Something New: The Moro War

Tiger Miniatures Moros with firearms on the painting dock.

One of the things I love most about history, music and yes miniature wargaming is connection. So, I think it’s really cool that young Don Gallucci of Portland played on “Louie Louie” with the Kingsmen, appeared with Don and the Goodtimes on Where the Action Is in 1966, and arguably played on the first American progressive rock album in the band Touch in 1968, and produced Fun House by the Stooges. Unfortunately, Gallucci largely disappeared from Rock n Roll at the age of 21 and went into California real estate.

I have developed a real interest in a series of conflicts which ultimately sucks the U.S. into war in 1898. It starts with the Cuban War of Independence 1895-98, the Spanish American War, The Philippine American War 1899-1902, and finally The Moro Wars 1902-1913. It’s the big overseas American colonial war, setting aside the 120 years of American Indian wars which occur at home.

And I’ve bit big time on period. I started by falling in love with the 1898 Miniatures for the Philippine War. During Covid I jumped fully clothed into the Spanish American War at sea, but I also have a fair number of painted Spanish and Cubans to cover the earlier rebellion as well as the American conflict around Santiago and in Puerto Rico. Still some to paint, but it’s very much on my to do list for 2024. Jon Freitag who sometimes reads this blog, sent me his one bag of Old Glory Moros where they’ve lived, mostly buried under my piles of unpainted figures. But I stumbled over them after Drumbeat in February when my friends were talking up the wonderfulness of One Hour Skirmish Wargames. It took little to persuade myself these rules would be ideal for the Moro Wars.

Well of course I did. I knew nothing about the Moro Wars except that they took place after the Philippine conflict was resolved and that it was fought against Muslim warriors in Mindinao. Or at least that’s what I thought and then I bought books. I don’t know about you, but new projects must be accompanied by new books. I began with James Arnold’s 2011 book on the Moro War which was quite good and am presently immersed in Robert A. Fulton’s 1920 narrative, revised in 2007, Moroland which offers even more background to the conflict. So far, so good.

Moro figures are a bit more of a challenge. The Muslim Moro people are quite different than the majority Catholic Philippine insurgents that struggled against American rule in the early 20th century. So swapping out the awesome 1898 Miniatures Philippine insurgents for the Moros won’t work. Moros couldn’t wear brimmed hats and wore turbans instead. They also wore brightly colored clothes. Finally, the Moros fought mostly with a variety of very nasty edged weapons rather than Spanish Remington and Mauser rifles (though they would learn to grab those where they could too.) So it’s best to get purpose-made Moros.

At the present time the only makers of 28mm figures are Old Glory and Tiger Miniatures. Old Glory offers two bags of Moros. One bag is armored with a variety of swordsmen and spearmen. The other bag is unarmored and include Moros with guns. I’ve read a lot about Moro efforts to get guns–Spanish guns, modern rifles and ammunition, thrown into Lake Lanoe or Jolo harbor–but less about the Moro’s particular prowess as marksmen. You probably need fewer shooters and more stabbers. The Old Glory figures are okay. Detail isn’t super crisp, but they come with a couple of different spear designs. I have the pack of armored guys and will probably add a pack of the unarmored figures at some point.

The Tiger Miniatures figures are bigger than Old Glory. The castings are less crisp. However there is a larger variety of figures and they are offered in packs of five instead of 30–always a virtue. They also have leader figures, which is nice. Add that to the interesting American sets that are also small–telegraph, sailors, marines and that’s a bonus for small quantities in a skirmish game. Don’t forget SAW-75 (Tiger catalog number) which is listed as Filipino Scouts, but are really the fez-topped Moro scouts and constabulary who play an important role in the conflict.

The Moro War is essentially a forgotten conflict, though it lasted more than ten years. It still has some resonance as historians begin to compare it to the conflict in Afghanistan and the difficulty in sustaining the occupation of a Muslim country thousands of miles from the U.S. It’s a super subject for small level games. I’ll mount these singly and hope to have enough figures for both One Hour Skirmish Wargaming and perhaps a small game of The Men Who Would Be Kings

Just as an addendum: The Moro War is also very much a naval conflict. Lots of pirates operated in the Sulu Sea and the American Navy had a small fleet of gunboats, some purchased from Spain after the war that sought to interdict them. So what you, say? Just want to plug The Virtual Armchair General and their 15mm range of The Kris and the Flame which covers the conflict in the South China Sea and East Indies, but would include the Moro buccaneers operating out of the Sulu islands. Some very nice 3D printed ships at a reasonable price with inexpensive 15mm crews. However, my 28mm attuned tastes say no.