"I" is for...

Imagi-Nations

King's Colors, 18th C. Alcovia

The hobby of imaginary nations or imagi-nations is a most amusing one for me. For me, these differ from truly fantastic realms such as Laputa and Atlantis is that, although they are fictional, they do conform to the rules and general feel of our world and the particular time they are created for. This should not, however, be read as a condemnation of more whimsical or creative imagi-nations or a warning against going too far. The line is a subtle one.

For me, it's much like that so-called fantasy football that all the sports fans are playing. It's not so much about making up new and amazing war machines and such, but more about picking and choosing, mixing and matching elements from your favorite historical armies into something that makes sense. You might want French tanks, but prefer Italian uniforms on your soldiers. Or perhaps you have always wanted to have an army in the 18th century that wore colors that no real army dreamed of. Maybe your medieval army made much grater use of mounted bowmen than any of its real world equivalents.

Many times it is much more subtle or simple than this. For some players, it's just about not being constrained by the limits, narrow as they may be, of history and historical events. Perhaps you want an army that is for all intents and purposes the exact same army as the early 18th century British but you want to have them slogging it out with Germans in a knock down drag out fight. Sure you could just pit the two historical armies against one another, but you could also create two new nations of your own with your own names, uniforms and made-up conflict.

Sketch for a planned Alcovian war elephant.

Then there are imagi-nations that go a bit further, like my Alcovia. Alcovia has existed in many centuries but the most outrageous version, so far, has to be the 18th century version of it. For this time period I took advantage of something I'd been wanting to play with for a while - Eastern Renaissance. I used a combination of 17th century troops from Eastern Europe to stand in for the backwater budding kingdom to fight a war of unification.  But I didn't stop there. I added some troops that didn't normally belong in such armies, namely elephants and camels, concluding that these were brought in by local nomads (camels) and purchased by the king as a flight of fancy (elephants). This made the army a much more interesting and unique army with greater personality than simple re-skinned historicals.

Really, when it comes down to it, imagi-nations are a way for you to stretch your imagination in a way that still has some limits and a challenge of trying to make something imaginative yet, believable at the same time. This is really where they differ from true fantasy realms.

Imagi-nations I have created are -

Kingdom of Hawaii 

Alcovia, 18th Century 

Alcovia, Modern

Alcovia, Inrerwar Period (one of many imagi-nations on this blog)

Elistonia (as part of the Alcovian background)

Iquenistan (as part of the Alcovian background)

-Eli

"H" is for...

HAWAII, KINGDOM OF

Back in 2009 I had this crazy idea of trying to create a VSF imagi-nation based on the idea that Hawaii had maintained its independence in the 19th century and had become a colonial power of its own. Admittedly this was a bit of a stretch, but it was a fun project that unfortunately never went past a single painted unit and a lot of background work.

In this timeline, an early exposure to European diseases devastates Hawaii well before its official discovery and opening to the west. This allows the island nation to recover with an increased resistance and immunity to many of viruses that helped Europeans to move in and take hold. Add to this an increased nationalism and an organized opposition to the adoption or western religion and the selling of Hawaiian lands to foreigners and you have a Hawaii that is better able to stand on it's own two feet. Granted it is the final element, an agreement with Great Britain that makes the kingdom of Hawaii a protectorate of the crown, that allows Hawaii to last long enough to resist being preyed upon by the industrialized world until it has established its own modern government and military.

The final form of the kingdom is one with it's own army and navy, built off of a mix of standing troops and militia. While the standing army would be provided and provisioned by the central government of the king, the militias would be recruited and supported by local noble lords from their workers and tenants. This would allow me to have an army that was made up of many different sorts of uniforms around a central theme. There was also an allowance in my plans for foreign mercenaries in service with the Hawaiian crown.

An example of a militia unit. Figures are Paraguayan War minis from QRF.

Recently, I have been thinking about working on this project a little bit more. It'll all depend on what minis I can get for it on the cheap. 

