C18th Century

I have been using the Maurice rules for my C18th battles for some time now.
They are an incredible set of rules, using a card system for a lot of the feel of the period.
I'm only miffed that, because of the card play, it's difficult to play solo - you can't play poker solo, can you?

Anyway, I hope to post more on this subject - with photos - very soon, as I have made the laborious leap from 2 x 15mm SYW in Flanders armies (Prussian & French) to 2 x 10mm WAS in Italy armies (Spanish & Austrian) with more to come - French on the way, Pragmatic Army next (possibly Jacobites to fight the Hanoverians in Britain?) Prussian & Russian to follow, with the Ottoman Empire as the cherry on top...

Maurice Lite rules are available free on t'internet but in their full glory they are MAGNIFICENT!
Trust me, I'll prove it anon...

Europa in RRtK

Europa      

This is my fantasy campaign world. It is set in fictional High Middle Ages where the historical widespread use of Magic has warped the development of the nations in the known world.

Some nations have developed more slowly than in our reality, others more quickly.

The discovery of gunpowder was kept a jealously guarded secret, controlled by The Guild of Artillery, a mercenary organisation, based in the Alps, who also supply the Swiss Mercenaries with primitive Hand- Gonnes. Only the Chinese, who have been taken over completely by the Golden Horde have their own form of Artillery, in the form of Rockets.

In this world, the Roman Empire is long gone, its last remnants smashed by the rise of Islam. Once an mighty unified empire, the massive edifice of Islam has a broken up into three Allied realms, albeit under the fiction of an Empire.

In the west, the Almohad Provinces are comprised of al-Andalus in the south of Spain & the northern coast of Africa, up to Tunis & the borders of the Ayyubid Sultanate, which reach to Jerusalem, where the eastern Emirate of the Seljuqs, Abbasids & Arabians, holding the sacred sites, dominate. 

Byzantium has long been overrun & the Balkans Greece & Bulgaria are now part of the Seljuq Emirates

The Seljuqs now border Krakovia & Muscovy in the north & the Golden Horde in the east.

The Almohads border Castellia to the north & the Papal States across the Mediterranean.

The three regions of Islam, in theory, constitute the Islamic Empire, but they act separately. 

The Sultanate comprises the main central region & is ruled by the Sultan. The other two Emirates are technically parts of the Empire but have a large degree of autonomy & wage war independently. The only limit on them is that they will not attack each other or the Sultan. The exception to this is Civil War under the rules for Succession.

It is assumed that the Sultan will have declared his successor prior to his death. This is the “rightful” heir but there is a chance that there is another claimant to the throne. On the death of the Sultan, roll 1d6 for each of the other two nations. If a 6 is rolled by either or both, they are assumed to declared themselves Sultan & the Empire will plunge into Civil War. The “rightful” heir will always use the Sultanates’ Army with the Rebel Sultans(s) using in their respective, Emirate armies.

Krakovia is a conglomeration of Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia & Hungary.

Muscovy rules the Russian Duchies.

Altengard regards itself as an Empire, but in reality is a confederation of city states, duchies, principalities & such, each of which elects an “Emperor”. It covers, roughly, the area of our Holy Roman Empire, the German states, Switzerland & Northern Italy.

The Pope now rules all of the rest of Italy, Corsica, Sardinia & Sicily, as the Papal States. 

There is tension between the use of Magic & Technology in this universe & when the possibility of magical items or other summonings are introduced, the absence of non-human races does not seem a problem.

RRtK modifications

Many months later, I have rekindled my desire to fight RRtK - I have 3 lifetimes of lead ready to be painted & incorporated into my gaming life.

The main thing is to mine my old Hordes of the Things Armies for any useful models.

I decided to modify RRtK's WInd Maidens as Sky Riders, using Kallistra's Ratman Aerial (I think) as an aerial fleet (complete with ping-pong ball balloon) to flesh out the Mercenaries.

I nicked a few of the (let's be honest 12mm) Kallistra models, particularly the War Wagons for my "Polish" Krakovia etc to bulk out my 10mm Fantasy World, which I have codified into my Europa Universe - see future posts for that.

Still want a (mainly) human universe, divergent from history as we know it around about 1,000 CE
with some Magic but a lot of Steampunk stuff thrown in too.

Good luck, I say!