In The Beginning...

Ahhhh… Imagi-Nations. That peculiar wargaming conceit of creating a fictitious country in a setting otherwise grounded in historical reality (although some more imaginative people add less realistic elements to their games, and begin to border on fantasy.) Most gamers seem to gravitate towards either early 18^th Century with all the tiny nation-states following the war of Spanish Succession, or towards modern Africa and/or Middle East, with “banana republics” providing the template for small countries or even warlords to field forces in a tabletop game. What I find really nice about the “Imagi-Nation” idea for wargaming is that I am no longer tied down to a particular organizational pattern or require specific uniforms, equipment, weapons, etc.

Perhaps ten years ago, I built an army for Hordes of the Things using Russian troops from the Great Northern War. And I fell in love with the tricorn era, wistfully looking at all the pretty models available and never really figuring out what I wanted to do with them. Since then, Wargames Factory has released plastic soldiers in 28mm that are generically for the early 18^th century, and I have wanted to get THOSE more than anything else because they are inexpensive and I don’t want to invest too much time and money into a project that I will create but probably never play with (unless I bribe my children, of course.) The problem being, of course, that I still had no clue what I wanted to do with them. And sometime in the last couple of years, the Imagi-Nation idea took hold in my head, and I slowly began to make my terrible plans…

To start with, I wanted an offshoot from Spain. I’m not sure why, but somehow Spain is the bad guy in my family (really, I do know why, but I am not going to go into that here.) But Spain it had to be. After some actual research (gasp!) I found that the Spanish Netherlands were right on the border of both France (who I wanted to be the bad guy in my games) and the Holy Roman Empire, with all those little Germanic states I could pluck more opponents from. And ruled by a princess! With an all-female royal bodyguard! I could finally find a use for Eureka’s “Sandras” figures! And so, El Principado de la Comadreja was born, with the reigning monarch La Princesa Remolacha as the head of the state. This would also give me some opportunity for court intrigue, with her sister La Princesa Sebolla scheming behind the scenes to inherit the throne herself.

And just like that, I had the makings of an Imagi-Nation. I had my country, a couple of reality-grounded opponents, and even the possibility of infighting. There was just one little hitch: I still had no idea which rules I should be using, or if I was even going to be able to get this project off the ground at all. Because I have started SO many, and they sit half painted collecting dust in the shed…


Images swiped from the internet and used without permission