British have name their island Vectis

The island of New Londinium has been named by her Majesty Queen Victoria.  The two ports on the island have been name by the commander of the expedition.

The large Port directly across from the Peninsular shall be called Durnovia. The Port on the opposite shore will be called Isca.   As I write this there is a small expedition landing in the bay.  This base camp will be called Magnis.  

We are now crossing the island from Durnovia to Isca.  Road construction has started to link the to ports.  After which the island will be explored to it fullest.

God save the Queen.

G

Finally Finished the Map!

Behold below the finished terrain map of Neulandia!

It is Magnificent! (or at least I think so)

I have yet to section off the land for movement purposes but that is much easier than concocting a continent and trying to construct some sort of coherent terrain. Players can see what is visible from shore/ship and areas where some local knowledge has come about through casual contact with the natives. Certain areas are not completely obscured, players can feel free to withdraw/amend/or change entirely their previous claims based on a reassessment of the land. The yellow dots represent significant cities. Players are allowed to claim one as the base of their colony. It comes with the adjoining zone. They will be allowed to claim two zones as the basis of the colony. I suggest that they are directly adjacent to (or at least very nearby) to the city. The scale is 50 miles to the inch on the map, the board that it is painted on is 25 inches across, to give a sense of scale.

A Mexicanish Field Force

It seems that the Emperor won't trouble himself to annotate the photos so I publish them here without comment

 

America is heard from!

Gentlemen,

It is my great honor to submit to you, the Council of Great Powers, this referendum on the location, and purpose, for the Expedition of These United States to the continent of Daftrica, so recently voted upon by the Congress.

IHMN for special ops.

Anton,  I have all three volumes of the rules.  They are very simple. Plus there are more than enough factions listed in the books.  They all are ready made to play.  My team plan is made of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.  If you do a google on In majesty name miniatures there is a lot of interesting figures out.   Even a Spanish one called

Organizing Your Forces

Just a quick note;

     We will be using "The Men Who Would Be Kings"rules from Osprey for the larger battles. I'm still not certain if we will be using the "In Her Majesty's Name" or my Really Simple Shoot-Out Rules for small scale operations and covert skullduggery.

     Be that as it may, for the campaign we are not constrained any of the army list limitations. If you are so inclined you may have an army that consists entirely of Regular Cavalry and Well-drilled Artillery. This is one of the aspects that I like best about a campaign, the struggle to match your army and style of play against different enemies and operational environments.

      If this changes anyone's thoughts on their army composition feel free to change your list and re-post it.

More to the Emperor's Liking????

         With the Emperor of Mexico demanding straight lines, and the unseemly squabble resulting from such, the Kaiser has revised his claim. We hope that this revised claim will more suit the Emperor's fetish to rectilinear draftsmanship. Remember, everything inside the red line is ours now, no touching!

 

we also understand that this seem a bit over the top 

but this claim is more in keeping with the rights that should attend 

upon a ruler as wonderful as our Kaiser!!!!

Prussia Orientalis

    With deference and decorum, unlike the brash and inconsiderate remonstrations of the British and Mexicans, The Prussian Empire would like to submit the area that it would like to secure as its Zone of Interest upon of the newly opened continent of Neulandia. One will instantly notice the modest and considerate dimensions of this claim in contrast to the outlandish demands of the other Powers. As with all such claims they are subject to final arbitration of the Council of Great Powers.

The Mexicanish Column

Los Hidalgos

A Troop, Los Coraceros del Poder Supremo {S} (Unmotivated Regular Cav on Penny Farthings) 5pts
B Troop, Los Presidials de Agua Caliente {M} (Irregular cavalry with modern Carbines) 5 pts
C Troop, Los Presidials de Altiplano {M} (Irregular cavalry with modern Carbines) 5 pts
D Troop, Los Presidials de Teotihuacan {M} (Irregular cavalry with modern Carbines) 5 pts
F Troop, Los Federales de Tlaxcala {M} (Tribal Cavalry) 3 pts

Los Soldados

B Company, Second Platoon, 11th Line Regiment {S} (Unenthusiastic Regulars)  5 pts
B Company, Fourth Platoon, 13th Line Regiment {S} (Unenthusiastic Regulars)  5 pts
B Company, First Platoon, 2nd Line Regiment {M} (Fierce Tribal Infantry)  4 pts
B Company, Third Platoon, 4th Line Regiment {M} (Fierce Tribal Infantry)  4 pts
E Troop, Los Californios {M} (Tribal Cavalry)  3 pts
G Company, Second Line Artillery Battery {S} (Poorly served guns)  4 pts
H Company, Second Line Artillery Battery {S} (Poorly served guns)  4 pts

8 Supply Wagons

Total 60 points

A note on Ethnicity, {S} = Spanish, {M} = Mexican

Her Majesty's expedition forces

 With the blessings of Queen Victoria to explore the new land mass known as Neulanida.  The battalion known as Blood tea drinkers have been order to explore and colonize Neulandia in the name of the Queen.  The battalion has seen action in Africa, China, Afghanistan and other uncivilized hell holes.   Lead by some banished leaders from a afghan civil war.  This is their chance to redeem their lost honor.  Having sailed from Australia in the finest British warships.  They have landed on a island which has been named  New Londinium.    From which they set forth to Mainland of Neulanida.  The small bay which was discovered was named Lester. 

