HMGS / Pacific Southwest

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On Sunday October 23, seven members of the St. Crispin’s Irregulars showed up at the Muzeo in Anaheim for The Queen’s Gallery Exhibit to showcase the Siege of Khartoum using the incredibly colorful and extensive 25mm collection owned by Rod Galati, supplemented by the talented craftsmanship of Frank Patterson and RJ Galati who both developed and built the terrain, boats and many of the buildings. Rod’s amazingly well-painted figures were the talk of the museum as people came through and admired the exhibit set up in the museum theater. The thoroughness of the St. Crispin’s Irregulars in setting up a miniatures tabletop war game display worthy of an H.G. Wells campaign as described in his book “Little Wars”. Her Majesty Queen Victoria herself was awestruck at the fine display of her forces in action against the enemies of her Empire. This may have been an actress playing the part of the Queen, but with a Time Machine on display nearby in the Steampunk: History Beyond Imagination exhibit nearby we could not be sure.

Hundreds of people came through the room throughout the day and spoke positively about the attention to detail and realistic appearance of the layout. Yet Khartoum wasn’t just a tabletop display, it was a full game ready to play. When told it was a game; many of the younger crowd were eager to jump in and start playing. Due to the enthusiastic attention that the Khartoum tabletop was receiving, the battle didn’t get to start until later when the crowds thinned out a bit.

Once they did, four young men followed in the footsteps of many a Victorian-era gentleman by taking command of the elements of both sides to see if History would be repeated…. or changed.

The battle started out well with Her Majesty’s troops gaining the initiative. They manned the walls of Khartoum, watching as the Dervish came into view. Meanwhile, orders went out to the Red Sea Force to move in, and the Nile River Force to start down river. You can see here the troops and their supplies starting on the southern voyage to try and relieve the beleaguered city.

From Rod Galati’s fine 28mm Sudan collection (painted by himself). Steamboats crafted and constructed by the gifted Frank “Bama” Patterson. The British River Force departs from camp at Korti and begins its 400 mile journey – negotiating treacherous cataracts on its way up the Nile to rescue Gordon trapped in Khartoum. The advance guard of the River Force under General Earle, is led by a 9 pounder artillery piece on the bow and a Gatling machine gun on the top deck. The 42nd Highlanders (The Black Watch) man the decks and are in tow.
The Steamboat at Meddina also made steam as she headed out to help evacuate the civilians from the city before the Mahdi’s forces arrived. meanwhile, far across the desert sands, the British Camel Corps were venturing out into the Sahara on their way to the Oasis in an attempt to get some forces to Khartoum as soon as possible.

The Camel Corps, desperate to quench their thirst, makes a determined push for the Wells at Abu Klea driving off a Dervish scouting party. The Camel Corps, led by Gen. Stewart, was an ad hoc formation of hand picked troops from each of the best regiments in the British Army. Their mission was to cut across the desert and make for Metemmeh, along the Nile and board Gordon’s pre-positioned steamboats and make the last hundred mile dash to rescue the city.
The Mahdi meanwhile was doing everything he could to stop the British from thwarting his attempts to make his way to Jerusalem via Khartoum. He sent some of his Dervish across the desert and down the Nile in little skiffs to try and delay the British.

The Hadendowa tribe (Fuzzy Wuzzies of Kipling’s poem) led by the Turco-Sudanese Slave trader, Osman Digna, makes a ferocious attack upon the Red Sea Force as the Brits try and force there way through the rugged mountain passes to gain access to the Nile and then on to relieve Gordon of Khartoum. General Graham in Scarlet tunic upon a white horse leads men of the Naval brigade (Royal Marines & sailors) Scots Guards and Bengal (India) Infantry.

Things were not looking good for the British as the enemy Dervish swept across the barren sands on their way to the walls of Khartoum. The rabble force stretched across the horizon as they swarmed onwards toward the defenders of the city.
Fierce fighting broke out as Her Majesty’s troops engaged the oncoming enemy. Meanwhile, behind them, the Red Sea Force was able to wipe out one of the Mahdi’s units, causing the rest to cower in the sands as the Red Sea Force pushed onwards. In the east, the Camel Corps fought through a number of ambushing Dervish to gain the oasis where they rested and prepared to move on into Meddina to gain more transport upriver.

