In any number of Victorian campaigns the commanders relied heavily on local native forces to augment their trained troops. South Africa had a long tradition of local units, including the Natal Native Contingent and any number of small Boer units. In the first Ashanti Campaign Wolesley recruited several local formations (none of them were worth a damn, but that will be addressed later). T.E. Lawrence made his name working with native allies. These are just examples that I can think of off the top of my head. There are countless others, on other continents and with other European powers.

To start off, let's examine the difference between "allies" and "auxiliaries". An ally is a political entity (tribe, country, etc.) that is fighting on your side, but over which you have limited control. For Colonial purposes it is assumed that in almost every case the European force will supply "advisors" to the allied units. A good example of an ally would be the Arabs allied with the British during WWI. T.E. Lawrence was just one of many advisors to that force.

An auxiliary is a native unit or force actually recruited by the European power, and over which direct control is applied. Auxiliary units usually have European officers, and are typically armed, supplied and paid by the European power. A good example would be the Natal Native Contingent. Auxiliary forces are usually temporary, and a distinction is made between this type of unit and more permanent native forces such as the Khyber Rifles or Algerian Spahis, for example. The early Egyptian army, after it was reconstituted by the British, might qualify as auxiliaries, but certainly by the Reconquest they were a full-fledged army in their own right.

The circumstances of the game will usually dictate whether a player opts for raising auxiliaries or making allies, or both. Auxiliaries require time to recruit and train, while allies do not. On the other hand, you have direct control of auxiliaries, however dubious their quality. Allies can be unpredictable. Usually you recruit troops in areas where you already have a presence; in a colony of some sort. Alliances are most often made in places where you don't have a major presence, but the locals are reasonably well disposed towards you.

Raising Auxiliary Forces

The first step in raising auxiliaries is to establish a recruiting center, assign some officers and sergeants to run things, and put out the call for recruits. Allot one week for this. Normally you should only have one recruiting center for each good sized tribe or political area. Natal, for example, or Kordofan. Your potential recruits will vary both in quality and quantity, and this is determined by the geopolitical area in which you are operating. After you put out the call, roll a d6 on the following table and find a letter that is the code for the type of troops you get. The codes are explained following the table.

Area	Die Roll
	1	2	3	4	5	6
sub-Saharan Africa	F	E	C	C	B	B
West Africa	C	C	B	B	B	A
North Africa	E	E	E	D	B	A
South Africa	F	F	E	C	C	B
NW Frontier	E	E	D	D	B	A
SE Asia	E	D	C	C	B	B
Arabia	E	E	D	D	B	A
Mesopotamia	F	E	D	C	B	B

Results:

1. = high quality, high quantity
2. = average quality, high quantity
3. = low quality, high quantity
4. = high quality, low quantity
5. = average quality, low quantity
6. = low quality, low quantity

If the player is unsatisfied with the quality or quantity of his recruits, he can stop the recruiting effort and disband any units at any time. Once you put out the call, and determine the quantity of troops you can expect, you start getting recruits showing up at your center. Most of your recruits will show up in the first few weeks, as the following table indicates. However you might want to consider keeping the center open to train replacements. For each recruiting center, roll on the following table once a week to see how many recruits you get.

Quantity	Week Since Opening
	1-3	4-6	7+
High	2d6x50	1d6x50	1d6x25
Low	1d6x50	1d6x25	1d6x10

So, if you are in a high quantity area, the first three weeks of recruiting you may roll 2d6 and multiply by 50 to see how many recruits you get. Once you get a minimum of 400 troops you may start training them.

You can not train in dribs and drabs (unless they are replacements going to an already trained unit). To start training, you must pay an initial expenditure for uniforms, equipment and weapons. In the rules I use, payment is made in supply points. A supply point is the amount of supplies needed by a battalion of infantry (or regiment of cavalry, or battery of artillery) for one week. To start training involves a one time fee of 2 supply points for infantry and artillery, and four for cavalry. This is based on a standard size of 800 men per infantry unit and 400 for cavalry. This includes the costs for horses (assuming they are available) but does not include costs for cannon. It also includes reasonably modern weaponry for the soldiers (Snider-Enfields, for example).

After the initial expenditure, auxiliary units require only 1/2 the normal allotment of supplies and transport assets as European soldiers would. To my mind, it is extremely important that recruiting units cost the player something tangible, such as supply points. If you use rules that don't use supply points, please try to adapt some sort of cost for recruiting auxiliaries.

Once training starts, it takes a varying amount of time to train your recruits to reasonable levels of proficiency. I will use "Science vs. Pluck" terminology in the following example, but this table should be easily adaptable to any set of rules.

