Unexpected Progress

Despite my pessimistic view of the plan, the atrocious weather (which has disrupted my weekend outside schedule) coupled with Liz being glued to the TV most evenings has allowed me time to crack on and sort out these blasted Bashi Basouks that have been littering the lead pile and generally causing trouble for the last couple of years or so (I forget when Martin Goddard released these, but I bought some straight away and they've languished ever since - not unlike their real-life equivalents!).

Unlike previous PP mounted figures I've come across these are cast as one piece rather than horse and rider separately. I'm not sure if I like them this way, but they were certainly different to paint and I think they came up a treat. Despite there only being three poses the nature of their "uniform" helps to give the unit an irregular feel, and they should fit in nicely with their foot equivalents.

I also managed to finish off a pile of PP Spanich Civil War casualty markers that similarly have been hanging around unpainted for as long as I can remember. Next up - five 1930s biplane fighters for the "not the SCW collection" :)

 

The Plan – 2014

Having reviewed progress in 2013 yesterday, today I set out my plan for 2014. As a cursory look at the last 2 years will show I achieve between 50% and 75% of my objectives so I am confident I will be reporting a similar ration of success and “deferred success” in 364 days time J

1 – 15mm Colonial. Sort out those blasted Bashi Basouks and some river boats. Then look to see what we need extra (if anything) for the hinted-at Berkeley Vale campaign.

2 – Form Line of Battle. A surprise entry, but here because (a) I’ve remembered how much I love the rules and (b) Rodger at the club wants to give them a try. The plan here is to renovate the fleets and complete at least six ships from the “lead pile”

3 – Project X. Mysteriously referred to over the last 2 years, PX has three elements to it. I will complete at least 2 of them this year. You’ll know when I do J

4 – 1/600 Coastal. Resurrecting last year’s objective, I will renovate the existing fleets, finish any odd models that have yet to be completed, sort out soft copies of ship data cards and get some games in! A stretch target will be to do the same for my 1/1200 models.

5 – Armada Invencible. Another surprise entry, but 2014 should see the rules for this hit the streets. I have a couple of the ships already and it looks like my stock of old Airfix galleons might work with them at a pinch. The objective here is to get a copy, knock up small English and Spanish squadrons and try them out. And if they don’t work then an Armada variant of FLoB may be on the cards J

6 – Games. I’m well set up to run a number of games, including Wings of Glory, X Wing, Sails of Glory (of which more in the coming days I hope), War Rocket and a few others so the plan here is to get a number of games of each in. I’ll also try to run a one day campaign, maybe two. These may or may not be connected with Project X.

Inevitably there will be some mission creep. I can guess where the mission may creep to over the coming months (those 15mm Vikings would like a day out, as would my 7^th cavalry and Plains Wars Indians, and then there’s the “not the Spanish Civil War” stuff…..). So expect some variation.

However, one very firm target – NO NEW PERIODS!

And now to end, the first completed models of 2014 (which don’t fit in to objectives 1-6) – a pair of Zvezda 1/100 T-35s. They really are quite imposing! 

2013 In Review

And so we come to the end of the year and the now customary review. From a personal perspective 2013 has seen a number of highs and lows. Settling in to the new house, enjoying our first Summer in the country and getting our third pony (little Ianto) has been lovely. I've been away visiting some lovely places around the world including Atlanta and Tromso, and on the work front I got promoted - yay! There have also been some rather unpleasant lows for us but with luck they are now behind us (mostly at least) and are not worth dwelling on more, especially in a wargaming blog :)

Ianto - Mr Cute :)

Gaming wise I'm pleased to say that I've got more games in this year than the last 5 at least combined, having joined the Berkeley Vale club in October 2012. I've played all sorts of games; colonial and western gunfights have been popular but I've also run several Sails of Glory and Wings of War games, and played in Muskets and Tomahawks, various WW2 games, A-47 (first edition of course), Russo Japanese using Square Bashing and lots of others. I also sorted out my X Wing collection and we've run a few good games of that. Looking forward to bringing in the Correllian Corvette into the games next year. 

