Colonial Wargaming on a budget

[Plynkes]

Indian troops served in the Suakin campagn on the Red Sea coast (against the Beja - you know, the Fuzzy-Wuzzies), so no problems there.

[warrenpeace]

Since you don't want to go for the cheap figures such as 15mm metal or 1:72 scale plastic, then I would suggest starting with very small scale adventure gaming of the Gloire/.45 Adventure or Savage Worlds type.  You would need only a handfull of those more expensive and higher quality 28mm figures to start, and you wouldn't have to acquire huge amounts of buildings or terrain to begin with.  You could get a few figures painted and a few buildings or rock formations or sand dunes done and start playing on something like a one meter by one meter surface.  At the same time you could sample a number of periods and places, including Indian Mutiny, NW Frontier, the Sudan, and South Africa.  You could even start with a historical hero such as Flashman at the retreat from Kabul and stage little encounters with him throughout the Victorian period, all the way up to about 1900, going through the different uniform changes and settings.

Small scenarios can be a micro depiction of the type of colonial action that you are dreaming of doing.  Think of the attack by the Somalis on Burton and Speake in the movie "Mountains of the Moon."  Think of an attack on a small exploring party or safari or a group of colonial settlers.  Think of Flashman being surrounded by a group of angry Afgans whose sister Flashman has insulted.

Then, as you added more figures and buildings and terrain, you could graduate the size of some of these encounters to two meter by three meter table sizes and groups of ten figures, maybe using The Sword and the Flame or Triumph and Tragedy.  Eventually, over the years, you could build up the size of some of these encounters to use 20 figure units and hundreds of figures.  But all along the way you could be gaming after starting small with only a few figures on each side.

The big question I think is whether or not to start with the more colorful periods or start with the more dull colored uniforms of later times.  If you did the Indian Mutiny, you could also do the Afgan campaign of the 1840's, the Sikh war of the mid-1840's, some adventure like that of "Flashman at the Charge" starting in the Crimean war, the conquest of New Zealand, and the expedition to Peking in 1860 (Flashman and the Dragon).  You could then expand into Maximilian in Mexico (ok, not British in that one, other than Flashman himself), the first Boer War, the Zulu War, the British attack on Egypt, and the early 1880's war in the Sudan.  After that there is just a lot of khaki, unless you want to switch to some other colonial power such as the French.

The main point is that you could spread out over years the acquistion of figures and terrain.  One of the really big expenses in terms of time and storage space, and sometimes money too, is the terrain.  Much of the terrain for the arid regions can be reused elsewhere.  We've used the same rock formations and sand colored terrain mats and white-washed buildings to represent Mexico, the American Southwest, Indian Mutiny scenes, the Sudan, Zululand (without the buildings, of course), North Africa, Syria, parts of East Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.  We could use them for NW Frontier if we had any figures for that conflict.

[Furt]

One of the really big expenses in terms of time and storage space, and sometimes money too, is the terrain.

With some help from this forum and especially Malamute, I think I am on top of the adobe style buildings and realized early on their versatility to represent different regions - but am still reluctant to post pics yet - until I can set them up for proper display. In a similar aspect to the miniatures, a tiled floor here or a domed roof there can totally change the building's appearance and usefulness for different periods.

[6mmfan]

You may have noticed this on the TMP page about plastic 28mm british which are cheap and they come in 20 man units (perfect for TSATF).

http://www.wargamesfactory.com/Home.htm

At some point they will be releasing Zulus which you can use for Ngoni for DA. Also because they are plastic you might be able to convert them to other tribes without too much work.

There is also a free 7 man variant of TSATF which means you can have lots of smaller units rather than a few larger ones.

I'd definitely keep an eye on ebay as you can pick second hand figures cheap (even Foundry) and I've built almost all my colonials that way (600+ figures).

Cheers
Kieran

[Howard Whitehouse]

Indeed, the Wargames Factory Zulu War British (as well as the Romans) are in the post right now.

I've painted up some of the British (they are on the WF site) and I liked them. So far I've seen what are termed '3 D prints' of the Zulu bodies (sort of resin models, a bit like seeing the greens of metal figures) and they had a lot of the character of Copplestone's Darkest Africa to the anatomy.

Here's my efforts: http://wargamesfactory.com/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=16401

Here are some better painted ones: http://wargamesfactory.com/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=16461

[Gluteus Maximus]

Indeed, the Wargames Factory Zulu War British (as well as the Romans) are in the post right now.

I've painted up some of the British (they are on the WF site) and I liked them. So far I've seen what are termed '3 D prints' of the Zulu bodies (sort of resin models, a bit like seeing the greens of metal figures) and they had a lot of the character of Copplestone's Darkest Africa to the anatomy.