If you'd like to see what I wrote on this project, check out the following links -

I SEE LEAD PEOPLE: Atler-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 1

I SEE LEAD PEOPLE: Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 2

I SEE LEAD PEOPLE: Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 3

I SEE LEAD PEOPLE: Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 4

I SEE LEAD PEOPLE: Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 5

I SEE LEAD PEOPLE: Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 6

I SEE LEAD PEOPLE: Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 8

Thanks for reading!

-Eli

Kingdom of Hawaii - Island Militia

In my alternate history version of Hawaii, individual regional nobles are responsible for maintaining their militias. This is a holdover from the not so distant past of Hawaii where Kamehameha handed out land to his various warlords for stewardship.

The gamer meta-decision to do this was to add some variety and spice to my Hawaiian forces and keep the army from being boring to collect and paint. As such, I have been trying to track down interesting figures that can pass as island militia and I think the above gents will work nicely.

Though I do not have a positive ID on them, I do know they are Minifigs. They are nearly naked, wearing simple kilt-like skirts. they have an odd sort of pill box hat on their heads and an ammo pouch at the hips.

-Eli

Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 8

Howdy all,

So, not a full update of its own, but this is a nice post of the nice pic of my first few RHA Reserve Militia provided by a buddy of mine from work who was nice enough to bring his camera into the office (thanks Kevin!). These are speed-painted to my usual tabletop standards and I have noticed a few horrible oversights , including a brush hair painted onto one of them. Personally, I think that the Freikorp Paraguayans due a fine job representing Hawaiians in service to their own nation.



The uniforms on these figures depict my idea for a pretty much standard uniform for the RHA Reserve Provincial Militia. The white shako caps are simple of simple construction and kept a white cotton or linen. These soldiers do not where a formal uniform jacket but simple loose shirts in the standard uniform yellow of the RHA. Instead of trousers, they wear a native kilt-like garment (anyone know what these are called?) and bare feet. Kilts are not standard for all militia units and different units may substitute trousers or go without either. Shoes are almost never worn by militia units unless with the exception of non-natives serving in militia service who generally prefer to keep their tender haole feet protected from the sharp island stones, coral and prickly foliage that true islanders grow up with.

Their kit is carried in a shoulder-slung satchel made from white canvas, linen or even retired scraps of sail cloth and a rolled ground mat, often made from woven thatch or more scrap sail cloth. Each militia unit is required to provide their own uniform with the exception of the headgear and their rifles.

Militia rifles are often surplus from stores previously used by RHA regulars or procured in lots from arms-traders and foreign agents. There is an attempt to keep weapons in a particular militia unit standardized to the same caliber and type of ammunition but occasionally there are times when this is not possible. When disparate ammunition types are present in the same militia, the uncommon ammunition types will be grouped together so that they may support one another or function as a separate unit for guard duty or rear-support.

Hope you enjoy seeing these figs and reading my idea for their organization.

-Eli

Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 7

Hawaiian Provincial Militia Sighted

Nothing too spectacular to report, but I have managed to put brush to lead and should have the first examples of my 15mm Hawaiian Provincial Militia ready to show in a day or so. I still suffer from inadequate camera syndrome and so haven't been able to snap any quality pics, but I did snap the above picture to give you sort of a in progress workbench sneak peak.

Though the picture is woefully blurry, you can see their white shakos, bright yellow shirts and the telltale island skirt shown in red here, though I do plan to have other units have other colors and possibly even patterns.

I hope this little snippet will breath some life into the project for folks who have been reading along my various posts of conjecture and brainstorming.

Take care,

-Eli

Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 6

WA'A PELELEU

In my research on Hawaii I found many references to the advanced war canoes that Kamehameha had commissioned for his invasion of the other Hawaiian islands. These vessels are unique in that they combined both traditional Hawaiian canoe building techniques with western naval engineering.

