The Balkans in 1900 - The Idea begins to take Shape

Above is a rather handy map of the Balkans in 1900 which will be the era of my forthcoming project. The essential difference between 1900 and the war in 1912 is that it was pretty much a free for all in respect of who could potentially be fighting who - all the while being mindful of the Great Powers stepping in. In 1912 initially it was everybody versus the Turks until after they were beaten when Bulgaria became the villain of choice. The politics of the era were truly Byzantine in their complexity but there was one consistent fact that influenced most national agendas - that being the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire and the jockeying for pole position to pick up the inevitable pieces. Most of the European nations of the region had their own ideas of exactly what that wanted in terms of territory which led to much in the way of petty squabbling, sabre rattling and political brinkmanship.

From a gaming perspective the period has not only the attraction of some truly exotic and colourful troop types but also everybody fought everybody at some point so there should be no problem organising a battle! The equipment in use would vary from the most modern (in very small quantities) to some quite antiquated kit from as far back as the middle years of the 19th century. At the present time I have both the Turks and the Bulgarians but will also be acquiring the Greeks, Serbians and Montenegrens in due course. The armies are sized at what can best be described as double sized DBA - roughly 24 to 30 bases with regular infantry based in 3s, cavalry and light troops in 2s and guns etc with 3 gunners for field artillery and 4 for heavy. The bases will have 40mm frontages and will be for use on my Hexon terrain.

The naval side will of course feature and the models will be scratch built to fit in with my Hexon 'sea' tiles so the biggest ship will be around 3 and a half inches long and of course, this will mean Victorian liveried pre-dreadnoughts.

I have a useful map of the region for the naval side from the Great War at Sea Mediterranean boardgame. The rules for this game also feature a nice strategic movement system that may be called upon should the need arise. The Balkan fleets will be larger than they were historically but only to give an extra dimension to the action - my current thinking is to have 15 to 20 year old cast offs from the Great Powers polished up and sold at a knock down price to whatever power wanted them ("One careful owner who only used it for reviews, honest guv'nor!").

As mentioned previously, I am going away for a week at the end the month to Corfu and so I intend to plan the project in much greater detail whilst I am soaking my feet in Ouzo....;-)