Bornu?

[Fjodin]

I've just found that Irregulars have made 15mm Bornu (http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/)
FZ131 Bornu African armoured horseman 29/4/2010 B
FZ132 Bornu African light cavalryman 29/4/2010 B
FZ133 Bornu African Musketman in long robe 29/4/2010 A
FZ134 Bornu African bowman 29/4/2010 A
FZ135 Bornu African spearman with large shield 29/4/2010 A

So can someone help me in finding information about them. Who are they?

[earthdog]

Here you go:

The Bornu Empire (1396-1893) was a medieval African state of Nigeria from 1396 to 1893. It was a continuation of the great Kanem Empire founded centuries earlier by the Sayfawa Dynasty. In time it would become even larger than Kanem, incorporating areas that are today parts of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Or at least, that's what wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bornu_Empire
(But don't worry it's also in the brittanica, so it's true )

[Plynkes]

You could also use them as the army of Bornu's enemy and neighbours, the Sokoto Caliphate, I guess. They made a brave but ultimately unsuccessful stand against the British in 1903. You would need a British force made up of Nigerian askari with artillery and machine guns if you wanted to try that.

This book will tell you all you need to know about the armies of the savannah emirates:


The Foundry book "Small Wars and Skirmishes" has a chapter on the 1903 war, too.

[Fjodin]

They fought withspears, bows and muskets againt magazine rifles, QF guns and MGs?
Is there are any pics of these battles?

[Fjodin]

Pics I found

[Plynkes]

They fought withspears, bows and muskets againt magazine rifles, QF guns and MGs?

The West Africa Frontier Force received Lee-Enfields over a period from 1903 to 1906, so at the time of the 1903 war it would seem reasonable that most of them would still have their old single-shot rifles (mostly Martini-Metfords, but some with aging Sniders). They made up for this with their machine-guns, though, which really made the war a one-sided affair. The only time they were let down by their Maxims was when it was discovered that the gun-carriers had drunk all the water that was supposed to be used for keeping the guns cool. 


Despite the wonderfully colourful African troops involved, this is really one of those colonial affairs which mostly consists of natives being mowed down by volley fire and machine-guns. Not sure there is much fun to be had gaming it. Wars between the knights of Sokoto and Bornu would probably make for better games. Though the British assault and desperate native defence of the walled town of Burmi might be worth doing, also there were incidents when small scouting parties ran into enemy cavalry forces in overwhelming strength and had to engage in difficult fighting-withdrawals, or desperate "last stand" battles where a very small recce force forms square and fights off repeated attacks. That could be gameable too. The big battles, not so much, unless merciless slaughter is your cup of tea.

Unfortunately I haven't found any pictures from this war. I have some line drawings of types on both sides in the Foundry book, and there are plenty of photos in the "African Knights" book, but no actual battle scenes or anything like that.

[Plynkes]

I see they do them in 25mm, too. Damn you, Fjodin, you're dragging me into buying more figures (shakes fist!)... 





Irregular might not be the best figures in the world, but they look okay and I'm really getting a hankering to paint up a unit or so of these fellows now. Pity there is only one of each type, and no variants. I have got a couple of Perry Mahdists in chainmail and quilted horse armour that would do for command figures, though...

[oxiana]

This could look great on the tabletop! For more good visual sources, put 'Kano Durbar' into Google, for pics of the annual festival at the end of Eid. A brilliant spectacle.



Hausa architecture is also pretty impressive, and should be easy to build. Defending the city walls, and all that. Again, Google images is your friend!

[Plynkes]

Turns out I had a couple of pics from the 1903 Sokoto campaign after all:

[Fjodin]

Irregular might not be the best figures in the world, but they look okay and I'm really getting a hankering to paint up a unit or so of these fellows now.

I know about that. But some of Irregulars are VERY good. For example their 15mm russians from russo japanese war and 1870-1819 range are VERY good (nice sculped, good proportions and details, true 15mm).
Also I love their british bluejacket figure. Its very detailed and full of charter. I use this mini as personality(my bluejackets are from minifigs, because all by brits are minifigs), also this fig reminds me Porthos from 3 Musketeers. Also their 15mm colonial civilians are very good (I am collecting civilians from Irreguarls, Freikorps, Minifigs, Bluemoon, 15mmm.co.uk)

2 oxiana
Thanx for photo!

[Fjodin]

The only time they were let down by their Maxims was when it was discovered that the gun-carriers had drunk all the water that was supposed to be used for keeping the guns cool.

Thats funny

[Fjodin]

Also I found at the bottom of this page http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/15mmRanges/15mmColonials.htm the following countries wich uses the same minis as Bornu.

BAGIRMI SULTANATE
SOKOTO SULTANATE

What colour use for paintin them?

[Plynkes]

The quilted armour of the heavy cavalry was generally very colourful...


Looks like a hoot to paint. Go for it!

Here's another, different look...

This one is actually from a Mahdist cavalryman, taken at Omdurman, but it comes from the same tradition of Sudanic African cavalry, so no harm in using it as colour inspiration.

For the lighter types, you could do worse than take your inspiration from the pictures that come up if you do the Google search mentioned by Oxiana.

[Hammers]

The quilted armour of the heavy cavalry was generally very colourful...

I think they had one in the Central African Museeum outside Brussels. It looks like a giant oven mitten. How could the horses bear them in the African heat?

[Plynkes]

Some more colour schemes...







That's it. I'm doin' it. Can't resist any longer.


In answer to Hammer's question I confess I have no idea. I'm not a scientist. No doubt someone who is a scientist will be along in a minute with the expert yet counter-intuitive explanation that it is actually somehow cooling, and will provide an equation that proves it. Usually people say that kind of thing about this kind of thing.