On the show front the Naval Wargames Show in June was a great success and I will be organising the next event, again to be held at Exploson! on June 21/22 2014. I've also run or take part in a number of Wings of Glory and Sails of Glory demonstration and participation games around the southern UK (including Penarth, Devizes, Reveille and Colours) and ran my "Cod War" parti game at Salute - it was great to see a friend on Shapeways producing bespoke models to accompany the rules. The long awaited release of Sails of Glory is happening as I write, with Kickstarter backers receiving their sets around the US and Europe. I have put a lot of effort into supporting Ares with rule development and advice on the models, and this should continue into 2014 as Wave 2 and the first "special" releases hit the streets. It was a long time coming, but I think the wait was worth it.

Sails of Glory at Berkeley Vale

Now, how did my 2013 plan go? Lets see.....

1)      More games – see above. Although the plans I had to run a  few mini campaigns here in Gloucestershire didn't come off overall I've done well here.

2)      Medieval Naval – all the cogs I had at the beginning of the year were painted successfully. I then bought another 40, of which 10 are now done. With a stock of 100+ I think they can wait now :)

3)      Wings of War – played loads. Bought an airship. Still love it.

Our game at Thornbury IPMS Show - won the "best of parti game show" award :)

4)      X wing – All ships, including the large stock of Micro Machines, sorted out. A few more games of this would be good though.

5)      The Sudan – Apart from games of BFE2 at Slimbridge this part of the plan was a non-starter. The Bashi Basouks have at least been undercoated now. Plans for a colonial campaign at Slimbridge may see this take off though in 2014/15.

General Mitch McMog reviews the troops - alas no manoeuvres have been conducted this year!

6)      WW2 Coastal – Apart from a few uncompleted models painted up I didn't get anywhere with this either. 

So I'd say that was a 66% success rate on the plan. On the plus side though I did bring "War Rocket" into the plan and get my entire collection painted and based in quick time, and I managed to renovate my Babylon 5 collection (rashed after our previous house move 6 years ago) as well as my DBA Vikings on the strength of watching the TV series on Lovefilm (can't wait for season 2!)

So now here I am, planning the last game of 2013 - probably a playtest of the development of my medieval rules - and thinking about the plan for 2014. More of that tomorrow, but I suspect Sails of Glory and the new "Armada Invencible" game from Zvezda (got the first two model releases for that today) will feature in it.

Oh, and one last model to paint up before midnight. Something I've been waiting for for months!

The new Zvezda 1/100 T-35. I raided Antics today for a second one :)

EDIT: just for the record, my last game for 2013 has been a playtest and development of my set of medieval tactical rules. They seem to be coming on nicely :)

The Plan (2013)

2013 – The Plan

Yes, like the Cylons, I have a plan. Unfortunately I don’t have Lucy Lawless or Tricia Helfer to make it happen, but apart from that ‘m sure it will be a great success. This is what I’m planning to do this time around:

1)      More games – I didn’t do too badly as far as actual games were concerned last year, and moving to Berkeley Vale whilst also having the local Wings of War group running games won’t hurt prospects for this year too. I’d like to run some sort of Sudan, age-of-sail (thanks for the excellent material, Dave Schueler) and/or DBA campaign at home during the year, but these are “stretch” targets as far as the plan is concerned.

2)      Medieval Naval – yes, I will get the last of the cogs finished, and spruce up the rules.

3)      Wings of War – a “standing item” now. As well as playing at home and with the Avon group I’m hoping to get  afew demo/parti games at shows sorted this year too.

4)      X wing – get my collection of ships sorted out, make up all requisite play aides for the various Micro Machines and other proxies.

5)      The Sudan – yes, get back to the purpose of this blog and play some more Sudan games. Also finish off the Bashi Basouks, a few outstanding terrain pieces and build at least one new gunboat

6)      WW2 Coastal – one of my original wargaming loves, I need to sort out my WW2 collection, fix a load of models that were broken in the move and generally get back in to playing this.

I have a few ideas for other things that will, no doubt, displace some of the above. Oh, and Project X is still on the back burner but may come roaring into life (dependent on outside influences though).

Finally I’ll be organising and gaming at the Naval Wargames Show in Gosport on June 22/23^rd. Hope to see some of you there. Its months away, but I suspect those months will fly by VERY quickly!!!

Time Away

I've been out and about for the last few weeks, hence no posts. Work trips took me to Den Haag and Washington, and for the last 2 weeks we've been on holiday in Whitby and then in bamburgh (where we got in some sea time with a trip around the Farne Islands).

