With a blizzard going on outside, it seems a bit odd to be writing about the Sudan and you might be justified in asking yourself how a nice Scandihoovian fellow, such as myself, would get involved in such a period. Well, it's a bit of a long story, but it all began with my first Sudan project in the 80's, in 25mm, which has long been sold. When I sold them, I started picking up 15mm Essex Sudan figures, planning to redo the project in 15mm and also added several thousand figures from other manufacturers. During one of my "re-evaluation of my wargaming periods", I decided to sell all of my non-Essex Sudan figures as I didn't want to do thousands of figures for this project and I popped perhaps 400 painted figures off their plastic (British/Egyptian) and round washers (Dervish) and stored them away. The primed (in white) Essex figures sat on painting sticks in several large flat boxes for over ten years. Last week, I sat down again in a "re-evaluation" mood and listed all of the periods/scales I want to do. The Sudan in 15mm was there, however, since Old Glory came out with their 15mm line about six months ago, my plan was to use them. At the same time, I found myself in an "organizing" mood last week looking through my hobby "stuff" to see if there was anything I could get rid of, and I found myself with the Essex Sudan figures set before me on the table. Initially thinking I would sell them, I started organizing and counting (one of my very favorite activities!), and before long, I had made another well-thought out wargaming decision - "I'll keep these and purchase more figures to fill in the gaps" - (did you ever do this?); afterall, with nearly 800 figures on hand, do I really need to get rid of them and buy more from another manufacturer? Oh, well, we'll see how this works out! Reviewing the painted figures, I found that I really did not like the paint job; I had primed them in white and used a "wash" technique for the coat color, and I really don't paint 15mm that well. The figures were terrained with real sand, which might make it difficult to remove if they were re-primed. I filled a large sweater box with hot water and dishsoap and dropped the painted figures in to soak for a day changing water several times. With a toothbrush, I began attempting to remove the sand and Elmer's White Glue, but this didn't work very well, so Barbara suggested a Brillo-type pad, which worked much better. Several hours of scraping resulted in a result I could live with (oh, I rinsed them after cleaning them) Figures were then re-sorted by pose and glued to painting sticks to make it easier to paint them (six like foot poses per stick) and then primed black. With differing variations of white being the primary color for the majority of units, the black priming method should work very well. Kate had a gymnastics meet on Saturday, the next day, about twenty minutes from THE EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS, so I made a quick run there to pick up more Essex Sudan figures (as well as bunch of Essex SYW figures, but that's a story for another day). That night, I cleaned the new figures and primed them. Isn't it exciting to get involved in a new period? If you aren't familiar with the Essex Sudan range, it is part of their Zululand range and very attractive even though it is over ten years old. The Sudan British are in khakis and puttees (can be used for British infantry shipped from Indian to the Sudan) or trousers, and there are early (1880's) and later (1890's) Egyptians/Sudanese (the Egyptian infantry have command packs for both periods; I use the later Egyptian command for early Sudanese infantry though for the Sudanese Gerdarme, I just use an Egyptian officer). There are several items missing, namely Bashi-Bazouks, mounted Emirs, and Dervish horsemen with rifles which could be used as "irregular" Egyptian horse. The British, Egyptians, and Sudanese infantry and cavalry are limited to one pose per pack while the majority of the Dervish packs have at least two poses per pack. The detail is "state-of-the-art" in my humble opinion, and as with all Essex lines, the figures are consistently good. Many of the Dervish foot have separate weapons, which I am not crazy about, but the hand is cleanly cast for gluing the weapon. There are camel corps mounted figures for both the British and Egyptians (British Command pack has mounted officer and bugler while Egyptian command has only an officer) though only the British have dismounted camel corps. There is a pack of kneeling camels for dismounts. Gatling guns come with British Army and Naval Brigade crew (choice of straw hat or naval cap) and the Zululand range has Naval Brigade command (OC70) though I don't know what the contents are. There are some excellent Highlanders as well as Naval Brigade which are from the Zulu War line. The Dervish (Ansar) foot have three spearman packs, one rifleman, one command (w/standard bearer and foot Emir who has, I think, a rifle held over his head though I use him as a rifleman), and one gun crew, while the Fuzzies have two spearmen, one swordsman, and one rifleman. Personally I find that the