The Better Battle

I'm guessing for most people the iconic battle of the Old West is the Little Bighorn with its imagery of the heroic last stand - a last stand that may not have occurred.

I've decided to make my cavalry versus native Americans main battle to be the Rosebud battle. Roughly the same number - and even the same individual - natives but a larger and more diverse army presence.  Rather than just the 7th cavalry, Rosebud has 10 companies of the 3rd cavalry, 5 companies of the 2nd cavalry, 2 companies of the 4th infantry, and 3 companies of the 9th infantry.  And unlike the slightly later battle where there are minimal native allies, Crook's force had the benefit of both Shoshone and Crow allies, roughly 250 of them.  And a good thing, too, because without them Rosebud might have been just as disastrous as the Little Bighorn was for Custer's five company command.

And as a curious what if, can run the battle without those allies - they might not have shown up or might have left earlier (unlikely on that last).  How would the 1876 war with the Lakota and their Cheyenne and Arapaho allies gone if both Crook and Custer suffered devastating losses?

To this end, I've ordered in some additional figures for infantry companies.  Already have more than enough cavalry.  And, since my Old West is more than just the war portions, I've added in some other figures like Mexican peasants - a new offering from Peter Pig range.  I've also added another four dozen long horns from the same source.

Switching gears, I've also expanded my Piratical collection with more Peter Pig government troops - currently too many Nappy type troops in the collection that I want to nix to take it solidly back into the early 1700's or maybe a bit later time period.  And with the new mountain tribe figures in their Vietnam range, I've added some of those figures to use as native villagers for my Maori and Polynesians.  Of course, my pirate games are only loosely based on history.  It's meant to be a fun romp of a game.  I did get one other item from their Vietnam range, a hut meant to be a school that I will be using for my Slightly Cracked Colonials.  In that vain, I'm waiting the arrival of some additional items from Old Glory, some buildings, some Waziri ala Tarzan type troops as well as more porters, Egyptians, and some askari to represent the slave trading Arabs.