"Best Obscure Army?" Topic

I have a German friend who doesn't actually game, but has a huge collection of historical figures. Interestingly, he owns very few of the "Big Three"—no WWII, no Napoleonics and no Imperial Romans. Instead, he collects armies from more unusual periods and conflicts.

He has, amongst many others, forces for the Rif War (1921–26), The Deluge (17th-century Poland) and The Taiping Rebellion.

Not so long ago, many obscure armies were difficult to collect. You either had to convert figures yourself, search for specialist manufacturers or commission someone to make them for you. Today, with 3D printing, almost any army from any period seems possible.

So, what's the most overlooked army in wargaming in your opinion?

If you could persuade every wargamer to collect one obscure army, what would it be—and why?
NB I'll take fleets t accommodate the naval gamers amongst us.

Obscure armies are not for everyone, nor would I want everyone to dive into a period. I've attempted to do Norway 1940, and have a lot of figures for The Deluge (not obscure at all in Poland!). I'm happy in my obscurity.

The 1932 Emu War (which, not surprisingly, is NOT obscure in SW WA) could be a good choice as it is something out of the ordinary.

One side would be the Royal Australian Artillery soldiers – armed with Lewis guns, evidently – who would be easy to collect in their WW2 battle dress & slouch hats.

However, their opponents might not be….who makes large, flightless birds in 20mm?

Well, they could be small flightless birds in 25/28mm.
Without bothering to Google them, I suggest Etsy. That's my go-to site for weird stuff. Who knows?
Or at Hobby Libby, the bags of garish soft plastic animals.

In my own collection, I have 1757 Spanish in Mexico. This includes Cuera lancers. However, at least 3 different manufacturers do them in 28mm.

I have seen rumors of Tlingit Alaskan miniatures. I might be interested in them, vs 1790 Russians.

I might point the Ancient and Medieval player to WRG, Warrior, DBM etc army lists for "armies" that even the gamer never heard of, until he decided he could make a killer tournament army from that list.

Dacian. Most people have never heard of ‘em, and the unique weapon they used makes them stand out from the typical Roman foes. Less obscure to Ancient gamers, but there you go. Plus we've got a pretty good idea of their battle appearance, so minis are viable.

Now, if by "best" you mean more likely to win… well, that and "obscure" don't tend to go together.

I have Canadian Colonial forces from the Riel Rebellion – which most non-Canadians and even a lot of Canadians have never heard of – plus a bunch of Chinese Warlord armies as well as the Mexican Grenadiers of the Supreme Power, which is I think a pretty obscure unit (although red coats, blue pants and a bearskin make an interesting blend for a regiment based in Mexico City)

IIRC Eureka Miniatures offer figures and rules for the Great Emu Wars!

I used to have a Chinese Warlord army.

Been researching the Songai (Songhay) Empire lately – had both army and navy pre-gunpowder

I started out converting a colonial era Greek contingent, which morphed into an 1897 Greek army. Since I wasn't up to converting evzones, I prevailed on Eureka to make them for me. Since then, another company has brought out evzones, and Irregular brought out a line of Greeks (also Turks and other Balkan armies) in 40 mm, I think. Actually, the 1897 war was about the time William Britain's and perhaps others, started manufacturing toy soldiers, and Britain's did some Greeks for people who were inspired by the war. As it turns out, the Greeks lost the war, so they aren't interested in gaming it, the Turks won, but Britain, France, and Russia bullied them into giving up almost all their spoils, so the Turks aren't interested in gaming it, and nobody else has heard about it. However, it is pretty much the first toy soldier era war.

I've got to agree with advocate that obscure armies are not for everybody.

Grelber

Also, one man's obscure army is another's main stream army.

I have a Dark Age Cornish army, is that obscure or are the two Force Publique armies obscure?

If you are into the periods, maybe not, but for others…

Maybe ancient Indians? Getting to have everything in a single army and be historically accurate is a major appeal. Elephants, chariots, cavalry, professional heavy infantry, levies, longbowmen, even the more historically suspect maiden guard type units.

