"East Africa - Need Help and Direction" Topic

I am looking at doing an East Africa Skirmish project for WW I. Does anyone have any suggestions on good books on the topic, Ospreys and such?

Also, any suggestions on 25mm/28mm figure lines for the period? I may also be interested in the turn of the century colonial action between the Germans and Natives, Brits etc.

Thanks in advance,

Doug

Miniatures:

For WWI Brigade Games.

For pre-WWI, Copplestone.

Also you can use the range for Darkest Africa from Wargames Foundry.

Brigade and Battle Honors make figs. There is an Osprey on the subject of WWI in Africa, but I can't reference it right now.

It's an Osprey written by Chris Peers and was titled "Armies of East Africa in WWI"

Skirmish Campaigns has a scenario/campaign booklet "Tanga".
No uniform info but a campaign based on the battle of Tanga, all broken into bite-size scenarios, ready to go.

Get some FeldKompanies, Imperial Troops, Indians and machine guns for all and you're set.

Byron Farwell's "The Great War in Africa" is a good start.

Also Ross Anderson's "The Forgotten Front"

"Byron Farwell's "The Great War in Africa" is a good start."

A very good read. Probably his best book (or maybe I just like the subject best). Lots of ideas for scenarios.

If you can find it, a Ballantine's Illustrated History called; "Tanganyikan Guerrilla; East African Campaign 1914-1918" by Major J.R. Sibley.

Tim Goodlett's rules; Last Crusade have some neat ideas and you might also consider the 'fieldcraft' rules from The Soldier's Companion.

I know you said 25/28mm, but IT miniatures had released both sides and the Masaii (sp) in 20mm metal a few years ago. I mention it as you could easily adapt all that model railroad stuff for game play. If I'm not mistaken, a bit of the fighting was in regards to rail lines and ports etc.

Oggie

"No Insignificant Part: The Rhodesia Native Regiment and the East African Campaign of the First World War" Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006.

If you are going to Historicon next month, there are two East Africa games being run with 25mm figures from Brigade Games, Copplestone, Foundry, and Old Glory. Good scratchbuilt terrain plus building conversions from MBA. One of the scenarios is from the Tanga Skirmish campaign book. If you can stop by, you can see how everything fits together.

We are far from done with our range so expect more packs.

link

Lon Weiss
Brigade Games

Osprey Men At Arms #379, "Armies in East Africa 1914-18" by Peter Abbott. I think Falcon carries minis too.
link
HLBS used to ,but they've sadly moved away from the scale to 1/48.

"Mimi and Toutou Go Forth", by Giles Foden is a fun read. It's the story of Commander Spicer-Simpson and the battles between Belgium, Britain and Germany for control of Lake Tangayika.

Can't believe you gus missed "Battle for the Bundu" by Charles Miller.! All about the First World War in East Africa.

Wow, thanks guys. No to get the Osprey next week, followed up by some more research/books. I will be yelling at you hopefully between now and Historicon, Lon.

Doug

You have not understood the German East Africa Campaign until you have read the book of the German Commander, the man who made it all happen, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, "East Africa Campaigns.

All the others above are good too. The Ballentine book mentioned by Ogdenlulimus is excellent with many pictures. Originally $1 USD now you can find it on eBay for $10-20.

The Tanga Skirmish book mentioned is an excellent place to start for scenarios. It is written for small units but our group has used it with Contemptable Little Armies.

See one of our games here
link

Get the scenario book, CLA and the CLA army list from Brigade Games. Lon can also provide you all the figures you need. EXCEPT we need some Portuguese types and The Belgians need a heavy machine (maybe a Hotchkiss) and they need a Madsen light machine gun, according to Chris Peers.

Just to be fair, Battle Honors also makes East Africa figures. Compare these to Brigade here.
link

Note that there is good Yahoo group on Ost Afrika.

Great! Any suggestions for 28mm vehicles such as trucks etc.? All I seem to find are tanks so far.

Doug

Note that trucks got bogged down once they got into the wild areas. The battle of East Africa was won logistically by human power — porters. Any large scale game or campaign needs to consider getting and maintaining porters.

The Brits did bring in some Royal Royce armored cars but I have not read of them ever being in a battle (no tanks here). After the early war battles, where trains did play a part, the Germans took to guerrilla warfare with hit and run battles being common. They lost most of their bases so had to live off the land and the enemy bases.

There are three stages of the war. First the Brits tried to beat the Germans with Indian troops, and local troops, with a few British regiments. Then the South Africans were called in. They used cavalry but killed off most of their horses in the tsetse areas. The troops got tired out. Lastly, the Brits had give up their prejudices against African troops and call on the Kings African Rifles, Nigerians and West Indians to save the day.

A good "what if" situation entails the Germans managing to send reenforcements, by airship or by sea, with perhaps a battalion of sturmtruppen or at least late war weapons, artillery and ammo. I would love to have some askari with Bergman MP/18's.