These double hulled war vessels averaged 70 feet in length, were lashed onto curved cross members (a uniquely Hawaiian feature) and had a swivel gun (some pictures show two) was mounted on the bows! The hulls were carved from gigantic koa tress while the sails were cut in the square European mode, but made of traditional plaited Elauhala‚ (pandanas leaf) matting.I have never been able to find out just how many people one of these carried but considering that a fleet of 800 carried Kamehameha's 10,000 warriors it can be assumed that their crew capacity is considerable though I am sure there were many other lesser Hawaiian canoes and traditional war canoes along on that invasion as well.

Personally, I think these are beautiful vessels and I can see my fictional Hawaii still using them close to home where natives could use the skills of their upbringing patrolling the coasts and keeping the peace, even as more modern vessels were coming and going from their islands.

A really cool boat,

-Eli

Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 5

WHAT FIGURES TO USE - PART TWO

So I have received my figs from Freikorp and they look good and would be workable for my version of Hawaii if not for one small detail - lack of poses. Freikorp's line is extensive in the number of nations it covers but there are very few of their lines that include more than one pose per troop type. Now this is not horrible as that pose is usually a nice neutral advancing pose, but it also means that a larger force is really going to start looking pretty static. So, I decided to look further into other figures.

I have decided that the Paraguayans would make good reserve troops in the form of provincial militias. The shakos they wear and the basic uniforms would easily make for low cost, possibly surplus-supplied uniforms. For the regular Royal Hawaiian Army (RHA), I have decided to follow with a bit of Hawaii's real history.

Historically, Hawaii's military uniforms were drawn from those of the British Empire. J. (Victoria's Boys in Red) and I decided to blend our VSF settings and in that setting Hawaii is a protectorate of Britain and so I have decided to keep the uniform similarities there but with a few exceptions. So, to accomplish this, I will be using Colonial British uniforms and miniatures for the RHA regular troops.

I will go into more detail once I have something to show, but this should prove to be a fun army to build.

-Eli

Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 4

When designing an independent island nation the navy of that nation has to be a central consideration to the project. Without a strong navy the independence of a nation, especially one that is completely accessible by water, is tenuous at best in the face of naval juggernauts both fictional and historical. My fictional Kingdom of Hawaii will have to be able to hold its own on the waves.

We know, from history, that Hawaii had amassed a sizable fleet of ships under Kamehameha I. Details on this fleet have been scarce and difficult to find, especially considering the fact that I have not gone out of my way to secure dedicated resources for this project (I'm not willing to throw that much into this gaming lark). What I have found indicates that their navy was a combination of advanced war canoes and on up through the naval spectrum. The Hawaiian navy included European style war ships in history and we can assume that my fictional Hawaii might do the same, especially if it was able to maintain its military base following the death of Kamehameha I.

I do not think that they would have ever gone so far as to build full-on battleships but smaller warships from cruiser size and down would be reasonable with most of the fleet being fast-moving lighter vessels that would allow them to patrol the open waters and maneuver through and around the islands that made up their home. There would, of course, be transports and other commercial vessels, no doubt built on the same scale as other nations, but my Hawaii's military vessels would be focused on protecting sovereignty and maintaining commerce.

Gunboats, torpedo boats, and floating batteries would be used close to the shore and in the harbors with frigates and corvettes sailing along with their commerce vessels. At home, you might even see the continuation of the armed war canoe, especially with provincial and home defense units. This latter design would allow ill-trained islanders with a part-time military service to use their civilian sea-fairing skills in the service of defending their home.

This of course is all a quick overview and as I am not a naval wargamer there are bound to be things that I have overlooked. I will say that the naval considerations have little bearing on most of the gaming I will be doing but they do add to the background of this version of a Hawaii that might have been.

As usual, I am open to comments and welcome suggestions and ideas.

