28mm Cape Mounted Rifles, Frontier Wars

Over the course of a few months, some members of the Peninsula Wargames Group have been exploring the possibilities of gaming skirmish scenarios set during the Cape Frontier Wars.

Between 1779 and 1879, a series of conflicts was fought between the Xhosa, Boers, Khoikhoi, San and British on the eastern frontier of the then Cape Colony. It was the longest running military engagement in African colonial history.

But these local conflicts are seldom seen represented on the gaming table, especially when compared to the more familiar wargaming fare of the Zulu and Boer wars. They were not conflicts with many large set-piece battles, and was more guerrilla than regular warfare. For this reason, we decided to adapt Muskets and Tomahawks, (now unfortunately out of print), which is an excellent rule set for representing irregular warfare, to local conditions.

Until recently, the Xhosa Wars were also poorly represented amongst 28mm figure ranges, but over the last year or two Perry Miniatures have released some lovely figures. These are three of their Cape Mounted Rifles packs.

The Cape Mounted Rifles was a colonial regiment recruited from residents of the Cape Colony. It could trace its origins to a regiment raised by the Dutch rulers of the Cape in 1793 and eventually became the Cape Corp.

By the mid-1800s, the regiment's troopers were equipped with double-barreled cavalry carbines, and wore a "rifle's green" jacket over cavalry trousers. There are very few contemporary color depictions of the CMR, and those that there are appear to disagree on whether their trousers were light grey or light brown. It could be that they changed color at a time, or that both colors co-existed. My choice eventually came down to aesthetics.

The Perry figures are, as always, characterful, detailed and, as far as I can make out, accurate. Despite the limited number of packs available, there is a healthy diversity of poses in the range. In addition to these figures fighting dismounted, there are also three packs of CMR figures fighting from horseback, and some horseholders, and those are next up on my painting table.

Morris C9/B self propelled Bofors 40mm, Italy 1944

Just off the painting table, this miniature represents one of the Bofors SP AA guns operated by the 1/12 Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, of the South African 6th Armoured Division.

The majority of the regiment was equipped with towed 40mm Bofors AA guns, but each battery was assigned a small number of these gun trucks. All the images I have seen appear to show them in the early-1944 "Italian Pattern" camouflage, even those photos taken after the end of the war.

On the wargames table it will be used mostly in a ground support role, hence the "posing" of the Bofors. I dont think this is much of a stretch - a number of the photographs of the South African guntrucks show them (posed for the publicity cameras or not) with the weapon at a low elevation. Besides, due to Allied air superiority during the Italian campaign, the AA units were very underemployed in their primary role, so much so that the heavy AA batteries equipped with 3.7" guns were retrained to fight in the anti-tank role.

The miniature is based on the kit by Warlord Games. It really is a kit of two halves - the truck half being an incredibly simple combination of resin and white metal parts, and the Bofors half being a fiddly collection of white metal parts that need patience and care to put together successfully. I rebuilt the sights with plastic rod and fuse wire, added the bridging number disk, and apart from those modifications, and the addition of small number of stowage items, the kit was built 'out of the box'. It is a busy little kit, especially once the crew are added, and has great visual appeal. My only criticism is that the wheels, as supplied, were a bit ovoid in shape. Not too noticeable once the model is built, but a bit of a disappointment given the detail paid to the rest of the kit. Note that the kit cannot be built in a "deployed" mode, with the vehicle jacked up off its wheels. As always, decals are from Starmer, Dom's Decals, and Warlord Games.

HQ elements, South African 6th Armoured Division, Italy 1944

Somewhere along the line, my South African 6th Armoured Division project stopped being just about wargaming, and started to become more about building miniatures. I am no longer concentrating on vehicles and figures that are needed in a wargames army, and the chance of some of the miniatures ever seeing time on a wargames table is remote. Does that bother me? Not so much. I am really  enjoying the modeling opportunities.

AEC 'Dorchester' Armoured Command Vehicle

First off is an AEC 'Dorchester' Armoured Command Vehicle - a large and imposing vehicle based on the Matador truck chassis. It was almost the length of a Sherman tank, and a fair bit taller. Used as a forward command post, it carried a crew of at least 5, a number of radios, and a healthy attempt at a map table. The division had six Dorchesters on strength, so I assumed at least one would be assigned to each brigade. My model depicts a vehicle assigned to the HQ of the 11th Armoured Brigade - AoS 50.

