Sorting It All Out - The Figures

If I had my preference I would game the Herero War in 25/28mm, as there are some excellent companies making suitable figures in that scale.  However, as I live in a two bedroom condo, and the second bedroom is used as our den/office, my gaming space is limited to the dining room table, and that doesn't allow a lot of room, especially for the larger figures.  I find 6mm almost too small for my liking, and to be honest, finding suitable figures in 6mm might be a bit more difficult.  I could handle 10mm, but there are no companies, that I know of, making Boxer and/or Boer War figures that I can use as adequate substitutes for the Germans and Hereros.  Therefore, with all this in mind, I posted on The Miniatures Page (TMP) some months back about using 15mm figures, and received some quite helpful advice and suggestions from Roy Jones, who should probably be called Mr. Herero, as he is the current expert when it comes to this conflict from a gaming perspective.

With the scenarios available in Mr. Jones' The Herero War book, most of which are on a six foot by four foot table, I realized that I could halve the distance scale and use my existing terrain I have about for other arid settings.  I bought some nice terrain tiles and assorted other bits from The Terrain Guy, who sadly now is defunct.  But what I bought will give me a nice looking three foot by two foot layout, which works perfectly with the dining room table, and 15mm figures.

If you know me, you know that I like my figures for any era or project to be from the same manufacturer.  There is something about the figures, if all designed by the same sculptor, "matching" as it were, on the tabletop that I simply prefer.  That means any project I get into has to have a complete range of figures to buy if the project is fairly comprehensive (complete in terms of what I want to accomplish, that is).  With German Schutztruppe, Marines, sailors, artillery and crews, facing off against Hereros, mounted and dismounted, with most looking like Boers but some specialized units using captured German uniforms, I had to find a range that made Boxer Rebellion Germans along with Boer War figures.  The Boxer Rebellion range had to include See Battalion (for use as Marines) along with Far East Asian Brigade (for use as Schutztruppe).  Mounted and dismounted types for both sides, and artillery for the Germans were also of a concern.  The Old Glory 15s Boxer and Boer War ranges seem to cover most of what I will need to game the various scenarios in Mr. Jones' epic work.

Conversing via TMP with Mr. Jones has led to the following figures beings used for this project:

Germany

• Senior Officers - BOX11 (Allied Mounted Generals/Officers - French, German, US, British, Russia)
• Schutztruppe - BOX10 (German Far Eastern Brigade Infantry And Cavalry)
• Landungkorps - BOX6A (Sailors #1 - British and Russian)
• Marine-Infanterie - BOX03 (Italian Besagliere, German Sea Battalion, Armed European Civilians)
• Bastards - BOX10 (German Far Eastern Brigade Infantry And Cavalry)
• Feldkanone - BOX12 (Artillery #2 Russian, British and British Naval)
• Maschinenkanone - 
• Revolverkanone - SUD17A (British Naval Brigade Gatling Guns)
• Gebirgsgeschutz -

Herero

• Foot - COW12 (Dismounted Boers)
• Shock Troops - BOX03 (Italian Besagliere, German Sea Battalion, Armed European Civilians)
• Infiltrators - BOX10 (German Far Eastern Brigade Infantry And Cavalry)
• Mounted - COW13 (Mounted Boers)
• Command - BOX11/COW14 (Allied Mounted Generals/Officers - French, German, US, British, Russia and Boer Artillery and Mounted Generals)

As you can see, there will be plenty of extra figures I will not be needing, and I still have to determine what to use for the machine cannon and mountain gun, but the above gives me a good start on collecting figures.  Now that I know what figures to buy, determining what rules to use will help me determine how many figures to purchase...but that is another post!