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Miniatures Adventure => Colonial Adventures => Topic started by: Bezzo on March 08, 2010, 09:38:10 PM
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A year or so ago I picked up a small book (the text is only 122pp) called “The Australian Frontier Wars – 1788-1838” by John Connor. He attended the University of New South Wales and the bulk of the book was his PhD thesis, which has now been published by UNSW Press, 2002.
The subject is not the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people which is such a stain on the early history of the colony but militaryactions during the period. Often these were minuscule expeditions of a dozen soldiers, marching off across rivers, jungle, swamp, and desert to fight tiny encounter ‘battles’. Sometimes no fire was exchanged when the enemy melted away or the expedition got lost! And not all fights were one-sided as the aborigines had local knowledge and could pick their moment of combat. They had victories but were bound to lose the war.
All it would take to recreate this warfare would be a few surplus Napoleonic brits, and maybe 20 aborigine warriors. That would be a true-life scale of 1:1, real skirmish wargaming.
I was wondering if anyone had tried this? Especially LAF’fers Down Under tired of the Eureka stockade and Ned Kelly. I can see the potential for some great rules to simulate the “mystical” ability of aborigines to appear out of, and vanish back into, the bush.
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Interesting. What rules?
SATF certainly covers the number of figures, but I don't know. Never really played SATF derivitives were all troops were using muzzleloaders. (they do have nice stats for what would be the aboriine forces of the time, though)
If it wasn't muzzleloaders, Gutshot (with some of the mystical rules addendums, for NA Indians, applied and adapted to your aborigines) might be good?
Were there similar battles in later 1800's (kinda "Quigley, Down Under" like times)? THAT would be a good candidate for Gutshot, or SATF (remember the British troops in Quigley?).
(Gutshot just happens to be our pet western rules, and great for small unit skirmishing, I don't work for Mitchell and Murphy, ;) )
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Must say it has never really caught my fancy. Too much of the squalid, piecemeal genocide aspect outweighs any desire to game the skirmishes. The more representative skirmishes tend to be one sided massacres like Warrigal Creek. For obvious reasons it tends to be a fairly sensitive subject in Oz. I recall there was some 'debate' over rules and figures on TMP some time back. It's not that I'm terribly PC, I am happy to represent Brazilian Indians in games and the history there is just as baleful. Of course in those games teh odds are more even and I'm more interested in the Indians as allies of the variosu European colonial powers.
Eureka stockade? Nope, nothing but an unsightly brawl with some tax evaders. I've always laughed at the mythic nature this has achieved in Australia. Maybe people would view it in a different light if it was explained to them that Peter Lalor was the Hugh Morgan of his day and it's akin to Western Mining, Rio Tinto or BHP saying they don't want to pay mining royalties.
Ned Kelly to mind mind is mostly notable as the complete perversity of mythmaking. Murdering thief who got his just desserts.
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I seem to recall once some aborigine figures in a nicely-done setting running around with their tackle hanging out. I don't remember seeing any Europeans, though. I think the fellow that made them had skirmishes between rival native bands more in mind than colonial conflict.
Can't remember where I saw this though, sorry.
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I seem to recall once some aborigine figures in a nicely-done setting running around with their tackle hanging out. I don't remember seeing any Europeans, though. I think the fellow that made them had skirmishes between rival native bands more in mind than colonial conflict.
Can't remember where I saw this though, sorry.
I think they are either Blaze Away or Cannon Fodder miniatures (cant rmemeber exactly but they are the ones who do Irish War of independance and Frei Korps post 1918) they do Aboriganes etc
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It is both Blaze Away and Cannon Fodder, the one is the 28mm retailer for the other (though I forget which way round it is).
I don't think these are the ones I was thinking of, though. I think they were conversions or scratch-builds by the chap who posted the pics. It was a long time ago, on TMP maybe.
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It is both Blaze Away and Cannon Fodder, the one is the 28mm retailer for the other (though I forget which way round it is).
I don't think these are the ones I was thinking of, though. I think they were conversions or scratch-builds by the chap who posted the pics. It was a long time ago, on TMP maybe.
Yup you are right :D Blazeawy do a few Aboriganes and Ned Kelly and the gang only
http://www.blazeaway.com.au/Australian%20Colonial.htm
If I recall the police force had a distinctive helmet very much like a Prussian one.
