The long wars of the French Revolution and First Empire took place across the globe. Campaigns were fought not only in Europe but in Africa, Asia and the Americas; there was even insurrection in the Australian colony of New South Wales. Many of these conflicts were very minor, and some did not involve any of the major protagonists of the Old World; the Creek wars of 1813/14, the early campaigns of liberation in Latin America and the Maratha civil wars spring to mind. Yet, though these small wars did not usually involve large setpiece battles with cavalry maneuvers and charges in column, many are very interesting. Most Napoleonic players have a bare knowledge of events outside the main theatres of war, and tend to restrict wargaming activities to Germany, Russia, Spain and the other obvious areas of combat. Here we shall take a look at some alternatives, with ideas for games. Many of these minor wars would make excellent mini-campaigns, involving naval actions, skirmish-level games, sieges, etc, with ample scope for experimenting with diplomatic, climatic and terrain factors that may be wholly different from our familiar European theatres. For those of us with a British army in miniature, there is a wide variety of choice. We don't have to face old Boney and his hordes of Froggies in Belgium or the Penninsular; for starters there's the Egyptian campaign of 1801. Some 15000 British troops made a daring stand in the face of French tirailleurs, and defeated Menou's army at the battle of Aboukir Bay. The initial landing has potential for a great game. There's Turkish allies who add more in the way of spectacle than help, and the possibility of a link up with Indian forces from the Red Sea. British forces also faced Frenchmen in the West Indies. Martinique, St. Lucia and Guadeloupe fell to combined operations in 1794, and British expeditions took Martinique and Guadeloupe in 1809-1810. Most of these campaigns involved less than 10,000 men and lasted only a few days; as game scenarios featuring jungle terrain, inclement weather and often uncooperative naval support, these invasions pose all kinds of fascinating problems to the wargamer used to the grand battles of Europe. In the Indian Ocean the French colony of Mauritius fell to King George in 1810, and another British expedition - featuring Crown and East India Company soldiers, wrestled Java from the Dutch. Ceylon was the scene of a brief conflict between British authorities and the picturesquely named King of Kandy. India was the scene of the future Duke of Wellington's earliest victories. He had served in the Mysore Wars which ended in 1799 with the defeat and death of Tippoo Sahib, `The Tiger of Mysore' at the storming of Seringapatam; he commanded the forces of the East India Company in several small campaigns, showing a boldness of approach that might surprise those who yet believe that the "Iron Duke" was of a defensive mind. Wellesley's greatest Indian triumph was his Maratha campaign of 1803-4. At Assaye he made a brilliant flanking move against the Maratha left, and, in what he later regarded as his hardest fought battle, defeated the heroic mercenary sepoys known as the Cheria Fauj, the `Army of Birds'. These excellent troops, trained by French and British officers, had dominated the battlefields of Northern India for over a decade; at Assaye their gunners refused to flee, but hid under their gun carriages and turned them upon the British rear after they had been overrun. The Maratha light cavalry destroyed Colonel Monson's column of sepoys in 1804, and at Bhurtpore in 1806 General Lake failed to take the fortress known as "The Bulwark of Hindustan"; there is no certainty of victory for British arms in these campaigns. In particular the Ghurka wars of 1814-15 witnessed major setbacks for the forces of "John Company" at the hands of these famed Nepalese hillmen. Campaigns in India once again involve difficult terrain and all kinds of fun involving supplies; tortuous diplomacy was a key issue in Indian warfare, and can be incorporated into wargames with fine results. Arab matchlockmen, Afghans, rocketeers, camel-gunners and bizarre Hindu fanatics make colorful and very dangerous opponents. In the old American colonies Redcoats Were seen once again. The War of 1812 is fascinating for a number of reasons, the ineptitude of many politicians and generals being foremost for me, at least. At Queenston Heights the New York Militia refused to cross the river to Canada, ensuring defeat for the Americans; at"Bladensburg Races" raw militia ran from the British regulars, while at Thames River the 41st foot, behaving quite unlike the B class veterans of most wargame tables, were scattered by a charge of rather doubtful Kentucky mounted rifles. New Orleans would not be much of a contest in miniature - nor was it in real life - but the many skirmishes and small battles along the Canadian frontier have great potential. Only a few thousand men were involved on either side. In South America the hopelessly misguided Buenos Aires Expedition led to British defeat at the hands of local militia and volunteers. The local features of high walled lanes and strong, flat-roofed houses combined with the colorful Argentine units makes this campaign very attractive. Expeditions to Mexico and Venezuela were planned in 1808, to be cancelled when Spain rose against Napoleon. Other. British military involvements include the second Egyptian Expedition of 1807 and the forcing of the Dardanelles as part of a half-baked attempt to exert pressure on the Turks, the several trips to capture Capetown, the Danish expedition the same year, and Sir John Moore's jaunt to Sweden. Operations took place against Arab pirates in the Persian Gulf; there were landings in Italy and the Greek Islands, while a large force guarded Sicily for several years. Then of course there's Ireland and BergenOp-Zoom and the Walcheren Expedition. If anyone can come up with an interesting game involving this catastrophic landing of 40,000 troops in a fever-ridden marsh for no worthwhile purpose I should feel privileged to play - This is all well and good, you might say, for those with a miniature British army but what about the others? Wot about the others, indeed! The French had a few foreign