"Looking for ideas for 19th century skirmish" Topic

I am looking for a good little side project using WRGs Fire and Steel skirmish rules.
The outlay is only a few dozen figures so i want to do something different, not the usual 19th Cent fare. Any ideas?

FM

I used them years ago to portray a Napoleonic French foraging party in Egypt. The goal was to round up some chickens and others movables to resupply the company cook.
The usual cast of disaffected villagers and Marmaluke deserters intervene. It was a fun little game.

Sounds like fun…thats the sort of thing Im thinking of! But not Napoleonic or ACW etc

If I wanted to collect a small number of miniatures for a scenario like Ogdenlulimus suggests, I'd be really tempted by Boothill Miniatures Mexicans and Texicans from their Texas Revolution range. Plus the range has stuff to use as targets of the raid.

-- Texas War for Independence, Amer/Mex War.
-- a party looking for deserters.
-- Carlist Wars in Spain

You can do "cops and robbers" in any corner of the world and go for really unusual settings.

Heck, pick two *really* disparate ranges and do an Imagi-Nations type background to justify it…

A crew of Prussian Zeppelin crashes during their first around the world flight in the jungles of Booga-Booga…

A Chinese junk discovers a hidden island peopled by…

Choose the figures, write the fluff to fit.

Gangs of New York?

How about mountain men against Indians?
Any Apache against cavalry game is always a good one.

Pick up the new sets from Great Escape Games, and do Australian Constables against Bush Rangers.

I agree that a very low-level conflict like the Texas War of Independence would be a good choice. Bleeding Kansas would be another. Tangentially, the American Frontier of that period might hold some interest; early Texas Rangers and settlers facing the Comanche, or U.S. Dragoons versus Plains tribes. Half a world away, the New Zealand Wars might be a good route, and Empress has gorgeous stuff.

It would also be a good opportunity to try some of the neglected European conflicts. The various stages of the Risorgimento come to mind; Garabaldi's Red Shirts vs. Bourbon Neapolitans, Piedmontese vs. Austrians, etc. For that matter, the Revolutions of 1848 would be perfect. If you're remotely interested in the Greek War of Independence, TMP member Shipka is working on figures and can probably spoon feed you any info you need.

And of course there's plenty to do in India. Avoid the overdone conflicts (Mutiny, Sikhs, NWF, etc.) and take Scinde, or chase Pindaris, or invade Burma.

Any of these would be a nice excuse to paint up something really different at the investment of a few dozen figures.

You could also do just about any type of colonial action between Europeans and locals anywhere in the world – French in West Africa, British just about anywhere, Americans in the "Wild West", Germans in East Africa, etc.

Jim

Thank you some wonderful ideas…I might end up doing alot of them!
I like the idea of the Texas WI…those Boothill figures are lovely…Darkest Africa also interests me…thanks everyone….keep them coming!

How about the Polish January Uprising of 1863. Most small scale fighting between the Polish insurgents, including a unit called the Zouaves of Death and the Russian army.

YouTube link

Space 1759-1814: Colonies run into Atlanteans from Ohio to Kentucky

Maximillian Mexico invades US territories.

Russian Mercenaries instead of Hessians in the AWI.

American Expeditionary Force in the Franco-Prussian War. Sheridan's March to The Rhine!! With all those winecellars it would be more like 'Halleluja Trail'.

More ex-patriate Confederates fighting for Egypt during their 1880 rebellion.

The Magnificent Fourteen-US gunslingers and Ronin with Gordon at Khartoum.

The Wild Bunch of Suffragettes

I haven't been sleeping well…

The Commune of Paris 1871 is perfect for Urban skirmish. You could probably use the excellent Victorian Era sets by Playmobil.

There were several cases of various US state militias nearly fighting over border disputes – the Toledo War and the Honey War come to mind.

If that rule set incorporates facing (I have it but haven't looked at it in years)you could do the Australian frontier, either exclusively or incorporating bushrangers and perhaps other miscreants.

Unless you opt for 15mm you will however, for the moment at least, have to convert all your figures (unless you can find some OOP Blaze Away Aboriginal warriors second-hand. Even then everything else will have to be adapted/converted).

Field Marshal and Henry Martini,

Unless you opt for 15mm you will however, for the moment at least, have to convert all your figures

Not when all of these nice figures are now available. TMP link

Jim

Sorry, Col Campbell, but you must have missed recent discussion on these boards on that very subject; those are cinematic, not historical, figures – and celluloid bushrangers only (no natives and their colonial foes).

Some in our group play TSATF while others play 'Glory!" from 1984 but revised in 2000 for faster play.
For our campaigns we use 'Life in the Fourteenth".

Garabaldini raiding garrisons of Papal Zouaves.

Paraguayans vs Brazilians 1864-1870.

Northwest Frontier? Hill tribes raiding the forts down in the valleys?