The Abyssinian Crisis project blog (update 21JUN17) - **It. Askari platoon **

[d phipps]

Was mainly interested in the links for WW1 Brits. I presume any figures for WW1 Middle East Brits would also be fine for representing troops in India? I will be using Pulp Alley so probably need at most a dozen figures. The idea was to have 4-5 adventurer heroes with the option of having some British troops as support for either Egypt ot India. Opponents would be cultists, tribesmen, gangsters etc depending on location.

Sounds like fun! I'm looking forward to seeing more of this.

[FramFramson]

Say Happy, how much work d'you think it would be to convert the Copplestone Somalis into Ethiopian tribal levies? Ignoring the rifle being wrong (if it even is). Here's an image for reference:



Seems you'd have to add shirts and maybe trousers to most of them, but that this would do the trick?

[Happy Wanderer]

Hi Fram,

I have some of those myself and will be using them for southern Ethiopian, Ogaden and Somali tribal types for sure. Photos of this period show little change in the ensuing 30 years that the Copplestone sculpts depict and add a nice tribal squad or two to your force.

...so use them with no jeopardy! They paint up very quickly and look great 👍

Happy W

[FramFramson]

Righto, thanks!

The Empress stuff is lovely and accurate, but the Copplestones fit my slightly larger scale more closely. Plus there's a deal on some used Somalis...

[draxx66]

Have to admit I use them as well. My Abyssinian tribals are a mix of Empress, Copplestone and Askiri miniatures.

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

I've popped up a post..a bit of 'hard history' this time.

It's a very interesting article on the French Culture and Military Doctrine of the interwar era. Very interesting reading and solid background for Francophiles of the period...

...hope it is of some use/interest

Regards

Happy W

http://wp.me/p6mUyQ-mz

[FramFramson]

Great essay, thanks for posting it.

[James Morris]

Many of you might not be aware of this book, "The Rape of Ethiopia, 1936" by Ballantine Books published in 1971. There are used copies available from Amazon Books that won't break the bank.

http://www.amazon.com/Ethiopia-Ballantines-illustrated-century-Politics/dp/0345024621

This book is interesting as large parts of the text appear to be plagiarised from Del Boca's 1960s book. But it is a good read and is worth getting for the photos alone.

[James Morris]

Hi Fram,

I have some of those myself and will be using them for southern Ethiopian, Ogaden and Somali tribal types for sure. Photos of this period show little change in the ensuing 30 years that the Copplestone sculpts depict and add a nice tribal squad or two to your force.

...so use them with no jeopardy! They paint up very quickly and look great 👍

Happy W

Seconded! The Copplestone Somalis are nice to give some differentiation between regional Ethiopians. And the cavalry are fab.

Still impressed to see how much work is going into this project. I have completely detached myself for the moment while working on WW1, but will be back!

[Happy Wanderer]

Hi James,

Thanks for your thoughts and kind words.

I don't have AJ Barker's book but do have Del Boca's book which is rather good...I did a review of it here.
https://abyssiniancrisis.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/the-ethiopian-war-1935-41/

...whilst things have 'slowed down' a bit I couldn't keep up the frenetic pace of the initial few months, which actually was always the intention. I wanted to get up a solid basis for the hypothesis and provide all the background and hopefully inspiration that any would be player would want to find on the TAC blog. I go back and read it myself for inspiration!!!

The intent/hope was that other people would be contribute any of their own articles or posts related to the topic and it would mutate into a kind of resource for all mid thirties interwar gamers...still my hope....which reminds me to get a bunch of pictures of your pictures up on the blog as they are very much inspiration for many and would be lovely to see...myself included.

So, the the blog will chug along, building as it goes, creating a wealth of all sorts of info on the topic as and when time allows. I've only recently finished up a platoon of King's African Rifles that are meant to be showcased on the blog but I've been a bit distracted by other things, closely related, but not the same as Abyssinia.

Cheers

Happy W

[Happy Wanderer]

For fans of 20mm, Early War Miniatures has released a number of new figures in their Abyssinian war range to support The Abyssinian Crisis blog and theme in general. This round of releases has quite a few Abyssinian tribal warriors and the Ethiopian Imperial Guard… all very good stuff. You can check out some pictures on the blog which has links to other locations for the miniatures as well.

Cheers

Happy Wanderer


http://wp.me/p6mUyQ-G0

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

I've added a post including links to three important manuals used for research into the interwar British Army. Follow the link if you're interested in getting your hands on the respective field service regulations used for the British c.1935.

http://wp.me/p6mUyQ-wq


Cheers

Happy Wanderer

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

I've posted an update to The Abyssinian Crisis webblog. It adds usable rules for the game system Flames of War.

See the post for details.

Cheers

wp.me/p6mUyQ-bO

[tin shed gamer]

Those tenders'/trucks look an interesting build.In fact I quite like the idea of the whole picture.

Mark.

[Happy Wanderer]

...those askaris do cut a rather 'martial' look don't they...very hardy fellows...