The Great Antipodean Adventure - Figures, Rules & Stuff

Well the project continues!

A couple of TSOGers are looking at scratch building some period terrain already! I'll be calling on my existing terrain but am looking at buying some bibs and bobs. What would really be cool is if we could create a 1800mm by 1200mm table top filled with a Sydney city block! Having an industrial area and train station with track would also be useful for scenarios so lots to do!

I'll be drawing from figures from my various collections for this Campaign as well as buying some new ones. I hope every TSOGer will be able to build up a force so we can get some really big games happening! The 'alternate history' will call for citizen 'armies' so I envisage except for Government forces most of the figures will be in civilian dress. So a figure that serves as a member of a Union mob in one scenario can be a far right member of the New Guard in another. This is useful as building a faction will mean getting a uniformed leadership group and then backing them up with the generic citizen forces...anyway that's my thoughts and it fits with the idea of an instantaneous revolt by the people!

Below are pictures of my existing forces drawn from my VSF, WW I and WW II collections! They include many makers and a few of them like the WW I Diggers I bought already painted and have no idea what manufacturer they are from!

The masses!

More masses...

Firemen, Coppers and some brown coated fellows...could be some sort of Fascists?

World War I figures pretty spot on for period army dress...

What would a revolution be without some armed sailors making an appearance...could be supporting any side! I have some unarmed sailor from the second half of the19th Century who would probably fit in too!

Some more mixed uniform army chaps and a couple of Soviet Commissars. I think even mixing some early WW II Brits in wouldn't be too out of place!

These are some VBCW BUF figures (Warlord?) I just bought from the LAF and will make a great command group for a bloc which can they be beefed up by the civilian clad masses...

The first scenario is already planned, its a small one and will be played with various rules to determine how we go ahead in that area, it's called 'A Visit To The Governor's House' and just needs a play test. The rules I'm looking at currently are FUBAR, TW&T and The World Aflame but I will put it to the others for more suggestions! We want a skirmish set that is 'easy' allowing for the quick and 'fun' games which this genre calls for but that also can have period special rules easily incorporated.

Anyway thanks for putting up with my ramblings I just hope my fellow gamers will!!!!!

The Great Antipodean Adventure - Factions/Blocs

Well here we go fleshing out The Great Antipodean Adventure, remember this is alternate history stuff here so no rivet counters please hahahaha!

My Rather Uncivil Australian Disturbance all revolves around the Australian Constitution's 'Reserve Powers of the Crown' and how their use caused quite a stir in 1932 (again of course in 1975!). Australia in the 1930 was in the grip of the Great Depression and the Federal Government proposed and implemented the Melbourne Proposal (Premiers Plan) to pave the way to recovery! The State of NSW led by Premier Lang's Labor Government chose an alternate route known as the Lang Plan which ran contrary to what every other State moved forward with. This led to great tension between the States, the Federal and NSW's Governments and even within the NSW Labor Party itself. These tensions came to a head on the 13th of May 1932 when the NSW Governor Sir Phillip Game dismissed Lang's Government and appointed the United Australia Party's Leader Bertram Stevens as Provisional Premier. Game called for an election to be held on June 11 however within a week of the dismissal unrest had spread within the State of NSW and so began the Rather Uncivil Australian Disturbance!

Purported photograph of a mob in George St Sydney being harangued by 'leftie' Unionists!

Picture from State Library of NSW

THE FACTIONS/BLOCS

The main belligerents in The Great Antipodean Adventure are listed here. These will be the core of the factions/blocs that will be drawn upon for forces in the scenarios planned. As more information becomes known on their leaders and motivations, they will be updated. This does not rule out new groups that may arise during the course of the uprising against both the State and Federal Governments and they will be added as required. 
These should give me plenty of background for a mountain of fluff to go with the scenarios!

The Federal Government

The Australian National Government was naturally keenly interested in keeping the State of NSW in the fold and part of the youthful Australian Commonwealth.  The Australian Army at the time was small but a well trained force unrivaled in the region. It included infantry, mounted infantry, artillery and it even had a section of modern armoured tanks at its disposal. It was a formidable force but untested when it came to firing on its own citizenry!

The Prime Minister Joseph Lyons governed at the head of the United Australia Party and was not long into his first term. He wished to maintain a unified Australia in the eyes of the world so turned to his Defense Minister Sir George Foster Pearce and tasked him with quashing the rebellious factions that had emerged in Sydney and the surrounding environs as a result of Governor Game flexing his constitutional muscle. Sir Pearce a career politician in turn asked his Generals for advice...

