Time to look at the other side of the conflict for a change with another post of figures, some of which, were painted well over ten years ago by a commission painter.
First up for the Ansar (Madhists) we have a northern Beja tribe, the fierce Hadendowa. Endowed with the title ‘honorary horsemen’ by the British; because of their fast, dynamic, and committed charges – there’s a reason that entire brigades formed squares when crossing exposed terrain, as if expecting to face cavalry.
I’ve themed these guys to Osman Digna’s warriors of the Green Flag, as he was purported to field his forces under the green flag (a division of the Madhist army). He was 2IC of the Madhi and leader of the northern region, who then became Madhi after the original’s death.
These two BP formations are from Hat Industrie’s Set 8271 Dervish Warriors and the unmounted figures from HaT’s Set 8208 Hadendowah Camelry. Commission painted by Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka. I’ve had marvelous results from this company for several commissions now, despite a language barrier a few years back, when a commission was sent to an old address by mistake. But I can’t fault the painting standard for the $$ spent at all.
More Hadendowa, another two formations, this time from Waterloo 1815′s Set 011 Dervish Infantry, another commission from years ago from a bloke no longer painting.
These two BP formations are from Hat Industrie’s Set 8271 Dervish Warriors and the unmounted figures from HaT’s Set 8208 Hadendowah Camelry. Commission painted by Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka. I’ve had marvelous results from this company for several commissions now, despite a language barrier a few years back, when a commission was sent to an old address by mistake. But I can’t fault the painting standard for the $$ spent at all.
More Hadendowa, another two formations, this time from Waterloo 1815′s Set 011 Dervish Infantry, another commission from years ago from a bloke no longer painting.
Waterloo 1815 should not be overlooked when building 20mm armies. Their figures are well proportioned, accurate and are normally well posed, even if their are very few poses per box (normally 8). They’re a great builder for the main body of an army. Good all round figures.
And from the same Waterloo 1815 set and commission painter, another pair of BP formations for a northern Beja tribe.
And from the same Waterloo 1815 set and commission painter, another pair of BP formations for a northern Beja tribe.
These infantry formations are BP Standard Warbands, 30 strong as per the battle scenarios from the main rulebook and Sudan supplement. They’re based a bit odd being 10 bases wide and 3 bases deep, facing, normally, the 12 base wide Brits and their allies. A bit of a compromise around numbers of figures and constraints from previous basing. However, as the rulebook states, these minor variations in frontages pose no problem at all for charging, and working out who is fighting who; and the charging, shooting, and visibility rules calrify anything upon which two gentlemen cannot agree.
On to the mounted Hadendowa arm.
3 Standard formations of skirmishing camelry to get around the squares (one formation is based so it can be separated out into two Small skirmish formations). These are from the HaT’s Set 8208 Hadendowah Camelry and were a commission painted by a mate Spiro only last year. Awesome job where he spent far too much time and effort for the commission price.
A Small BP formation of skirmishers – oops looks like one of the riders has fallen off his perch! That’s what you get for hiring damned dirty cheap plastic warriors. Where’s the superglue!
3 Standard formations of skirmishing camelry to get around the squares (one formation is based so it can be separated out into two Small skirmish formations). These are from the HaT’s Set 8208 Hadendowah Camelry and were a commission painted by a mate Spiro only last year. Awesome job where he spent far too much time and effort for the commission price.
A Small BP formation of skirmishers – oops looks like one of the riders has fallen off his perch! That’s what you get for hiring damned dirty cheap plastic warriors. Where’s the superglue!
Finally the command. Both flag level (army or brigade level in BP) and rub level (small BP brigades).
More Hat camels from the same set, just mounted on command rounds with giant green flags.
Newline Design’s Sudanese Tribesmen II provided with a flag – which are produced by Warflag.com. These flags are free to download and use! So as long as you know the historic measurements of the flags so you can scale them (even MS Word can do this), after a bit of fiddlyness your army can be festooned with historically accurate flags.
More Hat camels from the same set, just mounted on command rounds with giant green flags.
Newline Design’s Sudanese Tribesmen II provided with a flag – which are produced by Warflag.com. These flags are free to download and use! So as long as you know the historic measurements of the flags so you can scale them (even MS Word can do this), after a bit of fiddlyness your army can be festooned with historically accurate flags.
Big thumbs up to Ian Croxall for supplying such an invaluable service to wargamers for free.
This is around half of the Madhist army painted and based so far. They look great charging down the wargames’ table in little flying Vs. A bit cheesey but they were said to have charged in great waves of arrowheads. It just so happens that this works well in BP as, even when the leading formation is disordered by British fire, the leaders from the other two units can still see the British line, and so can make one final headlong charge into the Brits.
This is around half of the Madhist army painted and based so far. They look great charging down the wargames’ table in little flying Vs. A bit cheesey but they were said to have charged in great waves of arrowheads. It just so happens that this works well in BP as, even when the leading formation is disordered by British fire, the leaders from the other two units can still see the British line, and so can make one final headlong charge into the Brits.
Every BP game I’ve played with these guys creates a gameplay that is consistent with how I would expect them to have behave in real life. Messers Preistley and Johnson definitely deserve to take a bow for this ruleset!
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