variety of poses for both the Dervish and the Fuzzy foot is quite adequate to represent a "native" army. The same can be said for the camelmen, though not for the Dervish horseman (one pose w/spear). Re equipment items, there is a smoothbore gun for the Mahdists, a wagon and four horses or oxen with British limber horse rider, pack camels, ammo mules with British or Egyptian handler, British breech loading field gun, maxim gun on carriage with crew, Krupps gun, limber with four horses and British or Egyptian limber horse rider, and early British gun. Each of the limber teams has two sets of limber horses/riders. I'm going to use one set of Egyptian limber horse teams to pull the British wagon and have only one set of limber teams per gun instead of the two Essex provides with each pack. All standard bearers have cast-on flags. My primary interest in the Sudan is for the early period of Hicks Pasha and Charles Gordon attempting to stem the rise of the Mahdi with a secondary interest being the attempt to relieve Gordon by the British with a small force. My selection of units is thus based upon the above interests. BRITISH Two 24-figure units of British line infantry (from the Zululand range) in red coats (OC54 at ready; OC55 loading; OC56 firing; OC57 command with two sets of officer, bugler, standard bearer). Two 24-figure units of British line infantry from the Sudan range in puttees representing British infantry sent to the Sudan from Indian; will be in khaki. One 24-figure unit of Highlander infantry (standing firing, standing at ease). One 18-figure unit of British Dragoons from the Essex Zululand range. One Naval Brigade infantry unit of 24 figures (OC69; command pack OC70; two poses of enlisted men with one kneeling and one standing at ease). One Naval Brigade battery of two Gatlings with limbers. One two gun battery of regular British artillery (crew from Zulu War range) with limbers. One Naval Brigade battery of two guns to be used for the gunboat. I've ordered Gardner guns (9CA) and Nordenfelt guns (10CA) from Minifigs (UK) so I can use them in place of the fine Essex Gatling guns if I wish from time to time. Two 24-figure units of British Camel Corps with 24 dismounts including kneeling camels. I'm not sure how I will handle the dismounted camels; I am leaning toward having perhaps six kneeling camels on a base with three dismounted figures which would represent where the camels when the unit dismounts. I don't think you need one kneeling camel for each camel mounted figure. Both the British and Egyptian mounted Camel Corps are beautifully done! I've read that when they dismounted, they tied the camel's legs together after having them sit down. Therefore, "camelholders" were not necessary and all men were available for combat. Three mounted British officers; two from the Zulu War range and one from the Sudan range (to command the British infantry from India). One gunboat with crew (Captain taken from Egyptian officer pack looking through binoculars; six native crew from Dervish artillery crew pack; one pose with ammo box by feet, one pulling lanyard which can be removed, and a third standing). I can't recall where I picked the gunboat up years ago (from some UK company though I don't remember who) though I&T Miniatures (see their ad this issue) have several appropriate ships: MCL1 15mm Colonial Gunboat ($40): comes with a barricade that goes around the ship and on top of the cabin plus a gun barricate, gun and four 15mm Old Glory figures. Secondly, their ACW02 Medium Sidewheeler Gunboat ($25) is a double deck sidewheeler that can be used for troop transport or an armored gunboat. Joel Gregory of I&T Miniatures reports "Many have used this ship for the Colonial period by moving the Pilot house from it's noted position to one deck down, just forward of the stacks. J&T offers 15mm cotton bales for their ACW ships and I've saved these, as well as sand bags/mealie bags I've picked up over the years, and these types of items are perfect for placing on the gunboat for crew protection. I'm also going to have a Gatling gun and cannon with crew on board as well as some stands of Naval Brigade for the British or infantry for the Egyptians (these will be mounted three figures/base). I would like to locate some smaller native-type boats ("dowls?). Gallia offers a barrel set (E9), sack set (E23), wooden boxes (E24) which are all helpful items. EGYPTIANS Four 24-flgure units of Egyptian line infantry at ready (early period; code OC31; command pack OC32 with two sets of officer, standard bearer and bugler). Two 24-figure units of Sudanese line infantry at ready (taken from later period; code OC38, but will be painted up as early period infantry; command of officer, standard bearer and piper from later period; code OC35). Two 24-figure units of Sudanese at ready (code OC47) with Egyptian officers. Essex calls these "early" Sudanese infantry or "later" Sudanese Gendarme. Two 24-figure units of irregular riflemen standing firing with Egyptian officers (taken from Dervish rifleman pack OC24). The Emir from the Dervish command pack (w/rifle held over head) will be used to supplement this