Troops on Parade - 28mm WW1 Mesopotamia - Britain and Empire

This time of year we would normally be bigging it up large, as the kids would say and playing our traditional WW1 Mesopotamia. We are due to continue a series of games covering the attempts to relieve the Siege of Kut, next up was the Battle of the Wadi.

Unfortunately the Rona has done our legs again so no Xmas game this year. So with the table empty it was time for another Troops on Parade feature, this time with the Mesopotamia collection, it might be its only outing of the Year.

So whilst the hobby main stream bang on about big games being unachievable and how everyone wants to replay major battles in 10 minutes on a 2 ft square, Yarkshire Gamer draws the line in the sand as says no !

Don't look at a big battle and say "I can't do that, it will take too long", say "Wow, how impressive is that, I want to work really hard and achieve something similar !"

Start the fight back by watching this video,

Now that won't help the fight too much, but it will increase my views and subscribers 😀 

The rest of the post will be stills and ramblings from the video.

The Cavalry are relatively new to the collection, these Indian Cavalry are from Newline Designs which reminds we I need to order some more.

I just love the sight of buckets full of painted 28mm, it took me ten years to put these together and I'm damn proud of the collections I put together, I want to play big games with them on big tables that take days to do so and also include fish and chips !

I shout out to those big battle people who are left, in the attics and outbuildings of the nation, pressured to do an "army" thats smaller than most of your units. Stand tall, stand proud, stand in your local supermarket and shout "I like it BIG !"

And when you get back from the Magistrates Court, get em out on the table and game for hours.

Still with me, nice one - we should have seen off the micro gamers now 😎  above is the first brigade of troops, most units are 34 figures strong. A 2 fig HQ unit and 4 x 8 figure companies. 4 battalions here, Cheshire Battalion, RND, Gurkhas and a Sikh unit. The Yarkshire Tea box is one of my favourites.

The second brigade has Highlanders, Hindus, Ox Bucks and Sikhs. Most figs in the collection are Woodbine Design Company but I also have Minifigs, Empress, Great War, Aritizan and Newline.

The third Brigade features 3 Battalions of Anzac Troops with some Arab Irregulars lurking at the back.

The fourth Brigade is a work in progress with two Hindu units at the moment, I'm going to add a British Battalion with the new Empress Miniatures figs and an as yet undecided 4th unit, maybe more Gurkhas ? Prominent in this photo are two Signallers from Great War Miniatures, I love this set, full of character, a bit Western Front, but who cares when they are this good !

Some detail shots now, 2 x Sikh Battalions, note the British Officers.

The growing Cavalry force, my British Cavalry are early war Western Front figures with Woodbine Design head swaps, courtesy of my mate Harry, painted up by me, horses in oils on white undercoat and figures in  acrylic on black. An interesting challenge on a one piece casting 🤔 

Irregular Arab Cavalry from Artizan.

Centre of the picture are Woodbine Design Gurkhas with Lawrence of Arabia doing a photo bomb 💣 

The Royal Naval Detachment unit, love the caps and faces on these guys.

Who doesn't want to game with masses of troops  ?

We are so lucky as gamers today to have so many great looking figure ranges from so many different manufacturers. Each one of the figures in this picture is different and so many have their own little character.

Did I mention that there are Highlanders.

And guns !

So thats all folks, at least the collection saw the light of day this year. I will do a similar feature for the Turkish forces soon.