Belgium Askari to Fight the Mahdi

Ever since I started wargaming the Sudan, I have read further and further into the period and until recently I had no idea that there were other Colonial Armies fighting against the Mahdi at the same time as the Anglo/Egyptian Armies.

One of these other Colonial Armies was from the Belgium Congo. In the mid, the to late 1890s the Mahdi State was sending out armies south in the search of slaves and territory. Then in 1897 they went into North/Eastern Belgium Congo and fought a series of small to medium engagements against mainly Belgium trained and lead Askari troops. The Belgium lead Askari troops were victorious many if not all of these engagements with little artillery and no cavalry support (that I am aware of). So wargaming this period with these troops should be quite interesting indeed.

In order to make my favourite period a little more interesting, I decided to order eight units (ten figures each) of these great figures from Wargames Foundry. Once the little army is painted and based they will hopefully make for an interesting game, if not a little more colour for the tabletop.

The first two units of my new colonial army I have just recently finished painting and basing this afternoon. Bit of a miracle really, having them completed and on the blog in two days…phew. Leroy has another company of ten figures and the mounted command, which I will place up, hopefully, in a few weeks. So please enjoy and maybe these guys will inspire others to branch out and go deep into the Dark Continent.