Figures The Caliphate armies are interesting due to the variety of troop types, the archers and lifida are unusual. Your imagination can run wild painting the colorful clothing and horse trappings of the officers and heavy cavalry. Most Dervish figures can be used for Nigerians, as well as many Saracen figures. The large Hausa shields can be cut from card stock and glued on to figures. If you wanted to play a Nigerian game, without doing a lot of painting, you could use a Saracen army as is, with the addition of a few Dervish riflemen. An interesting opponent would be a Zulu army, used to represent Yoruba or other tribesmen. Zulu figures can be converted into various subject peoples in an emirate army. Egyptians and Sudanese can be used for Niger Co. troops. WARGAME IDEAS Wargaming a battle like Bida would be difficult under most colonial wargame rules. A force outnumbered 60 to 1 would not stand a chance. On the other hand, truly realistic rules would produce a shooting gallery game, that would not be much fun. However, with a little historical license and adjustment of force ratios, enjoyable and challenging games can be played. One approach would be to use the team players vs. umpire -- endless enemies type game, such as Science vs. Pluck or Pony Wars, with all the players being Niger Company officers. A suggested army would be four small companies of infantry, one platoon of mounted infantry, two Maxims' two mountain guns, and some native carriers. A traditional campaign game could feature the British, French, Germans (from Cameroon) and perhaps Spanish (from Fernando Po Is.) trying to carve up the Caliphate by conquest, negotiation, bribery, or alliances. But I think the most interesting game would be the reverse, with each player representing an emir. Their objective would be to remain in power against native enemies, revolts, etc. They could use trade, conquest and diplomacy to secure their emirates against eventual British invasion. The possibilities for invasions, revolts, and such can be determined by random event cards or die rolls. SOURCES Coughlan, Robert. Tropical Africa, Life World Library. New York: Time Incorporated, 1962. Knight, Ian. Queen Victoria's Enemies (2): Northern Africa. London: Ospery Publishing Ltd., 1989. Smaldone. Warfare in the Sokoto Califate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Armies of the Sokoto Caliphate The Yucatan Indian Uprising 1847-1855 Introduction and Army Organization Cavalry Infantry and Artillery Officers and Fortifications The Warfare State The British Invasions 1897-1903 Wargaming Back to Table of Contents -- Savage and Soldier Vol. XXIII No. 3 Back to Savage and Soldier List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by Milton Soong. 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