Loyal North Lancashire Masai

[Centaur_Seducer]

Great stuff as usual, Plynkes
And I agree with Op5, all or nothing...

[Axebreaker]

Really,really lovely work!

Christopher

[Aaron]

Well I'm very impressed with your conversion skill. I wouldn't have known the bandoliers were greenstuff if you hadn't confessed. I've been pushing around a bit of putty myself lately and I forgot how difficult it can be!

[tim in saskatoon]

Stunning stuff, Plynkes! Well done!

(about to show my ignorance here...)

Um... what is T&T...? I always thought it was Tunnels and Trolls... but that can't be right!? Can it?!

[Smokeyrone]

Plynkes rocks the house again!  Great!

[Plynkes]

Tim, it stands for Triumph and Tragedy, which is a skirmish rule system written by a couple of Lead Adventure Forum members.

Triumph and Tragedy Website

Lead Adventure Triumph and Tragedy Discussion Board

[yancey5]

I know I'm late chiming in on this one, but I thought I was up to speed on East Africa, didn't realilze the Masai were armed with rifles, thanks for opneing my eyes!!!

[traveller]

Wow! 

But I do feel sorry for that askari. Those spears are scary...

[Mindenbrush]

Simple conversions = excellent work 

[Plynkes]

I know I'm late chiming in on this one, but I thought I was up to speed on East Africa, didn't realilze the Masai were armed with rifles, thanks for opneing my eyes!!!

I don't think Masai tribesmen were rifle-armed generally. Karen Blixen writes of being asked by Masai to shoot a troublesome lion for them (which also rather diminishes their fearsome reputation as lion hunters a little).

I suspect the rifles were issued to the scouts by the army when they were raised and trained (they received about a month's training in October/November 1915 and were posted on the battalion strength, so it seems to have been a formal arrangement rather than something more casual).

[former user]

may be wrong, but I read Masai were the most reluctant (of african peoples) to adopt firearms.
it is also remarkable that only the elder would use bows

so I second @Plynkes about the rifles

[Silent Invader]

Lovely work Plynkes.  I really enjoy your posts.   

[Plynkes]

may be wrong, but I read Masai were the most reluctant (of african peoples) to adopt firearms.

Indeed. They were prejudiced against ranged weapons for one thing, believing them to be unworthy of a true moran. They were forbidden to use bows for instance. True warriors get in close and fight face to face, they do not kill from a safe distance. I don't think they were all that impressed by firearms anyway, at least to begin with. They had easily come up with tactics to defeat enemies armed with muzzle-loading muskets, so their contempt of guns was reinforced by this (naturally, modern firearms came as something of a nasty shock when they encountered them). Attitudes had perhaps shifted a little by the time of the Great War, with awareness of the capabilities of modern weapons.


Even had they wanted them, I'm not sure what the legal situation was with regards to selling guns to "wild" natives like the Masai, who weren't really assimilated into the life of the colony (and the settlers and authorities in B.E.A. were notoriously paranoid about armed natives, even to the extent of disbanding three battalions of the KAR partly over concerns they might mutiny).


In 1914 those of the KAR who didn't already have them were issued with magazine rifles, so there would have been no shortage of surplus Martini-Metfords and Martini-Enfields for the scouts to have (which, though I'm not 100%, appears to be what the fellows in the picture have got).

[abhorsen950]

Very nice work.