Anyway, I'm back and trying to get some wargaming kick started. That said, we took "Wings of War" away on holiday with us to paly during the rainy days and the kids (as usual) kicked parent butt and shot us down a few times.

In amongst the pile of post waiting for us was the latest issue of the SOTCW journal. The "theme" of this issue was the british campaigns in Somaliland against the "Mad Mullah". fascinating stuff, and by the time I reached the end I realised that my 15mm Sudan collection makes an ideal basis for playing out these battles. Some 1/100 biplanes (esp. a few DH.9s) are needed, but apart from that most of what I'd need already resides on my collection. A good start :)

Today, Laura and I visited the "Attack" wargames show at Devizes. We had planned to play a few games there, but Laura had the attention span of a gnat and we were soon on our way home (via the locks at Caen Hill, to see the canal boats negotiating the lock system). Anyway, in the time we were there I picked up a couple of boxes of the new PSC 15mm Shermans (one of each type), some 20mm WW1 MkIV tanks from the bring and buy (we are working on a WW1 tank collection), and a 1/72 Spad XIII for Laura's "air museum" collection. I also caught up with a good number of old wargaming friends, but the "Laura Effect" precluded extensive discussion :)

Anyway, á good day out, and now I have a table full of Sherman bits and pieces. annoying really as I ought to be concentrating on naval stuff in preparation for the NWS games weekend at Gosport next month!

Oh, and I almost forgot. I have, at long last, finished the two Sopwith Triplanes from Shapeways that Steve Blease ordered for me :)

Fort L'Escroc

A little while back that awfully nice chap, David Crook, very kindly sent me an old Airfix Fort Sahara that eh had discovered at a car boot sale. I'd been after one of these quite liteally for years (after missing out on a mint one at The Keep many years ago I'd never seen one since).

Being second hand it was obviously "pre-loved" but some judicious application of plastic card, cardboard and chopped up coffee stirrers, along with a paint job combined with a sprinkling of sand to give a suitably rough surface to the inner walls has led to what i think is a pretty satisfying conclusion.

I'll probably make a few "lean-to" buildings and a well to go in the courtyard, but for now its finished.

I have  a whole raft of uses for this now. It can just about do for a fort in the Sudan, and fits nicely with my plans for a hypothetical SCW-based campaign setting (not to mention working nicely with my AK-47 armies).

A French Foreign legion setting would be good too, wouldn't it? Well, up until a few days back that was an aspiration but wasn't likely to come to anything. However, whilst trawling through te "lead pile" and sorting out the stuff that is going to the Lincombe Barn tabletop sale I found a box of unpainted Irregular FFL and Tuaregs that I bought many, many years back. So maybe more a "project for later" than an aspiration :)

Disaster at Sennar!

A few days ago it was declared on TMP that 1/1/11 was international Solo Wargaming Day. I decided to take part, and use the day as an opportunity to give my “Don’t Throw Bloody Spears At Me” rules another run out.

For this battle I chose to run an encounter between Egyptian forces under Hicks Pasha and Mahdist forces, based (very) loosely on the battle of Sennar.

Here is the Egyptian army at the start of the game, and below it is the Mahdist army, advancing from the direction of the painting table and passing the town of Sennar on the way, watched by some of the town’s residents.

DTBSAM uses a card activation system, three cards for each side plus a joker comprises a turn. If the joker is turned over the turn ends immediately.

Turn 1, 1st card – Black. The forces of the Mahdi take the initiative and advance. Mounted units spread out to the flanks to menace the advancing Egyptians. The Mahdist commander suddenly realises that it would have made more sense to deploy the Jihadiya early in the palm grove to his right and in an ambush position, but the “encounter” nature of the battle precluded this. Oh well, next time....

2nd, 3rd cards – Red. Hicks Pasha deploys his forces, moving his Nordenfeldt to lie between the 1st and 2nd battalions on the left flank, and his artillery to sit between the 2nd and 3rd battalions in the centre. The cavalry advance to cover the Baggara camelry to their front, whilst the Bashi Basouks and the lancers advance to cover the Baggara cavalry, advancing around the broken hills.

