"Newb seeking help with Colonial Sudan" Topic

I uncovered some old 15mm Essex figs that appear to be British colonials from the Sudan while scrounging around the attic last week. So, of course, I had to paint them up. Admittedly, I know basically nothing about the period other than recognizing some names and terms – Gordon, Khartoum, Fuzzy Wuzzies and such. So I don't even know if I painted them up correctly, but it's a start.

Already I'm thinking of picking up The Men Who Would Be Kings. Lion Rampant and such fit my budget and room and idea of a good game, so I suspect TMWWBK would do the same for Colonial. Also I am intrigued by mentions of solitaire suitability.

But of course, I'm trying to figure out where to go from here!

For instance, my understanding is the Sudan campaigns can be broken down into broader "periods" or segments. Are these Essex guys good for early or late or what? Khaki later? Puttees later?

And who would they primarily be fighting against/allied with? i.e., what other minis should I go for next? I'm inclined to go with Essex for British/allies for consistency on that side, and I do like how these painted up. I also have a few more, including some Highlanders, in hand. For enemies, I'm thinking Old Glory 15s for price, and I like those guys.

Also, obviously the big battles like Khartoum/Omdurman are covered well in numerous sources, but how frequent were smaller skirmishes on the scale of TMWWBK? And of what nature?

That's a lot of questions! But input appreciated as I venture down another new path!

More on my blog things: link

Here is a quick and dirty answer to your questions. Those figures can be used as part of an Anglo-Egyptian Force from the late1880s to 1898. These soldiers would have fought along side Egyptian and Sudanese Units. The Anglo-Egyptian Army exclusively fought the forces of the Mahdist Rebellion. Mahdist force (AKA Ansar) were a mixture of sword and spear armed units, and rifle armed units with both cavalry and camelry. On the Red Sea coast the spear units were mainly Fuzzy-wuzzys. For force balance you are looking at about 4 Ansars to 1 British figure figure.

Welcome to the colonial period: just don't go out in the midday sun without your solar helmet!

From what I can see from your pictures, I think the infantry are armed with Martini-Henrys which of course are from the Gordon Relief Expedition. You could check the Essex site to see what range the figures are from.

A great source of information is the 2 volumes The Mahdist War Source Book from Patrick Wilson (a true gentleman and scholar), The Virtual Armchair General. Also, Perry Miniatures has rather nice painting guides for the Gordon Relief Expediafion.

Best books for the 1884 campaign are Mike Snook's books Go Strong into the Desert and Beyond the Reach of Empire. My view is that is the more interesting of the two campaigns: less Imperial firepower and more battles.

Alan

MacSparty,

Nice start!

The overall "Sudan Campaigns" can be broken down into 2 major parts:

1) 1884-1885, covering the Siege of Khartoum, the Nile campaign, and the Battle of Suakin;

2) The "Reconquest of the Sudan" period, starting in 1892 but for most wargamers focusing on the 1898 battles of Atbara and Omdurman.

The khaki figures with puttees you painted up are perfectly approrpiate for the later "Reconquest" period, but could also be used at a pinch for the early period, as at least one British infantry regiment (the York & Lancaster Regt.) from India participated in their khaki unifroms and puttees.

They would be fighting against Mahdist sudanese, sometimes called Dervishes. In the early period the Mahdist forces basically wore their native dress, but as the Mahdists gained power and formed an actual state, more of their troops wore colorful "patches" on their clothing, which later became somewhat synonymous with Mahdism itself.

As far as other "factions" go, the Mahdists also fought an Italian colonial army at Adowa in 1896, and fought an Ethiopian army in 1889, and also fought Belgians who were defending their Congo Free State from Mahdist invasion. So if you do raise a Mahdist army, there are a number of other opponents to face them.

Of course, first among those would be the Egytian army, which they defeated before the British showed up, and which the British also defeated at the battle of Tel El-Kebir in 1882, which led to the British first getting involved in the Sudan.

