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THE ANTWERP FUSILIERS
Free rules for historical wargames & fantasy games
by members of Tin Soldiers of Antwerp.

THIS PAGE IS ALWAYS UNDER CONSTRUCTION, SO PLEASE VISIT AGAIN.
The Minerva Campaign is situated in an imaginary world that resembles our own planet (timeframe around 1915), but events that took place in our world might be set at different dates or in different places in
this fictional setting, thus making any resemblance between this fiction and real history, -people, -events and -places purely a matter of imagination.

Stories by Rudi Geudens & Willie Bogaerts.

INTRODUCTION - PLEASE READ THIS FIRST.

You'll have to forgive me for not signing with my real name, nor disclose my whereabouts, but - after having read my story - I'm sure you will understand my reasons for being so secretive. I am an ordinary person with an ordinary job but with a somewhat eccentric hobby. I'm a wargamer... For those of you who need to be enlighted: I collect miniature soldiers to paint, build armies and stage miniature battles on tabletop battlefields. A somewhat strange but otherwise totally innocent passtime that has turned into a way of life, so much even that I can hardly pick up an object without thinking whether it could be converted to some miniature something of use to my hobby.

It will not come as a surprise to you then that I regularly frequent fleamarkets in search of cheap toys or trinkets to fulfill my miniature needs. About a year ago, during one of my fleamarket raids, I noticed a pile of old documents tucked away in the corner of a bookstall. Judging by the off-white paper, they had to be well over 50 years old, so I had a closer look. The pile did not only contain printed, typed and handwritten material, but some lovely old maps as well. If there is something a wargamer can't resist (beside models), it is well made maps for sure. I must have been browsing the pile for quite a while (time flies...) when the voice of the stallkeeper brought me back to earth. "Are you interested, sir?" he asked (though I won't mention here in what language this conversation took place) "I'll make a good price for you" he added. The price was ridicilously low indeed (some might disagree with that...), so I paid the man and carried the heavy cardboard box to my car, after the old gentleman had thanked me for my business and had added "There is more where this came from, please feel free to drop by again, I'm here in this very spot every week!".

After having taken the box to my car, I continued my visit to the fleamarket and picked up some nice plastic toys that would eventually end up as something completely different, and went home. The next couple of days were rather hectic and it wasn't until the end of that week that I found the time to take a closer look at the papers I had bought. Fortunately I had that day off, because - once I started reading - I just couldn't stop! At first I thought I had acquired notes and background information for some sort of novel, but soon enough I realized that the events and people described could well have been from the real world, however fantastic the story behind it sounded. I took some notes and started checking data on the internet and at the university library and - as far as I could find out - this seemed to be a real story indeed...

Very much intrigued, I decided to do two things. First, I would contact a friend of mine who is a professor at the said university to check on the age of the paper the documents are printed on. Secondly, I would once more pay a visit to the fleamarket to pick up the rest of the files. My friend told me it would take a couple of weeks before he would have the test results, but the very next Sunday I went back to the fleamarket and the old bookseller. He greeted me with a smile. "I knew you would be back" he said "Please return at noon when the market closes and I'll take you home with me to pick up the rest of the papers". So I did. Fortunately, the old gentleman (let's call him Maurice) lived only a short stretch from the marketsquare and soon a second box of documents had changed hands for some petty cash. "I'm sure I still have some more somewhere" he said "but you'll have to allow me a couple of weeks to sort through my things to find'm. You're welcome to collect'm for free. I've been sitting on them for many years, ever since the old spinster they had belonged to had passed away".


*Maurice at his bookstall.*	*The first lot of the Minerva Chronicles.*	*Maurice's spot at the fleamarket was empty...*

Again, work caught up with me and I just couldn't spare the time to explore the second box, until - about two weeks later - my professor friend phoned me to inform me that some of the paper samples I had provided him with dated from around 1910, others from 1930... You can imagine my excitement: the documents were at least genuine! Though I had made previous arrangements for the next Sunday, I cancelled these and went instead to the fleamarket, only to meet disappointment: Maurice's space was empty... I asked the guy manning the adjacent stall about Maurice and he said "I guess the old boy must be ill, he hasn't shown up for two weeks in a row now". I decided to walk the short stretch to the home of Maurice. I ringed the bell but none answered, and I was just about to return to the market when I noticed the frontdoor wasn't properly closed. I entered the building, calling Maurice from the hall, but still no answer, so I went in further. Much to my surprise, the old building - only a few weeks ago filled with all Maurice owned - was not only completely empty, but spic & span too, as if it had only recently be cleaned by an army of chambermaids.

