The rest of my completed figures, six in total.

All rephotographed in better light. First, two Copplestone female archaeologists (yes, I know I already have these, but I wanted them in more tropical attire;

And here are their armed companions (who I also already have);

Next up is a Bad Squiddo Community mini, Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. You can read about her HERE;

And finally, here is a Steampunk version of the Marvel super baddie, Doctor Octopus. He is from Ironclad Miniatures;

He is a suitable colleague for another Ironclad Miniatures bad guy, who I pained ages ago and called The Mad Inventor. I'm going to assume that this chap has been given these extra limbs by the former. The pair of them, plus their Automata should be a real handful in Steampunk, In Her Majesty's Name and Pulp games.

So, that is me finished with painting until I get back from holiday.

My final completed thing in 2023

Well, despite my best intentions, I've only finished one last piece this year. This is it.

I bought this at the club's Tabletop Sale back in May for (I think) £3. It is a Warmachines Mariner War Jack, whatever that might be, but I think it will be great for Steampunk and Pulp games, either as a McGuffin, an objective or an enemy.

I undercoated it in black and gave it progressive layers and areas of Vallejo bronze and brass, with oiled steel where appropriate (e.g. on the anchor and chain). Then it got all all-over wash of Nuln Oil.

I then washed the steel with Vallejo orange brown to give an impression of rust and a wash of pale blue mixed with green to create a patina of verdegris.

When I based it, I allowed the sandy basing gunk to stick to the thing's feet, to look like sand.

The Peaky Blinder is only there for scale purposes, but I doubt that his Lewis gun would be much use against such a Behemoth.

Two Steampunk/Victorian Science Fiction vehicles

Both of these are from Ironclad Miniatures excellent VSF range.

The vehicle above is a steam-powered armoured car with a Gatling gun in its turret. This can also be made up with a Nordenfelt gun, which is also supplied. I decided to paint this in a neutral grey and rely on washes (Citadel Nuln Oil), dry-brushing and AK Terrains Dark Earth basing gunk to give the thing the appearance of being a hard-used workhorse. I also used a wash of diluted Vallejo Orange Brown to add a few patches of rust, particularly on the prominent bolt heads.  The figure (also from Ironclad) is there to provide a sense of scale.

The second vehicle is a steam-powered tankette, painted in a slightly more military shade, courtesy of Army Painter Army Green primer. Once again, wear and tear have been added with Nuln Oil, Vallejo Orange Brown rust and AK Terrains Dark Earth basing gunk. The tracks were given an initial coat of Vallejo Gunmetal Grey, which I've also used on both vehicles for the barrels of the weapons and the vision slits.

Both vehicles are cast in resin with additional metal parts, i.e wheels, guns, funnels, and are pretty easy to assemble. Now they are finished, I am looking at the rest of the Ironclad range to see what other vehicles I fancy buying. Hopefully, Ironclad will be at the club's Reveille show at the end of November, which will allow me to buy a couple more of these delightful vehicles.

These should be huge fun to use in a Steampunk/Pulp/VSF setting, probably using The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare's In Her Majesty's Name rules.

The Household Staff

 Finally, I've finished something in April.

These are the household staff of Sir Henry Huntley-Palmer, who I have written about here. 

From left to right we have Mrs Miggins, the cook, Molly, the maid, Mr Hodges, the butler and James, the footman.

As you can see, Sir Henry expects his staff to be prepared for all possible situations.

Mr Hodges (known as Mr 'Odges to the other staff) was formerly a Troop Sergeant Major in Sir Henry's old regiment, the 10th (The Prince of Wales's Own) Royal Hussars and the two men have a shared history going back many years. 

James Smith, the footman is another former member of the 10th Royal Hussars, where he attained the rank of Corporal of Horse. James's face carries a terrible scar, acquired from a Pathan scimitar on active service on the Northwest Frontier.

These figures are from Ironclad Miniatures Victorian Science Fiction range, and they are very nice figures indeed. They are destined to find a place in many games of In Her Majesty's Name and probably other things too.

A couple more Victorian Science Fiction figures

I actually painted these two last year, but somehow forgot all about them until now. As some regular readers might remember, I had a lot of turmoil and anguish last year with one of my dogs, so I am pretty sure that is why they never got onto the blog. I have given the photo the title of "A Steampunk Hero and Heroine". They are from the North Star Steampunk range.

