From Greg: 28mm Colonial British Cavalry, 10th Hussars (40 points)

From Greg:

This submission features some figures representing the British 10th Hussars in the Sudan with improvised lances. The figures are from the amazing Perry Miniatures Sudan collection.  

The Sudan was not a friendly place to British cavalry.  While the terrain in the Sudan was generally "open", the ground was broken and hostile to horses, poorly suited for massed maneuver.  Certainly getting into any kind of "stirrup to stirrup" formation for any length of time was impossible - and the available to calvary units were spread thin, so even if they wanted to attempt something like that, nothing Napoleonic was really possible.  

Even worse for the horse troopers the dervishes frequently hid themselves amidst the broken ground, unafraid of the horses and would spring up out of nowhere to knock out the horses by using weapons against the animals' knees, unhorsing the riders (and worse) and generally making massed cavalry charges an impractical and unsound notion.

To counter these surprise appearances by the dervishes the British cavalry units would go into the field with large lances, even though they were not formally "lancers" - the long spears allowed the riders to have a go at the dervishes hiding in the terrain, and at least give the fierce Madhist tribesmen something to think about before springing a surprise attack.  

These submission should have been a "six-pack", but two figures were casualties of the piece-of-shit Krylon primer (photo attached). It is hard to see in the pictures, but the figures essentially look like mounted wannabe-Nurgle syphilis couriers thanks to the scratchy, blotchy finish of the bad primer.  Oh well, can't make an omellette etc. etc. But my prior stated views of Krylon stand - particularly in light of losing some Perry figs to the menace. Fuck you Krylon.

So my Colonial Sudan British now have a bit of cavalry support.  I have some more lads from the 10th Hussars - with swords only.  They will follow along soon, ready to face the Madhist hordes...stay tuned for that submission...

Lovely work Greg, though I'm sorry to see those two casualties. Could they be salvaged with some Dettol, or Agent Orange or some such nasty stuff made from rendered baby seal oil and ground unicorn horns? 

I really like that dappled horse btw. 

These four cavalry will give Greg 40 points.