Nick,
       I am doing a Dahomey Army also!  Mostly Falcon, with a few Dixon and very
few Foundry.  I have played one game so far.  I want to do a campaign, but was
waiting for Kyber Pass Games to come out with a promised book on the war.  I
have collected a lot of bits of info-- perhaps you saw the bit about the Dahomey
Army in "Soldier's Companion", which was taken from my article in "Savage &
Soldier"-- an attempt to make sense of the Dahomey Army.  It would be great to
compare notes! 
    Ron Vaughan  




________________________________
From: Nick Gornall <ngornall@...>
To: ColonialWars@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 9:18:08 AM
Subject: [ColonialWars] Dahomey, was Re:Prince Imperial skirmish



Hi K.C.,

Progressing well thanks, painting in fits and starts due to other
commitments. Basing my figures for Principles of War with a unit being
a French company (around 120 bodies)or a Dahomean "Regiment" (about 400
firearm troops for the regular army or 1000 spears, etc for the levies).

French are fine- I have Dixon & Red Flag (defunct) FFL & Marine- sun
helmets so North African types no good- plus Dixon and Askari
Senegallese, Askari artillery and Castaway Sudanese Spahis. The
supplies were portered so I have assorted half-dressed natives with
boxes, etc from various makers. All I need to do is make an MG-armed
gunboat- unfortunately, no French naval brigade in this war.

Yes, the Dahomeans are the problem. The army was uniformed and had been
totally re-armed with newer firearms. The majority are Dixons
especially the Amazons but with a lot of Foundry askari/slavers types-
you are looking for blokes with a gun in shirts and shorts/skirts; the
village levy/freed slaves are the biggest pain. Now you are wanting a
few guns, perhaps a third, mostly the old junk passed on by the
regulars, with the rest armed with spears, clubs, bows, crossbows, etc;
however, they aren't like the east or central african tribes with lots
of feathered headdresses and oval zulu-esque shields- Dahomeans wore
mostly caps, headscarves and pillbox like hats and carried small square
or rectangular shields (I made most of these from card in the end);
although I have included the odd few more exotics, such as
Copplestone' s Ngoni naked female archers in the slaves. I forget who,
might be Castaway, who do Ashantis, a few of those might mix in as well.

I have written my own campaign rules to cover the appalling terrain,
supply problems and sickness that play a major part in the war (the
entire Marine company was invalided out by halfway through the war).

You are right to think about the terrain- the first half of the route
to the Dahomean capital was along jungle trails by the river; most
actions should have the river (plus gunboat) as one table edge with the
rest of the table as typical west african rainforest ie,close jungle,
plus lots of brush-choked streams running across the path into the
river. This means lots of terrain that just gets in the way so I was
thinking of leaving everywhere blank except where the French are
hacking along, when you mark the immediately adjacent landscape- as
they move, so more is revealed and placed on table, like a curtain.

Once the column reached the uplands they had to leave the river behind
to cross rolling countryside of 6 foot elephant grass and extensive
belts of forest; treat it like the jungle for LOS, etc. Into this mix
the odd village in a small clearing and the extensive earthworks the
Dahomeans threw up across the trail and you are sorted!

Sorry for the long post; get carried away sometimes... ....

Nick

--- In ColonialWars@ yahoogroups. com, "K.C. L'Roy" <kelroy.was. here@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In ColonialWars@ yahoogroups. com, "Nick Gornall" <ngornall@> wrote:
> >
> > Oddly enough I looked up the article in WI just last year while
> > deciding which box of figures to dig out of the garage and start
> > working on- sorry, but the French in Dahomey won!
>
> How far along are you with this project? I was intending to join the
> Foreign Legion for service in North Africa, but I feel a detour to
> West Africa calling me first. (Strange, the vagaries of my moods.)
> Does anyone manufacture Dahomey-ans other than Dixon? I'd be
> interested in seeing your terrain for a typical game.
>
> K.C.
>



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