Wargaming Postman Pat and Thomas the Tank Engine

[admiraldick]

I thought might get your attention.

Recently two factors have been playing on my mind. For a while I've been interested in looking into A Very British Civil War as I really like the idea of alternative history in that period. Also, I've got a two year old daughter, and so am obliged to watch a certain amount of children's television (there's only so much Deadwood and Black Sails I can watch with the little one before my wife tells me off). It seemed to me that some unholy combination of the two might just be possible and entertaining.

Postman Pat is set in a village which at the time was called Garner Bridge, in Greendale, in the (real) South Lakes, and Thomas the Tank Engine on the imaginary island of Sodor, just a stone's throw away into the Irish Sea. We know from the Railway Series that Sodor is very well serviced by trains presumably for its industry making it a potential strategic asset, and Greendale would be a natural gateway to defend it.

The more I thought about it the more entertaining the idea seemed to me, but I have no real understanding of the game, the time period and only limited knowledge of the inspirational source material. So naturally I turn to the one place on the internet where I know I can find advice on just about any kind of wargaming.

Has anyone here had much experience with A Very British Civil War? Is it worth a punt or are there better systems out there? Has anyone tried alternative geography settings? Or maybe even going so far as having tried to replicate Postman Pat and Thomas the Tank Engine specifically? Or have you just read through this post and feel that you want to tell me its a brilliant/stupid idea?

I'd love to hear what you guys think.

[paul c]

I've been involved in VBCW from quite early on and it was an attempt to develop an alternative history setting, for war gamers who were tired of the increasingly prescriptive nature of some war-games rules and approaches. It was based on late 1930s, so weapons that did not exist in 1938 (tiger tanks, AK47s etc) couldn't be fielded. But it was always very open minded and tolerant, within a fairly credible time-line, and there is no set of official rules or figures that must be used. A few of us use a set called  "Went the Day Well?" VBCW has been going for a few years now, and speaking personally, I think sometimes the games/armies have been become too kitsch and silly, but "each to their own". The best place to find out more is on the VBCF forum; I'm told its bad manners to link to other forums, but goggling it will be easily enough.  I have no idea how you war game with Postman Pat or Thomas...

[fastolfrus]

Sodor was a campaign game setting in a magazine a couple of years ago (? Ragnarok from SFSFW?)

[FramFramson]

There's also this:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=44947.0

 

[Arlequín]

Like any VBCW setting, the devil is in the detail and there is a fair bit of it on the two respective settings online. Treat it as you would a historical period and you can't go wrong.

 

I'm told its bad manners to link to other forums...

Typically I would agree with you in a general sense (i.e. posting purely to advertise another forum), but where it's for the benefit of a member on a particular topic and things like that, it seems churlish not to point people in the right direction.

Besides many people here are members of both in any case and I'm sure LAF benefits quid pro quo. 

http://vbcf.freeforums.org/

[Etranger]

Somewhere on the web there's an account of the gallant defence of Sodor against the invading Fallshirmjager. Thomas is a very heroic little engine.

[jp1885]

VBCW is my genre of choice, so I'm biased 
Your best bet is to join the Very British Civil Forum, and take a look at the VBCW miniatures guide linked in my signature below.

[Johnno]

Don't forget about Fireman Sam!!

[6milPhil]

Consider a visit to: http://vbcf.freeforums.org/index.php

Don't forget about Fireman Sam!!

Damn communist!

[Eric the Shed]

seconded from a recent convert who doesn't do silly armies

[admiraldick]

Thanks for all your responses. Looks like I will have to take a look over at the VBCW forum, if its half as good as you guys say it is.

I'm not particularly interested in 'silly' armies either. If I was going to set a campaign there and build terrain for it it would be a more realistic setting than you would see in the children's shows. the links would be made through reference and naming, rather than looking anything like their namesakes. Thomas and friends would not have those ridiculous moon faces, and would be based on suitable engines for the period. the commanding officer of the regiment on Sodor would be a Hatt (one of the Fat Controller's antecedents).

Equally, Postman Pat would not feature in it, but his grandfather might. (I saw an episode once where reference was made to 'Grandad Clifton' being the first postman in Greendale and thought it might be humorous to allude to him with one of the low ranking officers, who, having fought in the Great War and then this civil war, decided he was sick of conflict and planned to retire to a job that had no adventure at all). There might be a Scottish contingent with a few from the Goggins clan in it who would later settle in the area and raise families. other family names could easily be worked into the units without any trouble.

I'd much rather that upon seeing the terrain and miniatures one could almost imagine them to be the 'real' people and locations that the TV shows are based on.

[Elk101]

As you say, the engines could be regular period engines but with character names from the show painted in the character liveries. You could always tweak them if you thought the character names were a bit twee: The Persivalus, The Henry V, The Edward IV, The Thomas Becket, The James I, The General Gordon, The Emmeline Pankhurst, The Tobias Smollett,  etc. The place names need not change at all.

I like your thinking with a Greendale setting.

[admiraldick]

@Elk101 - That is genius! I had never thought of 'Thomas' being a nickname. That makes so much sense.

I can see that I'm going to have to take this project seriously from now on. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of research into the shows and trying to design appropriate terrain and source suitable miniatures.

Oh, and learning how to play the game...

[Emir of Askaristan]

I was involved in setting up some of the campaign background for Scotland in the first few source books.

My own campaigns borrowed directly from actual events in the 30's in NE Scotland and had characters based on real individuals. However I drew upon the first series of Civil Wars (Bridge of Dee 1639) and entanglements involving Mary Queen of Scots (Corriche 1562). My campaigns drew more from the actual SCW than stopping for tea at 11 - including the carpet bombing of a village on Deeside and were much darker than some of the other games on the forum at that time.

I had a lot of fun putting things together and that was the whole point - you can make of the "period" what you will. The "Kit" is ace, lots of 30's vehicles and a mix of WW1 and very early WW2 equipment, the last biplanes, etc.

As for Pat.....have you seen Mr Enfield's interpretation.....

[Arlequín]

Children's stories usually have their basis in real events, people and places, so reverse-engineering them to create 'adult' versions need not be sniffed at. I did not assume that the OP was going to have a 'real' talking engine... just use the setting and names, in the same way as I might use Trumpton, Chigley and Camberwick Green if I was to do something similar.

Depending on your age, the various children's settings are often more familiar and real to players than any real '30s locale... just as Walmington-on-Sea has provided the backdrop to a lot of WWII 'Sealion' settings.