Been painting up my WW2 KNIL Dutch East Indies army (FOW) in 20mm during the FIFA games. Also have the Dutch East Indies co. (Bavatian) army for same area dated 1810 or so.

Soon…WW2 Belgian Congo Publique force to join in the IEA battles.

I love obscure periods of history. The Carlist Wars have some very interesting uniforms. The Hungarian insurrection of 1848 has some of the most beautiful Cavalry uniforms I've ever seen.

The Imjin War of the 1590s involved Koreans, Samurai, and Ming Chinese. All three armies have great looking uniforms.

I have figures for the Riel Rebellion and the Fenian Raids! Also the Boshin War of 1868, The Northern Crusades and The Portuguese in Africa in the 16th century.

As a seller of painted figures, I have discovered that any obscure army will eventually sell to the right buyer. 1919 swedes , yup. 1938 Chechs, yup. ANY Russian civil War. They will buy all you have.

Way back in the previous century, Essex miniatures, a fine company, came out with a range of "large 25mm" Khitan Liao. It had 3 figures. And there was much rejoicing.
They were an army in the WRG Army lists book.

Not sure what the OP is asking.

Obscure armies in a popular period? Napoleonics offers many obscure armies or are you asking for obscure armies in an obscure war? Please clarify.

Thanks. I was thinking more along the lines of obscure armies rather than obscure wars. For example, armies that most gamers rarely see on the table despite being interesting to collect and play.

Napoleonics certainly has plenty of candidates—Neapolitans, Saxons, Danes, Vendee and so on—but I was also thinking beyond the "big three" periods. With 3D printing, it's now much easier to build collections that would have been almost impossible a decade ago.

I don't know if anybody makes a range for Makurians in any scale. They are pretty obscure.

Pretty hard to find any figures and suitable rules not avaliable. Twenty years ago I couldn't say that.

I had never heard of or forgotten about the Carlist Wars before the figures became avaliable. I think there are figures avaliable for any of the South American wars of the 1860s.

WWII:
Greeks
Thailand
Chinese
Sweden
Czechoslovakia (1936)

WWI:
Portugal

Which is the "best" I don't know but there should be Chinese for the second Sino-Japanese War. The Chinese front in WW2 was very important. It became a real quagmire for the Japanese and tied up a million or more Japanese troops.

Vell, if you include fantasy, I have a bannana man army. Cav, inft and archers :)

For real forces, there's my Russian army in Samarkand. White shirts and red trousers are kool !

Playing GASLIGHT for years encourages gamers to re-purpose ostensibly historical lines.

Both "best" and "overlooked"--well, we could argue terms for days. But I'd take a close look at certain "native" powers before the colonial forces came on the scene--Sikhs and Gurkhas before they collided with the Raj, for example, or Five Nations before they were caught up in the Anglo-French wars.

For myself, I'm very partial to 1813-15 Hanover In better days, I had hopes of some day raising the Austro-German Legion, just as a companion piece to the KGL and RGL.

@rp
Exactly. The terms are and bewildering of definition as "overrated " and "underrated".
They mean what the user means.

I always wanted to do Tsingtao in World War One- Japanese and a smattering of Brits against a mishmash of German Naval, German Army, Civilians and locals. It even has AirPower- a Taube flying recon and light bombing missions.

I also am fascinated by the campaign for Madagascar. Colonial French and locals, German, Japanese, locals and British fighting it out.

Both are doomed battles but utterly fascinating.

Palmyrene Empire
link

A strange, successful, and interesting power that is a big part of 3rd century Roman and Sassanids history.

I am still unable to collect all the 1870-1890 ironclads I want, though a lot of what I have has only recently been created as part of the 3D printing revolution.

I love obscure wars and have gamed Chaco War, German Peasants War, Baltic Crusades, Mongols v.s Sung, Chinese warlords of early 1900s, and by far one of my biggest collections, the Taiping Rebellion.

More modern wars: Turkish Invasion of Cyprus 1974, Ogaden War between Ethiopia and Somalia 1978, Iran-Iraq war of 1980s.

I painted all 1800 members of Von Wissman's Column. I did not however paint the 25,000 Rebels of "Abushiri's Revolt. I got about 4000 in and said stop.