Australian Colonial gaming - the early 1800s

[Christian]

After a short stay at Tasmania, I have been inspired by an interest in the Colonial history of Australia to do some wargaming! Some of the action I was hoping to re-create would be convict uprisings, encounters with Aborigines, maybe even dabbling with bush rangers.

I've been putting together some resources, and came across this site with some useful books and info:

http://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/default.asp?iSubCatID=1745&iNavCatID=1743

This book seems a good resource: http://www.amazon.com/insignia-British-Australia-Zealand-1770-1870/dp/0908120435/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320643468&sr=1-1 (I saw a reference to it at a museum gift-shop I visited)

So far the best fit for this era seems to be Perry's Royal Marines from the Carlist War range (bell-top shakos etc.), but it also looks like a wide array of regiments were sent Down Under. The new offerings from Eureka's French civlian types look like a good start for some Colonial civilians, too.

If anyone else has any guides to uniforms and such for the time, I'd greatly appreciate it!

[Cadet13]

Sounds like a neat project! What years are you looking to replicate?

EDIT: Also check out the Empress New Zealand Wars line, they have British infantry in forage caps and some armed civilian types, 1840s-ish.

[Sheerluck Holmes]

You mentioned the only book I have that I could have suggested, but the AWM has a page listing the briefest of information, but it does have a 'suggested reading' section down the bottom of this page that might help: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/colonial.asp

[carlos marighela]

For uniforms try Stanley's 'The Remote Garrison' it's largely a collection of uniform plates for the British army stationed in Australia. Copies  appear with remarkable frequency in second hand bookstores usually around the $20-25  mark. You are going to need to bend history a lot to get much from the period. Even the two largest convict revolts were really no-contest affairs. Warfare directed at indigenous peoples was overwhelmingly a private enterprise affair and quite frankly given its nature I can't find any enthusiasm for it.

Have you considered a French landing during the Napoleonic Wars? Equally fantastical but  the French did show alittle interest. Baudin was navigating the Australian coast at the same time as Matthew Flinders.

[starkadder]

There are several histories of Australian bushranging (stay away from anything written by Frank Clune, a mendacious old drunkard)

I have a bundle of stuff, Christian, so give me a yell (inc. several Australian colonial uniform collections). You can have them on extended loan 

Carlos is right about our pretty ordinary colonial history and the nastiness of the attempts at indigenous exterminations (although there are some interesting exceptions). The possible exception is the Queensland Mounted Police who had a significant indigenous trooper contingent (until they took their horses away). I have a pretty good history of that as well.

Flinders and Baudin got on pretty well. I wouldn't like to see them at each other's throats. However the "what-if" elephant is, of course, the Russians invasion threat. Remember that the major defences of Sydney (Fort Denison etc)and Melbourne were designed to stop the perfidious Russians. Now that would be a hoot. 

[The Breaker]

You could do the Eureka Stockade. Or a fantasy New South Wales vs Victoria. I realise that these events are probably later than you want to game.

[Furt]

I reckon the bush rangers would be very interesting.

LotOW probably has all the necessary rules for the era too and Foundry Old West figures could easily be converted into some Aussie bucket wearing outlaws.

I can see a Cobb & Co. robbery scenario formulating. Your money or your life!  

[Poiter50]

We played the Stagecoach scenario a few weeks ago with 2 outlaw gangs competing for the capture of the coach and a group of Traps in the town the coach was headed for. We also made the townsfolk attack the Traps but they never managed to raise enough Pluck. 'Twas a fun game with the Traps winning but they would have had to find new horses as the Outlaws had caused the coach to halt.

My figures are mostly Foundry OW but there are some Dixon or redoubt mixed in.

I reckon the bush rangers would be very interesting.

LotOW probably has all the necessary rules for the era too and Foundry Old West figures could easily be converted into some Aussie bucket wearing outlaws.

I can see a Cobb & Co. robbery scenery formulating. Your money or your life! 

[carlos marighela]

But where to find a miniature that looks remotely like the late Gus Mercurio?

