Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Back of Beyond => Topic started by: valerio81 on November 17, 2020, 12:01:44 PM
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I started a little skirmish project, inspired by beautiful tables by the Extraordinary Kriegspielers that I see here. Except mine would be a much, much poorly done and smaller scale, and also set in the Ottoman Balkans in 1912. But the spirit and feel should be, messy adventures in exotic lands and cultures, so "back of beyond-ish" (even if geographically much closer to us than usual).
The setting is an obscure sanjak, whose name I shall invent soon, contended between various groups of turkish and greek militias, bandits and regulars. Later I would add bulgarians, montenegrins, serbs, ecc.This will allow skirmish games between 4-6 players, each with a squad, "everyone vs everyone".
So here is the first unit, Ioannis "mad dog" Papadimitrou's band of kleftes. They are said to be cooperating with the advancing Greek Army of Epiros, but they are definitely more interested in business than in patriotic endeavors..
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Nice, I shall follow with interest.
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Interesting and unusual subject! :o I shall follow it too. :)
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Interesting. Tiger Miniatures ?
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Yes, Tiger. Many thanks!
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You might want too message Steve Barber as he made a couple of figures for this period!, They have never been marketed
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Thanks, I will check. At the moment the inly fighre not available from Tiger would be Albanian militias, and maybe some more bashibazouks would be useful
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Nice take!
I feel that were it set 15 years later a certain Belgian Reporter and his small white dog would fit right in ;-)
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Ahah! As it is now, I was thinking maybe a German archeologist obsessed by Micenean excavations might pop up...
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Great idea for a project! Looking forward to seeing how it progresses - did you have a manufacturer in mind for the Serb/Montenegrin figures?
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Thanks! Always Tiger miniatures, they got them all. Except the albanians, they are so cool but I don't know how to do them. Here's albanian hero Isa Boletini with fighters
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Great idea for a project! Looking forward to seeing how it progresses - did you have a manufacturer in mind for the Serb/Montenegrin figures?
Tiger miniatures do serbian and montenegrin minis, among them the montegro traditional dress
https://www.tigerminiatures.co.uk/product-page/bwm05-montenegrin-irregular-with-command
they can also be used as fictional syldavian guards in "a certain Belgian Reporter and his small white dog". Using some other existing ranges such as pulp figures ones painted in correct uniforms, anybody can have missing units, such as syldavian gendarmes, from german "arrogant officers", and the setting is OK.
Nice take!
I feel that were it set 15 years later ;-)
I must point out that till 1935 the greek army uniform was virtually the same like the one of balkan wars. The same might be said for serbian one. So, I believe can easily be stressed 15+ years more. Just note the evzones should be the 1907/1908 uniform in khaki uniform, or blue as early or ceremonial use. If you need Greeks after 1935 you can use the WW2 greeks by Burns miniatures
https://www.templarwargames.co.uk/page/28mm-ww2
I forgot to add that greeks used french adrian helmets, with some units retaining them till1940.
Some historic notices:
Albania: can be used as virtually an italian protectorate. Italian army uniform can be used. For local tradional dressed units, I can recommend using either turkish irregulars by tiger or albanians from napoleonic era ranges.
Montenegro: incorporated in the Yugoslavian Kingdom and ceased to exist as an independent state. Traditional dress might be used.
Bulgaria: I am not an authority in bulgarian uniforms, but I believe that regular units in peaked cap (or german helmet for later units) from tiger miniatures might do the trick. Irregular units as those produced by tiger can also be used as bandits/irregulars etc throughout till the end of WWii.
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What a cracking idea for a scenario! The Balkans, playground of the bad, mad and deranged since before Romans. Brilliant fella!
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Many thanks!!! Hope I'll be able to convey the craziness of it all
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Now working on what passes for law and order in the sanjak, the local rediff contingent. The Tiger miniatures were super cool but felt too military, too smart... I wanted them more scruffy and irregular.
So I amputated the backpack from a couple, gave some the ubiquitous goat skin leggings instead of the regulation puttee, added random patches and loose puttees. One of the guys had his fez cutted and sanded to an irregular conical shape which will be painted white, so he's now Enver the Albanian. Now on to paint!
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These are excellent. Always good to see some Balkan irregularity. :D
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Attention thieves, kleftes and Greeks! "Baba" Yusuf's section of rediff infantry is in town and will most certainly put an end to civil disturbances
if appropriately rewarded and stop all criminal activities in which is not involved! For the glory of ther Padisciŕ, our glorious soldiers will safeguard the citizens who pays for protection and almost never harass women and get mighty drunk!
In the following pictures, the complete section; Mustafŕ, Kemal and Ataturk run in support of "Baba" Yusuf in action; the Albanian, Kurdisgi and Tuz Okcian strike an heroic pose in a clearly staged photography somewhere in the hills.
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Love your work on these
villainous valiant fellows lol
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Thanks! The Sultan is also
pissed proud!
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Hot damn! Those came out great. Gotta say I'm pretty impressed with your sculpting.
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Many thanks Hang Tuah, it was actually fairly basic stuff, easir to do than it seems.
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Nicely done sir
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Thank you Effendi.
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The glorious Army of Tessaly, under the invictus Prince Kostantinos, is advancing in the Vardar valey liberating that sacred Greek soil! The army is now close to the border with the Sanjac of Kurşıkkülu, whic is unfortunately one of the most backward and poor and savage Sanjak in the corpse of the Ottoman empire...but is still Hellenic land to be redeemed!
In the picture, a half section led by corporal Apostolos Spyridonis in front of a village they just liberated
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Great idea and beautifully done! Looking forward to seeing more... :-*
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Great figures. Looks like there will be some cheap fixer-upper property in the sanjak, which has recently become unexpectedly available. 😱
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Finally I got around to work on this Balkan job again... a game set for early January, using Fistful of Lead, and still quite a lot of stuff to do! At least "Efe" Abdulhamid and his fellow zeybeks are ready to roll, steal and even worse on the hillside above the village of Caycoy, in the unlucky sanjak of Yanya!
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Good luck with the game.
We love playing FFOL.
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Chaps, love the figures . Let's not forget this was the precursor to the wars of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. I have no personal "skin in the game" re this period but as with many, there is a lot of stuff lurking below the surface....
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Indeed there is, and I strongly wish to keep it there... none of the players have no skin too, and I just want it to remain a light-hearted fun series of games. For the same reason I usually refrain from playing scenarios too close to today - just makes me too unconfortable.
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Good evening effendi, we are the good citizens of Yanya. Thank you very much for liberating us from the oppressors/infidels/brigands... could you now please just leave us alone? Please...?
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We finally had the first game and it was a blast! A real massacre also... we had 11 deads out of 20 fighters! In the end the famous brigand Ioannis "crazy dog" Papadopoulos, wounded, barely managed to slip out of the city with the classified documents. Commissar Badarkulu's gendarmes were butchered...
Here below a picture of the table. If you want a lot more pictures you find them here
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4740555539360811&id=1716911985058530&viewer=1716911985058530&m_entstream_source=timeline&paipv=1
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Excellent work! And a 'massacre' is probably right for the period/theatre
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Unfortunately I cannot see the rest of the pictures, when I click on the link I get "Insufficient Permission" message.
This is a great thread, I don't no how I missed this before! I have a load of the Tiger Miniatures minis, not the greatest models in the world, but packed with character. I have used them for the 1912 War and various Victorian/Edwardian Steampunk goings on.
You have done them more justice than my poor painting.
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I like the villagers.