Thanks again,

-Eli

[Image Note: The image with this text depicts the private yacht of King Kamehameha II c. 1821. This was a real vessel and shows that the historical Hawaiians did have modern sailing vessels. ]

Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 3

WHAT FIGURES TO USE

Taking a break from the background story of fictional Hawaii I have begun to give some thought to what sorts of miniatures I might use to represent their army.

For my fictional version of the Kingdom of Hawaii, I wanted to have a military that reflected both European and island traditions in the same uniform. This really is a tough decision because, unless I want to spend an eternity converting little 15mm figs, I am going to have to work with what's out there and last time I checked their wasn't a company catering specifically to my mad imagination. So, with that in mind, I have to think about what is available out there.

There are plenty of naval infantry and marines out there as well as tribal forces from other nations, some of them even island nations. Wide-brimmed hats come to mind, due to the sun and such, but not all armies that fought in hot and sunny environments wore sun helmets or wide-brimmed hat. I suppose I could go with a sun helmet as well.

One thing I have considered is finding some native infantry, askaris or some such that have short pants on or, if I can find them one of those wrap around skirts. that seem to be popular in the more "civilized" Hawaiians. The question is, can I find the right lower wear on a figure with a suitable military style jacket.

I did find some miniatures in the Freikorp line of figures that might work or at least give me something close enough on the table. The figures in question are the following -

PAR03 Paraguayan Infantry, loin cloth
PAR02 Paraguayan Infantry, poncho & kilt
PAR23 Paraguayan Spearmen

There are also command and other support and military elements that go with these gents, including some in more conventional uniforms. These figures appeal for a couple of reasons. First of all, they all wear high peaked shakos that seem to sweep forward and bear a resemblance to traditional Hawaiian headgear. Secondly, the figures in ponchos and kilt might make for a sort of odd Hawaiian uniform that includes the skirt I was looking for as well as something that give a nod back to the traditional cloaks that were worn by islanders. Lastly, the loincloth-wearing soldiers and the spear-wielding ones would make for very interesting provincial militia - ill-equipped and poorly uniformed.

I have ordered a couple packs to take a look and see if they fit the bill and will continue to look around to see if I can find other figures that might work well. If you have any suggestions or even an alternate idea on what they might look like, let me know.

Thanks again,

-Eli

Alter-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 2

CORRECTING A FEW MISTAKES

So, as I said in the last post, I was going to be posting more about this idea. Now that I have had a chance to digest some of the things I've read, I am seeing that my initial responses to The Kingdom of Hawaii idea were way off base. Of course I am going based on what some quick research can determine and without a lot of in-depth knowledge, but it's clear that Hawaii didn't barely make it, but rather that they made it and then they were torn down.

One of the big things I can see that would need to be adjusted is that the dynasties of Hawaii would have had to have been a bit more savvy when dealing with foreign nations. I remember reading a bit about how at one point they considered who they should trade with and somehow ended up entering into an exclusive trade agreement with the United States. This was a mistake, because it made them dependent on the US for support and trade and hurt their relations with other nations that might have provided them with useful goods and trade routes for their own. This is especially bad when you consider they had been recognized as a sovereign nation by almost every major nation in Europe. Hawaii continued to trade with other nations but it really had hemmed itself in with its relationship with America, a relationship that ultimately led to its downfall at the hands of that very nation.

I suppose that in a way, what I am envisioning for Hawaii is a nation that did not lose so much of itself but managed to enter the world as a player just the same. The real world Kingdom of Hawaii was a Christianized nation that left most of its cultural identity in the past to make way for progress. As can see in the image accompanying this text, depicting the last king of Hawaii , Hawaiian nobility had pretty much adopted a very European mode of dress, including a chest full of questionable ribbons and medals.

The key to the version of Hawaii I would like to see for a game setting lies in a change on the route it took. At several points in Hawaiian history there were attempts to return to their cultural roots and to allow for the more Hawaiian version of Hawaii that I am looking for, perhaps it would be fitting to have one of these movements take off. Perhaps one of the various cultural overthrows succeeded and created a nation that managed to fuse both western and island cultures together.