These two feature heavily in the illustrations in the original In Her Majesty's Name rulebook, so I felt like I really ought to have them in my collection.

As an aside, a new edition of the revised and updated rules will soon be available. Personally, I am really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy.

Anyway, such characters need names and a background, so here are;

Captain George Ruff-Diamond, late of the Rifle Brigade, is now employed by an undisclosed Mysterious Government Agency in an unspecified capacity. Capt. Ruff-Diamond travels widely across Europe and beyond and is a noted bon viveur, sportsman and explorer. He lives on private means although the source of his wealth is shrouded in secrecy. Capt. Ruff-Diamond is a close friend of Professor Henry Hardy and was once romantically-linked to his sister Miss Amelia Hardy, with whom he remains on friendly terms.

Miss Felicity Ward. Miss Ward is a noted writer of fantastical romances and books on such matters as Spiritualism and the Occult. A former student of Archaeology and History at Brichester University and the École Nationale des Sciences Arcanes in Bordeaux, Miss Ward has travelled widely in the Near East and Eastern Europe and is the daughter of the noted American Anthropologist Professor Charles Phillips Ward of Arkham, Massachusetts and his second wife, Lady Jacquetta Melchett, the noted painter and poet. Miss Ward is a noted fencer and horsewoman and is considered to be an excellent markswoman with both pistol and rifle.

Six More Steampunk figures.

I painted these six a while ago, but didn't varnish them, due to the humidity. I put them in a box for safe keeping and only remembered them yesterday. So, here they are varnished and photographed.

First, Professor Prospero, Criminal Mastermind and his Arch-Nemesis, Sir Henry Huntley-Palmer.

Professor Prospero is a man of great intellect and few moral scruples. His interests include making huge amounts of money, outsmarting the minions of Laura Norder and making even more money. His fingers are in many pies; drug smuggling, white slavery, art theft, forgery, blackmail and espionage are only the most common of his criminal activities. He is often found working for Foreign Government Agencies and Secret Shadowy Powers. The Professor's preferred weapon is his sword stick, but he is also a Master of Mesmerism and other Arcane Talents.

Sir Henry Huntley-Palmer, late of the 10th (The Prince of Wales's Own) Royal Hussars, is a man of huge physical strength, which exceeds his intellectual prowess, and much personal charm. His friends tend to think of him as a clubbable stout chap, always worth having on one's side in a scrap but hardly the book-reading aesthete. His favourite weapon is the fearsome seven-barrelled Nock Gun. A founder member of The Adventurer's Society of Pall Mall, Sir Henry is descended from the famous 18th century government agent and soldier Sir William Huntley-Palmer, and is the younger brother of the diplomat and Foreign Office mandarin Sir Arthur Huntley-Palmer. Sir Henry's father, Lt. Col Henry Huntley-Palmer (b.1801 d.1889) was formerly British Military attaché to Syldavia in the 1850s.

Next, here are four more Agents of a Secret Shadowy Power. The first two are equipped with some long-range firepower. The one on the right has a Nock Gun and his companion is equipped with some kind of experimental gun for firing explosive or gas grenades.

And finally, here are two more Agents with the same kind of pistols and bombs as their comrades I painted a while back.

I think that these Shadowy Agents will end up carrying out the Nefarious Schemes and Damnable Stratagems of Professor Prospero most of the time.

These figures are all from the excellent Ironclad Miniatures Victorian Sci Fi and Steampunk range and will be used for games of In Her Majesty's Name.

The rest of the Syldavian Königliche Gendarmerie

Here are the remaining five members of my Königliche Gendarmerie. They are in two pictures, so you'll need to scroll down.

Above are a Feldwebel (sergeant), a senior NCO, in his distinctive red uniform trousers with a Gendarm, that is the basic rank in the Gendarmerie, equivalent to a Soldat (private) in Infantry regiments. Below are three more members of the Gendarmerie, two Gendarms and a junior NCO, a Gefreiter (corporal) on the right. In the Gendarmerie, junior NCOs are only distinguished from rankers by a brass button on each of their shoulder tabs (not visible in the photo).

So, these are the last of my figures for my Syldavian and Bordurian companies for  In Her Majesty's Name . 