Totally puzzled and confused I went back to the market: perhaps someone there could tell me if Maurice had been taken to hospital or someplace else? But - surely - his furniture and possessions would then still be in the house, not? I had just returned to the square, when the guy I had asked about Maurice called me. "You seem to be in demand" he joked "Just after you had left, two gentlemen in black suits with sunglasses - of all things with this overcast! - came by and informed if someone had been asking about Maurice. I thought they might be of assistance to you, so I pointed them to his house, but it seemed they knew the way. Look, there they come!". I spotted the two men in black entering the square some 100 yards away, and with one glance I knew enough. They stepped up their pace and came straight for me, slipping their right hand in their pocket. I didn't wait for an introduction and sprinted away. Fortunately, my headstart was plenty to reach my car which was parked in the next street and I took off unhindered before they came running round the corner.

Since my narrow escape, I have been sorting out the documents from both boxes whenever I had time and although I still have a long way to go to finsih, I now start putting the contents of these papers here on the internet, ever fearing I won't be able to complete my task before my well dressed friends find out who I am and where to find me. Keep an eye on these pages: the story of Minerva makes fascinating reading, well beyond human imagination...

Wish me luck...

Gott

NOTES ON THE PLANET MINERVA AND THE ELDER ANCIENTS.

Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen are abundant in the Universe, and they are the basic elements for organic molecules. Probably organic molecules were formed in various locations in the Universe. Among these four elements, only carbon atoms have four arms for bonding and are able to combine with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon in various manners. As a result, a variety of organic molecules with different chemical reactions and functions were created. These organic molecules, whose main structures are made of carbon atoms, seem to polymerize and become complicated polymer substances such as protein (folded structure) and DNA (double helix). They hold the key to the various functions (e.g. enzyme, genetic information) that are essential for life.

Such an evolution took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (...), evolving over animal lifeforms to one of the most intelligent species the Universe has ever seen and now known to us - humble earthlings - as "the Elder Ancients" or "Elders"... Over tens of thousands of years, the Elders' intelligence and knowledge grew and their ongoing research not only resulted in the development of Turbo Space Access Portals (TSA-Portals), enabling them to travel to the far end of the Universe, but also in germline engineering, involving changing genes in eggs, sperm, or very early embryos. This type of engineering is inheritable, meaning that the modified genes would appear not only in any children that resulted from the procedure, but in all succeeding generations. Germline engineering became controversial with the Elders, due to fear for the ability to change the very underlying nature of their species in fundamental ways according simply to personal values of the individuals undergoing or performing the change on their children. This resulted in the epic "Germ Wars", a series of long and bloody civil wars. After centuries of combat, the supporters of germline engineering were finally beaten and inihilated, except for a small group that succeeded in escaping through one of the TSA-Portals situated on an uninhabited planet, seconds before it was pulverzed by a nuclear explosion, leaving no trace as to their destination... This destination was in fact a planet in the small "Sol"-system (in the Milky Way), that later became known to mankind as ... "Minerva".


*The planet Minerva*	*Position of Minerva in the solar system (opposite Earth).*
Although called "twins", Minerva is actually smaller than Earth (how much still remains to be measured, since not all of the planet has been explored and currently only sketchy d'Worff maps are available). Fauna & flora are much like found on Earth, with additional species and plants unknown (or no longer known) on Earth. There are several continents and large islands, grouped together in the great Atlantean Ocean (stretching from the westcoast of Engülland to the eastcoast of Toerkistan). Only the north pole is covered with ice, but both poles are uninhabitable due to the deadly poisonous atmosphere there, and therefore do not figure on any maps. Gravity also differs from Earth: it is much lower, once about 100 feet up from the surface, thus enabling heavier structures to float easily. Combustion and coalfired steam engines work very well on the surface, but fail once airborne, making it impossible to fly conventional Earthbuilt aircraft over Minerva. Therefore, air travel on Minerva is either done by dirigibles and aircraft propulsed by "Diac", a sort of Minervan fuel. Appearantly Diac molecular structure is situated somewhere between that of diamant and coal. Viewed from space, Minerva looks rather reddish in appearance, but this has much to do with the upper atmosphere. A day on Earth roughly equals a week on Minerva in time.

