"Thinking about making the plunge" Topic

I was wondering if the bangolore was just used by engineers or did the common infantry man carry them to remove wire entanglements? Thank you for your help.

I've been fighting the urge for sometime now to start gaming the Indian Revolt in 28mm. And sorry to say with the plunge in the pound I'm seriously thinking about going all in. I'm looking at Iron Duke and Mutineer Miniatures. How do they compare? What's a good ruleset and lastly what's a good "starter size" army (number of figures)

Razor78, I'd start with the smallest British army you can bear to field, since you're going to have to build twice as many Mutineers. Worth keeping in mind that rules and forces suitable for a field engagement aren't always what you'd like for a storming and/or a siege, too.

I opted for 15mm, and keyed on Havelock's column for the relief of Cawnpore--about 100 infantry because nothing smaller really felt like an army to me. But add supports and options and you're pushing 150 castings, which means 300 Mutineers and a board at least 6' wide.

What's your table size? What battle must you be able to represent? Once you've answered those two questions, you'll know for yourself how many figures, and the list of possible rules will be much shorter.

If you like skirmish games Sword and the Flame do the Mutiny well and games don't require enormous numbers of figures

Take a look at the Old Glory range. I like the Mutineers; the Brits not as much. Two different sculptors?

Anyway,with the OG Army discount,you can get a slew of Indians!

The Iron Duke 28mm and the Mutineer figures are quite compatible.
The latter are a tad bigger and beefier but once painted up it's hardly noticeable.

Alas, the AW miniatures are not. Moreover much of the detail is simply wrongly sculpted. Uniforms, weapons etc.

The Perry Miniatures Afghans are also eminently suitable and compatible with Iron Duke.

Indus Miniatures have several suitable figures as well, even if they are really for an earlier period. Their artillery is simply superb!.

Some of the Empress New Zealand figures can be used as well, especially the Naval ones and the militia. Of course they are identical in heft and size to the Iron Duke figures.

The Foundry figures are a bit smaller and not really compatible with the two ranges you are looking at.
However, they do have some really outstanding sets and with a little ingenuity can still be used. I went as far as lengthening the upper legs on some of the figures( mostly officers) just to make them the same height.

1st Corps offers two sets that might interest you. ACA 10 &11, John Brown and armed civilians.

Also take a look at the Redoubt Indian 'civilians' in their Wellington In India range. Multi-pose warriors and perfect for 'badmashes' or fanatics. They are about the same size as Mutineer.

Old Glory is markedly smaller and frankly rather crude. Pins for bayonets etc. Mind you, I'm basing my opinion on just 3 sets of which one was British personalities. The horses are useless but at least some of the figures are not too bad. However they don't add anything to what Iron Duke or Mutineer already has or will produce in the near future.
So you might end up like me with replacing them with superior castings once they are available.

If I were you I'd look at Sharp Practice 2 for a ruleset.
The Indian Mutiny army lists are included and it plays like a charm.

Apparently, these things could explode if setting off a mine while being pushed through the minefield. So were somewhat dangerous to deploy.

Did the bangolore subject matter go away? I didn't know the colonials had them.

Mobius the bug got the tread.

@Razor 78

Forgot to mention that you can also use quite a few of the Baluchi characters from the Foundry Darkest Africa range.These are much bigger than the earlier Indian Mutiny range and as such perfectly compatible with Iron Duke and Mutineer.

Colonials didn't have Bangalores. Invented just before WW1, by an Indian army engineer officer, unsurprisingly based in Bangalore, India. He wanted something to clear left over mines and booby traps from the Boer and Russo-Japanese wars.

The Bangalore was definitely engineering equipment that you normally wouldn't find with a regular US rifle company. However, for D-Day some (but not all) US infantry was reorganized into 'assault teams' which had everything they were supposed to need (machine guns, mortars, bazookas, flamethrowers, and engineering equipment (including Bangalores) all in a group which could fit inside an LCVP (Higgens Boat), which wasn't big enough to carry a full rifle platoon. This organization was strictly for the landing and most troops were back into their standard organizations by D+1. By many accounts, much of that extra equipment was left lying unused on the beach :)

ASSAULT BOAT TEAMS

After much study it was decided that the best method for assault boat teams would be to reorganize only one regiment of the three in an infantry division for the assault. Once ashore, the assault regiment would change back into a standard infantry regiment configuration as soon as possible. Additionally, because landing craft might get scattered or sunk, it was important that each craft carry the men and equipment needed to provide each team with the tools it needed to breach the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall– from this concept, the idea of the infantry assault team or assault boat team was born.

The primary factor in the organization of an assault boat team was the capacity of LCVP – 30 men. Three standard rifle companies were organized into 6 assault boat teams, with the heavy weapons section being organized into 5 support boat teams. This was rounded out with one command boat team.

In fact, the assault teams at Omaha used British LCA's (which were at least lightly armored against small arms fire) and not LCVP's