Back to Imagi-Nations, the Kingdom of Midland

     Well, Christmas is upon us and I have begun to turn my paintbrush back to the never ending task of adding regiments to my imagi-nation armies (as yet most are still in the future, I only have Villenois' army partially complete!). With that in mind and the current drive to start on my Saxenburgers and leave off finishing Villenois for a while (I want to balance out my Catholic armies with Protestant ones...), I had another nation pop into mind. One that I originally was going to make so that I'd have a black powder/Baroque alternative to Dragon Rampant to fight the high fantasy/medieval armies of other gamers. That as yet to be discovered country was the island Kingdom of Midland. Originally I had planned on a 1690's style of army with generals becoming perriwigged fire wizards, allowing me to introduce black powder weapons as an extension of fire magic.

     Needless to say, they turned into Villenese troops and after watching a ton of Sharpe's Rifles, I'm really wanting to bring them back as my Not-British but very much like them army. Easily enough done, with redcoats etc... the only change being trading the Union Jack for a more fantasy based banner: The Scottish Unicorn quartered with the Anglo-Saxon (English) Wyvern. I might paint the troops in that duller grey of the Scottish Covenanting armies of the ECW period.... I'm still deciding. Paramount among all these thoughts is where Midland fits into the world I've already stuck the other two countries in. Saxenburg and Villenois fit very nicely in Historical Europe, with vague enough geography to exist at any point and period in European history. Villenois is in the south of France, bordering the northern Italian states, like Savoy. Saxenburg is in the heart of Germany somewhere near Prussia and Saxony proper. But what do I do with Midland? It's an island nation from a Baroque fantasy world. It has a powerful navy. It has a northern people that wear colorful cloths and speak in a drunken form of our English. And it is a kingdom that if it existed in real Europe would be quite often at odds with the real British Empire! No, the only thing for it is to rip up Villenois and Saxenburg and place them in the flat world that Midland exists in. Tableheim, once a joking concept when I first mentioned it will now become the model world in which these armies fight and war. I might even have to rework the histories of the other two nations which will be more tedious than making Midland fit in our world. For I shall have Midland and I shall have her armies for my tabletop conquests.