adventures aside from the conflicts with Billy Pitt's lads. The Egyptian expedition and its extension as far as the walls of Acre defended by local Kingpin Djezzar "the Butcher" and the flamboyant egotist Sir Sydney Smith R.K. springs to mind; mamelukes and dromedary companies! pyramids! dysentery! This last is also a major factor - along with sundry other unpleasant diseases - in the First Consul's Haitian expedition. The old French Colony of St. Domingue had erupted into civil war in the previous decade, involving rebel slaves, Monarchists, mulattos, Jacobins, Spaniards and British troops; the winner was the legendary Toussaint-L'Overture at the head of an army of several thousand freed blacks. Buonaparte dispatched an expedition in 1803 which captured and executed Toussaint, but was itself defeated by the jungles and the climate. Several European conflicts involving the French are generally neglected. When did you last put your French figures against Calabrian brigands, or recreate Marmont's campaigns against the Russians and Bosnians in Dalmatia? The wars of the Revolution are widely ignored; aside from the major campaigns of the Republic, the Vendee uprising and Hoche's aborted Irish expedition present excellent opportunities for experimental games. The Russians too had a variety of opponents. As previously mentioned the Czar's forces were active in the Greek Islands and Dalmatia in small numbers - finally a war in which you don't need at least 100,000 Russians! The Russo-Swedish War might be an interesting exercise in naval-military liason, while the Helder expedition of 1799 was a joint Anglo-Russian venture of no great foresight and less success. Suvorov led Czarist forces into Italy and Switzerland about 1800, while war with the Turks was endemic, and with the Persians occasional. Then, of course, there's the Prussian expeditionary force to New Zealand and the Austrian attack on Madagascar - I'm joking of course, but you see from this survey the incredible scope available for possible Napoleonic campaigns. There are more I haven't mentioned, and probably more I've never heard of. The point, I think, is not simply to remove our European armies to an exotic location and then fight our old conventional battle, but to deal with these wars on their own terms. That may mean umpired role-plays, diplomatic games, games devoted to unusual topics - can you imagine being a commissary in the East India Company's Bengal Army? - or whatever fits the bill. Napoleonics isn't all fire-factors and morale tests. FIGURES, BUILDINGS AND OTHER EXOTICA Many of us are spontaneously attracted to wars outside our usual fields of interest, and so deploy units of Union Infantry as 1870 French or whatever; this is great - I've fielded the Kings German Legion as Bombay sepoys or the West India Regiment on many occasions. However, I much prefer to field the"right" troops on the "right" terrain as far as possible if I intend to do any serious wargaming on a given subject, so here are some ideas. 1) Figures. Miniature figurines have an Indian Mutiny range in 25mm which may provide suitable sepoys for the 1800 period. Gentlemen in turbans from Renaissance or Colonial ranges will fit right in for Indian, Arab or Mameluke armies since these costumes changed little over the centuries. Freikorps 15 make a wonderful "History of India" range in 15mm, including sepoys, British naval gunners of the C18 and all kinds of delightful Indians, while Minifigs and Mikes Models have useful Moghul ranges. The Turks had changed little since the C17, and appropriate Renaissance ranges would generally apply. As far as I know, there are no War of 1812 figures on the market, but American troops can be converted from British figures for the 1814 uniform. Civilian volunteers and militia can be made from certain Confederate or American Revolution figures judiciously chosen. The diverse Freikorps 15 make excellent Woodland Indians in their Seven Years War range, and Davy Crockett types in the Mexican War range - which also features hispanic gentlemen in great variety for Latin American wars. European civilians of the Spanish Guerrilla/Irish rebel/Vendee insurrectionist type can be carefully converted from all kinds of sources; my 15mm "Spanish mob" features Mikes Models medieval peasants, priests from their D&D range and "thugs", armed with club or knife, from the science fiction range put out by Tabletop. So how come no manufacturer makes Spanish guerrillas anyhow? British Marines - you never know when you'll need British Marines - are easily made from Swedish infantry. Mine are by Jacobite. 2) Terrain. My local bakery sells excellent plastic palm trees for cake decoration at a very low cost; I've also made some involving plastic aquarium plants - Indian and North African buildings, if we leave aside the Taj Mahal and similar constructions, tend to be simple flat roofed structures; mine, in 15mm, are made from simple blocks of wood decorated with plaster, sand and paint with appropriate doors, windows and porches. The terra-cotta roofing popular in Mediterranean lands posed a problem until I discovered the delights of the thin cocktail straws found in bars. Steal or buy a few and glue them on your model roof; carefully painted they look fine. My attempts to cut them into individual tiles were complete failures. All kinds of sources for buildings and structures are available if you look; I have a Hindu bronze statue made from a very nasty tourist souvenir. BIBLIOGRAPHY Many of these wars are badly documented, at least in the English language. A very few books are listed here which I've found useful: Jac Weller "Wellington in India" Shelford Bidwell "Swords for Hire" (European mercenaries in India) Subedar Sita Ram "From Sepoy to Subedar" (memoirs of an Indian soldier) Piers Macksey "The War in the Mediterranean" C.L.R. James "The Black Jacobins" (Haitian revolution) Kate Caffrey "The Twilight's Last Gleaming" (War of 1812) Most useful for British campaigns are the appropriate volumes of Fortescues' "A History of the British Army". Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VI No. 2 Back to Courier List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1985 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com