The battalion is may up of the following units.

 2 x Regular infantry units
 1 x Unenthusiastic regular infantry unit
 1 x Regular cavalry
 1 x pom-pom gun regular
 1 x poorly drilled field piece
 3 x irregular infantry ( Commonwealth rejects)
 2 x tribal infantry units
 1 x tribal cavalry
 6 x supply wagons

God save the Queen.  Now where is my damn rum rations....


Again with is awaitng approval from the group and the game master.

Anouncing the New Mexicanish Audiencia!

January 14, 2017

His Most Catholic Majesty, Emperor Maximilliano I, wishes to announce that he claims the souls of all residents of Neulandia in the name of Mother Church.  This claim carries the full weight of Papal Bula as expressed in the Second Treaty of Tordesillas.  However, having commissioned a proper artistic rendition of the region by court artist Georges Seurat (shown above); His Most Catholic Majesty finds the indicated area to be reminiscent of certain regions in Baja California and thus will accept this as the headquarters of both the Mexicanish Empire in Neulandia and the Catholic Missionary effort in the same.  Henceforth, the region shall be known as The Audiencia of Cacatormenta, and all residents shall be known as "los Cacatormentatos".

Imperator voluntas fiat

The tea drinkers claim the following area

With your permission John.   I would like to claim the following areas.  Have sent you an mail about what I'm doing....

The Map!

Or at least its beginning. One of the worst aspects of creating a whole continent is that I am the only person that gets to see the whole map until it has been completely explored and the results published. However, coastlines are hard to hide, so the players will get the chance to see where the edges are at least. Below you will find the rough draft of the map with the coastlines laid out and the oceans painted in. I will complete the map but it will not be displayed in its entirety until exploration has been completed. Remember that this is postulated as a very large peninsula thrust northward from Antarctica.

the new continent, 
the large island on the right is about the size of the Prussian Empire,
the small one on the bottom left is the size of the British Isles

this is what the map of Daftrica looked like in its final form

       The mistake I made in the last campaign was letting the players see the entire map. This gave them far too much information and made planning far too easy. I should have secured the map and given the players only this:

you can imagine how this would have changed their planning

Manouvering on the Map

    Campaign turns are weekly. There are eight weeks in a campaign season. As you are operating in an undeveloped countryside you will have to plan your entire campaign season from the start, minor variations to take advantage of/recover from tactical situations are allowed but are very limited. All-mounted forces will be given more leeway to follow-up or retreat.

     You will find the map divided into areas. Your troops will move from area to area each week; infantry moving two areas under normal circumstances, cavalry moving three. You may force-march once every third week but this will incur serious attrition. Your campaign plan with consist of downloading your local map, saving it as a PNG or BMP file, and then drawing on it in Paint or some equivalent program.

     You will mark your intended path and any significant actions you intend to undertake (bridge-building, sieges etc). Against nomadic opponents you are allowed to write orders such as "Pursue enemy contact" but under all other circumstances you are moving in a known direction with a stated objective.; "Advance to Khartoum and lift the siege". Random circumstances may speed or retard your movements (you find the path particularly easy, the weather is better than expected, would speed your march, on the other hand dry wells or an unexpected patch of marshy ground would slow things down).

     As a picture is worth a thousand words I will illustrate this idea. The orders are as follows; "The army will march north on the west side to the Yellow River, crossing the river above the city of Pie Wie and then march south on the east side of the river to lay siege to the city of Pie Wie. The Naval units will provide close inshore support and protect the bridging operation. They will then undertake to bombard the city as the commander of the land forces requests".

 

this shows my old colony from the Daftrica campaign, 

the bright green line is the land force, the orange line is the naval units

     As can be seen, the land forces will march across open countryside for three spaces, construct a temporary bridge to gain access to the eastern shore and the attack the city from the north. The red dotted lines indicate the areas marched through. Thus, the troops will march for a week (two areas), spend a half-week marching and a half-week beginning to bridge the river (one area and beginning an engineering operation)  finish the bridge and march one area (a half-week each) and then march south and invest the city (the balance of the campaign season). Enough time was left to accomplish the mission (we hope!) and to deal with unexpected developments.

     Following this format will allow us to complete a campaign season in one longish gaming session for each player and will help create a unified idea of the campaign in the player's mind. It will also commit players to a plan of action and prevent opportunistic changes based on out-of-sequence knowledge of the results of another player's battles.