// In which we discuss names in games and playing linguistic tricks//
There have been a few comments about the...um..imaginative names used in the current fictional campaign and the image-nation setting of Tattemberg and the Duchy of Gallia. I thought it might be of interest to recap on what we know so far, how I have derived some of the names and my general approach to such matters when adding some colour to the games so that they are that bit more interesting to play, write about and (hopefully) to enjoy vicariously as a reader.
Firstly, let's be clear that the campaign and the wider setting are not all thoroughly thought out in advance. I'm not writing a novel here, but finding the glitter to sprinkle over my gaming and much is only worked out as and when it is needed. I sometimes wonder if people think I have notebooks and folders full of maps and character biographies prepared. Be assured I don't and nor do you if you want to try something similar. Keep it fun, keep it flexible and just do what you enjoy.
//Nations//
So, what is Tattemberg? It is a small German state somewhere poorly defined in the south-west of that group of nations, but probably overlapping the real stated of Baden-Wurttemberg with Switzerland lying to the south and France to the west. The border setting allows for lots of potential, fictional clashes that can mirror those seen historically or let us explore "what ifs". The name was not the first thing I determined, although ending in -burg was pretty much on the cards. When considering what the culture and nature of the country would be a few ideas coalesced. First among these was the pilsner springs that would give the country one of it key exports (inspired by capturing real ale mines in an article "How to be a Doctor Who Villian", from Dr Who Monthly back in 1986-ish"). These are clearly a ridiculous concept but do offer a target for invasion, a consequence to blockade of trade, an excuse for "wagon train" scenarios and so on. I've more recently added the praline mines, mostly to give an excuse each December to do something Christmas themed. I wanted the possibility of British styled troops to be able to feature in games. Obviously a British expeditionary force can be crowbarred in whenever I want and it isn't much of a stretch to include Hanoverians either. These don't quite fit the cartoonish nature of the image-nation though, so I'd also like an in-setting British analogue. This will ultimately be something like the Duchy of Grand Fenwick from the Peter Sellers movies "The Mouse Who Roared" and "The Mouse on the Moon". For such an enclave to exist in south western Germany there was a need to transplant some British aristocracy at some point in the past, so I dreamt up Sir George Trinkett who fled his homeland at the end of the English Civil War. With such a name he was clearly the inspiration for a new national export...trinketts; carved wooden novelties stocking shelves of shops all around Europe. These trinkets in turn led to a concept of a nation exporting items regarded as "cheap tat" and hence that appellation having its root in the name of the country, giving us Tat..'something'..burg. This was Tattemburg born, with the outline of some key aspects of the country's resources and an inescapable geography dominated by rivers, mountains and forests.
The Tattemberger's main opponents are unsurprisingly a French analogue. Using Gallia as a name is hardly the greatest stretch of the imagination but it gives little room for misunderstanding. So far I have made Gallia a duchy within France itself rather than a totally stand-alone nation, but other details have yet to be determined as there really hasn't been much need to do so up to now. I'm entirely confident this will develop further, most likely if Tattemberg launch a counter-offensive and I need to explore the geography west of the Rhine.
I have then the basic setting I wanted to allow battles in a European setting between the growing collections of AWI Hessians and French.
//Names//
When working out names for units and characters there are various starting points.
Some take British words or expressions and transform them through spelling to become something sounding more "germanic" or "French". An obvious example from Trinket War games is the Fusilier Regiment Kodenchypz which is a pretty unsubtle play on cod and chips.
Accompanying Kodenchypz are further units with names derived from chip shop menu items. The Schlangewurst fusiliers are named after a snake/sausage (stop sniggering at the back), I'm sure that Gallia may produce a more saveloy-ish version if pushed. The Bratensosse jager are the gravy option preferred by some. I prefer curry sauce with my chips but I think using this as a name will require a colonial campaign for Tattemberg. Lastly in this brigade are the Grenadiers von Fleishkuchen (meat pie) and artillery von Boomingen which I hope needs little explanation. In most cases this was just a case of using Google Translate to work on the local takeaway menu and come up with something suitable that might just be a real German name if you don't take it at all seriously.
In a similar vein, when adding the light infantry battalion we moved away from the chip shop and prefer chicken in a bun...Hahnchinabun if you squint a bit and with some thanks to a Mr CMOT Dibbler of Ankh-Morpork.
The Tattemburg cavalry are this far not quite so twisted in their naming. The first dragoon regiment are named Schwarzwald after the Balck forest and the Gelbvogel (yellow bird) hussars reflect their bright uniforms. Latterly we have seen the dismounted Weisspferd (white horse) dragoons, partly to explain any the Brunswick symbol on their flag.
