The Abyssinian Crisis project blog (update 21JUN17) - **It. Askari platoon **

[Happy Wanderer]

Hi FramFranson,

You are quite correct!! He slipped my mind  

Here's the thread...(post corrected!)

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=75092.0

and here's my 'version' of him.

 

[axabrax]

Yes!  He's quite a short fellow for an Emperor, isn't he?

I think one of the hold-ups on the rest of the figures in this "pack" are questions about what else belongs in it. Maybe we could drum up another interesting 3 figures or so? It seem like there were quite a lot of colorful personalities with potential. In my opinion they should be choices that can conceivably be used on the gaming table and where there is a photo reference available or a concept can be logically deduced. A short list off the top of my head mostly inspired by the Osprey:

- Ethiopian Pilot (actual Ethiopian as there are plenty of European pilots already available.)
- Mehet Wehib Pasha (Turkish military advisor)
- Eritrean Battalion Corporal w/reverse curved sword (see the Osprey)
- Ras with rifle and shield
- Alpini commander in Alpini hat
- Badoglio? Or in better taste given Baddy's taste for mustard perhaps just an Italian Generalissimo type 

Your figure listing is quite nice, but you've neglected one small (but significant) miniature: The Emperor himself. Thanks to Tin Shed Gamer, Haile Selassie is available from 1st Corps, though he is not listed on the website (because other figures in what will eventually be a pack have not yet been created), but you can get one by contacting 1st Corps directly.

[Happy Wanderer]

I suggested a kind of 'Abyssinian War' theme pack in the Haile Selassie thread. I think your idea that it should be 'usable' is a good one.

I was thinking 
- a Ras, maybe like Ras Kassa that Fram did (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=82491.0)
- foreign advisor perhaps...some sort of European adventurer...Konovalov or Wahib Pasha, the Harlem Black Eagle pilot, etc.
- Possibly a Red Cross  nurse or doctor

For the Italians
- Generals Graziani or Badoglio or more generic Italian senior officer
- Alpini I think would be a nice different officer


Happy W

[Happy Wanderer]

FYI Gents,

I've added military-political timeline supported by maps too describe the machinations of the Italo-Ethiopian War on The Abyssinian Crisis blog.

https://abyssiniancrisis.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/historical-timeline-of-the-abyssinian-war/

Cheers

Happy W

[tin shed gamer]

This is a topic I'm becoming interested in more and more,so I don't wish to risk highjacking (I won't reply in this thread)As much as I value the ideas everyone has thrown my way.This is a subject I know nothing about so without images you may as well be talking dolphin!So feel free to PM any images that will help me understand you ideas as I've no spare time to research this any further.
Mark.

[FramFramson]

The Black Eagle would certainly be an interesting character, and existing pilot figures would be easy to paint as him, so he doesn't really need a custom/new sculpt either.

Other Ethiopian senior commanders other than Kassa are another option, such as Imru Haile Selassie, Desta Damtew, Mulugeta Yeggazu, Nasibu Zeamanuel, etc. I picked Kassa because for my games the Emperor is more likely to be the objective in a silly adventure, so I wanted a similar figure as a secondary objective and visual compliment and Ras Kassa was almost something of a Senior Minister or Vizier instead of a general and thus fills that role very nicely.

But most of the field commanders remained behind to fight in Ethiopia (Damtew and Yeggazu in particular had tragic ends) while Selassie and Kassa fled to Europe and as they would have commanded smaller field armies, they would therefore be more likely to see play as actual field commanders at the scale of tabletop games. Of course you wouldn't have to do one of them specifically, you could do a generic sort of senior commander figure or two, but there aren't many photos and what there is seems to indicate that there was no real formal style of uniform or field clothes for the high-ranking nobles who acted as field commanders (for instance photos of Damtew in the field after capture show him in a plain trench coat but photos of Zeamanuel show him in both a much more traditional and flashy Ethiopian outfit, as well as a European-style uniform, but still flashy and somewhat archaic, with large fringed epaulets similar to the Imperial royal guard, etc.), so the Empress Marhel Safari Regulars command pack or the Ras and Retinue pack might do in a pinch, the only thing being different that high-ranking senior commanders would not be going barefoot.

It's both highly convenient and somewhat difficult that the Ethiopians had a lot of variation in dress. It makes it a bit of a mess to try and figure out who would have worn what, when trying to represent specific real people or units, but at the same time there's the leeway to repurpose or convert figures from elsewhere so long as they're kind of close or at least fit ok.

[Happy Wanderer]

There are some pretty good ideas from Fram there. The British and French characters really can be covered by other ranges, particularly as these are hypothetical forces anyway.

Askari miniatures also do some nice Italian command figures as do Empress so unless sculpting a particular character from the Italo-Ethiopian war they are sort of covered. It would be once to have a specific Graziani or Badoglio figure however to be used in a battle game or a specific scenario based game involving those characters. A character like Amedeo Guillet would be cool as he would be perfect for skirmishy type games....

For my money adding one or two more Ethiopians like Fram said would probably be the go. Empress don't do a huge lot of command variety if you field reasonably large forces of Ethiopians so having a couple of unique figures would make for a useful command pack IMO. The other excellent idea would be an Ethiopian Amharic Christian priest.





Someone like Balcho Safo would make a striking figure as a leader.

[axabrax]

Tin's offer is just about too good to be true  We need to jump on this rather than churn on options, don't you think? Badoglio sounds  like a good choice and is really the logical counterpoint to Halie. Happy: do you have any good photos of how he'd look in Ethiopia? How about then we either send Tin a bunch of ideas and let him pick what he wants to do or add one more choice from the Ethiopian side and one from the Italian side for an even pack of four, which seems to be the first corps pack structure? I like the idea of the Ethiopian Priest and there seem to be a good deal of photos for them and then maybe an Alpini officer for the Italians? We can discuss more offline perhaps so as not to derail the thread, but I say strike before Tin Shed changes his mind!