Training Time

Morale Level	Training Time to:
	Hot-Blooded: Poor	Hot-Blooded: Fair
Good Recruits	4 weeks	8 Weeks
Average Recruits	8 weeks	12 Weeks
Poor Recruits	12 weeks	Not in your lifetime

Note that the highest morale level (in this case "hot blooded, good") can only be reached after a unit "sees the elephant" and proves itself in battle. If a unit is pulled out of training early because of some emergency, roll a d6 when it enters battle. Using your own judgment roll to see if the unit immediately routs or manages to achieve the lowest morale rating. Once training is complete, you may run the unit as you would any other, but keep your fingers crossed when you go into battle!

Making Alliances

To get the ball rolling on making an alliance, first you have to designate a representative of some stature and ability, if not yourself, to enter into negotiations with your potential ally. Alliances are negotiated on a tribe by tribe basis, although the definition of a tribe can be very broad. In some places, where their are few differences between neighboring tribes, you might be able to negotiate a mass deal all at once. In other places, such as the Northwest Frontier, an alliance with the Orakzais isn't going to carry much weight with the Afridis. This is an important call that needs to be made by the referee beforehand, or by agreement between the gamers. If you do negotiate with more than one tribe at once, increase any manpower estimates accordingly (see below). You or your representative then travel to the tribal capitol and start the negotiations.

After a week of negotiations you make two die rolls. The first is to see an estimate of the number of troops your potential ally can provide you. The second roll is to discover the status of your negotiations. If no treaty is concluded, and barring other calamities (such as being massacred), you may roll each week until some sort of conclusion is reached. If a definite "no" is the answer, you may not attempt any further negotiations for six months. If a treaty is concluded, you make a final roll to see a more precise estimate of the troops your ally brings to the battle.

To determine the troop estimate for your potential ally, roll a d6 on the following table. The troop type and quantity is dependent on the geopolitical area in which you are operating, just like recruiting auxiliaries. Find your area along the left column. Reading across one column shows the percentage breakdown of the troops in this order:

Then roll a d6 and find the total number of troops.

area	breakdown	1	2	3	4	5	6
sub-Sahara	20/50/10/20	1000	1500	2000	2500	3000	3500
West Africa	20/70/-/10	1000	1000	1500	2000	2500	2500
North Africa	40/-/10/50	500	500	1000	1000	1500	1500
South Africa	15/75/10/-	1000	1500	2000	2500	3000	3000
NW Frontier	40/30/30/-	500	1000	1000	1500	1500	2000
SE Asia	30/70/-/-	1000	1500	2000	2500	3000	3500
Arabia	40/-/10/50	500	500	1000	1000	1500	1500
Mesopotamia	40/10/20/30	1000	1000	1500	1500	2000	2000

If you have problems with any of the values in this chart, especially in the troop breakdown section, I have no objection to their being fiddled with. Consider it all part of the negotiations with the Chief.

Alliances

To see if an alliance is concluded, roll 3d6 and apply any modifiers (listed below), then compare to the following table:

die roll	result
3	Natives immediately declare war on you, starting by massacring the diplomatic party. The referee should control tribal action until your enemy is able to conclude an alliance (+6 to enemy die roll).
4	Natives through you out. If your enemy attempts a treaty with the same natives, he gets a +4 bonus.
5-6	Natives find you tedious and insulting and show you the door. Come back in 6 months.
7-8	Natives are growing tired of you. -2 modifier for next week.
9-12	Natives remain undecided.
13-14	Natives are warming up to you. +2 modifier for next week.
15-16	Natives offer you an alliance if you pay them 5 supply points and two transport assets up front, plus 2 supply points each week (greedy SOBs!)
17	Natives offer you an alliance if you pay them 3 supply points and one transport asset up front, plus 1 supply point each week (that's more like it).
18+	Natives offer you an alliance if you pay them 1 supply point up front, plus 1 point each week (a steal!).

Modifiers:

natives are tired of you	-2
natives warming to you	+2
for each "gift" given this week* (* 1 gift = 1 supply point)	+1
resuming previously failed negotiations	-2
natives historically unfriendly to you	-2
natives historically friendly to you	+2
You have recent successes meaningful to natives	+2
you have recent losses in native area	-2
you have a treaty with a tribe friendly to the current tribe	+2
you have a treaty with the sworn enemies of the current tribe	-3

If you are offered an alliance and turn it down (usually because the greedy chief is asking way too much in payment) the results are problematic. Roll a d6 on the following table to see what happens.

1: Chief throws you out. Come back in 6 months.
2-3: Chief is petulant. Come back in one month, but with a +1 modifier.
4-6: Chief is unfazed. Continue negotiations with additional +1 modifier.

Once an alliance is concluded, you provide "advisors" to the chief to help guide his military campaign against your now common foe. Your payments constitute supplies, weapons, etc. It will take about one month before the tribal assets are available for direction. Other than your monthly payment, you do not have to supply the natives or worry about their supply lines. To see how many troops you actually get, roll a d6 on the following table:

1: -25%
2: -10%
3 or 4: -
5: +10%
6: +25%

So if your estimate was 1000 troops and you roll a 2, you only get 900 troops.

Related:

Modeling Native Supply

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