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Cheers Ragbones. Being tempted by first battle of Gallabat with the Abysinians taking on the Mahdis dervish.
Those are very nice figures, Italwars! What make are they?
What do you think the Abyssinians were armed with? The same stuff they had against the Italians? Sounds like a very cool game. A siege and Mahdist stand inside a walled fort....
about 2/3 with firearms..some muskets but many BLR ..Chassepots, Martini Henry and above all Remingtons...and the source for those last one was..Italy!!!!... and more than that...in 1870 with the end of the Pontifical Army following the entering of Italian/Piedmontese troops in Rome...the small arms arsenal of the former Pope's soldiers was captured by Piedmontese...then, on the eve of Adwa..with the disastrous Peace Treaty of Ucciali with which the Italian hoped to bribe Negus Menelik and assure peace..they offered him those almost rusted Remington BLR...those very Pontifical Rifles that were bought by Belgian Catholics and donated to the Pontifical Zouaves to defend the S. Siege..those rifles were used to shot Italians at Adwa...but we have to wait the Italian Conquest of Ethiopia in 1935 to see the amazmnet of Italian officers discovering on Addis Abeba Negus Arsenal 's those Remington with mark of Belgian manufacture and the emblem of the Pope.In any case , from what i read, the Abyssinian were terrible shooters firing one handed while holding their shields..something similra to the zulus
So, there are all sorts of cool battles vs Mahdists, including the Force Publique in a Congo vs Sudan battle.and more than that...Sudanese Mahdist not fought VS Egyptians,British, Italians, Belgians, other African Sudanese and Congolese tribesman...but even at Fachoda, just prior the encounter between Anglo/Egyptian and the French, the Ansars tried a landing Vs the French poistion in Bar El Ghazal manned by Tirailleurs Sénégalais and some Shlillouk tribesmen in wait...and were annhitilated by murderous modern clip magazines Lebel rifles just distributed to Tirailleurs...
The Mahdists weren't very good neighbours, they seem to have fallen out with everybody they had a border with at one time or another. That's true of most states, I suppose, but they managed to cram it all into about fifteen years. Pretty good going.