The major issue in trying to re-invent Hawaii in a fictional form is how to maintain their viability and yet keep more of their cultural identity and invites several strong questions. Would Hawaii have been accepted by Europe and America if they had not taken on such a European way about them? Would Hawaii have been able to stay united if they had retained more of their tribal culture? How do you sidestep the plagues and epidemics that shaped the course of Hawaiian history? I am sure there are more, but these are those that pop into my mind.

There is much to consider when trying to develop an alternate version of a country. Most of what I want out of this project stems from mental imagery I have of a cool-looking fusion of Island and European styled dress. I mean, I could just say it's this way because I want it to be, but that wouldn't be my style.

Thanks for reading along,

-Eli

Atler-Nations - Kingdom of Hawaii Part 1

It's funny where a simple chat can lead. Recently, in a comment to a post on "Victoria's Boys in Red", I half-jokingly threw out the idea of doing Hawaii as a power in a VSF setting. Nothing big, just a lark. Then I talked to other geeky-minded folks at work and some more with Mr. Womack and the concept really started to take form.

I think what makes it a great idea is that Hawaii almost made it, they really did. If not for a few little problems, easily glanced over or corrected in an alternate history, they might just have made themselves into a Pacific island nation of note. Add to this the fact that their history really is a fascinating one and you have good makings of a VSF nation.

The first thing you need to do is to change a few things and have things go better for Hawaii. King Kamehameha was enamored with western cultures and really strove to learn about them and bring the advantages of those places to his people. What didn't go so well were his dealings with foreign nations which really ended up setting his newly formed united Hawaii up to become the puppets of other countries.

If we can concede a more forward thinking Kamehameha or successors to him that might have carried on a more productive continuation of what he started, we can imagine a Hawaii that became a trade partner to many nations, becoming a sort of trade point nestled in the middle of the Pacific and accessible to those plying their trades through Asia and India and beyond.

One can also envision a Hawaii that continued to learn and master elements of European ship building and developed its own shipyards capable of building and maintaining a home and trade fleet as well as offering port services to ships moving through the pacific. Add to this some rather exotic exports such as sugar and several fruits and Hawaii could become a comfortable little island nation, indeed.

MILITARYWhat would their military look like? I have found little information on their army or its uniforms but I do know that its early armies were little more than up-gunned native troops. This isn't much fun for a VSF army, though and we can draw on the Hawaii dynasties' love of things European as an inspiration of how an organized army of the Kingdom of Hawaii might look. There might still be ill-equipped, poorly uniformed provincial troops in support of the standing army and they might look much more like traditional Hawaiian warriors.

When I tinker around with uniform ideas, I imagine that most of the Hawaiin army would function in a dual capacity as marines as nearly every part of their kingdom is accessible by water and a short march. But I do not want them to look just like the marines of other nations. What I can imagine are solider wearing conventional uniform coats and possibly some wide-brimmed hats on the upper portion but wearing either short pants or even those waist wraps you see there now days who;s name escape me now. I also imagine that they might fight in bare feet.

Cavalry might exist but would likely be rare, perhaps drawn from local farmers and herders or island police forces. Their dress would depend on what capacity they filled in their regular daily lives with police wearing a variation of the military uniform and militia cavalry wearing typical Hawaiian provincial dress.

Artillery would likely be in the form of smaller guns, often those taken from ships' armaments and moved along with infantry. Kamehameha I used this sort of rolling gun tactic well in his wars of unification, even marching guns in fights up mountains. Mountain guns and light pack guns might be the norm.

Thus ends the first installment of a look at what might be a plausible VSF alternate history Hawaii. I hope you enjoy this and look forward to reading your responses and input. I'll be posting more about this idea when I have time and after I have a chance to digest some of the feedback I've received. It should be noted that I am no expert on Hawaii and also that this idea is likely full of a lot of holes that really needn't be addressed in the context of fictional history.

Thanks,

-Eli