Boers

[608722CAR]

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on stats for Boers for the 1st and 2nd Boers War.

I’m concerned more about the basing at this stage. I was thinking of basing them as skirmishers when dis-mounted, and standard basing for the troops when mounted.

Thanks,

Greg

[Dr Dave]

That’s not a bad idea. That’s how Glory Hallelujah treats cavalry / mounted infantry and it works well.

Be careful not to overate the Boers – they had some good units but also some utter dross that just wanted to go home at the first chance.

I did hear a rumour about a supplement…

Have you read “Kommandos, Kruger and kak”?

[608722CAR]

Dave,

I have not but will look into it.

I was thinking of making the Boers marauders ans sharpshooter.

I’m not sure if anything else is warranted.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Greg

[Dr Dave]

Sharpshooter might give them a necessary edge for some units in shooting.

I’d ponder making the Brits drilled and tough fighters (keen with the bayonet). Shooting might be the Boers only edge.

I’m often wary of the marauder or “light cavalry” rule. Quite often there’s a knee jerk reaction to make all lights into marauders. But when you examine the accounts and maps you see the so called marauders deployed in brigade groups – so not marauding at all. Marauders dug in atop a hill seems odd.

[608722CAR]

I agree with your take on “Marauders” but I feel it would give the Boer Commandos a flexibility and independence that “Feels” right for them. Obviously some play testing will be needed.

I second your thoughts on “Tough fighters”, closing with the bayonet was certainly the way it was done.

Greg

[Dr Dave]

Get hold of kommandos, Kruger and kak. The truth lies in that book.

The Boers wanted a war
The Boers started a war
The Boers were really really nasty nasty nasty
The Boers got really upset when they lose and moan and bleat about it forever afterwards.
Most Boers – like so many “irregulars” – were actually pretty rubbish at soldiering and we’re up for it only when things went well.

[Charge The Guns]

I also heartily recommend Kommandos, Kruger and Kak. A very important work in getting things straight on this conflict.

[John Stallard]

I endorse the Kruger Kahki and Kak book, so much so I bought 4 copies what happened to them I wonder!!

I am currently writing a Boer war supplement for BP, first and second war, though first war was really a couple of large skirmishes some rubbish sieges and all over in a few months of course.

I am treating the Boers as marksmen, pretty much all of them, and treating them as marauders. Rubbish in hand to hand close in stuff on the whole which they sensibly avoid such un Christian like behaviour…

Tommy Atkins is steady and dependable of course, pretty handy with the bayonet too…

machine guns and pom poms are pretty horrid too, and don’t get me started about armoured land trains!!!! Woot!!!

cheers john Stallard

I had to write this book to cover the fact that the proposed writer of the Crimean book has lost his faculties due to nervous “exhaustion..” Poor lamb….

[Dr Dave]

I do believe that Sir John French religiously took one day off each year – 21st October, the anniversary of Elandslaagte – when he caught the Boer mounted and fleeing with the Lancers. His Boer opponent was called Kock.

[Charge The Guns]

Don’t forget the Krupp artillery! 🙂

I wondered were my copy K, K and K had come from!

Pity about the Crimea supplement. What an adventure, what a wonderful spree!

[invisible officer]

The Jameson Raid would make a nice start for a campaign book.

Done to start a Rebellion of the Uitlanders against the legal Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek government.
Nasty Boers that thought that the increasing number of foreigners was a problem. Not wishing to give them the full citizens rights.

Following the defeat of Jameson’s 600 they sent the survivors back to the British. Jameson got a slight slap on the hand from HM government, five months in Holloway. (Before it became a prison for women only, less fun)

The Oger Kaiser Wilhelm sent a telegram to Krueger, with congratulations. Brutal and nasty!
French and Russians did not like the Jameson raid either but that the Emperor did that made the British xxxxxxxxx. They wanted the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek to be a British colony. And how could anybody not wish to become a British subject?

Well, the easy defeat of Jameson’s men and the memories of first Boer war made the Boers think they had a chance to stop Rhodes that wanted war at any price. Boer failure to give improved rights for uitlanders was his pretext for war. It was Chamberlain who sent trrops and an Ultimatum demanding full equality for British citizens resident in Transvaal.

The troops at the border made that one step before war.
Krueger answered with an own Ultimatum, giving Britain 48 hours to withdraw all their troops from the border of Transvaal.

London thought that a good joke. That the few Boers wanted to play with the mighty Empire.
Surprise: The game started 11 October 1899 with a Boer offensive into the British-held Natal and Cape Colony.

Nasty Boers.

🙂

[Dr Dave]

IO makes good points.

The Boers have played a blinder on the PR front and if anyone thinks that they know anything about the war it’s that the British started it to get the diamonds and the gold. BUT The Boers started it. And then lost it really badly, so they moaned for the next 100 years.

Incidentally, The Boer chap at Elandslaagte, Kok, took a blow and succumbed a few days later.

[TheEldarGuy]

we can have special Kitchener and Churchill models. I’m all for it as long as there’s an Australian cavalry option with a special ‘Breaker’ model; perhaps with a rule: “Shoot straight you…”

Then again…

[Mark Stanoch]

Gentlemen, Please see my recent post in the Bolt Action forum questionning the use of Bolt Action rather than Black Powder for gaming late 19th century warfare. I do feel Rorke’s Drift could easily be simulated in Bolt Action as could be Colenso. Your thoughts?

[Author]

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