The Rescue of Friday Lightly

The westernmost province of British Alerikstan is in an uproar this Halloween.  The governor’s Goth-obsessed teenage daughter, Friday Lightly, was on a trick-or-treating excursion to a local village when that wily hill-chief and brigand, the notorious and infamous, the one and only Oudhi Dhutti, kidnapped her to hold her for ransom. 

The governor's daughter was a lovely girl, but she wore entirely too much black in the desert.

Governor Lightly, fearing for his daughter’s safety and the threat to the Pax Brittanica posed by such a lawless act, scratched together a rescue force as quickly as he could and rode hard toward the village where his spies told him Dhutti was hiding with his prize.  Governor Lightly knows that Oudhi Dhutti won’t harm his daughter (lest the wrath of the Empire raze the entire province to ashes), but he has to rescue her before Dhutti can escape to the hills, where catching the clever brigand would be a much more challenging task. 

Rules used were TMWWBK.  The British must rescue Miss Friday Lightly in 8 turns, or Oudhi Dhutti will be able to make his escape under the cover of darkness. 

Order of Battle:

British:

Captain Mackenzie Ferguson and one company Gordon Highlanders, Fierce

Lieutenant Bertram Fletchley-Smythe and one company Royal Marine Light Infantry

Leftenant Evelyn Featherstone and one company Bombay Sappers and Miners

Captain James Archibald Murray Croighton and one squadron Bengal Lancers

Jemadar Ranjit Singh and Sikh mountain gun

Oudhi Dhutti’s Raiders:

Ahmad Boom with a clan of native rifles

Wali Boom with another clan of native rifles

Faisal Watsituya with a raiding party of swordsmen

Abd ibn Bin with a raiding party of spearmen

Bhadah Boom with a rusty old cannon and his ill-trained gun crew

Rhidin Jamaal with a band of native camels

Ibn Jamaal with another band of native camels

Ibn duin Rown with a band of native cavalry

Governor Lightly took the lay of the land as his scratch force approached the native village.  The village lay directly before him, the mountains behind it.  He could make out the barrels of a unit of native rifles behind a stone wall in the town itself, and the native field piece had been erected on the roof of a house.  A grove of trees lay a little distance ahead to his right, while an extensive area of gullies and dry riverbeds, with a stand of trees beyond that, was to his left.  He could see the dust swirls of a unit of native cavalry to his right front, flanking the right-hand approaches.  

The lay of the land.

Noting with concern the lateness of the day, the governor determined on a headlong assault, hoping that the offensive capabilities of his Highlanders and Bengal Lancers would carry the day. 

The Highlanders advanced straight down the middle, until they were suddenly brought up short by a unit of native rifles hidden in ambush in the grove of trees to the right.  They fired off a volley, but only caused a few casualties.  The Sappers to the right of the Highlanders fired their Sniders in reply, with some effect. 

Over on the British left, Jemadar Singh was having problems getting his gunners in order, so Governor Lightly ordered the Bengal Lancers forward at the double in the hopes that he could flank the village from the left as the Highlanders and Marines closed in on the front.  But as two units of native camels exploded out of the gullies and ravines of the broken ground in front of the Lancers, the governor cursed himself for a fool.  Ambushed twice in one day!  The Marines moved forward, Lieutenant Fletchley-Smythe positioning himself where his company could support either the Lancers or the Highlanders as needed. 

Camels attack!

The first unit of native camels charged full-tilt into the lancers who, being charged, did not have the benefit of their lance bonus.  As it turned out they didn’t need their bonus, seeing the natives off and taking only one casualty.  But no sooner had they beat back the first unit of camels when the second unit of camels barreled into them.  The hardy sowars grinned through their beards and stood to their work, striking about them with tulwars and pistol-butts until the second unit of camels was sent packing after the first. 

Camels retreat!

Oudhi Dhutti, not impressed with the performance of his cameleers, gave the signal for his spear- and sword-armed units to attack the exposed Highlanders.  The swordsmen rose up from their hiding places and rushed the Gordons with a wild, ululating whoop.  The fight was close, and the Gordons were cut down to half strength, but Captain Mackenzie Ferguson cut down the enemy leader with one stroke of his claymore, and the grizzled Scotsmen threw the swordsmen back.  “That was a close one,” muttered Sergeant MacRimmon.  

Swords waving, the tribesmen smash into the kilted furies.

Captain Ferguson cuts down Watsituya with one stroke.

But he muttered too soon.  The native spears, seeing the Scots at half strength, closed in for the kill.  Badly outnumbered, weakened by rifle fire from the grove of trees and their previous tussle with the native swords, the Highlanders went down in a shower of spears. 

They'll be takin' the high road to Loch Lomond.

