Another BCW Question...

[Doc Twilight]

Whilst trawling around for some unique ideas for BCW factions/troops, I remembered my collection of Anglo-Saxons, and my (admitted) fondness for Harald II and his boys.

So, a question for you British types, and I know this may be a sensitive issue, but I'm truely ignorant of the current situation. Would it be offensive if I went with a Neo-Wessex themed force or militia, or would that have too many shades of "White Supremacism" (which is not my intent)? I was thinking something along period uniform lines, but with a lot of pre-Hastings era British iconography. Perhaps they'd be Mercian nationalists, Idunno, still throwing things against the wall to see what sticks.

I know this is a bit off the wall, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, as I do plan to play with a variety of folks, swap ideas online, etc, and I'd rather not end up being "that guy with the Neo-Nazi blokes."

My primary opponent for the period (others are interested, but haven't come up with any ideas yet) is very keen on doing up some Socialists as opponents. I also have a Jacobite force in in mind, but I haven't yet found the right figs (that's part of the reason I'm trying to find Highlanders in gasmasks, have also thought about maybe converting some Black and Tans, though the idea is somewhat painfully ironic.)


-Doc

[keeper]

For me, it would be less of a problem than a rise to power of the BUF, or the soviets sending troops to Liverpool to help with the seige

It is essentially a fantasy world, so if you want Wessex nationalists, as an Englishman from the Danelaw, I say go for it.  Much less contentious than a lot of other issue of the period   You might also want to look at one of the named militias, like the Somerset Freedom Fighters, as a model for a militia with similar aims.

[Mad Carew Snr]

I haven't read the background so I don't know the "History", but it sounds like a good idea to me - the area covered by "Wessex" would be pretty conservative I would have thought. I doubt that there were many non-whites in Britain in 1938 but there were certainly far-Right sympathisers. 
I'm intrigued by this project but am trying very hard not to get involved!!!

[Lowtardog]

One avenue to take would be to set up Wessex as the Ture line to the throne rivals for the Germanic Windsors

[Plynkes]

I think both Jacobites and pre-conquest Saxon-based factions are frankly a bit fanciful. These are the kind of things that people love to be all nostalgic over and have whimsical (perhaps literary) fantasies about, but I really can't see anyone actually taking up arms in support of such outmoded (and to be honest irrelevant) causes in the 20th Century. But I suppose it's a matter of taste, and it's your game.

How about a Richard III Society armed militia too, while you're about it? 

[Cory]

Civl wars though are full of small groups using the chaos as an opportunity to get even with neighbors for slights real and imagined and the sides or mascots they choose often have more to do with opportunity than ideology, especially when the real destruction hasn't hit home yet. Drunken rowdies proclaiming loyalty to a long gone lineage plays well into this until the day one of the real heavyweights shows up.

The skirmish nature many are using for the AVBCW tends to support this kind of microcosm focus.

[Doc Twilight]

I think both Jacobites and pre-conquest Saxon-based factions are frankly a bit fanciful. These are the kind of things that people love to be all nostalgic over and have whimsical (perhaps literary) fantasies about, but I really can't see anyone actually taking up arms in support of such outmoded (and to be honest irrelevant) causes in the 20th Century. But I suppose it's a matter of taste, and it's your game.

How about a Richard III Society armed militia too, while you're about it? 

Given that there are still Jacobite sentiments in certain parts of the world today, I don't think I'd dismiss that part of the equation for a politically divided England. Certainly more support for that than a Richard III Society... and so far as I know, Richard III didn't have any living descendents/heirs. Why, such a concept is almost as ridiculous as replacing a legitimate heir with a distant German relative of questionable sanity because the political powers that be have such a virulent hatred of Catholicism... 

At any rate, the concept of a British Civil War in the 1930s isn't exactly strict history anyway. All a bit of fun, mixed with the darker pages of the history of that era! I mean, you could even theoretically have somebody claiming to be Arthur, returned to save the kingdom. Those were strange times.

-Doc

[paul c]

I don't think a Wessex faction is any more pro-nazi than producing a BUF force. The former is pretend; the latter really existed and had dire plans for the jewish population of Britain. So go ahead; personally, I'm trying to stay within the bounds of possible historic developments with my People's Front force, but its only a game...

[fastolfrus]

Not overly certain about the Wessex idea, I suspect as a concept it's a bit more modern, for the 1930s county boundaries (and county rivalries) would be stronger than some loosely defined region - some county rivalries are still strong : look at cricket.
Rural communities might also have strong bonds towards landed families - although this loyalty was probably weakened after the Great War, but some families still held a lot of influence. In some parts of the country they still do, but mainly the less industrialised areas, the millowners and factory managers were the new nobility of the towns and cities, but big houses such as Chatsworth, Harewood, Alnwick, Castle Howard, Wilton, Beaulieu etc still governed quite large estates.