"Best books for gaming and collecting for the Sudan" Topic

I have a few books on the subject but all are basically general histories – A Good Dusting, Imperial Vanities, With Kitchener to Khartoum, and the like. I'm not opposed to more if there is a very good general history out there.

I'm mainly looking for the books that help the gamer collect for (OOB and numbers) and paint up (uniform guides) for the campaigns in the Sudan 1880ish – 1898.

For painting guides, if anyone has a list of the Ospreys covering the period that would be a start.

Also good books for recreating the battles, which I have info on, but again not in great detail – I have just a few pages and a map for each of the major actions.

Lastly, good rules. I have Piquet and The Sands of Sudan, the latter looking particularly good for unit size: regular units are 12 – 72 figures strong (12 figs to 'a company').

Thanks,

James

Din of Battle 2 ( for the mechanics)
Churchill's books for the atmospherics

Will send u detailed type books tomorrow

This should help a lot:

link

There's also the Mahdist Wars sourcebooks by The Virtual Armchair General and the Sudan Wars guide from Caliver.

The River Column ( the Column of the Nile Expeditionary Force) by Brackenbury
1885
Karari the Sudanese account of the Battle of Omdurman by Zulfo

Go Strong into the Desert is a must have. It's the single best volume for detailing all the nuances of Mahdist clothing that no other source covers quite as well.

Osprey Khartoum is very good and more useful than their Omdurman book, unless of course you want to do the reconquest era. With this book and the above you get all the OOB.

The Perry Painting guide that I think was in WI is excellent and I think you may be able to access it via their site. It's the best single guide on painting the British Army.

Warlord's Blood on the Nile is worth having as well.

The Virtual Armchair General for flags. They kindly agreed a deal to send me flag artwork which I worked from to hand paint my own flags.

Michael Asher Khartoum is a great read.

Gilder's campaign was detailed in Wargames World magazine, the one with yellow covers, worth hunting down. I bought the issues in PDF form.

I'd love to see what you do with this period as I have my own Perry Sudan collection that I work on from time-to-time.

Rules wise Battles for Empire and They Don't Like it Up Em (TFL) are worth a look. Certainly with the latter you can have 12 figures to a company if you so wish. I'm not sure if Battles for Empire is scalable in the same way.

And don't forget Battle in Africa by Howard Whitehouse and illustrated by Peter Dennis.

link

And while we're citing Whitehouse, look for "Science v. Pluck, od Too Much for the Mahdi". Interesting "everybody on one side" rules.

And, of course, "The Sword and the Fame".

As previously mentioned, "Go Strong" is the ‘must have' for detailed orbats and uniform information (Mike Snook's book "Beyond the Reach of Empire" is the definitive account of the Gordon Relief Expedition, but not for the faint hearted).

Get the TVAG Mahdist Wars source books and track down the Perry's painting guide and you're good to go.

@Timmo uk:

Do you recall which issues it was that had Gilder's Sudan articles? And where can one buy the pdfs?

Another vote for Go Stong into the Desert.
Also look out for War in the Sudan 1884-1898: A Campaign Guide (Partizan Special Edition) by Stuart Asquith

Thanks guys. I'm looking into those.

I enjoyed Michael Barthorp's Blood-Red Desert Sand as an introduction with plenty of illustrations and maps.

@Trojan Bunny,

Wargames World issues 1/2/3/4.

I imagine you can get them from Wargames Illustrated or whoever sells the CD/DCDs sets of Wargames Illustrated PDFs.

Hard copies occasionally come up on ebay but not very often.

Fire & Sword in the Sudan by Slatin is definitely essential reading. Many gamers think that the Sudan campaigns begin and end with the British involvement, which could not be further than the truth. There were a large number of actions well before Khartoum fell that did not involve a single British soldier.

"Rules wise Battles for Empire and They Don't Like it Up Em (TFL) are worth a look. Certainly with the latter you can have 12 figures to a company if you so wish. I'm not sure if Battles for Empire is scalable in the same way."

BFEII is base driven (4 bases per unit) so any number of figures per base can work. Funnily enough I use 12 figures per unit (4 bases of 3).

Really looking forward to you pursuing this project, James. I follow your blog and love your paint-work and modelling.

I played Gilder's rules for years prior to writing my own (Battles for Empire). Depending on the kind of game you are looking for, there are tons of options.
Charles Royle's The Egyptian Campaign and the Mahdist Campaigns, Sudan 1884-1898 is an interesting read. There are plenty of contemporary sources, especially from "embedded" journalists.
A collection of primary accounts is found in Omdurman 1898: The Eye-witnesses speak
Bennet Burleigh's The Khartoum Campaign is also a good read from a journalist's perspective.

Good luck with this adventure. The Sudan Campaigns are rich in troop types, settings, and scenario ideas.

Chris