"Gaming Ridgeway and the Fenian Invasions in 15mm" Topic

Something that I've wanted to do for years,and I've decided to revisit it. Looks like 15mm Maori range from Battlefront in NZ could provide a lot of the Canadians. The question is, what rules would be good for gaming Ridgeway & other hypothetical clashes? Maybe Field of Honor? Anything else? Thanks!

Black Powder.

Battlefront NZ? The Flames of War guys? They have Maori war figs?

The "battles" were very small more like skirmishes. Unless you want to do non historical type scenarios a system like Sword and the Flame would probably work best

Ah, they were Battlefront, then Wildly Inspired and are now BattleLine:

battleline-miniatures.co.nz

TSATF. You could have 1/1 ratio skirmishes with 3 or 4 units on eah side.

Might be a challenge coming up with the right stats for the combatants.

Maybe peruse the Riel Rebellion/Red River TSATF scenario that ids onfree wargames rules, I think the jackson gamers came up with it.

I imagine the Mounties, Canadian militia and irregular units of the Riel rebellions would be very similar to the fennian rebellion. (maybe locl citizens instead of the scouts and militia used against of Reil)

The Fennians themselves, maybe have different classifications for each unit, like "Bar room brawlers, local tough guys and assorted riff raff", "Civil War veterens", etc. (units could roll to see if they sober up enough to realize the idea was ridiculous and depart begore battle)

(NOTE: Not mocking them or Irish, just a historical observation, and IMO, such silly ideas usually come after a day of drinking "I know, let's invade Canada!" "Yeah! I bet Seamus and I could take Montreal by ourselves..That will fix England!"

Been there, done that, every trip to Boston with my roomates in college started in a bar and went like this: "Hey, I know, let's go take Marshfield!" "Yeah! Barto and I could kick the entire town's asses by ourselves…that will show Quincy!"

:) :)

Most of the Fenians at Ridgeway were ACW veterans. Also if you have your painting head on you can add the much loved green cuffs to Fenian jackets.

Were I to do this I might use HOTT Colonial.

Thanks for the link Prince Albert.

This may have some potential:

link

Smokey the Fenians were a little more serious then you imply. They had a potential of fielding an "army that would have been a serious challenge to the British and Canadian Militia. Canadian estimates put their strength in the 10,000 range with many others willing to join in a successful campaign.Their problem was organization and the fact that it was riddled with informers.

The Fenian raids were one of the main reasons why the Canadian colonies decided to unite (called Confederation in Canada) The main fear in Canada that the Fenians could establish a small bridgehead then be reinforced by American troops . Unfortunately the US government had no such plans and a lot of Fenians were stopped and disarmed at the border.

I ran a game of Ridgeway many, many years ago in 15mm. I used 'Soldier's Companion' miniature rules from GDW's RPG Space 1889 line and it went fairly historical, other than the QOR did not form square at the site of Fenian cavalry.

The following is information that I gathered way back when doing some serious research, including communicating with the CSM of the QOR of C at that time of my research, who provided me a wealth of information. Use it if it helps.

Booker's Column
Lt. Col. Alfred Booker, 13th Hamilton Battalion, Canadian Militia, Commanding

2nd Battalion, Queen's Own Rifles (Militia)- 450-480 men
Major Chas. T. Gillmor, Commanding
Coy. 1, Capt. John Brown
Coy. 2, Capt. Fredrick E. Dixon
Coy. 3, Capt. J. B. Boustead
Coy. 4 (1st Merchants'), Capt. John Douglas
Coy. 5 (2nd Merchants'), Capt. John Edwards (armed with Spencer carbines that they received that morning and only 30 rounds per man were available)
Coy. 6 (Victoria Rifles), Capt. G. M. Adam
Coy. 7 (Civil Service), Capt. A. MacPherson
Coy. 8 (Trinity College), Capt. L. P. Sherwood
Coy. 9 (University), Acting Capt. George Y. Whitney
Coy. 10 (Highland), Capt. John Gardner

13th Hamilton Battalion (Militia)- 265 men
Major James A. Skinner, Commanding
Coy. 1, Capt. Robert Grant
Coy. 2, Capt. John H. Watson
Coy. 3, Lt. John W. Ferguson
Coy. 4, Lt. Percy G. Routh
Coy. 5, Capt. Alex H. Askin
Coy. 6, Ensign W. Roy

Caledonia Independant Rifles Coy.- 48 men
Capt. William Jackson

York Independant Rifles Coy. – 45 men
Capt. Robert H. Davis

Irish Republican Army
Col. John O'Neill, 13th Tenn. Inf. Rgt., IRA, Commanding

7th New York (Buffalo) Inf. Rgt. – 165 men
Col. John Hoy

13th Tennessee (Nashville) Inf. Rgt. – 85 men
Unknown XO, Commanding

17th Kentucky (Louisville) Inf. Rgt. – 110 men
Col. Owen Starr

18th Ohio (Cleveland) Inf. Rgt. – 165 men
Col. John Grace

Independent Indiana(Terre Haute)Company – 75
Capt. Hugh Haggerty

Mounted Scouts – around 20-25 men
Unknown commander

I figure that the bulk of the Canadian forces could be depicted with the 15mm BattleLine Maori range (Imperial infantry w/o blanket roll). The questions:

What figures (from any 15mm range) would be best for officers?
Which units below would probably be in the fatigue pork pie? Which would be in shako, and what figures would be most suitable for the units in shako (Dixon Indian Mutiny range, Freikorps Hannoverians from 1866, etc.)? Thanks!

2nd Battalion, Queen's Own Rifles

13th Hamilton Battalion

Caledonia Independant Rifles Coy.

York Independant Rifles Coy.

Some nice photos as well as a good description of the action:

link

These guys were serious.

Actually, the Canadian militia wore the shako and not the pork pie hat. But do to the lack of available miniatures, they will have to do. I was able to find some 15mm ACW early war militia with shako and long flock coat. I don't know what company made them or even if they are still in business, but they were the best figures that I have seen to do the Canadians. I can tell you that they are not FreiKorps ACW marines, but they might work too.

Officers wore the British style kepi with I know Old Glory's Zulu range has a couple in their infantry bag, but I doubt that you want to buy a bag of 100 figures for just a couple of figures. You could try other companies for 15mm British colonial officers. I just used some Crimean War British officers to stand in as subs hoping to find some officers down the line.

Joe

serious yes – effective no. Regiments smaller than companies, causing less casualties than a bad Saturday night in Glasgow. No major rule set is applicable. Even a Napoleonic or ACW skirmish would seem like Armageddon in this context. The 1/1 ratio skirmish idea is a good one.

And there is a place to chat about this in greater detail:

link