I need a new project now.

Some Syldavian troops of the Königliche Gendarmerie

I mentioned in an earlier post that the plainclothes Syldavian secret police, the Vohunska, often call upon support from the Königliche Gendarmerie. Here is an officer and two gendarmes from that fine service.

The Syldavian Königliche Gendarmerie was created in 1855 as part of the reorganisation of the existing regional militia battalions, to serve as both a Police force and a military reserve. In 1871, a separate National Reserve was created, leaving the Gendarmerie as a specialist national Police Force and Border Service. The Gendarmerie is part of the Syldavian army, and uses army ranks, except that the lowest rank is Gendarm instead of Soldat. Senior NCOs hold the rank of Wachtmeister.

The Gendarmerie wears the blue/grey army uniform, first introduced in 1822 (to replace the previous light grey uniforms worn since the end of the 17th century) as modified in 1849 when the kepi replaced the shako. Senior NCOs and officers wear red trousers and officers wear the 1867 pattern officers's kepi with a black leather peak. Other ranks wear grey gaiters with the trousers. Leather is brown for all ranks. The top part of the kepi is in the Gendarmerie's pale blue arm of service colour, as is the crown of the officer's kepi. 

Uniforms are cut in a French pattern and there is a white French-pattern "salacot" helmet, which is often worn on parade or by gendarmes guarding official buildings. In these situations, white gaiters are also worn. Where using a rifle is inappropriate, all ranks wear sidearms and will also be equipped with batons (swords for officers).

These figures are from North Star and are actually Artizan Designs French Foreign Legion ones. Obviously I will be using these figures in games of  In Her Majesty's Name and also in other pulp and Cthulhu Mythos games. 

I think that these will be worthy opponents of the Bordurians I have already painted. I will post the rest of them in future posts.

The final plainclothes Syldavian agents

Well, here are the two final plainclothes members of my Syldavian secret policemen. As previously, they are from the North Star Steampunk range. 

The eagle-eyed amongst you will note that they are duplicate poses to two of the others. I don't see this as any kind of a problem, because they have been painted in different colours. I think that the chap on the left looks a bit like Neville Chamberlain. I expect that he takes a much firmer line with miscreants and ne'er-do-wells though.

I can see these figures in all manner of settings. Blasting away fruitlessly at Shoggoths in Cthulhu-based games is a distinct possibility, as are supporting roles on Pulp games too.

So, now I have to paint up some uniformed members of the Königliche Gendarmerie. That should be fun. When they are done, that will mean that my Syldavian company for  In Her Majesty's Name is complete.

More Syldavian Secret police

Following on from my previous post, here are three more members of the Syldavian Security and Intelligence Service, the Vohunska.

You will note that the left-hand figure is the same pose as in the previous post. It isn't really an issue and, in any case I have painted him differently.

The middle figure is a second character, an assistant to Inspektor Eugen Jaegermann. He is Detektiv Samuel Tylenburger. Unlike his blunt and plain-speaking boss, Detektiv Tylenburger likes to think of himself as a man of the future and, as a graduate of the Institut der Wissenschaft in Klow takes a scientific approach to his work. A younger man, the Detektiv comes from the coastal city of Douma, where his family has roots going back to the early 18th century. His father, a leading merchant is currently the Bürgermeister of Douma and has been a member of the city council, the Stadtverwaltung for around 20 years.

Like the first three, these are also from the North Star Steampunk range and will serve as other things than just Syldavian agents. I will use them as Scotland Yard detectives and anywhere else where I need some chaps in plainclothes. I will use them for games of  In Her Majesty's Name and pulp and Cthulhu Mythos games.

The first of the Syldavian Secret Police

In a previous post, I talked about the Syldavian Security and Intelligence Service, officially the Varnosti Policija but popularly called the Vohunska i.e. "the Spies". Here is the start of my company of Vohunska agents and their uniformed assistants in the Königliche Gendarmerie.

Represented here is a senior agent of the Vohunska, Inspektor Eugen Jaegermann flanked by two of his agents. The Inspektor is a feared figure amongst the Syldavian Underworld, both with normal criminals who remember him from his days as a detective in the Königliche Gendarmerie and also with subversives in anarchist and other political groups. He is hated by the Bordurian Informat, who have put a price on his head because of his work exposing and eliminating clandestine operatives and saboteurs in Bordurian emigré communities. Jaegermann comes from the city of Travunje, south of the capital, Klow and joined the Gendarmerie after his mandatory period of conscription in the Syldavian Army. He is known for his blunt manner and his ability to get results where others have failed.