Once settled on their new world, the renegade Elders continued their germline experiments, resulting in thousands of new species which they not only populated Minerva with, but also its "twin" planet Earth (along with the construction of several TSA-Portals there). Some of their genetic creations thrived on one world but disappeared on the other, becoming the stuff of legends as time faded, such as was the case with Earth's dwarfs and dragons. Apart from animals and plants not found on Earth, the three predominant resident races on Minerva are d'Worffs, humans and Hominis. d'Worffs are stocky and short (much like in our dwarven tales), humans are carbon copies of ourselves and Hominis look exactly like we do, but they are about a head smaller and (mostly) slender built. The d'Worffs are the predominant Minervan civilisation. Both humans and hominis have their own civilisations, ranging from prehistoric to late 19th C-ish, depending on what community/country they belong to. The Elders, as keepers of the planet, initially kept the three races apart by use of a "state religion", whereby they were portraying themselves as (demi-)gods, supporting the countries' governments (as long as these behaved...) and policing the planet aboard their "floating islands".

History tending to repeat itself, Minerva's Elders once more took up arms against each other - this time over... religion (of all things! - but even super-beings seem to have a need for the gods...). One faction saw Ometeotl as their supreme being (as well as a number of lesser deities), the other faction worshipped Ra and his minions. Both factions tried to gain control over Minerva and Earth, first in a peaceful way by means of spreading their faith, later in open war. Now - more than 2500 years later - this war has nearly anihilated the Elders of Minerva (Earth has been long abandoned by them, the TSA-Gates there being buried upon their departure). The present few surviving Elders on Minerva (weak and desperately trying to keep the species they have created under control) not only fear each other but also the arrival of their onetime brethern (or their minions) from their home galaxy. Yes, the chase is still on... Their current lack of control has also resulted in (civil) war between d'Worffs, men and hominis, so the situation is - to say the least - rather unstable.

However, (at least right now) no other Elders from a far away galaxy are about to enter Minerva through the TSA-Portals, but men from Earth...

ORIGINS AND GRAND STRATEGY IN WORLD WAR I: THE GREATEST SCAM IN HISTORY...

As a student of military history, I have often wondered why - in 1914 (and subsequently in 1939) - war engulfed nearly the whole world, where as both in the late 19th and mid to late 20th centuries wars were either limited in number of belligerants or in area of conflict... Clear examples are Queen Victoria's "little wars", the ACW, the Crimean War and all nowadays' conflicts (be it with Nato involved or not). My study of the Minervan Chronicles have provided me with the answer: the very first global conflict was in fact fought over the access Portals to Minerva (and was a second age of colonisation) and not over the death of some archeduke. I have created the following timeline to prove my case...