Here's my efforts: http://wargamesfactory.com/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=16401

Here are some better painted ones: http://wargamesfactory.com/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=16461

They both look pretty good to me 

[Lt. Hazel]

The plastic brits look good, but they are no match for the metals from Empress I think. Btw. Howard your paintjobs are nice 

[Howard Whitehouse]

The Empress ones are very nice indeed. These are our first efforts, and some of the detail on the belts and piping is a bit 'soft' - that's something we are working on sharpening up.

It's a much different process to working in metals, and there's an element of 'we've seen the prints, now lets hold our breath and see what comes back from the factory' about it. Plastic has a lot of different qualities to metal, and it's all new stuff to us!

Our object is not to just have 'good value for the money' figures, but 'really good figures at an amazing price'. Obviously that entails improving our efforts each time we go forward.

The virtual renders of our next project look very good indeed, with sharply incised belts and pouches. Can't say what it is yet, sorry --

Thanks for the kind words about my painting 

[Landsknecht]

I guess it seems the Indian Mutiny is just a little too early - but it has so many cool scenario opportunities!

Are Foundry the only manufacturers of British especially for this period?

We wargamed Opium Wars which used Indian Mutiny era British.  At skirmish gaming it can be alot of fun to make house rules regarding certain Chinese characters having Kung Fu skills.

[Argonor]

You are aware that Wargames Factory is just now releasing plastic zulu war brits?

[Furt]

After having pretty much committed to buy the Perry Sudan British, I saw a box of the plastic Wargames Factory British in my local Tin Soldier. For $23 AU I rightly snapped them up and thus instantly ended my dreams of fielding Perry Sudan British. 

I may purchase some highlanders from them in the future (or go with Castaway Arts instead) but for now the Aussie dollar is suffering too much!
Now I have some 20 lucky Brits to form my stalwart thin red line! What I would like to know is the best way to paint these particular figures to represent the most neutral British redcoat I can. For example the box shows cream helmet, blue trousers and green facings - is there another combination that would be better suited? How about black trousers and red facings?

As a side note what would be the best "neutral" looking officer to lead my men?

Perry's
http://www.perry-miniatures.com

Castaway Arts (have a look at the Highlanders while u are there too)
http://www.castawayarts.com.au/catalog/catalog_main.php?cmd=groupload&group=23

Foundry
http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/DA/22/index.asp

[Gluteus Maximus]

I think you'd have to keep the navy blue trousers, as they were universal to non-kilt wearers. Probably the best facing colour to use for pre-Cardwell Reform units would be blue, as this was a very common colour for Guards, "Royal" Regiments etc.

After Cardwell, I'd go for white, as this was the English regiments' new facing colour  [unless you specifically wanted one from one of the other "home Nations"].

[fastolfrus]

I guess it seems the Indian Mutiny is just a little too early - but it has so many cool scenario opportunities!

Are Foundry the only manufacturers of British especially for this period?

Yes they are although I seem to remember a post somewhere that mentioned possibly Musketeer Minaitures doing a  range. I believe they are working on the NorthWest frontier period at some stage.

Actually there is a very small range from Dixon too :

http://dixonminiatures.co.uk/

admittedly not many figures, but cheaper than Foundry, and handy enough if you only want the one small unit. Not as nice as Foundry but we have some mixed in amongst our Foundry figures and they look ok.

Dixon also have a small Dahomey range (not British but some handy figures for Darkest Africa), and Ottoman Turks (might fit in with your Barbary Corsairs).

On the thought of Corsairs, HaT are planning on hard plastic 28mm Moors for an El Cid range, some of which would be perfect for Corsairs (and being plastic should be cheaper).

Minifigs used to have a few colonial pieces - slightly small (only 25mm) by modern standards, but we have a few of their natives mixed in amongst our Indian Mutineers.

For Indian Mutiny (and many other colonial games) you can get away with a variety of figures in turbans and scruffy clothing, including ancients and fantasy figures, which might make it easier to pick up bargain pieces (eg from ebay). For Sudan you can supplement natives with a variety of ancients figures, just avoid archers, but any arab-style types are ideal, some of the Ottoman irregulars are ok too.

[warrenpeace]

Of course, one antidote to the concern about colonial historical accuracy is to simply make up (or discover) new lands to colonize.  Morvalistan and Morvalonesia are prime examples:

http://www.morvalearth.co.uk/index1.htm

Another prime example is Afriboria:

http://www.rudi-geudens.be/html/afriboria.htm

There's another three imaginary alternative history campaigns at the "Colonial Wargames" UK website:

http://www.colonialwargaming.co.uk/

One could also generate a large number of alternative histories with a game like Avalon Hill's "Pax Britannica."