I have the good fortune to live less than 15 minutes drive from a very good second-hand bookshop – Falconwood Transport & Military Bookshop – that (as the name implies) specialises in military and transport books. As I had to drive past the shop on my way to do some of my regular weekend chores, and stopped off for a quick look round ... and I am very glad that I did!
In amongst the large collection of military books on the shelves I found a 1964 copy of DAS KLEINE PANZERBUCH by Dr F M von Senger und Etterlin. Amongst the vehicles featured in the Swedish section were:
In amongst the large collection of military books on the shelves I found a 1964 copy of DAS KLEINE PANZERBUCH by Dr F M von Senger und Etterlin. Amongst the vehicles featured in the Swedish section were:
- The Strv 74 tank
- The Pvkv 71 self-propelled gun
- The Ikv 103 assault gun
Skirting awfully close to Science Fiction here, which is not a bad thing, as I like SF, just saying is all.
ReplyDeletePaint it Pink,
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I don't quite understand your comment. Could you clarify it for me?
All the best,
Bob
Creating a counter factual world and making speculative works of "what if?" is the bread and butter of Science Fiction & Fantasy, and by extension of SF&F wargaming.
ReplyDeleteThere are those wargamers who deride SF&F wargaming as toyish, or whatever, but at the end of the day most games are "what if?" scenarios. Now the argument here is that one is being historical if one deploys known ORBATs, or using T&EOs. So what I was observing is that you have moved much closer to the speculative end by having Swedish vehicles in your own country, with ORBATs/T&OE of your own making. Not that dissimilar to a SF&F setting.
Paint it Pink,
ReplyDeleteNow I understand what you meant!
My feeling is that the essence of understanding history is having sufficient knowledge to ask the question 'what if ...' and to be able to provide a cogent and coherent argument. The current trend towards ‘imagi-nations’ (especially amongst 18th century wargamers) is an extension of this. What if a small principality, set in the middle of Europe had a longstanding dispute with its equally small neighbour? What sort of army would it be able to deploy? What uniforms would it wear? All I have done is to move the timescale a little closer to out own time with Opeland and Laurania.
The philosophical discussion revolves around when does fantasy become counter-factual, and when does counter-factual become science fiction. To this, I have no answer!
All the best,
Bob
Contemporary with your 'Nostalgia' Opeland: Borduria by the time of 'King Ottokar's Sceptre'.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, if slightly more far-fetched, the British Civil War...
Cheers,
Jean-Louis
Abdul666,
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right. I have a copy of 'King Ottokar's Sceptre', and the information about Borduria it contained certainly influenced some of my thinking about Opeland and Laurania.
As for the BCW ... well one of my interests is the Spanish Civil War and I recognise some very similar strands in both. I do have something like it sketched out for Laurania (the Lauranian Civil War of the 1930s) but this is still not likely to come to fuition until some time off in the future.
All the best,
Bob