map and the back story (when the latter is written) available as a page or pages on this blog. This makes sense as readers will be able to refer to the pages as and when they need to look something up at a later date.
My Imagi-world map is finally finished … I think!
Posted: October 11, 2011 Filed under: Colonial, Early 20th Century, Imagi-world, Imaginations, Late 19th Century, MIscellaneous musings 4 CommentsImagi-world North America
Finding appropriate names for the various states and provinces that make up my imagi-world North America took some time and quite a lot of research. In the end I tried to use appropriate tribal names wherever possible, but with some more obviously European names for the majority of the older areas.
The main addition to the original map was the island that occupies the sea between Tampa and Anahuaco. It has been named Cigara (which is a name that I used some years ago for a hidden scenario wargame about the ‘Bay of Pigs’ incident).
Imagi-world South America
Most of the imagi-nations of South America already existed in name (if not in fact). The only exceptions were Caribia (named after the tribe of Amerindians who lived in the area before the European colonisation took place), Amazona (named after the river), and Argentia (which has the same etymological root as Argentina).
More Imagi-world map progress
Posted: October 10, 2011 Filed under: Colonial, Early 20th Century, Imagi-world, Imaginations, Late 19th Century 4 CommentsImagi-world Asia
Some of the countries had quite a large number of sub-divisions. These represent the fact that they have large populations and/or are the results of a series of forced or voluntary amalgamations at some point in their history.
Imagi-world South Asia and Australasia
Both New Zealand and the Philippines were missing from the original RISK map. As a result this area of the map has far fewer islands than one would expect.
All that remains for me to add are the details for the Americas … and I hope to start that later tonight.
Imagi-world map progress
Posted: October 8, 2011 Filed under: Colonial, Early 20th Century, Imagi-world, Imaginations, Late 19th Century 10 CommentsImagi-world Europe
Each country has its own unique colour (the exception being Light Grey; this is used to identify neutral or non-aligned countries), and this helps to identify each of the areas that form part of that country and its overseas colonies or associated territories.
Imagi-world Africa
Imagi-world Middle East
Fezia is obviously the dominant power in the region, but its hold on some of its territories is more than a little tenuous.
More work done on the Imagi-world map
Posted: October 8, 2011 Filed under: Colonial, Early 20th Century, Imagi-world, Imaginations, Late 19th Century 4 CommentsThe countries of Europe are now almost complete, as are the various nations and colonies that make up Africa. The Middle East and Asia are about half way to completion, and after I have finished them I intend to concentrate upon the area around Australia before moving on to the Americas.
Progress has been slower that I expected, but with luck the map should be finished either tomorrow or on Monday.
The Imagi-world Map continues to develop
Posted: October 5, 2011 Filed under: Early 20th Century, Imagi-world, Imaginations, Late 19th Century, MIscellaneous musings 4 CommentsI realised that I needed to change the colour scheme somewhat and also to renumber some of the smaller nations or provinces that I had already identified on the map. The result is as follows:
I have now named all the areas within Europe, and the countries are:
- The United Kingdom of Britannia (Anglia, Scotia, and Eira plus Britannic Iberia [6] and the island of Faletta [7])
- Iberia
- Gallia
- Teutonia
- Etruscia
- Magrovia
- Remusia
- Forbodia
- Muscovy
- Opeland (including Latonia [9])
- Upsland (including Greater Nordland, Lesser Nordland, and Jutaland [8])
- Syldavia [1]
- Maldacia [2]
- Laurania [3]
- Epirica [4]
- Borduria [5]
My next step to is tidy up the European area of the map before moving on to look at adding detail to the Middle East and Africa.
What I like about this sort of project is that I can come back to it as and when I have some time, and it therefore fits in easily with all the other things that I am currently trying to do.
Taking a bit more of a RISK
Posted: October 4, 2011 Filed under: Early 20th Century, Imagi-world, Imaginations, Late 19th Century, MIscellaneous musings 2 CommentsSo far I have sorted out some of the imagi-nations in Europe. I have sited Laurania and Maldacia (indicated on the map by the numbers 1 and 2 respectively) in the Balkans and defined the national boundaries of:
- Etruscia (Italy)
- Gallia (France)
- Iberia (Spain and Portugal)
- The United Kingdoms of Britannia (Anglia, Scotia, and Eira)
- Epirica (Greece; indicated on the map by the number 3)
With a bit of luck I should be able to add some more detail over the next few days, but I am not rushing this task as I want to get things right.
The Portable Wargamer: Colonial version now available
Posted: October 3, 2011 Filed under: Colonial, Early 20th Century, Late 19th Century, The Portable Wargame, Websites Leave a commentThere have been no changes to the basic game mechanisms used in the rules. The only difference between them and the former version is the addition of extra weapon types and the option for Native Infantry and Cavalry Units to make double-length moves. The latter is not a given; Commanders of Native armies have to throw a D6 die to see if a Unit may make such a move.
All the other changes are merely cosmetic, and have been done so that the additional information in the rules is easier to find and read. Even so, the rules are still less than two sides of A4 paper long.
WARGAMING MISCELLANY 