The French had been using camel-mounted troops in North Africa for some time. With typical patrol areas equivalent to travelling from London to Naples and back (2,500 miles), they had proven ideal for ‘flying the flag’ in the remote desert areas of the Sahara and Maghreb. With similar large areas to cover it was natural that they should raise similar units in the Côte française des Somalis.The Méharistes had originally been established in the Sahara as a nomadic gendarmerie, drawn from the local population, but with French officers and NCOs, drawn from the Bureau deAffaires Indigènes (Native Affairs Bureau). Unlike the similar Spahis and Tirailleurs however, the Méharistes were paramilitary formations and only served within their own locales. The system was later extended to the Mandate in the Levant and into French Somaliland.Grab the charismatic Méharistes army list from The Abyssinian Crisis blog here Méharistes Army List
The Mosque at Al Jazirya – Chain of Command Game Five
I’ve been working on the Chain of Command campaign supplement today, only vaguely diverted by the arrival of some new toys from Perry Miniatures (lovely stuff) and the usual end of year accounts nonsense. One of the great bits of finalising a project is that there is always an excuse to have a quick game,