(League of Gnomes) The British, Part One: Military

There has been a lot going on with Gnome Wars within the last few months:  New Rules, new nationalities, even new figs for the older nationalities.  I thought it might be appropriate to cover some of the "unloved" nationalities under the League of Gnomes title. We'll cover the nationality in the rulebook, go over the pro and cons and provide some tactics and specific uses for them in your game.  Today I start with the undermanned British.

In most Great War-era games, the British would get a huge chunk of space dedicated to them.  Yet, the Swiss-German dynamic has left them, well, largely unnecessary.  In Gnome Wars 2nd Edition, units with the specific moniker of "British" take up exactly two pages, British Marines and Britsh Highlanders.  Even in the Mega-games, the British have made two notable appearances:  (1) British Dog Handlers chasing pirates and (2) British Highlander figs acting as officers for Sikh units.

I have nothing but my fuzzy recollections and recent history to base this one, but the Marines appeared first.  The metal for them just seemed a bit older when I was working them off.  The Marines seem to be an attempt not to add units to the deadly fields of molten cheese carnage, but rather as an effective foil to the popular gnome pirates.

Marines come in three types:
Regular Infantry:  Your standard infantry, with the bonuses listed below.
Officer (figure not available):  Armed only with a saber.
Dog Handler: Good in melee, and can control up to three dogs.
Border Terrier: The dogs, good in melee, additional bonuses to attack rats which can be associated with pirates.

Dog Handler and Border Terrier

British Marine

Pretty straightforward.  Standard movement/rifle fire/melee for the infantry.   British do get volley fire and "sea legs" (ignoring penalties from firing from a normal moving vehichle or sailing vessel). 

No medics, no musician, and just one leader (although due to lack of figure). You can easily see why you never saw someone field a unit of marines prior to Cold Wars 2012.


Then we have the British Highlanders:
Regular Infantry w/ d8 melee
Officer with Pistol only
Bagpiper use the Scottish Highlander one, I guess
These are the wimpy cousins to the traditional Highlanders. They can form square and volley fire, and per the reference sheet, you can apparently use a Scottish Bagpiper figure to gain its benefits.

Compared to the Scots, they're not much worse. Square and Volley Fire make them passable, plus they're armed with rifles and not blunderbuss.   It's not a horrible loss to have no melee specific infantry and no grenadiers for cheap points, but the loss of the berserker seems to take out the heart of the unit. Instead of a thundering horde of chaos, I picture the British Highlanders as Redcoats at Isandlwana, systematically firing at Zulus.

In fact, they're even wimpy Sikhs, as they do check for morale, and with only one leader, could be easily dispatched.

We're Sikhs with Common Sense!

Why would anyone want to play British? Very little variety, plus, versus the core nations (Swiss/Germans), or even the secondary ones, they would be easily outmatched on the battle field.  I saw the lack of a medic doom a unit during my Battle for Apaula Heights game at Cold Wars.  

For starters, any game with a port or naval theme would benefit from the British, and by benefit, I mean they would kick everyone's ass.   Fighting pirates on the docks, a fortified defense in their British consulate, or even driving around the back of a truck during a riot, the British player would have fun and effective.  And my personal experience of losing a key brig at Cold Wars aside, a full squad of Marines defending a boat would be marvelous.

****Big Bonus Point:  Even pirates don't get the Sea Legs advantage! ****

The real detriment to the British is the lack of a point list in the the new edition of Gnome Wars. It's not that bad to compute

Marine/Highlander Officer: 20
Marine/Highlander: 15
Bagpiper: 20
Dog Handler: a little tricky 15 + 15 points per dog (max 3 dogs per handler, let's not use more than two handlers as friendly gesture, m'kay?)

One little tweak that I might add is to allow ANY British to man any type of support weapon, both in developing a unit, as well as taking over opponent's weapons during the heat of battle. Some weapons, like heavy mortars, requiring at least two of the original crew members to be alive for it to operate.  All British troops should be sufficiently crossed-trained to handle any "unique" event.  During our Cold Wars games, the British easily handled firing cannons from ships and heavy mortars from the fort. I would give the British Highlanders light and heavy machine guns to the list as well.

Marines defending the Legation, and an unknown silver woman.

I may also give the British some tactical advantage during campaign games, when in a port setting.  I might allow them to set-up first, let the other units deploy, and then allow them to re-deploy to a better fighting position.  That would be under my house rules, with nothing official.

Next: Part Two: Some definitely unofficial history on the British