My Belle Époque project is currently stalled ... but there might be a way forward

As I have not mentioned my Belle Époque project for some time, I imagine that it will come as little or no surprise to my regular blog readers to discover that this project is currently stalled.

Now, I could come up with all sorts of valid reasons why this has happened, but to be truthful, the project has reached a point where it really should be coming together and a conclusion should be in sight, but I just could not seem to get the enthusiasm together to push things forward ... and in particular, to create the maps that I need. I had hoped that taking a break would help, but it hasn't.

So, what could I do to overcome this impasse?

What I chose to do was to begin by looking back at one of the things that inspired me to begin this project, namely, John Ruddle's garden wargames. One paragraph stood out:

'John's garden was laid out to represent six countries: Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, and Turkey, and areas that include Flanders, Africa, Arabia, and Northern Italy are regularly fought over. The actual layout was in no way geographically accurate, with the lawn acting as the 'sea', the paths as 'rivers', and the various flowerbeds and rockeries as the countries.'

My Belle Époque imagi-nations almost coincide with John's even though I have called them by different names:

• Austria = No Belle Époque project equivalent ... as yet
• France = The Republic of Burgundy
• Germany = The Kingdom of Schwarzenberg
• Great Britain = The Commonwealth of Britannia
• Turkey = Sultanate of Khakistan
• India = The Principality of Hyderapore & Emirate of Khyberistan
• North Africa = The Khedivate of Zubia & the Sultanate of Sahel
• South Africa = The Kingdom of the Obele & the Kingdom of Ashona
• Arabia = The Sultanate of Harabia
• Northern Italy = The Principality of Stalbania

Although my project is not going to be a garden wargaming one, I decided to look at the layout of our garden to see if I could get any inspiration for an imagi-world map.

A (very) rough sketch map of our garden. The house and patio are to the left.

Although the layout of our garden is not suitable for 'conversion' into a Belle Époque imagi-world map, it certainly made me think that a U-shaped layout – similar to that seen on some model railway layouts – had distinct possibilities.

A map of the famous final version of P D Hancock's Craig & Mertonford model railway layout. It took up a room that was approximately 14' 6" x 10' 6"  (4.4m x 3.20m) (© P D Hancock)

After a brief period of time – during which I entertained the idea of building a permanent or semi-permanent model railway-like terrain for the entire Belle Époque imagi-nation project – I decided that it would take up far more room than I would ever have access to, even if we moved house to a much bigger home. (It was, however, something that I would have loved to have done; in other words, to replicate a quarter-sized, indoor version of John Ruddle's garden wargames.)

So, I decided to start with a U-shaped layout for my imagi-world map and add to it.

A simple working diagram that shows the relative positions of the various imagi-nations to one another.

The result wasn't quite U-shaped, neither was it like our garden ... but the relative positions of the various countries seemed to work.

I now had a starting point for my imagi-world map ... and I began thinking of adopting a style of map for each country that is similar in style to the one that I used when I produced a version of the PORTABLE WARGAME rules that I could use to fight SHAMBATTLE-style mini-campaigns.

The map I drew for the play-test of the version of the Portable Wargame rules that I developed to fight Shambattle-style mini-campaigns.

The terrain as seen from the Blue City end of the tabletop battlefield.

The terrain as seen from the Blueburg/Red City side of the tabletop battlefield.

The terrain as seen from the Redton end of the tabletop battlefield.

I think that each imagi-nation's map could comprise a number of these 8 x 6 hex grids. For example, by using six of the hex grids it is possible to create a map that is 16 hexes x 18 hexes:

I now have a starting point from which I can now move forward with regard to the maps I need for this project ... and more importantly, my enthusiasm to do so seems to be returning.