The NSW Government
After the removal of the radical Premier Lang and his cronies the new Provisional NSW Government was led by new Premier Bertram Stevens. Stevens formed a Coalition with Michael Bruxner's Country Party and within a week of being placed in power put an indefinite hold on the election Governor Game had called for June 11 1932. This was due to the civil unrest in the streets of Sydney and his wish to allow time for the 'people' to calm down and cast their votes in a less troubled environment. His decision had the reverse effect, he was called a despot by groups pushing their own agendas and he was vilified by the Forth Estate being pilloried unmercifully!

The NSW Government was bereft of organised military forces so was reliant on its Federal counterpart for such assistance however it did have at its disposal limited State level organisations to draw upon to try and maintain the order; the Police Force, Fire Brigade etc were a pool from which they could muster 'units'. Even though makeshift these men were well disciplined and used to violent and extreme situations which would put them in good stead to face the mobs. Arms were garnered from Australian Army Arsenals.

The Anglican League

Fanatical members of the Anglican faith with a strong distrust of Republicans, Catholics, Atheists and Communists and enjoying ties to the Mother Country rallied to face off against the unruly mobs and support the NSW Provisional Government. They had an agenda though to wrest control of the State and secede from the Commonwealth!
Their leaders were instilled with religious fervour but had little real idea of the leap they were taking! Little did the League realise but they were nothing more than an unruly mob themselves, basically enthusiastic volunteers armed with everything from clubs to Lewis guns! This left these Conservatives perfectly matched with the other mobs on the streets of Sydney!

The Royalists

A small but highly motivated group of Monarchists believing the Governors actions proved the stability of a Constitutional Monarchy as a form of Government. They mobilised support amongst the Australian Royalists and soon were offering up a new NSW Constitution. They believed the time was right to invite Albert Frederick Arthur George of the House of Windsor and second in line to the British Throne to establish a new dynasty based in Sydney and lead an independent New South Wales Constitutional Monarchy.
A minor but very vocal group they included many of NSW finest gentry who held in their sway many businessmen and industrialists. They believed with such backing and resources they could quickly organise a Militia Corps the like of which could quickly dispatch the rabble and face any organised opposition.

All for Australia League
The All for Australia League was a minor Australian Political Party that was established in 1931. Its foundations lay in the popular people's movements of the Great Depression and was an alternative to many who were tired of the existing Conservative Parties. They were also considered more right wing than the mainstream Conservatives. Their leadership having connections with Prime Minister Joseph Lyons this group tended to support the Federal Government yet it was highly suspicious of the motives of the NSW Provisional Government even though both were allies a strange position indeed!
The former and popular First Australian Imperial Force General Gordon Bennett was prominent in the League and he drew Great War veterans to the ranks of the All Australia League's Volunteer Rifle Companies making them formidable!

The New Guard

The New Guard was a paramilitary right wing splinter group with a simple philosophy, defend the King and Empire and maintain a fine British social structure through strict law enforcement! The new Guard was led by Lt. Colonel Eric Campbell a First World War veteran. They willingly clashed with anyone who did not agree with their policies and even sometimes those who did!

Never large in numbers the New Guard was well funded and highly motivated. This ensured its ranks were filled with many experienced and well equipped fighters.

The Reds

The Reds were initially disjointed Union mobs fired up by their officials. Each Union/Group kept to themselves but they all had a single goal to transform NSW into the Australian Socialist Republic and use the fledgling USSR Government as its model!
Many of Australia's workers had been radicalised by the Great War, the Great Depression, poor working conditions and the sidlining of their hero Premier Jack Lang by a flunky of a foreign Monarch! It did not take much cajoling by their Union Chiefs and American Communist Harry Wicks who was in Australia consulting with the Australian Communist Party to set them on a path of social upheaval!
The initially poorly armed and organised Union mobs were rabid, unruly and unpredictable but still a force to be reckoned with as they had numbers and their fervour was infectious!
Within a week of the first riots following the Lang Government's dismissal several Soviets Commissars landed discretely in Sydney. They had decamped from the Soviet Union and arrived in Australia on Stalin's orders to Felix Dzerzhinsky's Cheka, they were to act as advisers and agitators. These men were pivotal in transforming the Union mobs into well-organised Communist Militia units.

The Australian Irish Front

There were a large number of New South Welshmen with Irish blood and the Australian Irish Front, which became jokingly referred to as the second A.I.F. consisted of a loose confederation of Catholic Irish ‘gangs’ following a charter laid down by a colourful character, Frederick Santa-Maria. Santa-Maria came to Sydney from Cork County Ireland and based himself in the Rocks area and planned to create an independent NSW which would be a prominently Catholic Australian State, however many suspected that the Australian Irish Front were more interested in profiteering than any real idealist dreams.
These gangs were comprised of brawlers, they were not well armed or organised but were more than capable when engaged in a bit of close quarters biffo!

More to come soon, the first skirmish is ready to go!