RSS FeedAngus Konstam is an author and historian - visit his website at
www.anguskonstam.com or e-mail him at anguskonstam@aol.com
He's a member of the Orkney Wargames Club, which meets in Kirkwall on Thursday evenings.
See their Facebook page for more info.
I can remember the very day when I was first hooked by this period. When I was about twelve I went on a school trip to Edinburgh Castle, and for me the highlight was the Scottish War Museum. In it was the usual collection of uniforms, weapons and mementos, but what really too my
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men Who Would Be Kings, 28mm A change of scale this week, and of battleground. We were off to the North-West Frontier, and a punitive expedition against the troublesome Waziris of Marsdi Khel. It’s a village in the Tochi Valley, and in 1897 it was one of several trouble spots
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men Who Would Be Kings, 28mm This one was set in the Boer war, amid the campaigning around Ladysmith. The British had withdrawn, leaving the area occupied by the Boers. However, a couple of wagons containing the regimental whisky supplies had bogged down, and Colonel Potts ordered their immediate recovery.
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men Who Would Be Kings, 28mm I missed last week’s club night thanks to another engagement, so I didn’t get my game fix. To remedy this, I was planning to run a small colonial game with Mr. Babbage – the solitaire system that came with the rules. Halfway through though,
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men who would be Kings, 28mm We headed off to the Transvaal this week, for a Colonial-era game set in the 2nd Boer War. In this one, the Boers had been defeated, and were retreating in some disorder. To buy time though, a small rearguard decided to hold off the
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men Who Would Be Kings, 28mm As we hadn’t played a colonial game for a while we visited the North-West Frontier this evening. The game involved a powerful British Imperial force driving up the Zhob Valley, in an attempt top capture the fort at Hindu Bagh. It had been held
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men Who Would be Kings, 28mm This was an attack and defence game, with the Boers dug in around the hamlet of Witkerk (“White Church”) in the Transvaal. The British appeared out of the veldt to the north. The hamlet lay just north of a ford over the Mizinyathe River.
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men Who Would Be Kings, 28mm This week we were off to the Khyber Pass, for a small skirmish game set in the North-West Frontier. This involved a British attack on a fort, Ali Masjid, which had recently been overrun by the Afridis in a surprise attack. In fact all
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, Black Powder, 28mm We were off to the Sudan this week, or rather the Sudanese-Egyptian border. The premise was that the Mahdi hadn’t died the previous year, but was spared the typhus that killed him thanks to a “miracle cure” medicine. His stash was stolen though, by a British agent, and
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men Who Would be Kings, 28mm We were going to do a big Sudan game this evening, but various things conspired to foil the scheme. So, we scaled things back, kept the game in the same period, and moved it 2,500 miles to the north west. This one was set
Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, The Men who would be Kings, 28mm We were off to South Africa this week, for a small three player game set in the Second Boer War. The British objective was to capture De Jager’s Drift (ford), the only place for miles where British guns and wagons could cross the Buffalo