30/04/1909	Marcus Brody, Harry Fleming and their team of Egyptian workers blow their way into a cave near Bir Matha where they find a TSA-Masterportal, left untouched for thousands of years. For the moment, their discovery is just a (complicated) mystery they have yet to unravel... Read more here. At the very same moment, other TSA-Portals (linked to the Birm Matha Masterportal) emerge in Songea (East-Africa), Semara (Western Sahara), Kabinda (Belgian Congo), Usak (Turkey) and Cavan (Ireland). Where there more? This I have yet to learn...
12/06/1912	Gustaaf Costers - a wealthy Belgian entrepreneur - starts publication of "The Tough Donuts" in memory of his English wife Theodora (who recently passed away and adored all things science) and as a passtime now that his daughter Alice has gone to study at Cambridge. The magazine contains articles on unusual scientific subjects. Soon it has a large number of subscribers from all over the world (most with a higher education). One of the first to subscribe is Marcus Brody.
01/08/1913	Brody and Fleming succeed in activating the TSA-Portal at Bir Matha. Their Egyptian assistant Adnan passes through the gate by accident and returns, only to die in agony shortly after. Brody informes the British Archeological Society about his find and subsequently the Britsh Government gets involved. A military detachment is sent over. Both Marcus Brody and Harry Fleming disappear without a trace.
21/01/1914	P. Ennesack - Secretary to the British Archeological Society - files his report about the Marcus Brody papers concerning the Bir Matha excavations. It appears many documents are missing... Read more here.
march 1914	Harry Fleming - having fled from Egypt to Germany to take refuge there - writes a letter to his kinsman Liam Whelan in Ireland, describing his adventures at the Bir Matha site. Whelan (who has known about the Cavan Portal since 1909, when Paddy O'Rourke had shown him the site) concludes that these stone pillars (and the passage they open) are a godsend gift that will benefit the (IRA) cause greatly. He decides the Portal is well worth exploring, and so he does...
april 1914	Harry Fleming (still in Germany) is becoming paranoid and sees MI 5 agents everywhere... In panic and looking for protection, he contacts the German Secret Service and tells them the whole story of Bir Matha and the Portal. Wilhelm II receives the report about this matter the next day and - by coincidence - it is at the top of the pile. Wilhelm II reads it with great interest and orders an immediate thorough investigation. Fleming is taken to a safehouse and kept there under constant guard. Appearantly, the Germans must have found a source that confirmed (at least part of) Harry's story, for - within a week - he is enrolled in the German Secret Service and sent to Paris (with a small fortune at his disposal) to find out if a Portal had emerged on French soil too. Harry - now not only worried about MI 5, but about his new masters as well - incorrectly reported shortly after (by cypher telegram) that indeed a Portal was located in the woods of Fontainebleau (some 60 kilometers SE from Paris), hoping this would satisfy his new German masters and get him off the hook. He had already booked passage to the USA and disappeared once more without a trace, taking the Germans' money with him. Luckily for him, the Germans not only accepted his rapport as genuine, but - since he had disappeared - also assumed he had been taken prisoner by la Sûreté Nationale, the French secret police. The Kaiser now quickly became obsessed with the (imaginary...) "Paris Portal". The only way to lay his hands on it would be to invade France, but that wouldn't go down too well with the other Great Powers. Such a move could well isolate Germany. A casus belli had to be found...
june 1914	Gustaaf Costers, proprietor and editor in chief of the "Tough Do-Nuts Magazine" prints a revolutionary article in the june issue of his magazine. Read more here. A copy was sent to Wilhelm II himself by the German ambassador in Brussels. German agents in Belgium were instructed to keep a close eye on Costers...
28/06/1914	Archduke Francis Ferdinand heir to the Austria-Hungary throne and his wife are assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist in Sarejevo. What followed is known as the First World War. The Schlieffen Plan is activated, not to conquer Belgium and France or to beat Britain, but to reach Fontainebleau and the assumed Portal there. After reaching Northern France and the subsequent "Race to the Sea", both Allied and German troops digged in and during the horrible war in the trenches (1914-18) millions would die, but the Germans never reached Fontainebleau, however hard they tried to break the stalemate...
08/08/1914	On 8 August 1914, SMS Emden rendezvoused with Spee's squadron at Pagan Island in the northern Marianas, a German colony. Admiral von Spee wanted the squadron to stay united for an attempt to reach Germany, but received a cyphered cable from the German High Command to deploy a single light cruiser to the Indian Ocean, supposedly to raid British merchant shipping. Taking along the collier Markomannia "with a full load of first-class coal," Emden detached from the fleet on 14 August 1914. In fact, Captain von Müller's prime assignement was to visit as many islands as possible to scout for a possible TSA-Portal in the area...
22/08/1914	The coming of the German troops was kept a secret from the people of Brussels until the last minute. The proclamation of the mayor hit the people like a clap of thunder. The mayor went out to meet the troops and upon their appearance had a white flag held aloft. He talked then with a German officer and received from the latter the assurance that nothing would happen to the people if they would give up all acts of violence towards the Germans. The German officer was accompanied by a civilian, who promptly asked for the address of Gustaaf Costers. Immediately, a squadron of Uhlans was sent to Costers' house who was taken from there and the building placed under guard. Accused of being a member of a group of Francs-Tireurs, no news has been heared from Costers since.
30/08/1914	Alice Costers, well aware of the situation in Belgium, is (at first) relieved to receive a letter from her father, until she opens it... (read the letter here). From then on, she continues the work of her father, not only by publishing "The Tough Donuts", but by adding documents to the "Minerva Chronicles" as well.
summer/fall 1914	Some of the first clashes of the war involved British, French and German colonial forces in Africa. On 7 August, French and British troops invaded the German protectorate of Togoland. On 10 August German forces in South-West Africa attacked South Africa; sporadic and fierce fighting continued for the remainder of the war. New Zealand occupied German Samoa (later Western Samoa) on 30 August. On 11 September the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force landed on the island of Neu Pommern (later New Britain), which formed part of German New Guinea. Japan seized Germany's Micronesian colonies and, after the Battle of Tsingtao, the German coaling port of Qingdao in the Chinese Shandong peninsula. Within a few months, the Allied forces had seized all the German territories in the Pacific; only isolated commerce raiders and a few holdouts in New Guinea remained. All German colonies were occupied by the Allies, except one: German East Africa, where the Schutztruppe, led by Colonel Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, fought a guerilla warfare campaign for the duration of World War I. There was good reason for this: von Lettow had learned about the "Pillars of the Gods" from the natives (as they called the TSA-Portal located there), but it took until late 1916 before he found out the exact location. During his search for the Portal and after it was located by him near Songea, he took great care to take the Allied forces on a grand tour of SE Africa, in order to avoid them locating the Portal, surrendering only two weeks after the armistice took effect in Europe.
31/10/1914	German intelligence had learned from IRA-members about the Usak Portal and trades two old (but serviceable) German battleships at bargain prices for access to the Portal. The Ottoman Empire allies itself with Germany and soon the Ottoman navy was well under the control of German commanders, just as its army was in the hands of German officers, both on Earth and Minerva.
08/12/1914	After Spee had sent the Emden on its lone search and after the subsequent Battle of Coronel, he received orders to sail for the Falklands. German intelligence had picked up rumours about a TSA-Portal situated on one of the isles. Unfortunately, upon reaching Port Stanley, Spee's squadron was engaged by British battlecruisers and near annihilated. As a consequence of the battle, German commerce raiding (and the secret search for TSA-Portals) on the high seas by regular warships of the Kaiserliche Marine was brought to an end. However, Germany put several armed merchant vessels into service as commerce raiders (often accompanied by a submarine for stealth recce) until the end of the war. They too searched in vain for elusive Portals...
Feb. 1915 to Jan. 1916	British and French intelligence on Minerva had learned that Germans and Turks have arrived in the area of Toerkistan. They decide (in a rush) to take the Usak Portal by eliminating Turkey from WWI on Earth. A joint British and French operation was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul (supposedly to secure a sea route to Russia...). On 19 February, the first attack on the Dardanelles began when a strong Anglo-French task force, including the British battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth, bombarded Turkish artillery along the coast. Many believed victory to be inevitable. It wasn't... Shortly after, Allied forces landed in Gallipoli. Unable to force a breakthrough, they were redrawn in january 1916. The Usak Portal remained in Turko-German hands...
December 1915	Professor Charles Dartswin arrives at the British outpost in Engülland - Georgetown - and becomes emmisary to the local d'Worff lord who asks for British assistance. Read more here.
January 1916	This is the first issue of "The Tough Donuts" dated after the june 1914 issue I could find so far amongst the pile of documents, this one no doubt edited by Alice Costers. Subject: the Cavan Portal. Read it here. There might be more; I'll keep looking.
May 1916	A new issue of "The Tough Donuts" has been found! Read it here. Subject: the Usak Portal. More to follow...

