Olicanalad's Sudan Project: Beja force finished - in 6 weeks (06:12:24)

[syrinx0]

A really great looking force.  Running out of space or contemplating downsizing is a consideration for me as well when considering future projects.

[armchairgeneral]

Superb looking force produced in quick order - well done  Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

As for future space saving periods, FIW would sit well with your SYW stuff but despite some of the larger battles it is still, for me, more of a skirmish period?

You mentioned cowboys but using that big table you have what about the Plains War?

Do you still have all that WW2 15mm Western Desert stuff?

[olicana]

I do still have quite a lot of WW2 Desert stuff. Last year I downsized it because 33 tank brigades were to slow to play. That was using a figure scale of 1:5ish. I've now gone 1:10 but can pretty much field 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions together now, all of 7th Armoured Division for the Brits plus a couple of infantry brigades with their support. I have no Italians.

FIW has always appealed to me. I also love GMT's Wilderness War which would be great for providing a campaign backdrop. As a campaign, you wouldn't need a lot of units, that's for sure.

Recently, I've enjoyed playing Nimitz (Sam Mustafa's WW2 naval rules) a few times so that will probably be my next diversion. I inherited the rules and a bunch of 1:6000 ships from Peter J's collection (mostly Pacific) - at least enough to make a start and they are soooo cheap to add to. Nimitz is one of those great one evening filler games - quick to set up, easy rules to learn, quick to play out a battle running up to a dozen ships a player. Very good fun. Also 1:6000 ships take up so little storage space!

[painterman]

Very impressive work on your Beja force.
I've been toying with Sudan for ages and this has tipped me into dipping my toe - attempting a way to fast-paint Beja to get momentum.
It seems to be working and whilst it'll be modest by your standards, I'm on my way...
Please keep posting your progress.

[Atheling]

Cracking work James. Those Beja certainly suit your painting style very well 

[Diablo Jon]

They look really great.👍

 The only thing that annoys me about the Beja is they only really looked like that very early in the Mahdist war and they didn't really fight anybody else. Early Beja are easily the best looking of the Mahdists but in reality apart from the Suakin Expedition they don't really have many uses. If I could find more uses for them I might have cracked and painted some up myself.

[has.been]

The only thing that annoys me about the Beja is they only really looked like that very early in the Mahdist war and they didn't really fight anybody else. Early Beja are easily the best looking of the Mahdists but in reality apart from the Suakin Expedition they don't really have many uses. If I could find more uses for them I might have cracked and painted some up myself.

When I started Wargaming, yes it was in the previous century  , I liked the Victorian Home Service uniform. Bright Red coat, spiked helmet etc, but, I thought,
not used in any nice wars.  Now we have 'What if' wars. (yes I know they had those even before I was born).
So...if you like something, then go for it. Quite easy to make up a 'campaign'.

[FifteensAway]

All I can add is - what took you SO long?!  (see earlier comment). 

Nice.

[bc99]

I’m actually thoroughly impressed and confused. It looks so good and in such short order. Wow. And I’ll admit, when I saw the pile of boxes you had yet to start, I thought, this is going to take quite a while to get finished. Wrong about that!

[olicana]

They look really great.👍

 The only thing that annoys me about the Beja is they only really looked like that very early in the Mahdist war and they didn't really fight anybody else. Early Beja are easily the best looking of the Mahdists but in reality apart from the Suakin Expedition they don't really have many uses. If I could find more uses for them I might have cracked and painted some up myself.

Funnily enough, I watched a recording of Storm Over the Nile today (it was on earlier this week) and in that film the Beja, still looking like fuzzy wuzzy, are fighting versus Kitchener in 1898. Of course this is a complete fiction (they had shaved their heads, etc.) but, they don’t look wrong because we all expect to see fuzzy wuzzy fighting against the British in the Sudan. Frankly, because it looks so good (even though it’s wrong) in that film, I’m happy to play along - in my Imagi-Sudan the beja will always be fuzzy wuzzy and fight everywhere at any date. That said, most of my British will be in grey not khaki so they will fit for a lot of the truly historic stuff I can do as well. In short, I’m perfectly happy to bend the rules on this one.