Vohunska agents work in plainclothes and officially they are part of the Syldavian Ministry of Justice, unlike the Gendarmerie who are part of the Army. They have a wide-ranging brief, which encompasses internal security and intelligence-gathering, as well as operating as intelligence agents in other countries. They may also, under certain circumstances work with the Gendarmerie's Bureau of Investigations, the Untersuchungsbüro. 

In many operations, the Vohunska will call upon support from the uniformed Gendarmerie when extra manpower is required.

These figures are from the North Star Steampunk range and will serve as other things than just Syldavian agents. I will use them as Scotland Yard detectives and anywhere else where I need some chaps in plainclothes. I will use them for games of  In Her Majesty's Name and pulp and Cthulhu Mythos games.

n.b. Eugen Jaegermann is a sort of Germanised version of Gene Hunt from the TV series "Life On Mars"

Some Boys in Blue to combat those Steampunk villains

Both sets of four are from Ironclad Miniatures. First, constables with capes and pistols;

They are clearly the front line, the Bobbies on the beat.

Secondly, some backup with rifles, a Victorian Armed Response Unit;

These look like a pretty simple paint job, but British police uniforms have always been a lot darker shade of blue than you see on many miniatures. I undercoated them in Halford's matt black spray and started off with a base coat of Dark Prussian Blue, which on its own is too light. I then did the folds in a mix of the same blue with black, then a bit of highlighting with the Dark Prussian Blue mixed with Luftwaffe Uniform. This seemed closer to what I wanted and once given a wash of Peat Brown ink I was satisfied with the results.

And now...........the Mad Inventor.

I have alluded to the Mad Inventor previously. His biography is below.

Here he is with his fiendish Mechanical Progeny, each powered by a portable steam-powered Arc Generator. These Automata are his ultimate warriors, controlled via electro-mechanical waves transmitted by his ingenious control device. Clever though this device is, he must stay within transmitting range of  his creations, otherwise they will simply halt until he is close enough to regain control of them. Although these mechanical warriors are slow-moving and without the power of independent thoughts or actions, they are heavily-armoured and resistant to damage from many conventional weapons. Their only independent action is their ability to fire at anything that comes within range of their "eyes", which are actually complex lenses that serve as a targeting mechanism for their weapons. Of course, the Mad Inventor has the ability to direct their fire when they are under his control.

These figures are all, once again from Ironclad Miniatures.

The Mad Inventor's name is Professor Erasmus Van Hulst, and he was born in Amsterdam. Always physically small and weak, he was inquisitive and interested in mechanical devices as a child. He was often bullied by his schoolmates, which led him to find ingenious ways of inflicting his revenge upon them. As he grew up, Erasmus nursed many grievances against the men who, as boys had made his life a misery. He studied at a number of universities and institutes across Europe, eventually ending up as a professor at the University of Strelsau in the Kingdom of Ruritania. There, he was able to test certain hypotheses about the creation of Automata and soon began to construct models in his laboratories in his home in a secluded manor outside the city.

He supplied a number of Automata to a local impresario and they quickly became a huge attraction in the main theatre of Strelsau. After the mysterious death of the impresario, Van Hulst quit the university and founded a touring show featuring his ingenious creations. Styling himself as Count Cagliostro, Master of Mysteries, Professor Van Hulst began to develop his control system and embarked on the construction of more and more complex Automata. As his experiments progressed, he began to plot and then wreak his revenge on his childhood tormentors. 

Finally, he perfected his most powerful Automaton, the Steam Jäger. With this step forward, Van Hulst turned his attentions to thoughts of crime, chaos and domination. His psychopathic tendencies, always there under the surface began to take him over, causing him to withdraw from society, using the vast fortune he had accumulated as Count Cagliostro to turn his Ruritanian Manor into a fortified headquarters where he could build an army of Steam Jäger Automata. 