unit's poses. One 24-figure Egyptian Camel Corps with dismounts (using later period Egyptian infantry - code OC34 - as dismounts; they are standing firing and have packs while the mounted Egyptian does not have a pack but I'll live with this). One 18- figure unit of early Egyptian dragoons (swords but no carbine on rider or horse?). One 18- figure unit of early Egyptian lancers (both lancer and dragoon command will be taken from the later period Egyptian OC43 command pack - Egyptian lancer officers). The OC43 Lancer officer is very helpful as a mounted officer for the Egyptian force. One Egyptian battery of two Gatlings (3 figures/crew) with limbers. Two Egyptian batterys, each of two Krupp guns (4 figures/crew) with limbers; very nicely done Krupp guns. One 18-24 figure unit of Mounted Irregular Arab horsemen; not sure where these are coming from; would like to see mounted Arab with rifle from Irregular Miniatures Colonial line. Would have Egyptian officer from later Lancer pack (OC43). Five Egyptian mounted officers - the Zululand British mounted officer pack (OC5) has two officers in helmet which can be used for the British or Hicks Pasha, and one in pillbox hat which is close enough to a fez for me, so he'll be used as an Egyptian officer. The Egyptian Camel Corps officer (on camel, of course) and the later Egyptian Lancer officer (OC43) will comprise the remainder of the mounted officer corps. Charles Gordon Pasha on camel (Egyptian camel mounted officer from OC43) and on foot (Egyptian artillery officer looking through binoculars - perfect for Gordon Pasha peering down the Nile for the arrival of the Relief force) and one Egyptian camel corps trooper to serve as an escort on Gordon Pasha's command stand. One Egyptian General on camel and three Egyptian horse mounted officers; again both from Essex. Baggage Train - you've got to have a very large baggage train for the Sudan! Over the years, I've picked up a large number (37) of 15mm pack camels (from Gallia; H20, I believe) and Essex has two packs of mules with either a British (OCE4) or Egyptian (OCE6) attendant, and a pack camel (OCE3) which are very appropriate. Stone Mountain (see their ad in this issue) also have baggage camels, as well as a line of 15mm Sudan figures. I will mount baggage animals as I have for my 25mm NWF project; there are perhaps six to eight animals with two to four handlers on a large base for ease of movement. If I could find some Sudan civilians, I would place them on the baggage bases. I prefer civilian handlers, rather than figures in military uniforms, as I can then use the same baggage train bases for any side. Check out the Essex Ancient Equipment line for "Arab Slaves" (pack of six different poses carrying baggage); this pack is very helpful for baggage handlers, drovers, and ship's crew. The Essex Dervish artillery pack (6 figures) has several figures (running, carrying bucket, carrying ammo box) which would work well for these needs. Museum Miniatures makes several pieces of interest: water wagon w/spoke wheels (15/WG03) and barrel cart w/spoked wheels (15/WG017) and Hallmark makes a cask cart w/2 casks and spoked wheels (CW8); I've seen pictures of British water carts (on two wheels) for the Relief Expedition and these would be perfect. They were pulled by mules. INDIANS This gets a little difficult in that there are not many manufacturers of 15mm Indian troops. Gallia has a line as does Minifigs and I think that's about it. I am thinking about having them made for me via EUREKA MINIATURES "300 Club" by Nic Robson of Australia. Irregular Miniatures has listed a Bengal Lancer and gun with Indian crew but I've never seen them; they are a possibility. Two 24-figure units of Sikh infantry. Two 24-figure units of Baluchi infantry. One 18-figure unit of Bengal Lancers with lancers. Two batteries of Mountain guns (total of four guns; 54CA) with three crew (126CA - 8 artillery crew) for each gun and four mules per gun (from Minifigs Colonial in UK). DERVISH One mounted officer. Two 24-figure unit of Dervish camelmen; very well done by Essex! Two 30-figure unit of Dervish horsemen (Essex has only one pose of Dervish horse with spear; would like more poses here); try the Essex Crusades and Arab Conquest listings for mailed and non-mailed Arab horsemen. Two 2-gun batteries of artillery without limbers. About six 48 figure units of Fuzzy-Wuzzy foot (mixed rifles, spears, swords). About six 48 figure units of Dervish swords/spears. Two 30-figure units of Dervish riflemen. Dervish mounted command figures - Essex doesn't make any of these for the Sudan line, however, I could easily use the Dervish camelmen as command figures; there are two different poses (with spear or sword). What I will do is go to the Essex Crusades and Arab Conquest lines and get mounted command from these ranges. These projected totals come out to about 448 Egyptian/British and 576 Dervish for a total of 1,024 figures - enough for just about anything I'd be interested in doing for this period. I am a little "short" on the Dervish/Fuzzy figures; Two Dragons Productions (available from Brookhurst) has a very nice "Victoria's