4th card – Black. The Mahdist mounted units charge. The Egyptians stand their ground, but are not inclined to counter charge (British cavalry would be hard to hold back in this situation, but Egyptian cavalry, being of low morale, would stand a good chance of failing to charge and becoming disordered). The Mahdists have the advantage of impetus and crash into their opponents, scattering both Egyptian cavalry units. On the right flank the Bashi Basouks are suddenly looking very exposed!

5th card – Black. The Mahdists hold the initiative. The sole unit of Jihadiya riflemen advance into the broken hills and open fire on the Egyptian 3rd battalion. Despite low rates of fire the Mahdists succeed in killing two units of the Egyptian battalion. However, morale in the Egyptian force is still good and the battalion holds. On the right flank the Baggara cavalry charge the Bashi Basouks. All seems lost, but amazingly the irregulars hold, taking no casualties and killing one stand of their attackers. On the Egyptian left the camelry charge home. Egyptian fire at the incoming mounted troops kills half their number, but against the odds the Baggara morale holds and they impact the Egyptian lines. The ensuing melee, however, is inconclusive and no further casualties are caused.

6th card – Red. Egyptian fire at the Jihadiya kills one stand, but due to their advantageous position in the broken cover of the hills and some decent morale throws the riflemen hold position. The Bashi Basouks and the Baggara cavalry continue to melee inconclusively. The Egyptian artillery and rockets open fire at the oncoming Ansar, killing two stands but failing to stem their advance.

The turn ends with the Mahdists closing rapidly on the Egyptian position. However, Hicks is confident that fortune will favour him, as will the Remingtons of his troops.

Turn 2

1st Card – Black! The Bashi Basouks’ contest with the cavalry (and an incoming unit of Haddendowah) continues with the irregulars killing another cavalry stand for no loss. However, in the centre things suddenly go very bad. The Ansar and Haddendowah charge into contact. Despite rapid fire at the incoming horde the Egyptians only kill 4 stands, and these are distributed amongst the attackers meaning no failed morale and no units failing to charge home. The Mahdi’s finest crash into the Egyptian 2nd and 3rd battalions, sweeping them from the field. Both suffer heavy casualties and their morale breaks.

The situation as the melee begins....

And as it ends!

2nd Card – Black. Hicks realises he has never been lucky playing cards! The Mahdists sweep into the baggage train, overrunning the artillery and massacring the fleeing Egyptian fellahs from the 2nd and 3rd battalions. The 1st and 4th attempt to stem the flow. On the right the Bashi Basouks finally succumb and break, fleeing to the rear.

3rd card – Red. The 1st battalion dies fighting whilst the 4th makes a fighting withdrawal. Routing survivors from the 2nd and 3rd battalions and the Bashi Basouks flee to the rear, and Hick’s command team is swept along with them. Cautious fire into the Mahdists causes several casualties.

4th card – Red. Only now, with the battle lost, does some luck come to Hicks. The Mahdists fail to capitalise on their victory and mill around on the battlefield, plundering the supply train and butchering any Egyptians foolish enough not to run. Hicks and the 4th battalion make it to the table edge and escape back to Khartoum, leaving the Mahdi to contemplate the riches (in the form of Remingtons, Krupp howitzers and Nordenfeldt machine guns) that have fallen to him!

Summary – an unlucky series of card draws for Hicks left him with little ability to manoeuvre. On the plus side though the Mahdists failed to deploy riflemen into the cover to his front prior to the start of the action and so he avoided an ambush, which would have made a tricky position even harder. With a more even card distribution and some better die rolls when firing the Egyptians would probably have held off at least some of their attackers. However, once casualties start to mount the Egyptian force is quite fragile, even more so when an enemy is in contact. Once the melee with the main body commenced the writing was on the wall for Hicks Pasha. Still, at least, on this occasion, he escaped with his skin.

A New One Just Begun!

A happy new year to all our regular correspondents and new readers!

After watching the Western side of Bristol lit up in a myriad of new year fireworks displays the family retired to bed, thence to rise and mount the annual expedition to Brean Down to blow the cobwebs of the old year away, and to pay our respects to one of Mr Palmerston's follys. This time one of Laura's friends and his dad came along and, with a heightened sense of adventure, we clambered out to the searchlight position at the very tip of the headland. Now, as the kids begin to wind down for bed, thoughts in the "man cave" have turned to the International Solo Wargames Day and the battle of Sennar which will be refought, solo style, this evening.