The Sappers took their revenge by whittling down the ranks of the victorious spearmen, and then Lieutenant Fletchley-Smythe led a charge that scattered the spears to the four winds.  But Governor Lightly was still in dire straits; a third of his infantry and half his cavalry was gone, and he was not yet halfway to the village. 

Overview at the midpoint. The Sikh mountain gun is out of frame to the right.  Jemadar Singh had a hard time organizing his gunners, and most of the first half of the battle the British had no artillery support.

Back on the left, Jemadar Singh had finally got his gunners under control, and they fired on the native camel units, who were trying to rally in the broken ground ahead of the Lancers.  Little damage was done.  Acting more cautiously now (a little too late!) Governor Lightly ordered the Lancers to fire a volley at the rallying camel unit rather than attempt a charge through the rough terrain.  One of the camel units was down to a single rider and the other down to half strength, but both rallied and once again threatened the British left. 

At this point luck seemed to have changed her fickle mind and switched her allegiance to the Queen, for the native spear and sword units continued to retreat and the fire from the rickety old field piece on the roof was ineffective.  The native cavalry moved forward, but got tangled up in the retreating swordsmen. 

Seeing the tide shift, Governor Lightly ordered everyone to attack.  The Marines went in with the bayonet against the native rifles at the village, while the Sappers brandished their picks and shovels and charged home against the rifles in the grove of trees.  Jemadar Singh set the first unit of native camels to flight with a well-placed round from the mountain gun, and the Lancers spurred their mounts into the second unit of camels. 

The Marines surge to the wall!

The Sappers charge the grove of trees!

The Lancers storm the camels!

All was excitement and fury and shouts and screams, but when the dust cleared, the British field force, though bloodied, held the ground. 

Oudhi Dhutti desperately attempted to rally his fleeing units, but only his depleted unit of swordsmen heeded his cries.  His cavalry, still fresh, had finally advanced clear of the rallying swordsmen, but were now on the wrong side of the village wall from the Marines, who now held the barricade.  Dhutti’s field piece fired at the Marines in the village, causing casualties, but the Royal Marines’ nerve held fast. 

The Royal Marines take the wall.

With nothing between the Marines and Miss Friday Lightly except for a rusty old field piece, the fight was practically over.  Jemadar Singh opened fire on the native cavalry, and the Sappers, who had spent virtually the entire game dueling with a solitary unit of native rifles, finally saw their foes off the table and threatened the native cavalry’s flank.  The Marines opened fire on the native field piece, killing half the gunners, and then the Lancers charged home and did the rest. 

Sergeant Smithwell personally handed Miss Lightly to her delighted father in the village square.  “Luvverly girl,” he said to himself.  “But Gor blimey why’s she wearin’ black in the desert?”  

Miss Friday Lightly regales her rescuers with awful poetry while Oudhi Dhutti makes for the hills on his fastest horse.

German Colonial Troops

At long last I have completely finished a wargaming army: a German colonial force.  I based them to be used as half-units for TSATF (so 6 mounted and 10 mounted figs per unit).  I like my troops to be varied (just for fun and for modelling/painting variety), so not all of these units would have fought in the same theater.  And I could have done some auxiliary units, like the Rehoboth Bastards or some Witbooi irregular cavalry, but these are the primary core units of German colonial armies.  Most of the paint schemes I used for these are based off of research compiled on the marvelous German Colonial Uniforms website.  First up is my camel-mounted Schutztruppen from German Southwest Africa.  (Schutztruppe company number 7 was camel-mounted, all the others being mounted on horses). 

I made these with heads from the Hat WWI Schutztruppe, bodies from the mounted figures in Hat WWII Romanian Artillery Crew, Hat Egyptian Camel Corps camels, and the rifle scabbards cut from the horses in the Hat AZW British Mounted Infantry set.  I made the distinctive equipment straps from modeling epoxy.  I am quite proud of these.  And a close-up:

Next is my naval landing party.  I converted these via simple headswaps, putting Hat AZW British Infantry heads on Hat AZW Gardner Gun sailors.  I made these a while ago, and in retrospect I think I would have been far more accurate if I had removed the cutlasses and used the sun helmets from Hat's WWI British in Tropical Dress rather than the AZW sun helmets.  But oh well, they look good enough at this scale. 

The petty officer is just a Hat WWI Schutztruppe with a naval-themed paint job.  I honestly just forgot to do a petty officer for this unit and he's really more of a stand-in.  When I get some time I'll probably convert a figure similar to what I did for my British naval landing party (which will be a subsequent blog post). 

Next up is a unit of German SWA Schutztruppe.  These guys were all technically mounted infantry, but for wargaming purposes they should be based as regular infantry.  The bulk of the figures are Hat WWI Schutztruppe, while the officer is a headswap from the Hat WWI Askari set, and the NCO is from Strelets Boers. 

