(Gnome Wars) Opening Seats at the League of Gnomes

Part of my daily routine at lunch is to peruse the ever-expanding list of cool blogs I've discovered.

Today's update of note was from Tim's Miniature Wargame Blog:

http://saskminigamer.blogspot.com/2011/02/retreat-from-boongobe-cla-east-africa.html

Nothing particulary award-winning, I guess. Just a good Great War game set in German East Africa with British, German, Belgian, and native forces. This could be a nice example of setting up the long-awaited Tanga Campaign. But this blog post stuck with me until I started transferring my gnomes from the cold confines of the garage, to the much more accessible area of a hall closet.

There are no Belgian Gnomes!

Granted the number of Great War British in Africa minis is small. The number of Great War Belgian troop types available is ridiculously small. Belgians in Africa I didn't even know existed, or at least I couldn't name a manufacturer, so I doubt I'll see Belgian Gnomes coming out of Brigade anytime soon.

My query tonight follows in the footsteps of the Ham Fighter Revolution post: What current figures can be used to represent nationalities not covered in the Gnome Wars rules?

First off, the Swiss. Outside of the cheesethrowers, the Swiss are your archtypical gnome to begin with. If marketers can sell official Sacremento Kings and Carolina Panther garden gnomes, you can basically paint the Swiss whatever color you would like and call them whatever nation you would want. However certain countries are screaming for their own units (Canadian Mounties, Spanish Matadors, Scandanavian Vikings anyone?).

Just some quick brainstorming, but I think the Swiss could be used to model Belgians, Portugese, North African, and, of course Lichtenstein...Luxembourg has more of a French feel. And even with my statement above, I can picture a pretty cool red and white Canadian solider, complete with maple leaf on the hat. Heck, a couple Italians, complete with meatball or pizza chuckers (they have some stinky cheese, too, I guess). I'm now picturing Swiss-on-Swiss action to recreate the Banana Split Republic Wars, even chasing down a Gnomo Villa bandito across the Rio Grande.

The Germans could easily be Austrians, or any Eastern European state (Just throw in a few Russians for the Slavic states). Some Transylvanian troops would be a perfect honor guard (and buffet) for the vampire. Cut off the Picklehaub, and they can be stormtrooper for every two-bit despot in the world.

Sikhs would be the default colonial troop, whether Sikh, Askari, Oriental native, etc. If the troop type is below-average or worse, I tend to break out the Eureka teddy bears. Seeing a unit of Sikhs driving across the board is a psychological game-changer, no matter how weak they might be on paper.

Of course, the stats for these third and fourth-rate troops would be significantly less. Certain groups, we might allow consistent stats and abilities, like a Vatican Swiss Guard unit:

Vatican Swiss Guard, landing on the docks

Now, I've got enough gnomish lead to paint that I can't think about adding an artillery company of the San Marino guard, but in order to recreate historical battles, we need to be either a little fast and free with the units or the figs representing them.