Starkadder is right Baudin and Flinders were on good terms and really the bigger scare took place in the latter part of the century vis a vis the Russians. Melbourne was at one stage, the most heavily defended locale in the British Empire but that's outside your period of interest.
 Marginally earlier you have the unwanted presence of one Confederate raider that visited Melbourne and overstayed its welcome.

Eureka Stockade could possibly make for the world's shortest game. Roll to see if the stockade actually makes the army break its stride as they roll over the tax evaders. Best played as a sort of RPG where you assume the role of Peter Lalor and try to parse 5 minutes of dubious glory into a career as a ultra conservative politician and yet somehow convince future generations that you are some kind of working class hero, despite what the historical record says. Bonus score if you can get the more credulous in the labour movement to ignore your appalling record as an employer and lawmaker.

[Christian]

Didn't Raffaello Carboni think he was the ants pants?

[Etranger]

....Have you considered a French landing during the Napoleonic Wars? Equally fantastical but  the French did show alittle interest. Baudin was navigating the Australian coast at the same time as Matthew Flinders.

They did meet, at Encounter Bay, but fortunately decided to observe a truce.

[Henry Lauder]

Hey cobber (sorry, couldn't resist!),

If you are interested in skirmish style battles (and lets face it that's all you'll get in Australia) why not look at the Second Battle or Vinegar Hill otherwise known as the Castle Hill convict rebellion:

http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/castle_hill_convict_rebellion_1804

Have always wanted to do a 'Russians are Coming' scenario. Hmmm

Now you've got me interested!

Cheers

[starkadder]

It's a pretty limited palette, Henry  

Chrstian may like James Matra or, Dawkins forbid, Pearce the Cannibal.

It can't be gamed except as low tragi-comedy but my favourite is Australia's only known Chinese bushranger. In the casual racism of the time, he is described as a "cranky old Chinaman" and his name was Sam Poo. He couldn't make a go of it on the goldfields in Young, NSW (from memory). He disappeared one day from his camp and about a week later jumped out from behind a tree to "alarm and affront" a woman and her daughter. Then he ran away. A trooper called Frederick Ward was sent to hunt him down and found him pretty quickly. He bailed Sam up, Sam yelled "You're a policeman and I will shoot you". And did. Ward died several days later. Sam was caught and hanged in Darlinghurst Gaol about nine months later.

It's a sad little story but three features intrigue. The famous bushranger Captain Thunderbolt's name was Frederick Ward and operated in the same area. Secondly when I first read this story the author Bill Wannan had Sam say " You policerman you. Me shootee you." I actually dug out the court report on the trial and found he could speak English reasonably well and not in that stupid Pidgin crap. And lastly, Sam created a legal precedent in Australian history as Ward's deathbed testimony was the first such statement to be admitted into evidence post-mortem. English lawyers were aghast.

Strange what fascinates me...

[Furt]

If you are interested in skirmish style battles (and lets face it that's all you'll get in Australia) why not look at the Second Battle or Vinegar Hill otherwise known as the Castle Hill convict rebellion:

I actually live about two-minutes from Constitution Hill where the convicts made their "stand".

[Christian]

Well, that might be worth a trip over there. From the little snippets of reading I've done the location was disputed?

Well, I guess the idea of an inspiring, sweeping campaign of pitched battles and heroic actions was never going to work. I guess my next option is to do something a little bit different!

I thought it would be great to set up a tableaux of small actions, played on a larger table with multiple players (rather than the usual one-on-one). So, I imagine a waterfront fort a la Port Arthur with a combination of factual and fictional encounters, mixed with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour:

The poorly guarded fort being assailed by a group of rebellious convicts...
A shipment of beer being transported by horse and cart assailed by convicts, bush rangers, maybe even some thirsty soldiers...
Free land owners fending off undesirable types their livestock and (entirely willing) daughters...
The impending arrival of Russian forces...?
Kangaroo stampede...?

I'll keep reading, though. You've all given me a lot to go on. And I guess I would prefer to do something a little more sensible