Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Second World War => Topic started by: Monkey on October 16, 2021, 09:23:14 PM
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Just wondering, has anyone had a go at playing any of the East African Campaign battles. I've seen that lovely Keren board from Salute 2014, but there doesn't seem to be much interest in wargaming from this theatre. I guess in the grand scheme of things it was very much a sideshow but the early equipment and the mix of troops appeals to me. Plus I'm feeling inspired by Sebastian O'Kelly's biography of Amedeo Guillet. If you've given it a go which rules and which minis did you use? Are there any good resources I shoud look at.
Thanks in advance
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I’ve interest and have a suitable British force but yet to put together Italians. Interestingly, while many consider it a sideshow it was actually a campaign of critical grand strategic importance.
Whoever controls the Horn of Africa controls access to the Red Sea, who then controls access to the Suez Canal, so not an insignificant matter. While it remained a ‘war zone’ the neutral Americans would not send any shipping via the Pacific to the Middle East, another reason to resolve control of the area. At the time Britain’s main threat for control of the Mediterranean were the Italians and so anything that destabilised and threatened the Italian empire was good for the war effort. Taking out an Italian territory that threatened Egypt from the south and British African possessions like Kenya from the north was also important so that all effort could be focused on winning the war in North Africa.
I think it appears a sideshow because in 1940 events like the fall of France and the Battle of Britain tended to over shadow a war in a distant land when the home islands were under threat. Yet in a grand strategic sense it was a key event in the downfall of Italy and wrestling back control of the Mediterranean from the North African coast.
If that’s the big picture then the small picture is just as interesting with a fascinating mix of units, terrain and equipment, lots for a wargamer and miniature painter to like.
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Hoplite have a scenario for Tug Argan Pass designed for their excellent Panzer Korps rules which could also be used with divisional level rulesets like Spearhead or Command Decision. Difficult to capture the scale of the battles (large numbers of troops and geographic distances) and the extreme tough terrain though.
It is a fascinating campaign, and any game that allows you to use Gladiators, Vildeebeasts and Wellesleys for your RAF units has to be worth doing!
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The Lardies published a campaign book called 'Call this a ruddy picnic?' by Chris Stoesen about 15 years ago. It's for 'I ain't been shot mum' but has 23 scenarios plus info about the air war. It's a useful little piece. It's still on their webshop. https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product/call-this-a-ruddy-picnic/
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Flatpack has purchased the Too Fat Lardies' background info,
& we will give it a go. Raising troops for Sicily 1943 at present,
so Italians will become available.
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Are the scenarios in the Stoesen book historical or generic wargame style?
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All historical it seems.
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There is a what-if Interwar Abyssinia campaign, was on the Lardies blog, not sure if it came back after a re-build of the site. Included French Colonial troops, really interesting stuff.
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Very do-able in 15mm as Eureka do a full range of the Italian Askari (& Abyssinians for the earlier war), & there are plenty of sources for the other Italian and Commonwealth troops. Peter Pig do separate heads for any Pith helmeted figures.
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There was a group of Australian gamers over on the old CD TOB site that used to run some nice looking East Africa games. You really have to scroll thru the site's AAR section to find things, no search engine. Here are some links to their games -
https://testofbattle.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4433&sid=9c05350453715ea3729795495c5d630a
https://testofbattle.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4408&sid=9c05350453715ea3729795495c5d630a
https://testofbattle.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4814&sid=67621486a4b29c3e9cdf7cfbfd92bbe4