Professor Van Hulst frequently visits the capital cities of Europe, keeping homes in Paris, London, Berlin and Vienna. He uses his mechanical skills in many ways, not least in experiments in the area of electro-mechanical prosthetics and the creation of bio-mechanical human beings. 

And the Punk Steams on!

Here are my latest characters for In Her Majesty's Name and other such games. They even have some backstory (see below).

They were finished off yesterday but I was worried about varnishing them because it had been raining all week so far and I was worried about the humidity. However, it was dry in the evening and I decided to varnish them and see the damage in the morning. Luckily, there was no fogging, which was a relief!

These are also from Ironclad Miniatures and are probably the most obviously steampunk of all the figures I've done so far.

The chap on the left in the picture is former bare-knuckle pugilist Gentleman Jack Spratt. A dissolute and brutal man, he had both arms broken in a bizarre Hansom Cab accident which was probably caused by one of his Underworld enemies. A shadowy figure was seen leaving the scene of the accident and the cab driver was nowhere to be found. Jack's mangled body was found in the wreckage, his career in the ring finished.

A Mad Inventor (whom we shall meet in a future post) offered Jack to "mend" his useless arms if Jack agreed to work for him.

The results can be seen here. Jack's arms have been augmented by electrically-powered mechanical prostheses and he wears a small generator on his back, which also doubles as an Arc Generator.

As a result, Jack is now a feared member of the London Criminal Underworld where his powerful augmentations provide all manner of assistance to a wide range of illegal activities.

Jack's companion is the beneficiary of another of the ingenious creations of the Mad Inventor. His name is Grigori Blok, a merchant seaman who was the only survivor of a boiler explosion on a Russian steamship docked in London. His body suffered terrible burns and internal injuries and it looked to the staff of the hospital in Limehouse as though he might not survive. However, the Mad Inventor used him for another one of his experiments and had him encased in a specially constructed armoured metal suit, powered by an Arc Generator. Taken together with a number of obscure drugs, the electricity generated keeps Grigori's heart beating and allows his damaged nervous system to function normally. The human cost of this is that Grigori can never take off the armour. To do so would cause his death within hours of it being removed. Like Jack, Grigori has found useful employment in numerous nefarious enterprises where his strength and near invulnerability to many weapons makes him a useful weapon. Never a great intellect, Grigori's powers of thought were badly-weakened in the explosion. The life-preserving drugs are therefore also useful in keeping Grigori under the control of the Mad Inventor.

More Steampunk villains

These were pretty quick to paint, because of the limited colour palette. Once again, they are from the  excellent Ironclad Miniatures Victorian Sci Fi and Steampunk range.

I have labelled these as being "Six Agents Of A Secret Shadowy Power". You will note that there are a couple of duplicated figures, but that doesn't really matter. What I like about them is that they could turn up as all kinds of different things; anarchists, agents of a foreign government, assassins for hire, members of a secret society etc. The possibilities are almost endless.

There are a couple of extra figures in the range, that I am really going to have to place an order for, not least because I am a completist in such matters and I cannot see why I shouldn't have all of them. Also, there are a few more figures that I think I'd like to paint, some of whom could work well as leaders of this faction.

These are definitely destined to be used in games of In Her Majesty's Name.

Bringing Syldavian history into the 19th century

Yesterday, I wrote a piece about the 19th century history of Borduria, so today I am going to do the same for its western neighbour Syldavia.

I will begin with the death of Ottokar IX in 1776. He was succeeded by his grandson Muskar, whose father, the Crown Prince Viktar had died in 1774 in a hunting accident. Muskar VI had never expected to become king and had pursued a life in antiquarian and literary studies until the death of his father. His wife, Sophie de la Boissière was French, as was his mother, Queen Octavie. Muskar, despite his bookish demeanour was an able ruler, willing to listen to advice from his chief ministers and advisors. A child of the Enlightenment, Muskar VI introduced political reforms influenced by certain aspects of the aftermath of the American War of Independence and began to reject the absolutism of the French monarchy, despite his mother's family connections. However, he was appalled at the French Revolution and the Terror, during which his aristocratic father-in-law perished in the Place de la Guillotine. Numerous exiled French royalists fled to Syldavia and their anti-revolutionary sentiments shifted Muskar away from making further reforms. Syldavian policies shifted towards supporting the anti-Napoleonic Third Coalition and many Syldavian regiments fought alongside the Austrians, suffering heavy losses at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to Syldavia pursuing a path of neutrality from 1806 until 1809, when Syldavia joined the Fifth Coalition (as did Borduria). The Syldavian army fought alongside the Austrians in the 1809 Dalmatian Campaign and a Syldavian Corps fought at Aspern-Essling and again at Wagram, suffering heavy casualties in the latter battle, which ended the Coalition.

