Sunday 25 April 2010

The Central Banana Republic

.
I own a hardcopy of the US Marine Corps SMALL WARS Manual (1940) and just a little inspired after this blog took off I read through it again. The book is an invaluable DIY manual should you ever want to invade a Banana republic and I thoroughly recommend you read it if you are interested in the 'colonial' side of the Interbellum. A download is available here: http://www.smallwars.quantico.usmc.mil/sw_manual.asp.

The Small Wars Manual put substance to my desire to do something with Eureka Miniatures 15mm 1941 US Marines, the ones with Tommy helmets, armed with Springfields etc. We're talking Back To Bataan rather than Sands of Iwo Jima. So, fully imbued with Interbellum ethos I've created the Central Banana Republic to capture some flavour of the 'Banana Wars" in Honduras, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Panama during the 1920s and 30s.

This discrete project also gave me an additional push to rework my jungle terrain - which can be seen in more detail on my blog dedicated to 15mm Sci Fi gaming. I'll rework the pics for this blog once I have the correct period minis painted.

Rules? As it stands - We Can Be Heroes 2 for the smallscale 1-2-1 stuff and and Ambush Alley and Force on Force for anything larger.

Cheers
Mark
.

12 comments:

  1. It was getting a touch lonely out here in the New World, so it's good to have another 'Americano' setting.

    Thanks for the link too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds very interesting.

    I look forward to reading more as you Central American Republic develops.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brigade Games do a 'Caribbean Empires' range that covers the same period in 28mm, for those who don't want to do the smaller scales.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome Idea! Will you be making up an imagi-nation for the Americans or will it be Americans invading imaginary banana republics.

    -Eli

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can't speak for how Mark intends to handle it obviously, but I had to wrestle with this too for mine.

    There are several examples of US involvement in the area in real life, so I just have the US 'overseeing' my island. If things get too out of hand, or becomes imbalanced for other reasons, then there is scope for the US to intervene, in one form or another, to allow me get back on track.

    I thought about an imagi-USA, but decided against it in the end. As I move into the 50's & 60's though, there'll be more of a directly active role for the US though, which I'll morph into a US backed client state post-Cuban missile crisis.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Definitely USofA Eli - Halls of Montezuma playing in the background, Robert Taylor as the Sergeant, Steve McQueen the Bosuns Mate....

    Cheers
    Mark

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mark,

    There you go again with the stereotyping of us poor, innocent Americans. I mean, when have we ever painted an untrue picture of any of the worlds other peoples :)

    Seriously though, sounds like a totally fun setup.

    -Eli

    ReplyDelete
  8. What's wrong with stereotypes... John Wayne et al were a fundamental part of my life experience, are you going to shatter my illusions of what Americans are like? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Alright, but I get to beleive that all Brits are like Benny Hill, Monty Python and Lister from Red Dwarf then :)

    -Eli

    ReplyDelete
  10. As long as you don't think we're all like Hugh Grant, or talk like Dick Van Dyke in 'Mary Poppins', I could pretty much live with any stereotype you offered. :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. "Um-diddle-diddle-umdiddleye
    Um-diddle-diddle-umdiddleye"

    All stand for the Upper Bongovia National Anthem!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh... so who has "Shstep in toime" as theirs then? :S

    ReplyDelete