Sudan 10mm Egyptian Army

Ah the Egyptians are coming.

  the Egyptian army in the sudan was a mixed bag.  It had some string units and even conscripts were well trained, however corruption in the higher ranks had its effect.  As far as command went they often paid European officers to take command of their armies, with mixed results.   The infantry were as I said a mixed bag, but the army was well motivated.  After all the mahdists didn't take prisoners too often, and when they did they usually weren't all that nice to them, so they had to fight to the death.  Interestingly, even amongst volunteer's the desertion rate was only 04%, which is lower than most European armies of the day.

 The army has 2 Cavalry Squadron's, 3 battalions of infantry, 2 batteries of 7pdr guns, 1 battery of Gardner machine guns, 2 supply wagons and 3 generals.

 The Artillery were 7pdr Krupp [75mm] cannons, used in most armies of the period, including France, Germany, Italy, China and japan.   I painted the cannon with 1 gunner in Egyptian officers blue uniform, and think it came out well. 

 Here are my command, Gordon himself [middle], Billy Hicks [right], and an Egyptian general [left]  
you notice the drummers and flags, which are not in pendrakens packs, I had to convert these, they are 2 normal rifle guys with an ECW drum stuck on for the drummer and a pike stuck on the rifle for the standard.

 Here you see the command units with the infantry, drummers and standards converted.

 The Gardner guns or Nordenfelts the Egyptians used both, are conversions also, I used German 77mm guns, took off the barrel, cut down the trail and put barrels of wire on top, I think they look passable.   Although they look good I have had little success using them so far, 1st game they were over run in an ambush, second time the dice gods didn't like them, I supressed 2 enemy formations then got over run by camels, go figure.

 The supply wagons are from irregular miniatures 10mm range.  They are the closest wagons I could find that match the type used by the Egyptian army. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sudan 10mm Mahdist army

 Here in all its glory is my Mahdist army.  In total there is 3 Commanders including the Mahdi himself, 6 Tribes of Mahdists, 3 Tribes of Fuzzy-Wuzzy 2 Batteries of 7pdr Cannon, 1 Formation of Camel Cavalry.

 Here is the command, the Mahdi and 2 senior commanders.  Figures are taken from SC15 Mahdist command pack and SC13 Arab Civilians, which has a very nice chap who looks good as a senior commander.

Hadendoa Tribesmen, or Fuzzy-Wuzzy Warriors, good shock troops but need a lot of support.  To be honest I have only used them once and found them better troops than the regulars. The tribesmen were better motivated than the rest of the army.  unlike the Mahdist regulars the Hadendoa were not in general followers of the Mahdi and for the most part not exactly muslim, although close enough at the time.  They fought their own parallel war and were able to extricate themselves from the conflict when the war moved to a close.

 The Mahdist infantry are the backbone of the army, there is a lot of them too, they just keep on coming.  They may not be the best colonial troops but make up for it in sheer numbers.  The regular forces were a mixed bunch, the locals who either volunteered for political or religious reasons,  or joined through fear of having their wives and children taken as slaves.  Many foreign troops also joined the Mahdi, perhaps as many as 40,000 but after sharia law was declared and the Sudan economy imploded many simply went home.  So as regular troops they can be elements of conscripts to die hard fanatics, this could have been off set by splitting up units into separate elite and trained units, but sadly the leadership was in turmoil and although having some very good commanders they failed to organise the army effectively.

 the 7pdr batteries, captured from the Egyptians are the same guns as the Egyptians use, although lack of experienced crews and shortage of reliable ammunition lets them down.  Although the Mahdists did try to remedy this problem.  When Abdallahi ibn Muhammad took power he did try to set up an effective war machine but the Sudan had been driven into the sand by then and foreign trade for the needed materials had been all but severed for the next 20 years. 

 

 

 

 

Mahdist Revolt 6mm

 Here is a Formation of Baccus Mahdists, The pack comes with 4 regiments but I thought they looked a bit crowded and so split them to 6 bases.

 A  slightly closer View of these guys.

 There are as you know 2 types of infantry these guys are the 'other guys'  Ok they are the main guys but you get the idea.