40mm 1837

MANIFEST DESTINY

Ross Macfarlane's 40mm Toy Soldier Wargame Project

15 April 2008

This project has been struggling to life since the turn of the century. After decades of various historical projects in various scales or sizes of figure, where similar armies were essentially duplicated because their hats were the wrong shape or the some such trivia, I decided I wanted one core project for fighting Red vs Blue horse & musket era wargames with an option for Colonial type fights as well.

I have had numerous influences over the years but the three that I most wanted to draw inspiration from were H.G. Well's Little Wars , Lawford & Young's Charge!, and Joseph Morschauser's How to Play Wargames in Miniature. My very first wargames book was by Don Featherstone and focused very much on recreating historical campaigns but within 2 years, I had obtained copies of both Little Wars and Charge! and these had a major impact even though I have never gamed extensively using either. The imagination and spirit of these books strike sparks against a life long love of toy soldiers and tales of heroism & glory. I have slowly come to realize over the years that as much as I enjoy exploring history, the straight recreation of it has never provided the fun and sparked my imagination in quite the same way as various fictional campaigns. It may be the slavish attention to detail, the nagging sense of never being quite right, the drive to have to build new armies for each campaign even though tactics and weapons are similar to those of an existing army wearing slightly different uniforms, or maybe it is the reminder of the horrors of real war that cannot be ignored as one studies it closely. I have come to agree with authors like Brigadier Young about how one can take historical battles, study them, boil down their essence (as opposed to their details) and reproduce them as table top scenarios that can be played out using any set of wargame armies.

AT FIRST: The 1st attempt at executing this project was the 1860's 54mm version of Oberhilse & Faraway in 54mm. The idea was to combine Northern European and North American themes with essentially British as Red and Danish as Blue. I wanted to use traditional style small 54mm metal toy soldiers and began to buy recast Britain's but ended up with mostly larger new plastic figures esp ACW. The only battle fought actually featured Fenians as an enemy. I then decided that I really wanted a slightly earlier period with muskets rather than rifles and started doing some 1837 rebellion figures. Whilst contemplating how to get where I wanted to go from where I was, I temporarily lost my larger table top and decided to scale down.

2ND TRY: The next decision was to base the campaign on the old style 40mm molds from Zinnbrigade converting them to 1840's Danish & Prussians and adding Brits later. I ordered molds and also some Scrubies (from Historifigs) which are a great match. Unfortunately, before I got more than a few samples cast, I acquired a bushel of S&S figures for conversion but after painting 2 units, I found that the 2 styles didn't match. One 1/2 of the budding collection or the other had to go. I stalled and did a War of 1812 project while I thought about it.

3RD TRY: Next I had this inspiration to try an alternate history campaign instead of the completely fictional one and came up with some ideas that excited me. Taking the 1837 Rebellions as a start with its unauthorized American intervention and adding the possibilities raised by the saber rattling of the Aroostock "War" and the Oregon Crisis, along with a dash of early Victorian Science Fiction it hit all the right buttons. Unfortunately, it seems I am too stuck in the mud, imagination wise, and started getting bogged down into details of geography, uniforms etc and again, 1/2 of what I already had in the style I wanted, just didn't fit rationally, so.......

4TH TRY: Back to Oberhilse and Faraway. Thanks to Henry Hyde's Faltenian campaign series in Battlegames, I have a good start on a map of a fictional land from my 2nd try. I also have some background already done, so, what the heck back we go. I have put aside the alternate history idea (for now) and have returned to the completely fictional Oberhilse and Faraway. This time it will be glossy toy soldiers for all and any uniforms I please. I have even found away to add in an Islamic colony amongst the natives to the south.

A GOOD ALTERNATE HISTORY IDEA : AROOSTOCK TO OREGON

The years between 1830 and 1850 were turbulent ones in North America as they were for Europe. It was a time of rapid technological change, social and political upheaval, wars and threats of war. It saw the expansion of the fledgling United States into a power spanning a continent, while the signing of the Oregon Treaty gave British North America the shape of Canada today. In 1839 a border dispute between Maine and New Brunswick boiled over and both sides mobilized their militia and called for backup. Most books will tell you that Daniel Webster and Alexander Baring met in March of 1837 and negotiated a settlement, but what if there was an incident, perhaps something involving, say, a young English schoolboy on Holiday from Rugby, a relation of Lord Paget perhaps, and the niece of Daniel Webster, what if the talks broke off, what if a further incident between loggers and militia resulted in shots being fired and national honour became involved? Given the riches of the west coast and the growing tension over ownership of the Oregon Territory, what if the war spread west? What if Russia and Mexico who also claimed portions of the west coast of America as their own were drawn in? What if proposed technological inventions such as wind driven prairie schooners and steam powered balloons were used to back up the steam driven gunboats already in use?.

Timeline and on-line resources for background info:

1837 Rebellions Unrest grows through 1837 until armed rebellion breaks out in November 1837. Fighting continues sporadically until December 1838 with limited, unofficial help from the US.
The 1838-39 Aroostock War between Maine & New Brunswick.
The Oregon Crisis & The Oregon Trail

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