Ethiopian Army---Composition and Rating

[Roustam]

As I begin work on my Ethiopian army I have two questions:

1-Regarding levies, what would be an accurate ratio of rifles to hand held weapons?

2-Should the Mahel Safari be rated as "Trained"?

Thanks,
Russ

[Durutti]

Levies, ratio would be about 1 in ten(1x hand weapons,9x rifles) most troops would have a rifle of some kind, The biggest problem was ammo supply.
I have read an Italian report were they recieved a volley of fire, followed up by a wild charge. After shooting down the Abyssinians they found a load of rifles discarded. each having just fired one or two shots, the bodies had no ammo pouches. They also have no bayonets, so the rifles are useless up close!!!

Marhel Safari would be trained, but not very well.

[James Morris]

Yep, pretty much agree with that.  For T&T I have been playing with most Mahel Safari units as 'Trained' with rifles, in units of around 10.  Tribal Warriors have been mostly 'Raw', but in large units of 12+, with the occasional experienced unit as 'Trained' with a leader.  We've also been playing with all Ethiopians/Eritreans having an integral +1 combat modifier to represent their affinity with hand-to-hand combat.

When playing Great War rules, we experimented with a rule to represent poor ammunition supply - haven't tried anything like that out in T&T yet, but it would be quite appropriate.

[Roustam]

Thanks to James and Durutti for your replies regarding my inquiry.

I plan on having my levy units 12-16 figures.  I should keep my Askaris at 10 figures maximum correct?

James, love the +1 combat modifier for the Ethiopians and Askari.

Some experimentation with limited ammunition supply for the levies would be interesting.

Thanks again,
Russ

[James Morris]

Thanks to James and Durutti for your replies regarding my inquiry.

I plan on having my levy units 12-16 figures.  I should keep my Askaris at 10 figures maximum correct?

James, love the +1 combat modifier for the Ethiopians and Askari.

Some experimentation with limited ammunition supply for the levies would be interesting.

Thanks again,
Russ

Sounds about right - there's no right or wrong answers but 10 models works well for Askaris and Italians.  We allow about 1 LMG per 2 Askari/Italian units (not that you can buy Askari LMGs yet, but I have converted one...)

+1 combat modifier seems to be the way to go for Ethiopians/Askari.  It makes the Ethiopians quite dangerous in HTH - especially if they have swords/ shields as well.  The Italians can help balance it out through using bayonets.

We have also played several games using Blackshirts rated as 'Raw' - this makes for an interesting game where you have well-equipped but poorly-trained Italians.  Have also used Ethiopian nobles rated as 'Veteran', in small units of 6-8, with one or two LMGs in the unit, representing the chief's best warriors.

I will have to write some of this down in more detail!

The ammo supply rule we used for Great War was loosely based on a mechanic in the ACW rules 'Fire and Fury'.  If the unit rolls two or more 6s for shooting (d6s being used for shooting in Great War), it becomes low on ammo and has -1 to hit for the rest of the game.  This might be fiddly in T&T but I'm sure something similar could be done.

[commissarmoody]

yes please do write us more exsamples