I used the Perry kit for this project, and what a wonderful kit it is. Lots of character, a detailed interior (or at least detailed enough once viewed through the open hatches and doors) and four well-sculpted crew. It a big chunk of resin and metal. However, nice as it is, it could have quite easily been a lot better. Casting issues aside, the fit of the roof was poor, the masters of the wheels looked incomplete, some of the baggage details are suggestions at best, and the wall thickness (of details that should be uniform) differed. A little bit more attention to detail would have turned a good kit into an excellent kit.

Some might argue that the work put into the interior is wasted, but I am very pleased that I made the effort. The pools of light from the hatches and doors afford great "glimpse views" of the interior detail, and give the vehicle - an otherwise great big slab of armored plate - a lot more interest.

Morris 15cwt Radio Van

By the time the division got to Italy in April 1944, their Morris vehicles would have been long in the tooth, and rare, aside from specialist artillery tractors and Bofors AA trucks. They dont appear in many photos - while you see plenty of CMP, Bedford and Dodge trucks. However, I have seen an image showing South African troops examining the wreck of an 88mm in mid 1944, and, lurking in the background appears to be a Morris radio van. Its on this basis that I added this miniature to my force.

Based on the Company B kit, this model also represents a vehicle of the 11th Brigade HQ. It was, for the most part, a straight-forward build. I added a rolled tarp of green stuff, and rear steps, radio aerial rack and aerial mounting from plastic card. A neat kit, if a little fiddly and fragile for the gaming table. I had previously built the GS version of the same kit. (The reduced level of weathering on this recent build was deliberate - they are HQ vehicles, after all, and due to their proximity to top brass would be kept as neat as possible at all times, I figured.)

Jeep

Ubiquitous. What more can I say about it? This is the third one I have built for my SA 6th Armoured force, and this one depicts a divisional HQ vehicle, along with its high-ranking passenger.

 

This is the first one I have built from the Rubicon Jeep kit, and its a wonderful bit of plastic magic. Neat, detailed and easy to put together. Its a touch larger than the original Warlord resin offering, but not so much out of kilter that you couldn't field the two together. In addition to its passenger (the Rubicon crew member with a officer head swap) I added a radio set and battery.

Norton 16H

GS trucks aside, the most numerous vehicle in the division. As with the last one I built, this a mix of the Foundry motorcycle with the Perry figure, thus solving the scale problem of the Perry motorcycle, while retaining their superior rider figures.

As always, decals are from Dom's Decals, Starmer, Warlord and Rubicon. Paints, washes and varnishes are from Vallejo and Tamiya, pigments from MIG and Secret Weapon. 

Muskets and Assegaais

Peninsular Wargames Group recently playtested the use of Studio Tomahawk's excellent Muskets and Tomahawks rules for a Eastern Cape Frontier clash set in the mid-nineteenth century.

A small force of British regulars, reinforced by some local allies (Boers, amaFengu) attempted to raid on the homestead of a troublesome amaHleka neighbour.

On a table representing a settlement in the dense thicket of the Eastern Cape river valleys, the British sent their Mfengu and Boer allies forward to do the dirty work of flushing out the first defenders, and torching the buildings.

But their regular troops couldnt keep up in the broken terrain, leaving the irregulars exposed to a brutal counter attack as they attempted to torch the first huts.

The Xhosa saw off the Mfengu, and killed the Boer to a man, but once the British regulars arrived at the edges of the village itself, the Xhosa had no response to their volley fire, and would not have been able to put up much resistance had the game gone on longer.

As they fell back in the face of the British lines, the Xhosa were concentrating on getting their cattle off table. It was a good strategy, as if successful, it could have saved the game for them. But as it turned out the dice decreed that the game ended at that point.

Both sides had failed in their main objectives (for the British, to burn at least 5 huts, and for the Xhosa, to keep all enemy troops away from the village) so its was down to each officer's sideplot and the bonus objective (cattle) to determine victory. By that measure, the British were ahead 2-1, so a minor victory to the red soldiers.

Not a great deal of adaption of the rules was required - the Xhosa needed some revised stats, and we dropped the "one shot weapon" for thrown weapons, given that the Xhosa fought primarily with throwing spears. In hindsight we needed to tweak one or two of the Xhosa stats (they were a little too deadly in hand to hand) but otherwise the rules made the transition from North America to South Africa very well...