Black Powder: Sudan Battles

There are so many good 1/72 toy soldier figures available for the Battles of the Mahdist Revolt in the Sudan that it just cries out to be wargamed at this scale.

The Mahdist revolt was near identical to the ISIS revolt today with the same viciousness and fanaticism. It also occurred in an ex Ottoman Colony, or to be more exact a colony of an ex Ottoman colony.

Every so often, I like to get one of my armies on parade. Today it is the turn of the Sudan combatants.

It is dark today so I have had to use flash which is less than satisfactory. It is difficult to get any depth of focus so I have taken a few shots from different angles using bounce off the back window.

I use Priestley & Johnson's (sounds like a firm of dodgy undertakers) Black Powder Rules. I was put off Peter Pig's Patrol in the Sudan rules by the review by Clint in Anything but a One. Peter Pig Rules tend to be highly specific, which kinda restricts what one can use them for.

Black Powder is way more general but has a rules 'tool kit' to tailor types of troops so that they show the characteristics of their historical counterparts.

Even so, one has to use house rules to cover gun boats, and the Dervish ability to hide huge blocks of men in wadis that close at great speed through crummy terrain. British troops were instructed to treat Ansar infantry as cavalry to counter this.

These are the British troops that I have painted so far. On the left flank a cavalry brigade with two regiments of Hussars and one of Abyssinian mounted infantry supported by two batteries from the Royal Artillery.

In the British centre is a Brigade of infantry, two regiments of British light infantry and three of Indian, two small, supported by two batteries of machine guns and skirmishers from the Naval Brigade.

The British right wing has two battalions of the Camel Corps supported by a gunboat: a navigable river is a useful bit of terrain for the latter.

And here are the Mad Mahdi's men - who don't like it up them!

A 'brigade' of Baja led by Osman Digna, the only Mahdist general who understood modern warfare, consisting of two units of camels and two of infantry, one large, supported by two batteries of captured Egyptian guns whose crews have been 'persuaded' to man them.

The rest of the army forms a single brigade of Arab/Sudanese consisting of two unis of Ansar, one large, and two units of Jihadya riflemen. The Mad Mahdi banned his Ansar from using un-Islamic weapons such as firearms - what was good enough for the prophet etc. Two units of Baggara on Camels completes the brigade.

'Course, both armies are works in progress. I have boxloads of stuff unpainted. My next units will be some British Highlanders, some more Egyptian infantry, a few Bashi Bouzaks and so on.

So little time, so many models.

:)