In advance of the battle (and the write-up which I expect will hit the streets tomorrow), the forces of the Mahdi and Hicks Pasha have been on parade. I thought some of the assembed readers here might like to see some of the units new to this blog.

Here we see the Egyptian force of Hicks Pasha - four regular battalions, a regiment of cavalry and another of lancers, and an artillery battery, all from Essex. To the left is a battalion of Bashi Basouks from Peter Pig (unfortunately on foot, Mr Pig has not seen fit to provide us with mounted versions of these irregular cavalry!). to the rear is the baggage train (handily unbiquitous, so expect to see this in use by all the major protagonists!).

Hicks Pasha takes the salute from the 1st and 2nd battalions as they march past.

Peter Pig's Bashi Basouk figures are rather lovely and full of character, but would (IMHO) benefit greatly from a command pack of their own, and mounted equivalents.

Although not taking part in tonight's festivities, this British cavalry regiment was also on parade. DTBSAM allows British and some other cavalry units to fight dismounted, so here we see the regiment mounted (at the rear) and dismounted with horseholders at the front. All dismounted figures are from Peter Pig, mounted figures are Essex.

Moving over to the mahdist forces, here is the assembled army for the Sennar battle:

Here we have four units of Ansar, four of Hadendowah, one of Jehadiya riflemen (in the centre), with Baggarah cavalry and camelry scouts to the front. In the middle, leading the Jehadiya is the Mahdi himself,  although the command stand is sufficiently generic to serve as pretty much any of the Mahdi's lieutenants.

Finally, proof that Hicks Pasha has more to fear than just the Mahdi and the desert - as Kitten Kong (or his Sudanese cousin) makes an appearance! Fortunately Mitch's visit to the wargames table caused nothing more than a few toppled palm trees!

So, the table is set, the forces are ready, and tonight the forces of the mahdi and Hicks Pasha meet once again!

The Train, Boss The Train (part 2)

Sunday afternoon proved to be quite productive. Not only did I (almost) finish the latest addition to my 1/144 Wings of War “Biggles” collection, I also managed to progress the Sudan armoured train to a high state of completion. My previous entry was made at the point where the construction work had been completed and the wagons and engine were drying. That evening I gave the lot an overcoat of Revell “Tar Black” (an excellent shade, just “not-black” enough to look quite distinctive), and this afternoon I finished off with a dry brushing of “Steel” to emphasise the impromptu nature of the added armour, followed by a  very light brushing with “Beige” to give a slight weatherworn appearance. Finally, a few Peter Pig sailor figures were added to give a sense of scale, and this motley crew will be augmented by additional naval and army personnel (plus a few fellahs I shouldn’t wonder) over the coming weeks.

I will be adding to the collection with (ideally) some water wagons, a few more boxcars and another gun truck. And I'm still looking for a decent tender engine that is more in keeping with my original thoughts on what would be an appropriate locomotive, as well as an obviousy "European" loco that I can use with my Spanish Civil War collection. any suggestions on sources of cheap TT gauge rolling stock in any state of disrepair would be most gratefully received! 

I ought to add a couple of notes regarding inspirations. The following is an excellent resource for 15mm Sudan gamers, and the first three shots show where I pinched the ideas for the gun trucks: warin15mm.com/The-Sudan.html . There was an excellent series on making a Boer War era armoured train in 20mm in Airfix magazine back in the 1970s or 80s (copies up in my loft somewhere) which gave me some ideas - and which will have me building a searchlight car in the not-too-distant future for when I get into that conflict. finally, there is a nice drawing of a train in the Sudan in Howard Whitehouse's "Battle in Africa" which gave me the idea for the crane and gun carriage.

All Quiet on the Sudan Front?

There's not been much activity here for the last few weeks, and one could be forgiven for thinking that a lack of reports meant a lack of activity at the front. Nothing could be further from the truth! In the last four weeks we have fostered a dog (who wrecked the house), found a new home for the now ex-foster dog, got a couple of kittens, attended Warfare and Reveille (or which more later) and had the games room invaded by Laura and her friends.  The games room currently looks like this:

Now, the eagle-eyed  amongst you will have noticed  a few things here. The first is the appearance of a pile of 20mm WW2 desert armour. Laura and Philip are developing a  healthy interest in wargaming and WW2 20m Western desert is their chosen starting point. We picked up some Armourfast PzIIIs, Crusaders and Shermans at Warfare, and Laura splurged on some more kits at Reveille last week.  The Armourfast kits will will no prizes for extreme accuracy but they do build up very quickly into some excellent and attractive models. I just wish they'd been available when i was heavily into this kind of wargaming several decades back!

