Friday, November 25, 2016

Egyptians for Colonial Adventures, The Sword and The Flame, and The Men Who Would Be Kings

Colonial Barracks was an excellent TSATF convention.  I got to catch up with old friends and play in games.  One of the things that impressed me was Richard Smethurst's 15mm games, to the point that I went out and ordered a bunch of 15mm Egyptians (momentarily forgetting the Fuzzy-Wuzzies to oppose them).

Both Colonial Adventures and TSATF use a 20-man unit including an officer and NCO. Richard had based his figures 2 to a 20 x 30mm base. He used base removal to mark casualties at a higher level. Each 20-man unit equaled a company.  I'm using the same bases, but I'm playing at the unit equaling a platoon, two platoons equaling a company with another officer added.

Here is a unit of Egyptian infantry in Formed Line.  This formation, though slow to move, can volley fire, very important in Colonial Adventures, since each hit caused by the volley results in a reduced Reputation for the target, who then tests to see if they stay or go.  This is very important when the Rep 3 Egyptian infantry is firing at a Rep 5 Beja mob! The figures are Old Glory 15s, not Blue Moon, which are 18mm.
The officer is marked by a white rock and the NCO by a darker one. All figures here would be able to fire.

Ammo can run low, and casualties must be taken, so there are two figures on half-sized single bases.  I chose to leave the officer and NCO on double bases, and will mark them with rings if they become casualties.  This is to remind the player that the unit is leaderless. When ammo runs low, a figure is sent to the ammo dump to replace the ammo. Why send 2 figures when 1 will do?

Egyptian companies each have a different flag. The first company's is blue. I have marked all the bases in this unit in blue with a 1, to indicate the 1st platoon of the 1st company.  The second platoon will be marked with, tah-dah, a 2.  This photo also shows the 2 single bases.
Next is a unit of Egyptian gendarmes in Mob formation.  They are a police force, and not really as well trained as the regular infantry, so they will only be able to adopt the Mob and Open formations. This means they cannot volley fire.  Right now, there are only 16 figures in the unit. I'll have to see if that makes them too weak, on top of not being able to volley fire.  Their unit also includes 2 single bases. Essex figures with a Old Glory 15s officer.
These are all the figures I have finished, though there is another regular infantry platoon half finished on popsicle sticks, and 4 more finished gendarmes still mounted on sticks.

I have another company of regular infantry still in the bag, a company of Sudanese infantry, cavalry and artillery, but I'll stop at the second platoon, to paint Fuzzies coming from Stone Mountain.