The Men Who Would Be Kings

With my change in jobs this year, to be an educational mercenary, I've been forced to cut back on my wargaming projects and significantly reduce my expenditure. This means that I have been looking for ways to double up or even triplicate the use of terrain, rules and figures in order to squeeze out the last drops of time, money and effort, rather than starting anything new.

The current focus has been on using my existing desert terrain as a platform for skirmish level games in both 28mm and 15mm, with an emphasis on the latter to keep the cost down. This is one reason why I've been planning the No End In Sight based project for post-war platoon level campaigning in Aden and other hot locations in the Cold War.

Today I had another idea. This would involve re-repurposing the 15mm Peter Pig colonial figures that I amassed (no exaggeration there!) for Patrols in the Sudan over a decade ago. I actually have a Madhist army for PITS and played a few games back in the day, but haven't used it for ages due to a lack of interested opponents at the club.

I do have plenty of spare figures for the British and Mahdist, however, including Hadendowah, Camel Corps, a Naval landing party, British and Egyptian infantry, artillery and some extras like heliograph teams, engineers and baggage. Quite a lot in fact. So, I thought to myself, why not use them for colonial skirmish games with Dan Mersey's The Men Who Would Be Kings rules?

It's just an idea at the moment but it would be virtually cost free and would help to reduce the lead mountain, without the need for loads of painting or vast numbers of bases. I'd like to have a crack at PITS again or possibly even Death in the Dark Continent with these figures but, as a realistic project, the skirmish option is far more likely to fit.

I'll have to dig out the figures and work it out!