Category: History
In the service of the Tsar
Horunzhy Nemiroff leads the Half-Sonia through the village. Outpost guys in front, old Glorys behind
I probably have more than enough Russians to fight the colonial battles I have started documenting here. However, prolonged exposure to wargamers has shown me that “more than enough” is not a concept most of them are entirely comfortable with; so much so that it might be more accurate to say that is a concept that most of them are not aware of. In any case, because I am a wargamer for more years than I really care to think about, I decided my Russians needed more Russians.
Though that is probably some sort of terrible faux-pas or misnomer, because what they got was Cossacks, and I’m not sure if they get upset by being called Russians any more. One would probably have to consult some modern geopolitical chap, of which I am definitely not one.
In any case, I needed some Cossacks. Originally I though the traditional Nelson Eddy ones, with the fur hat and the long cloaks, you know, the bad guys in Dr. Zhivago.
Then I found that I had some Old Glory Russian cavalry in forage hat, and found that The Orenburg Cossacks looked something similar. I also came across the wonderful Outpost Wargaming Services, which had both mounted and dismounted guys. As the uniform for the Orenburgs pleased me greatly (dark green and sky blue, whats not to like?).
Parading through the village, the natives all discreetly absent
The result is these lads; seen on the left parading through the recently liberated/conquered/colonised (delete as appropriate) village. The offices and Bugler are Outpost, the bulk of the troopers old Glory, from their Boxer Revolt range.
This being for Sword and the Flame, they needed to get off their horsies. Outpost provided the foot figures, and I am very pleased with them, they have truly impressive beards. The standing dismount horses are Old Glory from their ACW range, where they have a bag of standing horses with some horse holders. well worth it if you are interested in the look of the thing.
Horunzhy Nemiroff and his lads prepare to hold an enclosure. I think the dismounts look well
I am not going to go book on the Cossack uniform; the only images I could find were somewhat incomplete. but I figure it is close enough, and will certainly do for me.
The rest of the locals
Well, as can be seen here, we have altogether too many forces of colonial aggression for the locals to handle. Therefore we made more locals, of course.
The second war band. I had not noticed the roadwork needed on the top right
Dipping deep into the lead mountain (I wonder does every wargamer have a lead mountain?) I found a selection of basically “chaps in turbans” to use as a second Sword and the Flame tribe.
One of the 3 war bands; a total of 60 locals.
While some are the same Old Glory Northwest frontier guys, I am fairly sure there are some Wargames Foundry Sikh Wars and Indian Mutiny blokes too. No idea where they came from, honestly. There seems to be rather more lads with swords than firearms than I had in the first tribe; I wonder is this lot going to fare worse. In fact there are two under dressed blokes with swords visible in the background of the photo of the tribal leader below; I wonder where on earth they came from. At the very least, they are going to be cold.
Once more, painted in acrylics with a wash followed by a highlight. Not, perhaps, the most wonderful quality paintjob, but definitely serviceable. I resisted the temptation to use what one might call “historical” or
The tribal commander. I wonder what we shall call this fellow. For that matter, I wonder what I called the last fellow….
“accurate” colors, because, honestly, they would be unsupportably drab if decked out in browns and greys, and the fun of this game is playing with the pretty toys. Once more, the tribal command stand has a banner from Little Big Man Studios.
Besides that, given the nature of colonial gaming, being brightly colored will not be any disadvantage at all; so they may as well look stylish.
One of the questions I have is, what with 2 tribal leaders does one go off and make a superior leader in The Sword and the Flame, or is the local leadership left as some sort of committee?
In any case, this should be enough for the local forces; One small addition to the Colonial aggressors and we should be able to continue this.
Tales of cunning (losing) plans for gaming 