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Boers

  • BVD

    So what do guys think of Boers for the Boer wars, etc.? Should they be done as partisan style sets (male and female), or is that not really needed? What kind of guns and other weapons would they have? Should they have VSF parts added? should they only work for one conflict (second has my vote in that case) or could they work for both plus other dust offs of the region in the late 19th century?(kind of doubt they would work outside a 20 year frame, but whatever🤣). 

    Would the Zulu War British sets out there already work as opponents for Boers or is that something needed because they changed uniforms once again (and would these new brits work for the Boxer Rebellion), would it be smarter to do someone else like the Highlander Regiments or the Xhosa warriors instead.  

    Brought the Boers up because it’s a frequent topic on the FB group and I figure it is a gap.

  • VS

    I think it is a great ideia, especially as I can use them as portuguese irregular regiments :)

  • Bear Durham

    Excellent idea, good subject and useful for other purposes as well.

    Given the right assortment of weapons and heads, they should be usable from the Cape Wars, Great Trek period up to World War One against Von Lettow-Vorbeck and his Askaris (not sure about spelling his name). Flintlock muskets and pistols through to magazine fed Mauser and Lee Enfields! 

  • Don Williams

    @Brian Van De Walker in the 1st Boer War (1880-81), the British were still wearing the Zulu War era red coats, blue trousers and white pith helmets. See image below of the Battle of Majuba Hill, which depicts the 58th Foot (black facings) and 92nd Highlanders (yellow facings).

  • Don Williams

    Battle of Majuba Hill (1881)

  • Yronimos Whateley

    These Boer Wars guerillas...

    ...seem like they could be modeled with some "wild west" style figures - some generic "cowboys" could find a lot of use outside of North America, and this is a great example!

    They don't seem to be an exception to the rule, either - I see lots of similar pictures turn up in image searches:

     

    Wargames Atlantic has a Sepoy Rebellion (1857) British set listed in the release schedule, in final parts check - I don't think these have been previewed or teased yet, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say they might be pretty close to the uniforms and equipment of the British in the Boer Wars (1880-1890s), with maybe a little fudging and hand-waving.

     

    That might leave any proper Boer (army? militia?) uniforms - not sure what those even look like, the image search results mostly looks like the sort of ragtag militia above, the rest don't seem very consistent, sometimes in longer jackets with wide-brimmed soft hats, sometimes in shirt-sleeves and suspenders with pith helmets, etc. - I'm guessing there were a mix of local militias who sometimes had their own uniforms, and often didn't, but it's hard for me to tell at a glance!

     

    Seems like a fascinating subject for wargaming to me. 

    I'm always in favor of VSF bits where practical, either included in the kit, or provided separately via Death Fields Accessory Sprues - the "cowboy" types seem like a fun subject for VSF/Weird West/Steampunk sorts of modeling and gaming, the upcoming Deathfields "Bulldogs" seems to have the subject covered for the British, leaving any uniformed Boers up in the air - anything that can be done to give the Boers extra utility is great, though.

    So, in short - seems like an interesting wargaming subject; I'm guessing the upcoming Sepoy British sets will be 'close enough' for the British, while the Boers seem to be a mix of uniformed and non-uniformed militias, to my untrained eye, and I think that a Wargames Atlantic Wild West/Cowboy set would cover a lot of Boer territory, depending on what WGA does with it - with or without sci-fi bits, I'd be interested in a good Wild West set, and any sci-fi/fantasy bits would only be icing on that cake!  A "cowgirl" set would be a blast and might cover a lot of Victorian era female "partisan" type situations, but I don't know how niche it would be.  The Death Fields "Bulldogs" seem to have the sci-fi British covered. 

    A proper uniformed Boer set seems like an obvious place to start, in any event!

  • BVD

    @Yronimos Whateley

    I don't think Cowboys would cover Boers or vise-versa that well since I am pretty sure they used different guns. American cowboys in addition to six shooters where very partial to lever action rifles (which no one else really used in great numbers except the US armed forces), while the Boers used a mix of European rifles and likely some older muskets. VSF parts would likely work fine with either.

    That said late Victorian female Partisans/adventurers in skirts probably would cover for both Wild West and South Africa relatively will even with steampunk or VSF headswaps and a couple civilian actively poses thrown in.

    As to uniforms I know that there was not much on that front for the Boers except for some “tailor made” examples, mostly among the volunteers like the Germans and even there it was kind of a mix with no two being exactly alike.

    As to Sepoy Rebellion British working for anything historical outside the Sepoy war, that’s a wonderful assumption that is tragically likely to be completely and utterly wrong even on the “close enough front” even for British conflicts closer to it in time frame🤣. The British Empire in it heyday (late 1700s to early 20th century) changed their uniforms so regularly and drastically that sometimes the only thing soldiers from one conflict  had in common with the immediate previous conflict the empire fought was the same model of rifles, and even that’s not the case with the Boar War British and Sepoy War British troops.

    As you can likely deduce for yourself based on the earlier Boar war photos and pictures shown by others, if you gave the Sepoy War British and Boar War British two different fantasy paint jobs with the right  historical head swaps (maybe don’t use the Sepoy war sun Helmets) you could likely field them against each other as believable opponents in Sludge land without most people noticing they were from the same culture mere  decades apart😉.   

    This is partly why asked if Zulu War Red coats could cover for Boar War British (since Zulu war British are common) and if some other opponent was viable, or if they needed their own kit. 

    Likewise my general thought is that if WA a is going to do redcoats to complement the Boars and they will look close to or exactly like Zulu or Sudan war British, there is no reason on Earth not to add VSF bits to spice things up at this point, even with the Bulldogs coming out to scifi redcoats particularly since those will have different proportions from historical scale and for VSF gaming I would think  having VSF buildable uniform troops in WA’s historical proportions would actually be a seller since that is alt history gaming.  

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  • BVD

    @Bear Durham I know about the German WW1 commander your talking about, and that reminds me Ruga-ruga mercenaries would be very useful. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Ruga-Ruga

    0 likes
  • SH

    We have had some success using the Perry plastic ACW Confederate infantry.

    Dont use the heads with the issue caps, cut the bayonettes off the muskets/rifles and they are close.

    Paint them in browns and tans not grey.

    Not perfect but until someone does Boers in plastic, they will do.

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