As Ray Rivers said.......

[Drunkendwarf]

"Everyone should have a Belgian force to go tramping through the bush!"

Here is mine!:


Painted them 5 or 6 years ago along with some tribal spearmen, musketmen and bearers. My camera is out of batteries so no more pictures today. Still have some 150 Darkest Africa figures unpainted, should start painting them for the upcoming T&T supplement.

DJ

[Plynkes]

Excellent! We've got them Belgians coming out of our ears now!


I think in future perhaps we should get together and discuss who's getting what before we buy anything. It's like a bunch of women turning up at a party all wearing the same dress. How embarrassing. 

[mortimer]

Another great Force Publique!!!

We're Legion 

[Ray Rivers]

It's like a bunch of women turning up at a party all wearing the same dress. How embarrassing. 

 

Indeed, another great force!  And all of your flags look better than mine! 

Still, I bet there are some more lurking about... 

[Drunkendwarf]

I don't understand that with such a combined force the whole of Africa isn't Belgian today

The flag is just a computerprint from warflag;
http://www.warflag.com/flags/colonial/belgium.shtml

DJ

[Doc Twilight]

I don't understand that with such a combined force the whole of Africa isn't Belgian today

The flag is just a computerprint from warflag;
http://www.warflag.com/flags/colonial/belgium.shtml

DJ

A historian of Colonial Africa put it thusly in one of my courses.

"What can one say about Belgian rule in Africa, when some of their best efforts make the Portuguese government in Africa look positively benevolent by comparison?"

Or another, from Lettow. When asked years later why he had been successful in East Africa against the British, French, Belgians, and Portuguese.

"Because I treated my soldiers like men."


-Doc

[former user]

hmmm.... yup
after reading that the German employed a lot of defected native troopers, with even defected british askaris who continued using british drill and commands I ask myself sometimes how often defection occured, which colonial forces defected most often and to whom.

I guess there won't be any statistics on that, apart from reports about native unreliability.
I read that vLV was pretty much pleased with his native forces

Anyone any idea?

[Plynkes]

former user, in 1910 in a cost-cutting exercise, the British Colonial Office disbanded the 2nd and 6th KAR (settler fears of having too large an armed native force also influenced the decision). This left a lot of well-trained askari out of a job. I am fairly sure many of them were recruited en masse into the Schutztruppe, and these were the ones who used English drill and commands (the Germans famously had a tradition of recruiting their askari from all over the place, not just within their own colonies). This happened before the war, and so it was not a case of "defections." I can't find the reference right now, but I am fairly sure this is the case.

Two battalions of a new 6th KAR were raised during the war from captured Schutztruppe askari, they did not defect as such. They were, perhaps wisely, mostly given garrison duties. One did see some action, though.

[former user]

ah thx - something like that I recall too

but apart from that, there were no defections?

[Plynkes]

I couldn't say that for sure. People in armies desert and hand themselves into the enemy quite often. Mass defections, though? I can't remember reading of it, but I don't know the subject well enough to tell you definitely yes or no.

[former user]

I am just curious as relating to vLV's quote
he seems to have treated his Askaris well and they appear to have been motivated also

Since I have in mind the british reluctance and distrust for armed natives I was asking myself who had the most diplomatic attitude of all colonialist countries
(and by this I do not intend to justify colonialism as such)

might make an interesting Askari morale rule to mix up colonial scenarios 

[Mors]

Just attempting to post some pics. Would this image be considered too large?

[former user]

yay! more!

I'm fine with the image

[Mors]

yay! more!

  Its taken me an hour and at least 6 attempts to post this one! I had a flickr account but it seemed easier from photobucket so I have opened an account there. I dont want to hijack Drunkendwarfs thread so I think I will open a separate thread for my Darkest Africa stuff. I have another 50 or so about to be finished.....famous last words!

Mors

PS former user there are a few more pics on my blog

[Plynkes]

Pic size is fine. There is no rule on this but general concensus seems to be keep it to 800 pixels wide (which is the usual max size adopted when we have painting competitions), which you have done. Most modern monitors can cope with that without you having to mess about with a scroll bar.

For those with older monitors, well sorry about the scrolling. Hope it isn't too aggravating.