A New Country

There are many reasons to have more countries in this imaginary continent. The simplest is to explain allies. Thus the Frei Bishopric von Tinkelwasser.

It starts with the army as I gradually weed through my Froggies and convert them to Marlburian. Of course this will be so I can eventually play with my Froggies in a Volley & Bayonet War of the Austrian Succession game. It also allows me to utilize some of my new figures and mix them with the old.

Tinkelwasser is an Hereditary Bishopric. It sits in a relatively inaccessible part of the Imaginary Alps, and happens to sit on several very large and extremely profitable silver mines (and a couple of iron mines). This means it has money. It also has a small riverfront section on the Wasser River, right where the Tinkelwasser joins in. The Bishop's summer palace is there in the town of Tinkel en dem Wasser. This is also home to the largest brewery in the land, which employs most of the townfolk. Just about the only (relatively) flat land is around this town, and the people who don't work at the brewery raise horses.

Most of the Bishopric is a series of interconnected valleys that have a disturbing number of young men without room to inherit anything (all the tillable land is taken). The solution, of course, is to put them in the army so they aren't sitting around home causing trouble. This is why the army is the size it is.

The base of the army will be my 18th Century Swiss. That'll be four regiments of foot, all in red with blue distinctions and black leggins (a new innovation because the Bishop was tired of paying for new shoes). The horse (unlike the Swiss, there'll be horse) will be a kuirassier brigade dressed in the Austrian style (pot helm, back and breast, white coat, half with red shabraques, half with blue). There probably won't be any artillery, but I haven't decided on that as yet.

This force will be a "swing" force that can be on either side to balance the scenario, and I'll use my writing skills to work out the narrative of how they got there (did I mention that I sold a story? Woot! Woot! Woot!). That fits how we usually do things.

There'll be more on Tinkelwasser in future posts.

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Historicon is next week, and that should mark the publication of Volley & Bayonet, 2nd ed.