Central Asians for the RCW

[S J Donovan]

I am looking to add troops under Enver Pasha to my BoB collection.  I have some WWI Turks, but I want to add Central Asians for the Bismachi Revolt side of things.
Are there any figures (28mm) available?  I have seen the Askari Minis figures but they seem a little early, by about 40 years.  Are they the only ones available?  Actually, I am not even sure of the make up of Enver Pasha army, having trouble finding actual information.   Can anyone help? Please.

[Jericho]

Studio Siberia has some:

http://siberia-miniatures.ru/index.php?cPath=41_39_51_156

[S J Donovan]

Thank you, they are very nice.  Are there another figures available?  I am still trying to figure out units.  Eventually these will make two units, for variety between units I would like to see more.
Any articles about unit make up?

[Mark Plant]

Basmachi fought in their local territorial units, so you have Uzbeks fighting beside Uzbeks etc. It would have been very difficult for Uzbeks to fight alongside Kazakhs, since they would have extreme difficulty agreeing on very much at all.  The Central Asians weren't much on collective solidarity, but did have long memories of opposition to each other.

So trying to find any "organisation" that allows you to differentiate units is going to be rather tough. I suggest having one with some of Enver's Turks mixed in, and one not.

This also solves the problem of figures, because you only need one range of Central Asians, and it doesn't really matter which dress style.

Information about the Basmachis is pretty limited, especially outside Russian. What there is tends to be focussed on politics, not the military side.

I suggest not over-thinking this one. Get mounted units of some Central Asian type, provide dismounted options, and if you like that sort of thing allow a captured MG or two. Paint them in drab field outfits or bright colours as you desire.

[S J Donovan]

Thank you Mark.
I was thinking organizational as numbers of troops (cavalry/infantry) within Enver Pashas' "army" rather than tribes, but point well taken. 
I would like an idea if not actual numbers of Turkish Infantry, cavalry, artillery then approximate numbers of Tribal infantry and cavalry during the Bismachi revolt.  If no real numbers are available then what TO&E are other gamers using.
Not trying to overthink this I would rather have the proportions right if not the numbers.  I don't want three inf and 1 cav when it should be the other way around.  I have Turkish officers but have refrained from getting inf and cav until I know more about the TO&E.

[Mark Plant]

Ah! I'll give my understanding and hopefully Cuprum will correct me.

All Basmachi are cavalry, if the terrain suits, but happy to dismount. Cossacks and Caucasian tribes similarly. (It's why I said dismounted, not infantry.) The hit-and-run tactics require mobility, and there was no shortage of available horses.

Support weapons would rely on captured ammunition, and needed to be very portable. So artillery only if recently captured and until the shells ran out but a handful of MGs.

My understanding was that Enver had no actual units of Turks, other than a very small bodyguard. Depends on your scale, of course, because I play with companies the Turks would be negligible.

It was a hopelessly romantic dream, so hardly likely to garner major support so far from home for Turks from Turkey. He was a rallying point in movement with little focus other than hatred of the Reds, not a military power in his own right.

[cuprum]

A few clarifications:

The basmachi can be divided into several types:

1. The core of the detachment is from a few dozen to several hundred professional warriors. They have a lot of experience of the tribal war between the tribes and their neighbors. They are well armed, receiving a good income from robbery and buying everything they need in Afghanistan, Persia, China or Russia.

2. Local volunteers or mobilized warriors who are in the unit on an ongoing basis. They are armed much worse, about 20% do not have firearms. There are problems with ammunition.

3. Peasant militia. They are mobilized immediately before the forthcoming battle in nearby villages. Armed with hunting flintlock guns, pitchforks, sickles, knives and just sticks. Very often they do not have horses.

Guns and machine guns are rare, as mobility of detachments in the mountains and deserts hinders.

According to my information, the army of Enver Pasha at the time of the peak of his strength numbered about 1000 Afghan soldiers, had some heavy weapons. The Bukharian emir ordered his subjects, fighting the Bolsheviks, to submit to Enver Pasha as commander-in-chief. It happened, but with great displeasure...

Topic in my forum, dedicated to the Basmachi: http://siberia-miniatures.ru/forum/showthread.php?fid=12&tid=10&block=0

[S J Donovan]

Thank you Mark and Cuprum for the great information. Spoils all my previously held ideas but, it was worth the history lesson.  Now I will have to rethink any campaigning ideas for Enver and the Bismachi revolt.

[Byblos]

Hi !

For the Afghans , you could take the Empress Afghans , and some of them come with separate heads so you could use Empress afghan heads or Turkomans Siberia Miniatures heads as you wish !

I will buy some Foundry too , from Indian Mutiny & cie range , there are some minies that could be really interesting !







With Empress , Siberia & Foundry , you could build a big Basmachi army with Turkomans & Afghans (mercenaries)

[HerbyF]

Empress Jazz age Afgans would work for these too.

[cuprum]

I must say that the soldiers of the Afghan regular army in this period looked somewhat differently:

[Von Stroheim]

Judging by Cuprum's pictures your best bet would be to use The Ottoman infantry from Woodbine Design - with the seperate heads

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/Ottoman_Turks--category--241.html