Here are the askaris from German East Africa.  German SWA did not employ askaris (although they did use irregulars like the aforementioned Bastards and Witboois).  I painted the officer and NCO as Seebattalion, using the idea that such personnel might be seconded from other services to lead locally-raised troops like this.  The askaris are from Hat WWI Askari, the NCO from Hat WWI Schutztruppe, the officer an old ESCI figure.

The next unit I wasn't sure I should include, which is an askari cavalry unit from German Cameroon.  My understanding is that technically these were police forces (although so were the Natal Mounted Police and other similar units), but in the end I decided to paint and include it for two reasons: first, if my Germans are going to face off against a similar British or French force, they'll need cavalry; and secondly, I really really really wanted to paint a German tricolor lance pennon after seeing a print of these troops on a postcard from around that period.  So first the postcard, and then the figures:

You will note that I elected to make the German officer wear a German SWA sudwesterhut rather than the sun helmet depicted on the postcard.  This was actually because I figured I could use the figure as a mounted officer for my schutztruppe unit or my army's general, on top of which the sudwesterhut was a popular uniform item in the German colonies at the time, so it's not at all unreasonable for an officer of askari police in German Cameroon.

Next I have my Seebattalion, along with a Maxim gun manned by a seesoldat and a sailor.  These are from Hat's WWI Schutztruppe, along with an officer from Hat AZW Gardner Gun and an ensign from ESCI.  The assistant gunner on the Maxim (which I know is not quite right for the period) was originally an askari with a fez and long havelock.  When I headswapped him for the tropical helmet the remainder of the havelock actually looked just right for a sailor's square rig, so I ran with it.  It looks okay, not great.  Won't win any awards, but a good gaming piece.

And at long last we get to the final elements, a C96 field artillery piece with SWA crew, and a command element comprising a sword-waving officer and a flag-waving ensign (actually a Boer from Strelets' lovely set).  The model 1896 feldkanone is not right for the period, because no one makes C96aA guns, only the C96nA, which was the modification used in WWI.  But it's close enough for my purposes.  Anyway, the gun is from the Emhar WWI German Artillery set and the figures are from the Hat WWI German Artillery set.  A note on using Strelets Boers as force multipliers for my primarily Hat schutztruppen: considering how the schutztruppen willfully helped the Boers fight the Brits during their rebellions, and then how a significant number of Boers then went and helped the schutztruppe during WWI, I find it fitting and correct that the two sets have figures that complement each other so well. 

And then finally one last group shot:

So that's these fellows done.  Now I need to finish up a unit of Scots, some lancers, and some Rifles and I'll have the bally brave Brits ready to do battle with the hulking Huns! 

Some 1/72 conversions

So I like 1/72 miniatures, HO/OO scale, 20mm plastics, etc. etc. etc.  I know, it’s an odd thing.  The world seems to be jam-packed full of 28-32mm figures, a very large number of them very attractive and full of character.  But I like the small-scale plastics.  The size just feels about right to me.  It is a scale, however, that does not much go in for character figures, or really any figure that is in any way much different from the other figures.  1/72 plastic toy soldier companies seek to provide large armies at a low cost, and that means multiple copies of multiple poses.  Now, I do love my Hat Zulu War British Infantry, despite what some have said about them.  But all of the figures have the same uniform, same bayonet, same trousers tucked into same gaiters, and so on.  (Well, except one figure who seems to be some sort of auxiliary.)  There are no character figure, a figure you can devote your very best paint job to and set him at the head of your army, no matter the time period or genre.  There is no little one-inch Colonel Flashman.  So small scale plastic warriors must either do without, or do some converting.  So I figured I’d try my hand and see what I could do about getting some characters into my games.  Most of my conversions so far are nothing more than headswaps, but a couple are a little more involved. Here are a few snaps of my most recent efforts.

 First up is Dorothy Copperpot, daughter of the famous explorer and treasure hunter Chester, and a world-renowned archaeologist and explorer in her own right.  She's outfitting for an expedition now, with a coil of rope, archaeological tools, and she has just unearthed a neolithic skull.

I made Dorothy from a Caesar partisan, and cut her head down enough to accommodate a sun helmet from Hat's WWI British Infantry in tropical dress.  The coiled rope is simply a length of twine, and the tools are from the Imex settlers set.

The second, more major conversion, is a Voodoo bokor.  In Caribbean voodoo tradition, or at least in some variants of it, bokors are sorcerers who are often evil.  I made this guy out of the top half of a Strelets Mounted Boer and the bottom half of a Hat Natal Native Contingent.  The staff/ensign/whatever is from Hat's Roman Auxiliary Cavalry.  

My plan with the bokor is to have him leading a band of Tonton Macoute and zombies against a United States Marine Corps expedition in Haiti sometime around the turn of the century.  I really wish both my camera and painting skills were a bit better, but over all I'm pretty happy with how these two turned out.