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I'd be going for Carlos' view.
The Eureka Stockade has a significance far beyond the actual event which was nothing more than a squalid drunken brawl with a few guns. From memory it was a couple of volleys and around 10-15 minutes and home in time for handcuffs and crumpets.
The spin of the time predisposed people to accept the plucky miners against the heartless troopers.
I don't know why it is but Carlos' unease at the "Frontier' encounters is quite common in Australia. I share it. We seem to be far more relaxed about belting up little tin people in all sorts of other contexts but not here (Oz). Go figure.
Having said that, I have long advocated a range of bushranger figures. Some of those blokes are seriously interesting. And Ned Kelly was a prat.
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I think some folks have an aversion to certain games, even when the negatives of said are to be found in similar games, and that's fine. Just a personal perogative.
I think Bezzo's scenario is interesting. Then again, I thought of doing a Haitian Independence game (with French and British) but for some reason, all that atrocities by everyone, and all the horrible deaths by Yellow Fever, just didn't sit well with me. No problems gaming lots of other, equally appalling episodes, that particular one just turned me away. (I have a romantic view, and I don't like gaming "sick troops". All my figures, native, European, American, whatever, are in shiny new uniforms, healthy and tanned, and just all around "neat" ) :D
I don't consider it any different than eagerly selecting , or not, a period based on liking or disliking the uniform/army style/weapons and tactics/historical interest.
Don't think Carlos has a problem with others playing this, he just won't. (sorry if I misinterpreted you, C )
Anyhoo, Bezzo, what rules would you use? Could the rules be used for other British engagements (skirmish, obviously) during that time? (Trouble in India, West indies, etc.?) There are plenty of great scenarios in that period, that are 'black powder" era AND skirmish, and thus not SATF condusive. Thanks
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Any sort of Horse and Musket skirmish rules. When I have done skirmish games I still fall back on variations of the ones in Don Featherstones book, and use percentage dice.
The usual approach is to view each situation as it arises, guesstimate the %age of the options and roll the bones. More than most games I think skirmish games benefit from "getting into the spirit" and arriving at a result that seems 'right' rather than referral to cross-indexed tables.
A mis-fire on a musket might cost you the game but if that figure survives his escape becomes part of his "history". When each miniature is an individual that aspect takes on its own life. You begin to move them around just a bit more cautiously.
That sounds good. I have Featherstones book. I play around with "Stand To", which is by Steve Winter. A neat, short, free rules system that focuses on individual figures, making quick decisions, in turns lasting @ 15 seconds in scale time. (It might take three or more turns to see a threat, decided on a reaction (duck, no choice, its a reaction to a bullet or spear whizzing by, then consciously draw a weapon, then aim, and fire) Might work in this type setting (it works for 5-10 five man team, vs 12-20 natives awfully well)
Take a gander. Only a handful of pages, and some useful stuff to adopt for anyone's rules:
http://home.comcast.net/~tsrstevew/StandTo/standtopg.html
(I esxpecially enjoy the signalling/commands aspects (hand signals, verbal commands, etc. and the "history" as you mentioned, represented by "experience/reactions" here.)
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Smokey is right, I don't really mind what other people choose to play, that's their prerogative. Matter of personal taste.
As I said in Australia the topic is rather sensitive. In part that's because bound up with the 'history wars' of last decade where competing views of Australia's indigenous history were aired. The right wing revisionist view was championed heavily by the most unpleasant Prime Minister in the nation's history a diehard racist and a highly divisive character.
My own aversion comes from reading accounts of settler inspired massacres. In the 1970s there was a discovery along the 90 mile beach in Gippsland of skeletal remains, including those of women and children, whose arms had been bound and then were shot or clubbed to death. This was vestigal evidence of the terrible massacre of the Kurnai people. For what it's worth this sort of thing was against official colonial policy and involved no troops but then again that's true of much of these incidents.
There's a mini industry of authors and aspiring academics to fashion 'new' history due to a perceived lack of it in European Australia's relatively brief existence. There was a rash of documentaries and books trying to elevate a minor prison rebellion at Vinegar Hill into some sort of Australian bunker Hill.
