(Gnome Wars) The Ham Fighter Revolution

First off, the awesome blog that got me inspired to think of this in the first place:

http://dinofbattle.blogspot.com/

The Din of Battle has some awesome write-ups and pictures of 15mm Boxer Rebellion games. While most of the Boxer games I've witnessed have focused on the siege of the Legations , I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl when someone runs a game involving the relief columns.

And it got me thinking: as if I don't have enough crazy dreams and wishlists in my head, what would the Gnome Wars Boxer Rebellion look like?

Enter: The Ham Fighter Revolution
First, the Nationalities are off. No Americans, Austrians, or Italians to play with, and the Russians are limited. The multi-national alliance would consist of:

• The Germans are still playing the role of misunderstood gnomish evil. Like their influence, their numbers would be great, and their motivation? To crush the short yellow devils and control the land for themselves.


• The Swiss would be the German's counter-point. They enjoy open trade and prefer to crush the rebellion and retain the status quo.


• The French would have a small but very competent force.


• The Sikhs would hang around due to their alliance with the Swiss only if it suited them. They could very well switch sides and help flush the short white devils from the land.


• The Russians would do well in the Siege of the Legation, but in open battles they have a small force.


• The British: I've always pictured British gnomes more are economic opportunists rather than a military juggernaut. British Marines would actively be part of the relief column, perhaps a unit or two of British Highlanders, but I can't imagine more than ONE unit of Scottish Highlanders. Just like Tanga, I can't picture them there in large numbers.


• Australians and Irish will be sitting this one out, unless the Aussie foot soldiers become available.

Their opponent, by default, would be the Japanese. They are the closest figs to Chinese Boxers that are currently available, they have a huge variety of foot soldiers, and the sushi cannon sounds like a nice take on the smoothbore cannons the Boxers possessed.

The main problem I forsee is the accumulation of forces. Japanese forces would have a few, if any samurais with katanas or komodo dragon cav units loyal to the cause, but to accomplish the feel of the rebellion, mostly yaris, some naginata, and a lot of rocket and riceball figs mixed in to compose the armies. I personally haven't even started working on a Japanese army, and most of the units that come to the HMGS are usually cav units, so assembling an overbearing, yet flawed army to play this out might take awhile.

To make matters worse, I remembered that the Japanese were part of the multi-national alliance, so it wouldn't be out of the question to allow elite units, loyal to western interests aid the alliance, thus making the demand for units even greater.

Now, the games involving the legations would be terrain intensive, but games involving the relief columns would be very basic, a few fortifications for the Japanese, a couple trees, and perhaps a big river or two.

As always, any suggestions would be appreciated.