*Since I have not been able to work my way through all the "Minerva Chronicles" yet, the above might still be updated.*

THE PLANET MINERVA - THE LAY OF THE LAND - MAPS OF COUNTRIES AND REGIONS.
Town or city, may be walled (wood or stone)	Industrial village (manufacturing, woodworks etc)	Keep or small fort	Harbour All seaside towns have harbours	Agricultural area + village(s)	Coal or ore mine	Diac mine
Silver, gold, diamants... To be explored...	Inhabited area (one of the above symbols, according to the area)	Campsite (may be abandoned)	Large ancient ruins	Place of worship	TSA-Portal A gate to Earth	Roads and bridges

PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE MAPS ARE ARTIST’S IMPRESSIONS OF THE LAND. OUTLINES OF LAND AND SEA AND MOUNTAIN RANGES ARE TO SCALE BUT OTHER TERRAIN FEATURES (SUCH AS WOODS, TOWNS ETC) ARE SYMBOLS AND OVER SCALE. SMALLER RIVERS AND STREAMS HAVE BEEN OMITTED. ALL CONTINENTS ON MINERVA ARE GROUPED IN THE ATLANTEAN OCEAN, SO IT IS POSSIBLE TO (e.g.) REACH THE EASTCOAST OF TOERKISTAN BY SAILING WESTWARDS FROM ENGÜLLAND, BUT THIS IS A HAZARDOUS VOYAGE... ONE CANNOT CROSS THE POLES HOWEVER: THEY ARE UNINHABITABLE DUE TO THEIR POISONOUS ATMOSPHERE AND THOSE WHO VENTURED THERE HAVE NEVER RETURNED... MORE MAPS TO FOLLOW.
Map of Engülland & Northern Wastelands location of Engülland on the Minerva world map (in red)	Map of NW Minerva - Aran (Pirate) Isles NW Minerva is situated NW of Engülland	Map of Toerkistan location of Toerkistan on the Minerva world map (in red)

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