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Not really all that familiar with early Australian history, specifically related to colonists or regulars in pitched fights with the aborigines. My impression is that the aboriginals retained a much more stone age nature in the face of the colonists than was the case for native americans during the colonization of this continent. I would think, from a gaming standpoint, the one-sided nature of the fighting would be a problem.
By contrast, a North American in that same rough time period or earlier has two sides with relatively comparable strengths - for example on a French and Indian War scenario the colonists are maybe a bit better armed, the indians and their French allies are maybe a bit more numerous and woods-crafty. Weapons are not too overpoweringly different between the two sides. I don't know if that dynamic would apply for Australian history.
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Turns out the ones I was trying to remember were 15mm:
(http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/eqeta/Abvab005.jpg)
(http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/eqeta/Abvab003.jpg)
>>>Link<<< (http://quickreactionforce.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/21_51/products_id/36)
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Turns out the ones I was trying to remember were 15mm:
(http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/eqeta/Abvab005.jpg)
(http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/eqeta/Abvab003.jpg)
>>>Link<<< (http://quickreactionforce.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/21_51/products_id/36)
YESSSS! Plynkes has joined the 15mm Colonial Revolution! How does it feel, to embrace the one true scale?
Climb aboard, plynkes! Get in Smokey's train!
lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
BTW, thanks, that is a good looking game. Looks very Australian, the terrain I mean.
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At the IWF tournament in 2005, one competitor ran an Australian Aborigine army in 15mm, a very interesting group. I think the only major or significant result was against a Polynesian or Maori army. I can't remember where the figures came from but they may have been the same source as Plynkes.
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Bezzo,
I set up a fictional area some years ago that had a small town, squatters, mining camp, aboriginals, bushrangers, police and British army all wandering about doing their own thing, with some set-up clashes. It never got beyond a couple of games but one day I'll get back to the idea.
That was done in 54mm using skirmish rules. The figures were all converted - aborigines out of airfix indians, brits were napoleonic, police converted from Britains ACW, cowboys were altered to look more colonial Oz & less western.
I do think it would be good in 28mm, and the new range from Blaze Away (which is Cannon Fodder's old aboriginal range now back in production, maybe with some new sculpts - not sure on that) hopefully will expand to all the above. Until then I think I'll go back to 54mm anyway.
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Bezzo,
I set up a fictional area some years ago that had a small town, squatters, mining camp, aboriginals, bushrangers, police and British army all wandering about doing their own thing, with some set-up clashes. It never got beyond a couple of games but one day I'll get back to the idea.
That was done in 54mm using skirmish rules. The figures were all converted - aborigines out of airfix indians, brits were napoleonic, police converted from Britains ACW, cowboys were altered to look more colonial Oz & less western.
I do think it would be good in 28mm, and the new range from Blaze Away (which is Cannon Fodder's old aboriginal range now back in production, maybe with some new sculpts - not sure on that) hopefully will expand to all the above. Until then I think I'll go back to 54mm anyway.
As a 54mm plastic figure playset collector, I want to see pics of your conversions! (please) ;)
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OK, I'll
a) find them
b) try and get some decent photos over the weekend and then
c) work out how to post them. How hard can it be?
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OK, I'll
a) find them
b) try and get some decent photos over the weekend and then
c) work out how to post them. How hard can it be?
LOL! It can be hard (for me at least, my 15 year old daughter has to help me) Get a free photobucket or Flicker account, that helps greatly, and don't hessitate to ask some of the folks here for help.
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As an Australian, Eureka Stockade has a lot to do with the birth of democracy in this country. Sure they were all a bunch of drunken miners, but they were subjected to an extremely harsh form of taxation where gangs of police would sweep the gold fields and assault and arrest miners who hadn't paid their licence fees.
There was a huge amount of corruption in the police and local government. The local military commander went out of his way to enflame the whole situation so he could grab some headlines and look like a hero. A similar tax on tea in the US caused a little disagreement if i remember correctly ;)
As for Ned Kelly, he was plainly a murderer and got what he deserved, but if you go through "Kelly Country" in Northern Victoria you will still find people (descendants) championing Kelly as some sort of democratic hero.
Aboriginal conflicts are not very appealing as they were basically massacres of varying sizes. The problem in Australia with the Aborigines is that Australia is a harsh country. There were no indigenous animals that could be domesticated ( No cows, sheep etc) and no plants that could be cultivated like corn, wheat etc.