Out of interest, Dad has also been directed to raise a WW2 "army", but in my case is is made up of British WW2 North West Europe kit - Sherman Fireflys and M10 Achilles, and some Priest Kangaroos coming later. Don't ask how these three armies can come together - they just can :)

Tucked away at the back are some Wings of War Series IV models. I'm working on a couple of repaints there at the moment, as well as plucking up the courage to begin the Skytrex HP 0/100 I bought at Warfare!

Another feature that the observant reader will have noticed is the appearance of some railway wagons, track and a locomotive. Fear not, I have not been drawn into the world of model railways! Over the last few weks I've been hunting down track and rolling stock in TT gauge on which to base a Sudan armoured train. I now have all the kit I need, and so this project is about to get underway. I've widened the scope a bit so I will also be looking to use some of the less Sudan-specific kit for my 15mm Spanish Civil War stuff (which in any case is in danger of morphing into a hypothetical Central/South American civil war setting, after seeing some of the fun that the Abbey Wood Irregular are having with their 28mm "Very British Civil War" games - I will be adding a small armoured steamroller to my armies soon!). Anyway, more on the developing Sudan train in future press releases.

Finally, just to reassure you that the Sudan has not been forgotten, I have been working on the logistics side of my collection. the rules I'm drafting take account (in a simple way) of food, water and ammunition, and as a result I need a baggage train. I have plenty of camels and mules carrying, crates, boxes and other nondescript items, but I really needed some water wagons. There is a well-known photo of British 2 wheel wagons near the Pyramids in the 1890s and I wanted something similar. After a call on TMP for suggestions I picked up three wagons from Museum Miniatures.

They are lovely models and paint up quite nicely. In this case a simple overcoat of a medium tan, followed by a wash using the Army Painter mid-range wash. Here they are at the core of my loggie train, along with some Peter Pig baggage camels and a packed screw gun battery.

So, next up (once the school Christmas Fair is out of the way) will be the start of work on the train. I will keep you posted!

And finally, a gratuitous kitten shot!

The Mahdi of Sudan...

Colonial wargamers tend to be, in my experience, extremely well read on British and mperial troops and commanders, but less well so on their "native" opponents. The Sudan is no exception, and the vast majority of books that are readily available are written largely from the Imperial perspective. Worse still, hunting down many of the books and articles that were written at the time of the campaigns or shortly thereafter one finds that (understandably) they are almost entirely written in that style, and lump the Mahdi and his commanders into the generic role of "noble savage" (or noble wily savage in the case of Osman Digna), clever, cunning yet uneducated. Wherever possible I try to read both sides of the story when launching into a new wargaming period - for example, one of the most valuable books I obtained when I was running a Falklands 1982 campaign was Martin Middlebrook's account written from the Argentinean perspective - and this has been pretty tricky this time around. So it was with some happiness that I've recently picked up a copy of "The Mahdi and the Death of General Gordon", by Fergus Nicholl. I'm only part way into it but that part has covered the early life of Muhammad Ahmad in some considerable detail, and straight away has blown away some of my own preconceptions regarding the background to the campaigns in the Sudan. I'm sure the rest of the book will be just as edifying - I'll report back on it later.

As an aside - Google Books is an invaluable resource, isn't it? I've managed to download copyright-free versions of a whole host of boks writen about the campaigns in the 1880s and 1890s. I suspect Liz's new Kindle may find itself topping up with those in the not-too-distant future!

Reinforcements at Suakin

My latest painting project has been to finish off a battalion of Indian troops to support my "Suakin Front" contingent. The figures are Old Glory 15s, my first foray into figures from this manufacturer (I bought a few packs via a friend in the US, so you'll be seeing more from OG in the coming weeks). The figures are sold in packs of approximately 50 (in this case 51), which works out well given that I need 18-24 figures for a battalion using the rules on which I'm currently working.

