Irregular Wars "Stuff"

[steve_holmes_11]

It's been a long time...
So here's a summary of "existing ranges that you can use".

After splitting the world and dividing the lists into "theatres", I've decided to focus on my favourite proto-colonial setting.
The Indian Ocean in the century or so following Da Gama's rounding the cape.

This can involve:
  Portuguese
  Hollanders
  Tribal African
  West African
  Arab
  Moghul
  Rajput
  Vijayanagara
  East Indies
  Eastern Pirates.

You can push your luck a bit and shoehorn in:
  Ottomans (In East Africa)
  Savafid Persians (Ormuz and Persian gulf)
  Ming Chinese
  Japan
  Korea
 

I'mm concentrate on the core nations for now.

Portugal and Hollanders can be supplied forom the Renaissance ranges.
I've a feeling that the wealthier members of expeditions could be supplied by the League of Ausberg command packs.
Both have a range of colonial allies - Headhunter / Blowpipe native scouts are the only notable gap.

Tribal Africans probably need to be Zulu with some mixed in Masai.
I cannot find archer or matchlock figures to fill out the shooter roles.
Probably use a chieftain as a shaman.

East Africans
Tend to be civic (Potential form Ottoman and Arab ranges) or Tribal - Mahdists provide a contrast to the usual Zulu fighters.
These have the heavy lancer option (I think  classical cataphracts and a bit of work will fit the bill).

Arab
Dark Age Arabs and some azab figures form Renaissance Ottomans will fit the bill.

Moghul, Rajput, Vijayanagara
These three Indian powers have a lot of common components.
The foot units of the Indian mutiny range provide levy, swordsmen and matchlocks. Archers are absent, Arab figures, (Or classical Indians) might be substituted.
Elephants from the Mutiny range, otherwise it's about making the best of the classical indians again.
Imagination is required for the disnctive mounted components.
The Ottoman range provide something suitable for Moghul riders.
Cataphracts (Classical again) might be the best stand-ins for Rajput lancers.
For artillery, take your pick from large Western style pieces, or old Ottoman bombards.

East Indies
It's tricky to match the warrior garb of sarong, long shield, turban and kris / javelin   - some artistic license required here.
Most available figures with Turban are pretty well wrapped up aganst the sun, most with loincloths are distinctly sub-saharan.
Mahdist horse might make the best match for the sultans cavalry.
Elephant will be an Indian Mutiny range.
The difficulty in finding blowpipe scouts is noted above.

Eastern Pirates
Quite a variety here, I tend to visualise these as the Bugis or Sulu, so would expect a very East Indies appearance.
With less focus on sarong and long shield you may be able to co-opt some Indian mutineers and Arabs.
If you're prepared to base your pirates a bit further North, you can throw in some Japanese - thought I'd go for the peasant figures as opposed to the more distinctive samurai and ashigaru.


Conclusion:

Pendraken certainly provide plenty of figures to enable Portuguese and Dutch explorers to fight encounters in South Africa, East Africa, Arabia and all of India.
It's a bit of a push to provide forces for the East Indies.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi
Good list of proxies. For Tribal African archers you could look at Aztec commoner with bow.

You could also use the rugga rugga for  arquebusiers.

You mention West and East Africans but since you mention heavy cavalry I'll assume you mean West. East Africans wouldn't have cavalry but would be a heavily Arabisised elite with tribal auxiliaries. Both covered by other proxies. You could also look at the Sudanese Ghulam types from the Arab range

You could have a look at the newer Sarmatian cataphracts for heavy cavalry


The East Indies are a problem. Long shields are for more primitive types like dyaks so maybe Indians could be used. Turbans aren't worn by all and sometimes trousers are worn with the sarong and if the weather drops down to a chilly 30 degrees shirt and bolero could be worn. I'd use a big mixture, almost like your described pirates. Not much to suggest for the blowpipe type, maybe the Sudanese javelinman from the Arab range with the spearhead snipped off the javelin set in amongst a lot of greenery 🙂


Probably not much of a help but good luck.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[mmcv]

The Arab cavalry from the new Persian range (PER13) looks pretty versatile. I've a pack of them in my painting queue to add to my medieval Saracens. But they'd potentially fit as some irregular cavalry for your period:

[steve_holmes_11]

Thanks, some great suggestions there.

I think where it's difficult to match an infantry type, employing a mixture of "near enough" types provides a a better look than using all one single type.

[TinyTinTroops]

We've been messing around with these rules a fair bit over the past year or two but never really did much with the original period of the rules.

I had a number of left over ECW & late 17C stuff from other projects and hit  on the rules as a simple way of using them up and having short games in periods we didn't do. Almost skirmish but not quite meant that we could push boundaries & reality a bit.

We decided very quickly that we would update the rules to work from about 1660 on to about 1720 and concentrate on the Americas. We ditched all the silly stuff such as parsons and priests and the random army lists - I can see how others would like them but we don't.

To cut a long story short we ended up extending them to the FIW as well and now we both have quite a lot of varied forces for Spanish, English (later British), French, American, Pirates, Cimmaroons, Woodland Natives etc. I've got a pile of Conquistador & S. American stuff yet to paint - taking us back to the rules without our additions/changes. We have just started a simple campaign in the FIW and the battles will be fought using our version of IW.

You could look at some Irregular Miniatures stuff for pre-gunpowder American Natives and they also do a quite varied pack of Pirates. Similar in size to Pendraken but more loosely sculpted.

[paulr]

... Cimmaroons ...

Cameroons

[fred.]

Period term for escaped slaves and others living outside the law. They could be quite organised and large in number.

[steve_holmes_11]

Period term for escaped slaves and others living outside the law. They could be quite organised and large in number.

Cimarons: Got the best riddims.



The Camerons are a whole different fearsome clan:



Cameroons - deadly in the box.



And don't get me started with:

[TinyTinTroops]

It is in the army lists and refers to escaped slaves who have banded together, often allying themselves with the local native peoples in resisting the Spanish.

Originally it seems to have referred to their ferocity in defending their settlements - it is also a Spanish name for the wild sheep of the mountains who can get very aggressive to people during the rut.

It is spelled in various ways and became a term sometimes applied to independent African communities in non-Hispanic areas too.

Despite its similarity to other Spanish terms relating to race it doesn't seem to have originally been a derogatory name.

[paulr]

Thanks Fred & TTT, learnt something today