Australian bush rangers

[joroas]

Bernie Clifton anyone?

[joroas]

Old Glory:

[joroas]

..and also with a sword or a pack ostrich.

[3 fingers]

The resemblance between the two is uncanny,

[joroas]

and:

[joroas]

http://www.moddb.com/groups/humour-satire-parody/videos/blackadder-how-did-the-war-start

[joroas]

From a wargaming point of view its also right down the list of gamble conflicts, Mounted men armed with leaver action breach loading rifles vs people on foot with fire hardened wood and stone weapons. Who also it must be added never had the numbers needed for that sort of asymmetrical warfare and their entire way of waging war was completely different from the european concept of warfare an thus was totally unsuitable for combating this new threat.

Most of the time a 'victory' was avoiding the people sent to kill you. Any small tactical victory under arms was a zero sum game because it more often than not led to a horrific and disproportionate response.

name one single war an aboriginal tribe won against the colonials. Not a battle or a skirmish but the actual war for control of the land. Zero zip nada and nil is the answer.     

Which piece of your own verbiage does not describe all colonial wars from the Conquistadores until Ethiopia then?

[Leigh Metford]

You're scenario would make for an amusing game, Bezzo, but I fear it's more Pax Limpopo (Eureka Miniatures) than historical: to my knowledge, camels weren't particularly common along the Coorong.

[Leigh Metford]

It's clearly too early in the morning for literate responses: correction 'Your scenario...'.

[von Lucky]

Scurv, I think you need some perspective. There are many Belgian Congo ranges. And I think no one will argue they were polite to the locals.

Europeans in Australia were not alone in its treatment of the current inhabitants when they arrived (wherever it was). The reality is humans all over the world can be cruel and I think a reason there isn't many Australian ranges is simple no interest (or perceived interest).

[Cubs]

its not an ostrich here its an emu too BTW 2 distinct and separate species. The ostrich is native to africa.
...

Urm ... yes, I'm aware of that, hence I said -

I didn't know Ostriches were introduced to Australia that early. Well fancy that.

Ostriches were introduced into Australia in the 19th century in the same way camels were, but I didn't know it was that early on. If the story is accurate, I guess they must have been.

[joroas]

If you want to put on a public participation game then I will even ensure the local aboriginal community gets invited so they too can have a chance of playing their own history in miniature!

I haven't seen many around here........

[Leigh Metford]

I doubt that any remnant pre-Celtic populations would have much interest, Joroas.

Another likely explanation, Von Lucky, is the virtual absence of the sorts of sources of inspiration wargamers usually rely on to generate interest in a new 'period': miniatures; dedicated rules systems, or at least adaptations of suitable proxies; movies; articles; books.

In reality there are vast numbers of the latter two, but they're largely authored by academics within the confines of the disciplines of social and ethnic history with little understanding of military affairs, or the output of popular writers and local historians; very few military historians have given the subject any attention - two being John Connor and Jeffrey Grey. The current dearth of Australian colonial figures will of course be somewhat remedied by the forthcoming UK range, which will be fully supported in the hobby press with the requisite background material and rules ideas.

If you're looking for inspiration, keep an eye out early next year for the release of a local production from a young and enthusiastic Melbourne film maker on the final days of one of the most notorious 'wild colonial boys', 'Legend of Ben Hall' - initially as a short film. It's been funded through Kickstarter, and is to be released in time for the 150th anniversary of the outlaw's death in May. Once that goal has been achieved, the writer/director plans to produce a three hour epic recounting the entire Hall saga. He claims to place a high premium on historical accuracy, and has relied heavily on the advice of an expert NSW bushranger historian. 

[Westfalia Chris]

I'd hazard the guess a cooling-down period is in order, for which I'll temporarily lock this thread.