Heroes" 15mm line ("true" 15mm size, thus, they are a little smaller than Essex, though they are outstanding figures as regarding detail and animation. I am not sure if I would "mix" them in the same unit with Essex, although Two Dragons makes a Fuzzy standard bearer (Essex only makes a Dervish one) and drummer, so I'm thinking of using them for my Essex Fuzzy units as well. It is my intention to obtain enough Two Dragons Dervish and Fuzzies to fill out the Dervish force. The figures have cast-on "patches" on their garments; I should mention that the Essex figures do not have them, thus, you can easily use the Essex riflemen as Egyptian Irregular riflemen. Stone Mountain (check out www.historicalminiatures.com) offers a Sudan 15mm line with three Fuzzies, four Dervish foot, one Dervish casualty, and one Dervish cavalryman as well a baggage camel and drover. Their British line has infantry, MG, Gatling, Limbers, and a wagon. Gallia, available from Warrior Miniatures, 14 Tiverton Ave., Glasglow, G32 9NX (041-778-3426), has a very extensive Colonial line for the Sudan: 25 packs of natives, 29 of British (1896-1902), 12 of Egyptian/Sudanese, and 10 of Indians. I used to have many of their figures and they are quite good. Gallia also makes a colonial fort consisting of wall, gateway, and tower, as well as three other buildings for the period. I don't know, however, where the buildings would be available from. If anyone knows, please let me know. Terrain-wise, I am doing quite well. Years ago, Howard Whitehouse constructed a lot of desert-type terrain pieces as well as a TCS fort (I think it was their "medieval" castle which looks great as a desert fort) and a number of TCS buildings all mounted on bases which look very good. Andrew Doyle of 3-D Contours made me a large river (The Nile!) a long time ago, as did Howard Whitehouse. I can't locate the "desert" cloth (felt) Howard Whitehouse terrained for me so I am on the lookout in fabric stores for the right color to have him do another. TCS, Hovels, Stone Mountain, Mainly Military, and Old Glory all offer 15mm Sudan-type structures. I find TCS especially helpful in this period because they make some very nice smaller buildings which are great for native villages. Plastic palm trees are available from cake decorating places as well as from Stone Mountain and the Iron Brigade in Oklahoma. Stone Mountain makes an Arab/African fort ($49.95) in 15mm as well as a very tempting Arab walled village with gate, wall, corner and five buildings ($39.95), and five other Arab buildings. They also offer palm trees, a desert Oasis and eight palms ($7.95), and some rocky outcroppings (5" diameter/$5.95) and I've long wanted to see what their 15mm buildings/terrain look like. Village Green (available from The Miniature Service Center - see ad in this issue) produces a set of river banks which I use to represent gully edges. They consist of winding strips of resin with vegetation which represent a river bank and look pretty good on the table. The Sudan had a lot of scrub and the Dervish used it to hide their forces and surprise the Imperial forces. Any type of lichen, or even better yet, Woodland Scenics products, can be used effectively for this purpose. What Id like to do is to send a bunch to Andrew Doyle and have him mount it on desert terrained bases. You could put a lot of scrub on the tabletop. Zaribas were quickly constructed hasty works for Imperial (and Dervish) camps made from, I believe, scrub. The purpose was not so much to provide "protection" to the defenders, but rather, to "break up the formation" of the attacker. Howard Whitehouse made me one which simply consists of a rectangular base with Woodland Scencis scrub in a rectangle. If you saw the movie "The Four Feathers", the British are defending a Zariba when they are attacked by the Fuzzies who set fire to the scrub. As to basing, I've think I will go with six figures per base for foot and three for horse/camels for the Egyptians and British. The Egyptian irregular foot will probably be on somewhat larger bases as I don't see them fighting as "formed" infantry. I'm a bit undecided how to base the Dervish. My immediate thought is to go with six foot/horse per base using larger bases to reflect the unformed aspect, however, years ago when I attended a Seattle, Washington convention, Bill Stewart ran an excellent Sudan 15mm wargame (which I took part in - I think I was successful as the British General!), and based his natives six to seven to a base with each "base" representing ten figures. Bill's goal, as is mine, was to control the Dervish as the umpire, while players controlled the British. Having fewer native bases makes it easier and faster to move them about the table. I think I'm talking myself into doing what Bill did! I'll have to look up his rules to determine if his horse were mounted ten to a base as well. I'm leaning toward mounting Dervish horse and camels six to a base and foot would be 12 to a base. Terraining the bases is easy - I just use my "Lake Michigan" fine sand after painting the stand, let it dry, and then put some Elmer's white glue (don't cover the entire top