Whether you go for the early or later Sudan Campaigns, you will want Mahdists, and Egyptians. One of the cool specialty units is the Camel Corps. The Naval Brigade was also present at many of the battles, both as infantry and also serving Gardner and Gatling guns.

And then there are the gunboats…

Speaking of which, in case you haven't seen it before, here's a LINK to the blog kept by fellow TMPer Last Stand Dan, a Sudan gamer who uses a lot of gunboats in his games, which might be fun for you to check out:

link

And here's another LINK to a fantastic Sudan Campaign gallery in your scale of 15mm, at the amazing blog, run by TMPe WarIn15mm:

warin15mm.com/The-Sudan.html

Here's a LINKE to the nifty painting guide for the Sudan Campaigns on the Perry Miniatures site:

link

One last thing: "Fuzzy Wuzzy" refers to the Beja warriors, mostly from the Hadendowa tribe, who served in the Mahdist army, and comes from their distinctive hair style, as seen here:

EDIT: Whoops -- David & Alan beat me too it!!!

Fantastic! Thank you gentlemen, very much for the extremely useful primers. In poking around the internet, there is almost TOO much info out there, and it is wonderful to have it put so succinctly.

That is a great looking table from Last Stand Dan – I'm probably a ways from putting any boats out there, but it certainly is an appealing aspect of all this.

Mad Guru--that was the Abyssinian army vs the Italians at Adowa. Perhaps you were thinking of Agordat,1893?

Also,and to the outrage of Sudan gamers everywhere, by the 1885 eastern campaign,the Beja had apparently been persuaded to trade their traditional garb and hairstyles for the jibbah,shaved head,and skullcap "uniform" of the Madhist army.

I don't let that stop me,though!

My bad, you are absolutely right Hafen von S!!! I mixed up Adowa, 1896, which was Italy vs. Abyssinia with the Italians vs. Mahdists at Kassala, 1894.

Well I went and did it – ordered some more Essex British. Should have enough for two units of regulars, one of highlanders, one of Egyptian and a 21st Lancers. A small force perhaps, but every empire starts small, what?

MG--oh,yeah,Kassala too. And it seems there were a number of small raids for years,which could be good for some skirmish scenarios. If you can find figures. I seem to remember Irregular made some Italians?

I tried some years ago to persuade the Steves at 19th Century to do Adowa figures,with no luck. A shame,since they have a large Sudan range,and,as you pointed out, the Madhists fought both sides of that conflict,at one time or another.

Speaking of which, MacSparty,keep in mind that you'll need a LOT of Madhists--Sword and the Flame recommends a 3 to 1 ratio for the Sudan. I don't know about the rules you mentioned. Of course,you can do a Resurrection of the Dead,if you like,but nothing beats the sweat-inducing sight of a huge mass of fanatics charging at you!

Anyway,don't forget 19th Century's 40% discount on orders of $400 USD worth. I believe that's the pre-discount figure. I don't know what shipping is,but given your location,maybe you could drive over and pick them up!

And,above all, have fun!

EDIT: Irregular does indeed have a small range of Italians and Abyssinians (FZ-67 through 72,here. Click on "Colonials"):

link

Additionally, some figures from the other African lines could prove useful for the Sudan. Some amazing stuff in there,BTW!

The question is, how do they match up,size-wise, with Essex and OG 15s? Anybody know?

I've just barely got the British started, and you've got me tempted by Italians and more! :)

But yes, I am figuring bare minimum of 100 Mahdists for a beginning. Certainly it will have to go up from there. I've always done well by the Steves at 19th C, so that's probably where they will come from.

Another question, though: Would they have been organized enough to be divided into groups by weapon type (spears, swords, rifles, or just lump them all together? And was there a "standard" size unit?

Most of your questions will probably be answered here:

link

I mix swords and spears together. Competent riflemen were relatively scarce,and usually grouped together,I believe.