Hence Aboriginal tribes were all nomadic. They didn't form strong communities like the Native American Indians or Zulus or Incas etc.
So they were unprepared to defend their lands from White incursions. I personally think that this apparent weakness lead to them being treated a lot more disdainfully by whites. Like they didn't put up a fight so they must all be rubbish, not like the tough zulus or apache.
A bit serious for a "gaming forum" but that's my two cents.
Cheers
Fuzzy.
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Hmmmmm. Actually, the progress of democracy has a lot less to do with the Eureka Stockade than is commonly claimed. South Australia gained its constitution in 1856 and had introduced secret ballots and a representative parliament by 1857, without any recourse to fisticuffs. Actually there's very little to suggest that Eureka made much of a material contribution one way or the other. If you look more broadly you will see there are a lot of factors leading to the gradual extension of franchise.
Peter Lalor, the leader of the Eureka Stockade was later elected to the Victorian Parliament, where his voting record shows that he was opposed to universal male sufferage. Some democrat. The Hugh Morgan comparison is apt in Lalor's case, he tried to use Chinese miners as scab labour to break a miner's strike. Something the CFMEU really should think about when it raises the Eureka Flag.
Comparisons with the AWI are facile in the extreme and the two situations bear almost no similarity. I know you intended that in jest but seriously, the sooner Australians stopping trying to draw these grand parralels the better. At any rate if you examine the actual causes of the American revolt, you'll discover they are mostly pretty squalid and Australia should be thankful it doesn't base its nationhood on them.
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As for Ned Kelly, he was plainly a murderer and got what he deserved, but if you go through "Kelly Country" in Northern Victoria you will still find people (descendants) championing Kelly as some sort of democratic hero.
Curiously enough it's the plastic paddy brigade that most champion that view. Curious because Ned was Australian, born and bred and yet all the policemen he murdered at Stringybark creek were Irish. Actually at the time something like 80% of the Victoria Police were Irish born and about 60-75% of them were Irish Catholics. Strange world isn't it?
Hence Aboriginal tribes were all nomadic. They didn't form strong communities like the Native American Indians or Zulus or Incas etc.
Er, I think you will find those opinions will be hotly contested these days. Indeed those are the very arguments used to justify terra nullius.
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If you are interested Miniature Wargames ran an article over two issues on the Kalkadoon War 1874/84 which were penned by Greg Blake. The issues in question are September 1992 (Issue #112) and October 1992 (issue 113).
Over the years the odd article or two about gaming events in Colonial Australia have appeared in Miniature Wargames and Wargames Illustrated.
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Wasn't my intent to sound 'belligerent', sorry you read it that way. Whilst I appreciate the generally civil and decorous nature of this forum, surely it's possible to have an adult discussion and disagree on interpretations of history. I do apologise for taking the thread off topic but I don't subscribe to Henry Ford's view that 'all history is bunk'.
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Right, here goes with the photos of my 54mm Australian colonials. These are from many years ago (hence the bright blue showing through where the paint has chipped) and pretty much just a lot of carving, with some melting & realigning of the plastic.
A couple of cowboys made to look less cowboyish:
http://s902.photobucket.com/albums/ac222/iceaxe/Aust%20Colonial/?action=view¤t=IMG_2409.jpg
Another view, and also more of the Victorian Police of the later 1800's:
http://s902.photobucket.com/albums/ac222/iceaxe/Aust%20Colonial/?action=view¤t=IMG_2408.jpg
Aboriginals from Airfix Indians. Not very realistic, but I know more now than I did 20 or so years ago when I did these:
http://s902.photobucket.com/albums/ac222/iceaxe/Aust%20Colonial/?action=view¤t=IMG_2407.jpg
More Vic Police, from Britains ACW. On the left is a black tracker:
http://s902.photobucket.com/albums/ac222/iceaxe/Aust%20Colonial/?action=view¤t=IMG_2406.jpg
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When i lived in Melbourne a long time ago i used to visit a lot of places associated with the Kelly Gang, some nice times at Etucha too down on the Murray river, Fuzzy is right, theres definitely a pro Kelly brigade in that area. I could see some Wild West scenarios being achievable for this time just with a different accent!
I suppose another potential game would be Naval landing partys having a scrap or two on the beach too, maybe Cooks initial landing could become more contested?