I got very bored on the ferry journey yesterday so ended up jotting down some random thoughts about an AK47 based set of rules for interwar Banana Republic games. The inspiration for this came from my long forgotten ideas for an AK47 German Revolution mash up, which got as far as two army lists for the Freikorps and Spartakists that are available on the RFCM forum, if you are interested. That and some background reading that I've done on the Peru-Ecuador war of 1941, the Chaco War of 1932-35 and the various Central American 'Banana Wars' of the 1920's and 1930's, amongst other vaguely relevant things.
The idea is simply to adapt the rules as they stand to an 'imaginations' interwar setting, with new army lists and flow charts to include a right wing Dictatorship, a Nationalist Government, a left wing Peasants and Workers movement and possibly an Interventionist army (US Marines anyone?), all based on the existing stuff in the AK47 rules but with a South American twist. The other changes would mainly involve adapting the technology deployed, for example, swapping RPG's for AT rifles, obsolete WW1 tanks for 'old' tanks, adding improvised armoured cars, mounted troops and so on.
These changes wouldn't be extensive but the army lists and flow charts would require quite a bit of rewriting to add some 'banana republic' flavour to the game, with some new rules also added for special events, artillery bombardment, cavalry and even trains. The armies would be fun to assemble using Peter Pig figures of course, with plenty to choose from in the WW1, WW2, Spanish Civil War and Mexican Revolution ranges, with suitable vehicles also available from QRF and Zvezda, not to mention the 3D printing option. It would also work well in 10mm, as there are lots of useful things in the Pendraken range.
I think this would be lots of fun but it's only an idea at this stage and I have no plans to go beyond some basic rules scribbling at the moment.
As with all imagination game projects, it is certainly about background and follow through; but mostly fun. The heavy lifting as you mentioned would be the reaction charts....although maybe not as much as you think. Good luck in this; I will follow with interest.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I toyed with backdating my Imagi-Nation Latin American states to the 1920s and 30s from the "Modern" setting ( 1980s to 90s) but it remains a "what if". I was always concerned it would become too much like the SCW or Chaco war or other such conflicts.
ReplyDeleteCosta Guano, San Savatore and El Bravado remain only partly explored - I even thought about extending it backwards to the wars of Liberation in the 1800s.
There was a brief period where a few people had partly thought out Latin and South American Imagi-Nations under a loose umbrella of "El Mundo Mythico".
Neil
Sounds fascinating Neil..the imaginations angle is what makes it tick for me, that and being able to use lots of assorted interwar kit.
DeleteThe thing about Imagi-Nations is it frees you up from all the tyranny of getting things 100% correct. As long as you use some sort of consistency it works. Some people go overboard or indulge in implausible kit so as long as you rein some of that in it works. AK47 is a game of Imagi-Nations within a constained environment which is why it was so popular IMHO.
DeleteNeil
It's a good match I think, although there are subtle difference.
ReplyDeleteI like your initial ideas around this project. You could even expand the plan a little to include air (inter-war Bag the Hun) and riverine (using David Manley's River Wars rules). But it is probably best to start small with the land stuff.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I thought of doing something similar for AK47 itself but this is even better.
DeleteI am always down for imagi-nation and love the interwar era as well.
ReplyDeleteMe too!
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