So we find our intrepid adventurers settling to their new home on the East Coast of Africa. They get along swimmingly with the locals, who are astounded to meet somebody dressed weirder than they are, and our heroes wonder how they are going to survive this sunny clime.
With the loss of their monarch, Rory McBan is chosen as the first Leader.(Evidently he lost the coin toss.) But a chair is reserved for His Absent Majesty, should he ever return.
The natives are happy to trade Natty dressing tips for more modern farming techniques, and the Scots trade Bag Pipe lessons for some really neat woven sun hats. (Think of a Tam with a palm frond brim.) Thank goodness the natives took to the Bag Pipes. They discovered that it drove their Northern Neighbors nuts.
Not much happens again till 1744 when a bunch of lost English Georgites wander in and try to start a fight about Nova Caledonia's Jacobite Loyalties.After soundly thrashing the interlopers in a rousing game of Whist, our intrepid adventurers decide to mount an expedition to the Auld Sod, to help His Absentness to reclaim his Birthright.
More on this act of lunacy as I make it up... I mean decipher the records!
You should really try a conversion or three to show Nova Caldenonian in 'local' dress with Native bagpipers! Would make a colorful unit at Culloden -if the Nova Caledonians ever reach Europe, that is!
ReplyDeletePart of the plan... 8^)
ReplyDeleteAfter Culloden, will widows in Nova Caledonia sadly sing 'Loch Lomond'?
ReplyDeleteSupposing the Nova Caledonian volunteers manage to reach Europe -given their antecedents I doubt they'll double the Cape of Good Hope; btw, are they aware that the Suez Canal is, as yet, only a project?
The effect of the bagpipes on hostile natives was to be expected: for the uninitiated the trumpetings of a stampede herd of elephants, the roars of a pride of hungry lions, are *nothing* compared to the screams of the bagpipe. No wonder the military forces of all ex-British colonies, from Jordan to Hongkong, maintain 'pipes & drums' bands: they remember the bagpipes, not as music instruments but as dreadful weapons of psychological warfare. Not bad as torture instruments, either: reportedly people locked themselves in an Iron Maiden to escape the noise.
In their early days such colonies generally lack women: remember the legendary founding of Rome. If without the racial prejudices of later Afrikaners, did they took wives from the friendly native populations? Also, such colonies often lack manpower, and even the Dutch in South Africa raised an unit of local 'Pandours'. Combining both ideas, if the Nova-Caledonians were reluctant to train male natives with other modern weapons than bagpipes, they could have raised an unit of local 'Female Pandours' in appropriate uniform -although *without skirt*, since in Nova Caledonia a skirt is part of manly attire?
Very colourful with a touch of lunacy.
ReplyDeleteSome (totally unsolicited) ramblings about possible 'Native' allies for early Nova Caledonia:
ReplyDelete=> African 'Knights': ['Historically' certainly not from the neighboring of Nova Caledonia, but who cares? In the 'Cleopatra' movie with Elizabeth Taylor, some 'Nubian' dancers looked definitively Zulu-like....]
Potentially colorful, but Irregular minis does a single pose and the raised quilted collar would make headswappings difficult (greenstuff for changing the 'helmet'?).
=> Black Amazons:
°Unfortunately, among the few with muskets,
- the Eureka (Pax Limpopo) ones ['enter' if necessary 'access denied'] are in 'non-fighting' pose (though the litter can be used, simply changing the 'passenger'),
- the Dixon Amazons of Dahomey, according to the few pics I saw, even painted with skill and dedication (from The Wargame Shed) look like female Orcs on their bad days.
°Wider choice for those with 'primitive' weapons:
Foundry offers (!) 3 sets BRDA14, 15, 17 but imho the Obelisk ones look better, specially the 'Elite'.
Note that, if you can add pistols at the waistbelt, the Obelisk elite Amazons would technically be of the same 'type' as the archetypal Highlands clansman charging with broadsword and target: some shooting capacity, but basically inclined to a 'wild charge'.
ReplyDeleteAnd you can paint tartan on their mini-skirts...