Australian Frontier Wars - 24FEB23 (update) - MANY New AFW books…

[Plynkes]

Okay, a quick reminder of rule 1.3:

1.3 Acting politely.

Remain polite. That’s it.

I realise that this topic arouses strong feelings, but try to do as Alex asks and remain polite. I feel we're skirting the line here. Please make sure you keep the tone civil or refrain from posting if you can't.

Thank you.

[FifteensAway]

A cow, a pig, six or seven sheep, and a couple of roos!  Critters always enhance a game - at least photographically.  Though maybe we need sculpts of animals running scared shitless for realistic battle scenes!  Then again, most of the human figures don't really reflect combat responses, I suppose.  Gorgeous game visually. 

[Stu]

A cow, a pig, six or seven sheep, and a couple of roos!  Critters always enhance a game - at least photographically.  Though maybe we need sculpts of animals running scared shitless for realistic battle scenes!  Then again, most of the human figures don't really reflect combat responses, I suppose.  Gorgeous game visually. 

What he said.

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

Continuing on with our look at Traditional Aboriginal Warfare we examine the numerous weapons that were available to aboriginal warriors. These same weapons would be used against white settlers from first contact until the early twentieth century.

Whilst seemingly out dated, in many respects these traditional weapons best provided an established warrior people with a sustainable and viable style of resistance warfare. This defied the efforts of many colonial administrations who limited modern weaponry to aboriginals and enabled them to continue to adopt a style of warfare best suited to their natural talents.

After this look at traditional warfare we shall see how aboriginal adaptive warfare evolved in the face of the emerging threat posed by white settlement.

Cheers

HW


https://wp.me/p1YrZG-1v1

PS Thanks chaps for kind comments  

[Plynkes]

Right, clearly the message is not getting through, despite repeated requests to members to play nice and stop picking at the scabs. It appears I did not make myself clear enough when I asked people to leave this alone, so let me spell out as plainly as I can what the new rules for this thread are:

Any further posts that are deemed to be of an aggressive, offensive or inflammatory nature; and any further posts that are attempting to provoke a reaction, no matter how politely they are phrased, shall be removed from this thread. That applies to both sides of the argument.

If you have a valid point and information of interest, post it politely. If your point is to simply attack or goad the other side into reacting: don't post.

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

Now - back on topic.

In this post we look at how aboriginal tribesmen adapted their traditional methods of conflict amongst themselves to meet the new enemy - white settlers. We take a look at how they came to resist and in what form it took shape.

Initially the limitations of small garrison force sizes and slow loading smoothbore weapons enabled the aboriginal peoples to achieve a level of parity in weapon technologies, though the lethality of firearms was much greater than tribal weapons.

The natural bushcraft skills also played a big part in mounting an effective resistance though the mounted horsemen was the colonist’s answer to try and remove this advantage. That said, clans and bands once again adapted to try an negate that advantage as well and to a degree never lost an ability to achieve tactical mobility.

What one sees as you look deeper into the subject is that the aboriginal peoples adapted to new tactical and 'strategic’ threats in a considered manner - they just did not come out to confront heavily armed white setters and ‘die for honour’ or anything like that. Their’s was a much more cat-and-mouse game of resistance and fighting.

This series will be in three parts and then we shall swing back to rules, miniatures and stuff like that. By the end we shall have a good grasp of many of the factors that were in play that made Australian continental warfare unique. Please feel free to comment and get us back focused on this most interesting subject - thanks chaps...

I hope you find something new that is of interest.

Regards

Happy W

https://wp.me/p1YrZG-16Z

Kalkadoon warriors – c.1900. These would be typical of the warriors that fought at Battle Mountain.

[Ragnar]

Happy Wanderer, here is a new book, soon to be available, which may be of interest.

https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/sydney-wars/

The blurb: "Described by one early colonist as ‘this constant sort of war’, The Sydney Wars tells the history of military engagements between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians around the greater Sydney region.

Telling the story of the first years of colonial Sydney in a new and original way, this provocative book is the first detailed account of the warfare that occurred across the Sydney region from the arrival of a British expedition in 1788 to the last recorded conflict in the area in 1817. The Sydney Wars sheds new light on how British and Aboriginal forces developed military tactics and how the violence played out.