For the opening battle of the current campaign I needed a commander and his personal unit of musketeers. Rather than a humorous translation, this time I looked to the silver screen and pinched the name Von Trapp from "The Sound of Music". Not everything needs to be a joke, it just needs to be memorable and feel in keeping with the developing picture of the army and nation.
Coming up to date for Tattemberg we have recently met some new officers:
Von Kodenchypz himself is the inhaler of the regiment bearing his name, so took little work to find his way into the order of battle. On the right wing we find von Falkensteyn, a play on Hawkstone to reflect my tipple on that day, but tweaked so the second part of the name invoked the drinking vessel as well as its content - it is quite pleasing when a play on word works two ways. Commanding the cavalry we found von Bittert; "bitter" being either another beer reference or a comment on his character. Lastly, commanding at the current battle we have Kurzenpilz, or "short mushroom" which was the best of several translations related to toadstool (look at his scenic base...) that I tried out.
Moving over to the Gallians, what do we have?
At the current battle we have Croquaumerde in charge. He is clearly a "crock of sh!t" and certainly memorable. Beneath him are two infantry commanders, Vipernoir and Cheri (Blackadder and Darling for fans of Blackadder goes Forth) and the cavalry commander Boudin. His name translates as blood sausage. I wanted something suitable for a hussar commander and tried various alternatives relating to blood and thinner before settling on this. The units commanded include the hussars d'Etranger (foreign hussars) which are quite close to the historical French legions such as Lauzun's and demonstrate that the Gallians have a similarly straightforward approach to naming cavalry units as Tattemberg. The other Gallian cavalry unit we have seen so far are the Dragoons d'Baguette and it is likely that further mounted units may also find their names on the bakery shelves...d'Levain perhaps for fans of sourdough?
The Gallian infantry have seen yet more use of Google Translate to find inspiration from English words. For the "German' infantry analogue to the real Deuxpont/Zweibrucke Regiment I wanted another combination of a number and a geographic feature. Instead of two bridges I thought of the Six Hills junction on the A46 that drive close to an my commute to work and thus was born the Sechshugel Regiment in their sky blue coats and yellow facings. They were commanded at the recent battle by Major Mantelwenden, or turn-coat to reflect germans in French service.
In similar uniforms I also have some Gallian light infantry who have appeared as the Chasseurs d'Alsace and the Chasseurs d'Poulet. The former is a bit unimaginative, reflecting real world geography whereas the second is a bit more on the jokey side for fans of French cuisine...chicken chasseurs if you need it explaining...
Lastly I needed names for my two white-coated Gallian regiments at the current battle. The Clafoutis Regiment came about simply because I really like the word (and the dessert dish) and it sort of sound like it could be a real place even if I'm pretty sure it isn't. The word just has the right sort of cadence. The fact that we have Cheri commanding the Clafoutis regiment was really not planned, but once I noticed it I felt really clever :-) The other regiment became the Chatgues because for some reason Catford seemed to fit the bill even if I have no idea why!
I have still to come up with a suitable name for the Gallian artillery, so that's something to work on soon.
//Campaign place names//
To round off, we have the names in he current campaign. As the underlying purpose is to reopen pilsner exports, a beer-related name seems in order so Vierecks... (Four X, or XXXX) seems a good route for local place names...it's a name, I'm not offering a critique on the real world product. Speaking of which, Castlemaine could lead us to castle + main, so maybe, Hauptburg? Put a pin in that, it might make an appearance very soon.
Extending from this root name we find ourselves in the Four X valley, or Viereckstal, where we find a central town with a bridge and crossroads for which Vierecksbrucke seems an ideal description. The only other features I have really needed to name so far are the smaller town to the south east and the river. These again follow the theme of amber nectars (which would be something like bernsteinnektar) and we have Flaschendorf - bottle town and the river Schwachwasser - weak water; believe me the alternatives you may think of for the river just are too obvious or don't really work at all...
I think for now that covers most of the names I've used so far. I might have missed a couple. In general though there will be more liberal translations, misspellings and the occasional use of character names from film and TV.
Hopefully that all made sense and you don't have a migraine from rolling your eyes. Good luck if you go down this rabbit hole. It is a lot of fun and there are plenty of other bloggers and content creators who are better than me at dreaming these things up, so look around. That Rich Clark at TFL has a very naughty mind!
Very creative certainly makes for colourful campaigns.
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