Once upon a time......or 2 years ago to be precise, I set out to prepare a 1790's Caribbean wargame to take to Huzzah 2023.
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| See "A Desperate Affair" |
but somehow, by the time I got to Huzzah, it looked more like this:
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| Yup, here we are in Egypt.....some navigator...... No I'm not sure how these things happen but they do. |
Anyway, it was fun to put together but that campaign is officially over, the French and British troops have been shipped across the Atlantic to the Caribbean as originally intended and the Egyptian and Turkish troops are sitting around smoking their pipes and wondering what their future is. Me too (except for the smoking part).
The only thing that comes in mind is to pit them across my 16thC Imperial forces, Landsknechts, etc but at that time, Turkish cavalry spurned firearms and, well, most of my Mamlukes have them and none have the bow that was a major weapon for Turkish cavalry. The infantry is fine, its just a bit ironic because my original homecast Turkish infantryman was sculpted 20 years ago for just such a setting. A project which never got off the ground then, and which I don't feel like tackling now.
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| Took along time for these guys to get dressed and on the table but at least I didn't have to worry about the fragility of the too thin bows they were sculpted with. |
Trying to sell them is a very tempting option, if I can find a buyer, as it would put an end to that temptation when I'm trying to reduce and finish what I have I've been working on for the last 20 years........... I think I'll put up a page with pictures and see if anyone is interested in this motley crew of some 40 odd Mamluke/Turkish conversions, mostly home cast with the cavalry being semi-flats.
I also hemmed and hawed about my French camel company but I decided that I like the troopers enough to take away their camels for some other use, and ship them to the West Indies as local volunteer light infantry.(at the moment, Prince Valiant's Persian enemy Satrap has claimed the camels to keep his elephant from getting lonely).
My hastily improvised Chouan Royalists will also be disbanded, part to go back to their original role as Canadian 1837 Patriotes and rebels, part to go back to being ex-slave guerillas. (see below)
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| Royal Navy attacks an inconvenient French shore battery in the West Indies. |
Yeah, this means I'll be going (virtually) to the West Indies in the heat of summer rather than going in winter. Oddly, the only times I got close to the Caribbean were also in summer, (as a young Naval officer) a stop in Bermuda while on exercises and a stop at Cuba when I was an exchange officer on a US Destroyer in '76 and as a foreigner was not allowed on shore at Guantánamo Bay! Ah well, it was also summer when I watched icebergs go by off the coast of Baffin Island.
Await a virtual trip to the West Indies with great enthusiasm…
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Restoration is going smoothly. There should be a skirmish fought and posted before the weekend is over.
DeleteTempting as it is to think about selling figures... the ones you sell are likely to be ones you reget selling later. It's not easy. I keep looking at my pile and think of £ signs.
ReplyDeleteI look around and wonder where I'm going to put anything more. Based on past experience, I doubt there's much money in selling anything I've got but having space to properly store things (and be able to retrieve them) is tempting as is having time to get a bit deeper with what I'm keeping.
DeleteOddly, I've been thinking of using some of my 28mm Napoleon in Egypt collection in the Carribean. I can use some of my Darkest Africa natives with muskets as the locals who could attack by sides. The props department can also provide some jungle and palm trees. Looking forward to more about the project. Fortunately we don't have to worry much about Carribean temperatures here in the UK.
ReplyDeleteThat's the spirit! One of the advantages of wargaming with toy soldiers, like being in Hollywood, is being able to use what you've got that's close, to entertain and make a story, without worrying about counting buttons.
Delete(and TG we're back down to normal, around 20C)
I've long had a cinematic approach to wargames, particularly skirmishes and small actions, seeing them, in my mind's eye as movies.. In my recent foray into the Boxer rebellion, I wrote rules which allowed the sort of mass charges seen in the 55 days in Peking movie though not in reality mainly because it looks spectacular and is intimidating to players on the receiving end.
Delete