of the stand with it; just small areas) and then drop turf grass on it. Looks effective to me, at least! What do I still need? Well, Id really love some Bashi Bazouk foot and cavalry. I checked out the Essex ACW Zouaves in turban while at EHQ and although they are very good little figures, both poses (charging and advancing) are wearing back packs so I can't use them. Does anyone know of a manufacturer who makes 15mm Zouaves in turban which would fit in with the Essex figures? I did check an old article in SAVAGE & SOLDIER which showed line drawings of Bashi Bazooks and actually, they didn't resemble Zouaves (what makes me think Zouaves will do for Bashi Bazooks? I've thought this for years!). There were, I understand, a wide variety of costumes for the Bazooks and I am thinking that Essex must make something resembling a Bashi Bazook in one of their many Ancients/Medieval lines. Does anyone have any ideas here? I think IT fax WARGAMES a copy of the illustration and ask them if they have any figures in other ranges which could be used as Bazooks. Secondly, Santa, Id like to have a unit of Egyptian irregular horse with rifles. Aside from these two needs, I think things are pretty good for this period. Nic Robson of Eureka Miniatures in Australia (nicr@eurekamin.com.au) has offered a 25mm figure commission service and will be expanding it to 15mm in January, 2001. Check out his website (http://www.eurekamin.com.au) for specific information about this service. What Nic does is accept commissions to produce figures you want; he needs to produce 300 such figures (in 25mm) to break even; suppose you only want 30 of those figures - what Nic does is get others to sign up for the figure until such time as 300 is reached. Then the figure is produced and made available, each with four variants. This is something I'm very interested in doing for 15mm Bashi Bazooks, Indian Sikh and Baluchi infantry, Bengal Lancers, Fuzzy-Wuzzy camelmen, and Arab mounted on horse with rifle. The Two Dragons Victoria's Enemies range (available from Brookhust Hobbies) has 33 figure packs of Ansar and Fuzzies, all of which are foot figures, except for one mounted Amir. Amirs on foot are available for both Fuzzies and Dervish. You could obtain a great amount of variety with these poses! They are priced at $4.99/ten figures with seven packs at $2.99/five figures, and the mounted Amir being $4,99/three onepiece castings. There is one wounded Ansar pack and one Fuzzy dead pack. In case you're wondering, the British and Egyptian range is from the Omdurman Campaign of 1898 and they have British line, Scots Highlanders, and Egyptian infantry - many available poses. To me, the Sudan lends itself so well to "one-sided" wargames, meaning games in which players operate the British/Egyptian force and the umpire does the natives. I have an old set of Peter Gilder's Sudan rules in which he created a chart for native reaction ala the old Wild West rules (I can't recall the name) in which they had a "reaction chart" for the Indians. You look at the situation of the native unit (how close are they to the enemy; do they outnumber them; etc) and then roll to see what they do (move away from the enemy, charge, head for high ground, etc). The other way this can be handled, as I have done for my Zulu and French Foreign Legion rules, is to roll an "activation" die for nataive units; each unit has to exceed a "6" on 2D6 in order to move (the "6" is modified by number of stands lost; +1 per stand, and whether the "leader" has been a casualty +1). Native units enter the table determine by die roll (say "6" or higher on 2D6) at locations also determined by die rolls - each foot of the table edge is given a number and if it is determined that if a native unit does enter the table, you roll again to determine the location on the table. Prior to the game, I decide how many native units there are for each group off board as well as composition (how many horse units, how many foot units, etc) and assign that group a number (with six groups off table, they would be assigned a number "1" to "6"). Once on the table, native groups move toward the enemy. What is missing in my rules is what Peter Gilder does with his reaction chart and I'm going to work something out like this. These methods also allow one to conduct solo games operating only the Imperial forces. The second nice thing about the Sudan is that campaigns can be more easily handled. There were many forts in the Sudan when the Mahdi started his rise to power with about 40,000 Bashi Bazooks manning these garrisons. Relief efforts, garrison retreats, Mahdist advances, and attempts to subdue the rebellion all make for interesting campaigns and scenarios. Richard Brooks has had at least two excellent articles in WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED on Sudan campaigns and seiges which will give us lots of ideas. I have to get in the habit of writing down the issue number when I xerox articles for my flies! Thanks for listening while I rambled on - you can't imagine how tNs Sudan heat gets to you! Back to MWAN #113 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com