Some more Colonial British

Here is a selection of my stalwart, red-coated soldiers of the Queen.  I've collected these guys for years.  The very first box of Victorian plastic 22's I ever bought I actually purchased in Vienna, Austria.  I had always lived in rather out-of-the-way places (and was usually quite cash-strapped), and Vienna was the first real city in which I had ever lived.  I had bought boxes of ACW, WWII, Napoleonics, and some other more common types here and there, but I had never been to a store where there was a large selection of plastic 22's.  I was pleasantly surprised, then, when after jaunting down a pleasant little street off of the Kenyongasse, I happened upon a small, out-of-the-way shop with little plastic toy soldiers in the window.  Intending only to look, I went inside and found entire walls stacked clear to the ceiling with box upon box of old Airfix's, Matchbox's, Hat's, Esci's, Revell's, and Italeri's, among others.  I spent two hours in there, just looking at everything they had.  Ultimately, I took the 4 euros with which I had intended to buy dinner and purchased an old Esci set (the box was of the old style with the little triangular window of clear cellophane) of British infantry for the Zulu War.  The following picture is of some of those guys, along with subsequent purchases, all Esci.  They're formed up into one corner of a battalion square.  I probably have enough of them to build a complete square of kneeling and standing firing figures.  I painted them up to be 24th Foot. 

Next are two photos of a British rocket section for the Zulu War.  I put it together from the explorer figure from Eagle Games' Age of Imperialism game, an Esci British soldier, and Hat's Napoleonic British rocket set.  There are some obvious problems with these figures.  Firstly and most obviously, the figures should be Royal Artillery and therefore all in blue, rather than in the infantry regulation scarlet tunic.  The Napoleonic rockets are also incorrect.  The rockets used in the Zulu War would have been shorter, and the stands from which they were fired would have been knee-height, rather than these tall tripods.  Still, it was one of my early attempts at a conversion so I can't bring myself to scrap it. 

Here is a photo of one of Hat's new brilliant sets, British mounted infantry.  Mounted infantry were just that: detachments from infantry battalions mounted on ponies.  They almost never fought mounted, using the ponies strictly for mobility, and for this reason Hat's addition of the horseholder figure was excellent.  The mounted infantry were absolutely criticial in defeating the Boer commandos during the last phases of the Second Anglo-Boer War, but were also used in earlier conflicts, such as the Zulu War.  These fellows are painted up as a mounted infantry detachment from the 24th Foot for that conflict. 

Eventually I'll have to base these guys so that I can actually game.

Step-by-Step Imperial Troops

For my first batch of "for real" Imperial Habsburg infantry I used troops from the Strelets "big box" of Tsar Peter the Great's army and court.  These figures are quite close to what the Habsburgers would have looked like in the matter of clothing.  Their equipment, too, is quite accurate.  This makes sense, as these figures were designed for the Great Northern War, which started less than fifteen years after the Siege of Vienna.  Also, the figures are for Russia which, despite Peter the Great's attempts at modernization, was still more backwards in many respects than the other combatants during the war with Sweden.  Many of the musketeer figures actually have plug bayonets, which is accurate, but sort of rare in 1:72 plastic.  As such, all they really needed was a different paint job.  I started with a base coat of Citadel white primer.

After they were fully dried I started painting proper.  I generally paint from the inside out; so areas of skin first, then uniforms and such, and then cuffs, turnbacks and lapels and so on.  The observant reader will note that mustaches of yore were apparently quite formidable.

After I finished the skin and hair, I moved on to their uniform coats.  As per most of my sources on Habsburg uniforms, I used a light gray.  On my next batch, I will most likely use a darker grey, as it looks a lot better; from too far away the light grey looks like white primer.  For their trousers I went with a simple brown, and their gaiters I painted white. 

After the skin and major items of uniform clothing, I finish the uniform by painting the facings, buttons, and other items, as well as shoes and hats.  For this regiment, I chose blue facings and gold buttons. 

After the uniform is done, I move on to the weapons and other equipment, and the base.  I haven't decided on how I want to base these guys yet (since I haven't decided on the rules set to use yet) so I simply painted their stands green.  Also, in the above photos it can be seen that I at first attempted to paint a blue facing stripe down the front of the uniform coats to represent lace around the buttonholes.  However, it simply wound up looking like a painted stripe on a tunic, so I painted back over it and just picked out the buttons. 

I've never really used drybrushing or washing on any of my 1:72s.  I like how the techniques look when they're done right, I've just always thought 1:72 was too small for it to be effective.  I may try it on some figures later, but I don't think it is useful on the Strelets figures.  Strelets are fine, but their finer details are always a little grotesque, and it's not the best idea to highlight the flaws with drybrushing and inking.  Zvezda has a range for the Great Northern War, however, and I may try to do some fancier work on those.