Riflemen were concentrated in the specialist Jihadiya corps. They were mostly ex-Egyptian and slaver army southern Sudanese soldiers, who therefore theoretically should have been competent practitioners (especially as they received only the most modern breechloaders available to the Mahdists), but many years ago Sudan campaign expert Doug Johnson shattered any such notions in his writings on the subject.

The Mahdists were intelligent enough to realise the vulnerability of large masses of purely melee weapon-equipped infantry to concentrated modern firepower, so in the attack the Jihadiyah were usually assigned the role of providing a skirmish screen for the sword and spearmen; another feature of these 'enemies of Victoria' that differentiate them from typical tribal forces.

There was also a smattering of firearms of assorted antiquity scattered throughout most Mahdist units, but in wargames terms (except perhaps at the skirmish game level) their effect would have been negligible.

It's important to note that the Jihadiyah corps was a formation of the principal Mahdist army based in Omdurman and commanded by the Mahdi and then the Khalifa; there were no such units in, for instance, Osman Digna's independent Beja army.

In my Mahdist Army, every 4th unit is a Jihadiyah rifle unit. I think that this fields them in about the right amount. If you have more riflemen than that, the Brits will start whining.

Thanks again for the great info. That is a useful link, Hafen. I've also ordered the relevant Osprey. Here we go!

The Ospreys for this period are a curse and a blessing. I would suggest reading Fire & Sword in the Sudan by Slatin, which tells about the rise of the Mahdi and his attempts at stopping the spread of Mahdism in the Kordofan region. You come to find out that there were numerous patrols, skirmishes, and battles before the British were involved. Plenty of scenario ideas as well.

If you want to involve the British in small actions, the period after the River and Desert columns gave up and retired back to the frontier would be great. There were numerous small actions during that period.

If it is the Osprey on the Sudan campaigns, a word of warning.

The Hadendowah (Fuzzy-Wuzzy) warrior in the colour plates is shown wearing trousers (for want of a more technical term!) with coloured patches. My understanding is that such patches were only on the jibbas worn by the Ansar and the Fuzzy-Wuzzy's lower garment would be only a plain off-white.

Alan is right. The pic in TSATF is the same,and has never been corrected,AFAIK. There are other errors in the old Osprey too. Much better are the Queen Victoria's Enemies Northern Africa volume by Ian Knight,and the relevant British Army on Campaign books. Those don't cover the Naval Brigade, though, something which has always irked me.

Better whining than winning, says I.

Second unit completed, the 3rd Egyptian. Progress!

link

Winston Churchill's "The River War" is another pretty good book about the Sudan war.

Not quite as readable as his book on the Pathan Revolt of 1897-98, though.

Lots of good advice there, not much more I can add but I'd steer you towards the early campaigns of 1883-85: Hicks at El Obeid, Baker Pasha at El Teb, Graham and the Suakin Field Force, Wolseley and the Gordon Relief Expedition: closely fought battles, every possible troop type and uniform you could possibly want; white coated Egyptians, Bashi-Bazouk Turkic irregulars, plucky Brits (even some in red coats as well as khaki), Highlanders, Bengal Lancers, Naval Brigade…the list is endless.

And the period has some of the most fascinating, barking mad Englishmen who ever held a commission in charge of proceedings, just to add to the fun. Plus some really bad poetry from McGonnegal and one classic from Newbolt.

As well as Essex and Old Glory, Peter Pig makes a very nice 15mm range (they're a bit smaller than Essex but OK in separate units) and Minifigs help fill some gaps. Blue Moon Miniatures do some lovely stuff as well.

Rules: from previous threads, you're considering MWWBK and I think that's an excellent starting point. The rule mechanisms can cope with much larger games than the 24pts a side envisaged by the rules with only minor tweaks. If so inclined, you could use a stand of 3-4 figures instead of one 28mm figure, so your Mahdist could be 50-60 strong, which would be impressive (if expensive).

Time to stiffen that upper lip, lovely boy, and remember,

" they don't like it up 'em"