Moving back on topic. Happy:  I just got a platoon of the Empress CV tanks  and I am wondering about paint schemes. Are you going to be doing an article on book references for the period? I would also be interested in references for a good book of photographs. I have actually been tooling Italian eBay, and it seems like there's a lot of interesting stuff.  I'd love to find a Schiffer style book full of photos and info...

~ Steve

[FramFramson]

An Amharic Christian priest is a good idea too! He would actually have quite a few applications beyond just this conflict.

[Happy Wanderer]

Hi Guys,

I'd certainly be willing to do a bit of digging for Tin Shed if he is interested...Mark, do you want to do this? if so you can PM me and we can discuss or I'm happy to just start up a thread on the blog for a discussion to take place with some pics put there etc. It'd kind of be like a 'working post' so people could see it develop...that'd be cool...a post on inception to final figure...let me know if your interested. Sounds like the priest would be a good choice and then two others.

@ axabrax
"Are you going to be doing an article on book references for the period?"
,
I've got a few book reviews I want to do. A list of books would be a useful idea, though I don't have all the books that could be useful off course. The subject is often covered in books 'in part' and less as a complete history. If you read Italian there are some very good books and off course the official history.

Regards CV paint schemes, they were more or less sand colour, some with green patches. The book (Wydawnictwo Militaria No.194) Afryka Wschodnia 1935-1941 is good one for pics and some colour plates - it's written in Polish and English. It has a smallish section on the Ethiopian war. The Osprey off course is probably your first useful title for an overview. A solid google search will throw up many images so this may in fact be the best source for imagery. I haven't found a Schiffer title thus far.

The CV is your classic Italian sand colour and is useful for WW2 as well...not as useful as in 1935 however! Armoured cars appear to be in an European Green so there is a possibility that both schemes could be used.

Happy W

[axabrax]

Thanks for the references Happy. At least the tanks will be easy to paint.

As for photos, I am finding eBay to be a real treasure trove, especially Italian eBay. Putting in "Etiopia Guerra" as a search term is enough to fetch some interesting results.

I think I am also ready to read an in depth history. My local  library has Haile Sellassie's War, but I see that there is a much more recent book called "Prevail: The Inspiring Story of Ethiopia's Victory Over Mussolini's Invasion:1935-41" that's highly rated on Amazon. Anyone read that one? 

[Happy Wanderer]

Hi axabrax,

Cv's...easy to paint indeed! Good tip on the Italian ebay search. If you google from goole.it you also get some interesting hits.

I have both books, read both. Prevail is a very pro-ethiopian 21st century view IMHO...possibly a bit to 'PC'. It has a lot of info in there so its not one to discount but its not big on the military detail. Not bad but a hefty tome that gives lots of anecdotal details, sometime to distraction, but not the 'juice' as we might term it. I don't regret getting it but I don't think its the best place to start.

Mockler's Haile Selassie is the one you want. That is a first reader. There are others but for now grab the Osprey and dive into Haile Selllasie's War...an excellent book, well balanced with good military detail...I'm popping up my brief review today..but you want this one!


Happy W
 

[James Morris]

Hi all,

Sorry I have been silent on this topic, been very busy with other periods and real life.  Congrats to Rolf and Jim on the article; I really hope to have a go at gaming this once some CoC lists have appeared.

A big vote from me for Haile Selassie's War as the best book to start with.  There's so much out there, but many books are strongly biased one way or the other. 

Regarding tank colour schemes, I should confess that I painted my sand and green patches Cv33s/35s (as seen in the WSS article) before I had done any serious research on the subject.  Various sources I turned up later suggested that they were a plain green colour, and that the markings I had used were not introduced until WW2 - there was a different marking scheme in the 1930s.  I don't feel too bad about this, as the models have since been used for many WW2 games, but thought I should make you aware!  I will try to get some pics and references up when I have time.

Cheers

James

[axabrax]

Thanks for the info on the books Happy. I'm definitely more interested in a military history so will stick to Mockler. I've devoured the Osprey several times already and, while it's a good uniform reference, I actually found your timeline on the blog to be more informative on the history of the campaign 

James! Great to see you here! I was wondering when you'd chime in. It's in large part the posts and photos from your prior games that got me interested in this period, and the clincher was incarnating it in my favorite rule set, Chain of Command. Would love to see those tank references when you have a chance. I'm assuming it's a green color similar to that in the second photo of the armored car attached by Happy above?

~ S

[Happy Wanderer]

Glad the timeline was useful. as I mentioned in the TFL Chain of Command forum, the timeline is for setting the scene for players to engage in their own Abyssinian Crisis. The pieces are in place and you go from there -generally taken to be the Ethiopian xmas offensive. Over the coming weeks info will go up on the site to help interested parties organise their forces and expand their own background on the topic. In many respects The Abyssinian Crisis 'what if' is a synthesis of the real Italo-Ethiopian war and the 1941 campaign to liberate East Africa. Both sources of information are critical to an understanding of the factors in play...though those of 1935-36 are unique in many respects.

James, great to have you pop in. For those that don't know, James pretty much put the Italo-Ethiopian War on the wargaming map and his games are sights to behold....do a search and see.

Glad you liked the article and the idea. In the run up to xmas the Chain of Command lists will be released so hopefully people can really start to organise their forces or see what they have already to hand. Any info you can supply is most welcome as you know and I shall be interested to see how your forces take to the field in CoC- Abyssinia.

Cheers

Happy W (R)