So, how do these chaps compare with the Peter Pig figures  that make up the bulk of my armies? The answer is, IMHO, fairly well, but Martin Goddard's figures have a clear edge. I'm not entirely convinced by some of the poses (especially the one apparently leaping into space from a rock), and the comand figure selection isn't that helpful - a standard bearer would have been a useful addition, so in the fullness of time I may convert one of the prancing figures.

That said, the figures are decent, fairly well detailed and paint up well. they are not as slight as PP's but I guess that plays to the fearsome repuation of the Indian troops - they are, after all, over ten feet tall old boy!

A severe lack of enthusiasm meant I only painted up half of the pack, so I have another battalion's worth left to do (and then some Sudanese). But first on the stocks to finish will be the artillery support for my Camel Corps - more of these chaps later!

"Machine Rocket, War"

The latest addition to Her Majesty's forces currently engaged in the Sudan are a couple of Hale Rocket batteries (these are another of the military curiosities that attract me to the Sudan campaigns). The spin-stabilised Hale Rocket, launched from a trough (or Machine Rocket, War) was used by the Egyptian and British armies, but as far as I'm aware there isn't a currently model available in 15mm so I decided to scratch build a few. The tripod is made from florist's wire cut and bent to shape, with a slice of card for the trough. They aren't the epitomy of accuracy, since the tripod isn't quite the right shape, and the trough isn't "trough" shaped as I couldn't find any channel sections that suited, but it should be a simple job to replace if and when I do.

The crew are spares taken from the Essex maxim gun team (the maxims haveing been snaffled for my 1890s era troops. They are a little oversized when compared with the Peter Pig troops that make up the majority of my armies, but not overly so, and they fit in OK. I decided to fill in the relative sparsness of the bases with some ammunition crates and a few rockets.

Purists will of course point out the inaccuracy in the scarlet uniforms, but then again a fair proportion of my 1880s British troops are clad in scarlet, as you'll see when I post on the mounted and dismounted cavalry soon). So they are internally consistent if not strictly historically accurate (and I like them clad that way anyway!)

Finally, a fine illustration from our correspondent on the banks of the Nile, witnessing a live fire demonstration of the mighty Hale!

That covers the Hale rockets for the British. All being well I should have some Peter Pig Egyptian artillery crew arriving in the post soon, and so Hicks Pasha can have his own rockets available in a couple of weeks :)

A New Arrival

I'm a naval wargamer at heart which is probably why I find the Sudan so appealing - gunboats and naval brigades all over the place :) One of my early jobs in this project was the constrction of a gunboat. Its generic in nature, although with a few (too many?) Melik influences. it is, however, supposed to be a fairly nondescript 1880s screw river boat with some impromptu armour and handy spots in which to mount the odd 7pdr or a Nordenfelt.

The hull is balsa, which allowed me to stain the deck. The rest is heavy duty card and paper, with thin balsa sheet offcuts to represent timber cladding. The ship is a "work in progress", and I hope to add to the general clutter on her decks as the months go on. I now have plans for a smaller, more "scruffy" sidewheeler, which should be on the stocks around about Christmas time.

A Beginning

I suppose I've come quite late to the world of wargaming blogging. The very fact that I'm here I guess is down to Steve Blease and his excellent "Bleaseworld" blog, plus some comemnts and questions on TMP regarding my Sudan project. So, at long last, here it is. I'll aim to chronicle the development of my various wargaming projects, the main one just now being the protozoan set of rules that gives this blog its name - Don't Throw Bloody Spears At Me (hmm, abbreviates to DBA, I wonder if that'll work?) and the various 15mm armies (and riverine csquadrons) that I'm assembling to fight out the campaigns surrounding the rise and fall of the Mahdi and his followers. I've said it that way since I have a hankering to expand to cover not only the Sudan and Egypt, but also Abyssinia, and the Italian and French forays in the region. Still, that is far in the future amd for now I have to satisfy myself with British, Egyptian and Sudanese (plus a few Indians - must remember the Suakin front!). So, to kick off, a few pictures of the mahdist horde in and around their encampments on the Nile - your intrepid correspondent hopes to have pictures from Sir Garnet's camp in the not-too-distant future!

The fort is made from foam core with the card front peeled away. The resulting surface makes a decent sand stone wall effect when painted and stained.