Analysing the paramilitary roles of settlers and convicts and the militia defensive systems that were deployed, it shows that white settlers lived in fear, while Indigenous people fought back as their land and resources were taken away. Stephen Gapps details the violent conflict that formed part of a long period of colonial strategic efforts to secure the Sydney basin and, in time, the rest of the continent."

[Happy Wanderer]

Great pick up Ragnar...book pre ordered.

"The Sydney Wars sheds new light on how British and Aboriginal forces developed military tactics and how the violence played out. Analysing the paramilitary roles of settlers and convicts and the militia defensive systems that were deployed, it shows that white settlers lived in fear, while Indigenous people fought back as their land and resources were taken away."

Well, that's pretty much what this series of posts is all about and I'm glad to see the academic class weighing in to approach the subject with fresh eyes from a military perspective. Its a healthy 288 pages and a descent print size to...looks good.

I guess we wait an see what it's like but  this series of posts is in deed prescient to its release and the potential Frontier Wars can offer to those so inclined.

Thanks Ragnar.

Happy W

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

Part II of the three part series on Aboriginal adaptive warfare. This is a quick introduction touching on weapon use and pre battle rituals and tactics.

In the last post we'll round out our discussion.

https://wp.me/p1YrZG-1wQ

Cheers

Happy W

[SABOT]

Top notch and a refreshing experience to see this period of history wargamed.

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

In this last post on the aboriginal way of war we take a detailed look at tactical methods and strategies used. This is the longest of the three posts and should give you a very good understanding of the tactics used by aboriginal warriors.

Everything is included from farm attacks, livestock raids, fire attacks, ambushes, hit-and-run raids, terrorising attacks, subterfuge, etc. Pretty much any type of guerrilla warfare attack there is was in the arsenal of the average aboriginal clan.

We also take a look at some of the limitations of the aboriginals when faced with white settlement and the advances of weapon technology and also some of the most dangerous opponents, detribalised aboriginals turned Native Police.

I Hope you have enjoyed this series on Aboriginal warfare. Whilst it has been a little bit ‘history heavy’ I think it was really important for such an under exposed topic to get some sort of cohesive structure around it from a military and gaming perspective.

Hopefully I’ve provided a good deal of information for prospective Frontier Wars gamers to get an understanding of the factors involved so they may formulate suitable scenarios and potential force types as well.

...we may take a short break after this huge information dump and then provide thoughts and ideas around using Smooth & Rifled for Frontier Wars gaming and then a battle report to follow on...lots more to dig into there.

I hope you will join the discussion...


https://wp.me/p1YrZG-1EN


Happy Wanderer

[Happy Wanderer]

Thanks Bezzo,

Your positive encouragement is most welcome. I’m glad I’ve rekindled your interest to have another look at this topic from the gaming and military perspective. I recall a number of your excellent posts in previous threads, themselves an inspiration to me to delve deeper -thanks.

As 28mm gamers there is much to offer in many respects, in a different colonial way in the manner in which Frontier Wars engagements were conducted.

Not entirely different, naturally enough, from many other colonial clashes typical of all the colonists empires, but quite enough to be worth a small investment in aboriginal minis, a fistful of sheep, a roo or two and a repurposed 19th century colonial few..there you go, I’m channeling Henry Lawson! 🙄🙄😬

... you now have something quite different in your lap.

Considerable effort has gone in researching these posts from Dr. Richard Broome, Dr. Henry Reynolds, Dr. John Connor, Dr. Ray Kherhove, Dr Nick Clements, Dr Libby Connor and many, many other sources. These are all heavy weight modern historians with a good empirical, even handed eye for the facts and a modern reflective view on frontier conflict in toto, though off course all with different emphasis and perspective.

I shall be posting a selection of recommended readings at some point down the line, only touching the surface on what is out there as you can imagine. I’ll,be sticking to the ‘gamer’s guff’ to keep focused on topic. My intention off course has been to largely distill much of the above down for the wider LAF audience relating to its military and gaming potential and is only a (solid) primer for others to go away and spark an interest.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Kind regards

Happy W

[Westfalia Chris]

As a reminder to all involved, please do not post copyrighted material on the forum. Gets us in all kinds of trouble.

[axabrax]

Happy: You've put on a clinic here! Brilliant!  It only makes me wish someone would do a comprehensive and dedicated range fort this period 

[VonAkers]

Happy Wanderer
Wow!!! Great review , insight , research , figures , painting , conversions , terrain .
Absolutely top shelf old boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Cheers