Alas, it was too late for Her Majesty’s defenders on the walls. The Dervish managed to breach the walls and flooded into the city, causing the remaining British troops and their Egyptian allies to fall back to their internal fortress where General Gordon tried to hold out.

Eventually though, General Gordon managed to fight his way through to the steamboat at the docks to escort the civilians to safety while the city burned behind him. As the sun set on that day’s engagements, Her Majesty’s troops started a slow pullback while the Mahdi’s forces continued their rampage in the abandoned city of Khartoum.
There were so many people at the Muzeo who wanted to see this display again; most of them were just as eager to see the game played through. Special thanks goes out to Rod Galati once again for his generosity and support of this endeavor through the use of his extensive collection of miniatures. Maybe soon another opportunity to replay the History of Khartoum will come to the Muzeo again. The Kabel Gallery is available for the HMGS/PSW to exhibit games in until the end of the year. Please contact VP Harmon Ward for information. If you don’t have an army or know the era very well, please volunteer anyway. We always need a lot of members available to speak to the public about historical miniature gaming.

Hey Bill, more practice posting…

To those besides Bill who actually check out my posts:

Yesterday I spent the day at Orangecon, the yearly big contest held by my IPMS club here in Southern California. I had a blast! It was one of the best days ever. I won five raffle prizes; one of which I sold, and I also took delivery (finally!) of my 1/72 scale German Dora Railgun! What a monster that beast is!

The cream of the day is the fact that I also placed Third in Rotary Wing Aircraft; All Types, All Scales with my Hobbycraft 1/72 scale Piasecki H-21 Flying Banana!

This is one of the models I have started and worked on at St. Crispin’s Hobby Days on Mondays and Saturdays. Some of you may have even seen it at any one of those days if you’ve ever been down to St. Crispin’s.

I consider any award I win at Orangecon to be second only to an award from the Nationals. Then again, it is my club’s contest; and it is the premier contest in Southern California. It is also the toughest one for me to place in and that means I earned it!

Now that all that is done; I’ll be trying to finish up my armored train before I start that monster Dora. I’m hoping by the end of the year I’ll be done with the train and then I can start the New Year with the Dora under construction.

Last Monday we were all sitting around admiring RJ’s excellent little gunboat that he had made for the Khartoum battle:

Meanwhile we were trying to decide how to get the Nile to look like the Nile and be worthy of the tabletop battle for Khartoum. What we were using was a brown tape that; while pretty accurate in color, looked too much like a road. Suddenly, RJ himself came up with a brilliant idea.

We got some rope and laid it out on the underside of the tabletop terrain cloth:

Once we’d shifted the rope around to get the best representation of what we wanted, we taped it into place and then flipped the terrain cloth. The Nile was now a channel passing down the battlefield:

Yes, it is a little hard to see in this pic, but the effect was excellent.

Now what to do….

Blue carpet was then purchased and cut into long sections that fit right into the two banks on each side of the channel. Then we shot some green and brown paint over the carpet in a light spray, simulating a green-brown river.

And the Nile was flowing free!

We continued to work on the tabletop, getting it ready for the opening of the Muzeo exhibit. Khartoum got a ‘paved’ section that was cut from the carpet as well, allowing us to keep the city in the same size and shape we wanted for maximum effect:

Frank Patterson also finished up a couple of his paddlesteamers that will be used by Her Majesty’s troops on the Nile:

Forgive the use of Civil War troops here; we were using them as templates to insure that the stands of the Mahdi’s force and Her Majesty’s troops would fit on the boats properly. Both the Mahdi’s forces and Her Majesty’s troops are based the same as these Civil War troops.

Here is a barge he also did, simply by leaving the upper cabin and deck off the boat. It’s all loaded with more troops for the besieged city of Khartoum:

So now you all have a sneak preview of what the Khartoum battlefield will look like:

So, now that you’ve seen all this, we at St. Crispin’s do hope to see all of you stopping buy to see the battle. Who knows? You may even make or re-make History should you decide to take command of one or the other of the forces vying for control of the lower Nile….