"Return to 15mm Sudan." Topic

I'm looking to rebuild my colonial armies. Back in the 90's our most legendary games always seemed to involve us being massacred some where in Africa. Anyone have some suggestions for a range that includes mounted Egyptian cavalry and officers?

Try Essex miniatures 15mm Sudan range.

Minifigs

Yes Mimifigs may have some too.

My Hadendowa are a mix of Stone Mountain, Two Dragons, Essex, Minifig, Naismith and Peter Pig. I find the mix in sculpts helps with the irregular nature of the army.

Another vote for the Essex range. Lovely figures!

Peter Pig and Gallia.

Blue Moon has an incredible range of 15mm Sudan figs and if you join the OG Army you get 40% off the packs. The sculpting is very good, although the figs are approaching 17-18mm, but they paint up well. Peter Pig has an extensive range, but they are true 15s and don't always mix well with other manufacturer's figs.

Definitely Peter Pig and supplement with Minifigs for the few troop types (like Egyptian cavalry) that they don't do.

Bear in mind their range is designed with 1884-5 in mind rather than 1898

Here's my Essex Sudan stuff:

link

And the Brits – I only have one unit done.

Flashman, your collection looks great. Do you find it better to base the British individually? I've always wondered how I'd approach this.

15mm basing rather depends on the rules you're planning to use and the level of game you want to play – having used many different rule sets over the years (including Science v. Pluck, Battles for Empire, Soldiers of the Queen etc) my ‘go to' rules for ‘big battle' 15mm Sudan is a very slightly tweaked "Men Who Would Be Kings" (Osprey).

They lend themselves to much bigger games than the scenarios supplied, easy to add a bit more depth without undue complexity and have a real feel for the period. A typical British regular unit (representing either a company or a battalion in 15mm) could have 8-12 stands, each of 4 figures, while a Mahdist ‘rub looks impressive with 12-16 stands of 3-4.

We're working on our own set of rule amendments for the Sudan (having done a similar exercise for the American Plains Wars), which we'll post on the MWWBK Facebook page in due course.

Thanks everyone for your help. I have ordered in the MWWBK rules. I understand they have smaller units version that perhaps I could use with bases instead of figures. Does anyone know what these are before I place an order?

The usual suggested unit sizes are, for example, Regular and Irregular Infantry In 12's, Tribal Infantry In 16's, most Cavalry In 8's.

The small version halves these but the rules work equally well if you keep the proportions roughly the same – so in our 15mm games we use 8 stands of Regulars taking on 12 stands of Tribals, Cavalry in 6's etc.

Thanks Basha! I might try 6 stands of 3 for regular foot and 4 stands of 2 for cavalry and 4 double sized stands Tribal foot.

Have fun – the Sudan remains my favourite colonial period to game.

The beauty of substituting smaller scale figures for a single 28 is that you can vary the number of figures per stand depending on type. You can also make some mini-dioramas by having multi-bases: my 'rubs of 12 are actually composed of a single x4 stand, two double stands and 4 singles, which allows me to deploy them in all sorts of combinations and 'make change' for casualties very easily.

There's a very active MWWBK group on FB that's worth looking at.

@Gone Fishing: "Do you find it better to base the British individually?" Yes, for TSATF, Brits are capable of a number of formations that require individual basing – open order, single ranks for defending obstacles, etc.

Only troops exclusively defined as "mass" get this treatment. You have to pay special attention at the hand to hand phases, but it's hardly difficult and the benefits and ease of moving delivers a much more expeditious turn sequence.

Incidentally, this works for Zulus, Indians in Sword in the Forest, Arabs for Sword in the Desert, etc. In other genres, I also do multiple zombies on a single round base, as well as citizens and other mob style figures.