Gold Coast (Ashanti War) coastal forts

[Smokeyrone]

Done a lot of reading on the Ashanti Wars, never heard mention of what the coastal forts the Brits, Dutch and others used were made of?

Anyone have any idea?  Stone, mud, timber?  Any idea about pics for reference?

That said, I  also don't know what traditional Ashanti huts lookedlike either

My references have a distinct lack of  drawings or pics:(

Thanks, guys

[odd duck]

I have only one book on the war and it has'nt got too many pic.s of them, they were made of stone and usually whitewashed ,a quick google image search led me to this site http://www.colonialvoyage.com/ghana.html and if you do a google image search for cape coast castle you'll get all the pic.s  you need apparently they are or soon will be world heritage sites and are well maintained.

[carlos marighela]

The Dutch ones were stone, they mostly stole their African possessions from Portugal in the 17thC.

If you are looking for very early 16th C type forts, then possibly taipa, earth and wooden palisades. Certainly that's how they built the first ones in Brazil around the same time. These were later replaced with stone structures.

http://www.colonialvoyage.com/ghana.html

This site has some wonderful photos and plans of Fort james and Fort Bullen in the Gambia, might be of use if you are planning to build yourself a smallish fort.

http://www.fortified-places.com/jamesisland/

This should give you a reasonably good catalogue of the forts.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/tourism/castles_overview.php

[Smokeyrone]

Gre4at stuff, guys, thanks.

now for figures.  I only know of Irregular in 15mm, and none in 28mm

[carlos marighela]

Do you mean The Second Ashanti War circa 1873/74? If so Castaway Arts in Queensland do a fairly extensive range of both Brits and Ashanti. Very nice figures, on the smaller side of 28mm, mix well with Foundry and Gerry Webb is a really good guy to do business with.

http://www.castawayarts.com.au/

Even if you are looking at an earlier period, I suspect pretty much all of the Ashanti would be useable, as Dane guns were being sold to West African peoples as early as the mid 17th C.

[Smokeyrone]

You the man, Carlos!  Thanks 

[Galloping Major]

This site has some wonderful photos and plans of Fort james and Fort Bullen in the Gambia, might be of use if you are planning to build yourself a smallish fort.

http://www.fortified-places.com/jamesisland/

This should give you a reasonably good catalogue of the forts.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/tourism/castles_overview.php

We visited Fort James when on holiday in Gambia 14 years ago, seriously atmospheric place - especially when a tropical storm brewed up as we were waiting our turn to be ferried back to the tour boat in a little open boat. 


www.gallopingmajorwargames.com