Syldavia sent troops to fight in the Sixth Coalition, but not in large numbers as there were fears of a local war breaking out with Borduria, the perennial enemy in 1813.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Syldavia and Borduria signed a non-aggression Treaty which would last until the 1850s.

Muskar VI died in 1822 to be succeeded as king by Crown Prince Johannes, who ruled as Johannes I. His Queen was Lucrezia di Grissini, the granddaughter of the famous 18th century Italian soldier of fortune and Syldavian general, Ercole di Grissini. Johannes ruled over a period of Syldavian prosperity and gradual democratisation. Limited male suffrage was introduced in 1830 and the electoral qualifications were widened again in 1848, to try and contain the revolutionary fervour that gripped much of Europe. Syldavian politicians managed to resist the revolutionary pressures from below by bringing in measures to liberalise employment laws and introduce improved Poor Laws. The Constitution of 1849 codified the role of the monarchy and the newly-reformed parliament (Versammlung or Parlament in the local official languages).

The liberal rule of Johannes contrasted greatly with the repressive authoritarianism of Constantine III and Alexandros I in Borduria, and Syldavia became a refuge for Bordurian radicals in the years leading up to the Bordurian Coup of 1858. This was to become a major cause of the outbreak of war between the two countries in 1859, lasting intermittently until 1863 with the defeat of Borduria.

Johannes I died in 1877, having seen the end of the Bordurian Autocracy and the rise of the revolutionary Republic of Borduria. His successor, his son Muskar VII followed his liberal rule, ensuring that the Syldavian state was secure from revolutionary civil war by continuing to enact a series of laws improving the lives of the growing urban working classes and rural peasantry, including free education (for boys only) until the age of 12 and a limited free hospital system in major centres of population. At the same time, he modernised the Syldavian military and created a Security and Intelligence Service, the Varnosti Policija, popularly known as the Vohunska, whose role was very much aimed at countering Bordurian attempts to subvert and overthrow the Syldavian monarchy and state. Unhappily, Muskar VII only ruled for a short time, dying of a rare disease in 1882. He was succeeded by his brother Marko, who ruled under the regnal name of Muskar VIII.

Ok, so that is where we are now in Syldavia and Borduria. All set for intrigue and hopefully games of pulp and In Her Majesty's Name featuring the two countries and their secret agencies. All I need now is to find some suitable late-19th or early-20th century miniatures to serve as Syldavians. Still, it isn't as though I have much else to occupy my time at present.

A Return to Borduria - bringing my imaginations into the late-19th century.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am a huge fan of the figures produced by Mark Copplestone. I've long admired his Back Of Beyond range, but I've never really wanted to buy large armies of the figures. However, it occurred to me that I could use his Bolsheviks for a band in games of In Her Majesty's Name and also in 7TV Pulp games. So, I need a setting for them, and where else should that be except in Borduria? So, here is a brief account of what happened to Borduria during the 19th century.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, during which both Syldavia and Borduria found themselves on the same side in various coalitions against the Emperor, things slowly began to change for these small nations. I shall come back at some future date to discuss Syldavia in the 19th century, so this will be all about Borduria.

The beginning of the 19th century saw the coronation of Autokrat Constantine III on New Year's Day 1802 He was the grandson of Constantine II who ruled the country from 1747 until his death in 1782, when he was succeeded by his son Demetrios I Cantacuzene, who was assassinated by an unknown hand in 1801.

Constantine III was very much under the influence of the Russian party in the Bordurian court, which had gained an ascendancy over the pro-Prussian faction in the last decade of the 18th century. The leader of the Russian party in the Samovar (the Bordurian assembly of boyars and de facto royal council), Count Pyotr Strabomytes of Kardouk (the son of the Count Strabomytes against whom Sir William Huntley-Palmer fought a duel in Trieste in 1765) began to push Constantine towards a much more pro-Tsarist position.

