Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Unit sizes for a TSATF army


I have made an attempt to get the actual numbers in the units of the British Expeditionary Force down to a maneagable level for TSATF units. The basic British unit is supposed to be 20 figures for infantry and 12 for cavalry. The numbers engaged in early 1884 were quite small but, according to the TSATF weighting system, for every British figure you need about 2.25 natives. I have read that units as small as 10 are quite viable under the rules so I have decided on units that look like this:

1st Battalion 75th Regiment (Gordon Highlanders) 750 men 20 figures
3rd Battalion 60th Regiment (King's Royal Rifle Corps) 630 men 20 figures
2nd Battalion 89th Regiment (Royal Irish Fusiliers) 400 men 14 figures
1st Battalion 42nd Regiment (The Black Watch) 750 men 20 figures
1st Battalion 65th Regiment (Yorks and Lancs) 450 men 14 figures
Royal Marine Light Infantry 480 men 14 figures

10th Hussars 300 men 9 figures
19th Hussars 400 men 12 figures
Mounted Infantry 150 men 6 figures

Total 129 figures

This is about four to six months painting if I don't get distracted (ho, ho).

Guns I will deal with later.

Unit sizes are based on the number of figures in the Perry packs, as they come in sixes for infantry and threes for cavalry. So a 14 man unit is two regular packs and two officers. A 20 figure unit is 3 regular packs and two officers etc. I suspect I have ordered too many Naval Brigade figures and 12 would have been more than enough but I can always sell them on. Total cost is about £120 (without artillery), which is not too bad.

The only figures that the Perries don't make are mounted infantry on horses. They do them on foot. Hopefully, they will come out with them at some point. Otherwise it wouldn't be that hard to convert the six figures needed.

The only problem is that I need to paint 290 Mahdists to oppose them. Never mind I have already done 36!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you ever think printing 30mm paper soldiers armies? It's cheaper, faster and much more victorian-looking than using painted pewter minis. I tried them with TSATF and the effect was great.

legatus hedlius said...

Sounds fun! But for me the painting of the figures is more interesting than the gaming!