Following the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Constantine III began to consolidate his position by purging the army of Prussian influences and beginning a period of Slavicisation of the organs of the state and the oppression of Roman Catholicism. Constantine promoted the most conservative elements in his court and during his reign, which ended in 1838, the country became more and more authoritarian. Following his death, his son Alexandros I continued his father's policies, with strict censorship of the press and a tightening of control over the country's education system, at one point closing all of the country's four universities for five years.

Alexandros I was assassinated by an Anarchist faction in 1851, without leaving an adult male heir. This led to a period of instability for a few years, with the Samovar appointing Count Michaelis Bazarov as co-regent with Alexandros' widow Elizavetna Romanova. Bazarov became unpopular with many boyars and landowners once his relationship with the Dowager Empress became clear and he was removed from office and imprisoned in Peshod Castle, where he died in mysterious circumstances. His removal allowed the young and ambitious Count Georgios Cantacuzene, from a junior branch of the ruling House to raise up an army and overthrow the Samovar in 1858. Refusing the title of Autokrator, he was acclaimed by a faction of liberal landowners as Voivode, adopting a traditional pre-Autocracy title for the ruler of the country. At first, the reign of Georgios seemed to herald a new dawn for Borduria, with a relaxation of the repressive laws of Constantine III and Alexandros, but liberalisation coincided with a renewal of war with Syldavia, leading to a succession of military defeats. Conservative elements in the Army and amongst rural boyars, supported by Tsarist agents in the country, launched a coup against Georgios, who was deposed and murdered in his palace in the capital, Szohôd in August 1865. Alexandros' son, Constantine was brought back from exile in Saint Petersburg, where his mother had taken him in 1859 and crowned Autokrator in October 1865. The return of repression was inevitable, but this time there was much opposition inside the country and civil disturbances, strikes and violence spread until it was necessary for Constantine IV to declare martial law in 1868. 

There were many Bordurian exiles living across Eastern and Central Europe and these had organised political and revolutionary movements, some with links to German nationalists, other with Syldavian elements and still more with Marxist, Socialist and Anarchist groups. As martial law bit deep and unrest began to turn into conflict, the leader of the Proletarian Alliance, the largest exile Marxist grouping, Eugenios Laskarios, agreed a pact with the peasant Agrarian League and the (illegal) anarchist Union of Workers to form the Bordurian Proletarian Party. Fomenting dissent in the Army and carrying out a wave of assassinations and acts of terrorism, the BPP led the country in a general uprising in 1869. Many regiments of the army mutinied and killed their officers and a short but bloody Civil War ensued.

The city of Szohôd was besieged and other cities and towns began to rise up and expel their local governments. By the end of 1871, most of the country was in the hands of the BPP and Constantine and his family fled to Syldavia, from whence he made his way to Switzerland and then Russia. Laskarios proclaimed the end of the Autocracy and the beginning of the Bordurian Republic on the steps of the Royal Palace on March 1st 1872. He assumed the title of First Minister of the People's Provisional Government and began the process of purging the country of the old absolutist aristocracy. However, the process of nationalisation and the redistribution of land didn't run smoothly. There were disagreements and ideological differences in the Parliament and before long Laskarios and his Proletarian Alliance comrades realised that to preserve the revolution they would have to purge the government of its opponents and rule the country as a one-party state. In 1874, Laskarios shut down Parliament and his secret police and party militia launched another coup which brought about the final act of the Bordurian Revolution.

Since then, the Proletarian Alliance has ruled the country, with its head being known as the Chief Commissar. After the death of Eugenios Laskarios in 1881, the Leader has been Chief Commissar Michaelis Ivanovich. The Bordurian Secret Police, the Second Directorate (also called the Sekuritat), controls the press and oversees state security, while the Third Directorate is a secret intelligence organisation that operates in neighbouring countries, as well as those further away who harbour émigré Cantacuzenist and aristocratic communities and factions. These factions are all grouped together under the broad title of Autokratians, after the old title of the Bordurian Crown. Bourgeois and Liberal democratic groups are also targeted by the Third Directorate, popularly called the Informat.

Informat active units are not only intelligence gatherers and spies. They also carry out abductions and assassinations, as well as building up links with revolutionary groups and even criminal gangs in capitalist countries.