High Velt Hunting

1901- Aaron van Leiden smoothly exhaled, stopped, lifted the rifle imperceptibly and fired. Six hundred meters away a British soldier's head exploded. Six other commandos charged at the blockhouse, throwing white phosphorus as cover. A British soldier poked his head over the roof, not realizing that the Boers had telescopic sights. The five remaining soldiers in the blockhouse attempted to run out the door, getting cut down with Maxim fire. Within minutes the bridge was mined, and the commandos retreated.

(OTL the Boers would have been unable to do this. Let's assume they figure out how to transport light machine guns around and get better at sniping as well as more organized).
 
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Good point. And I might be ASB on the manufacturing of the time. However, Maxim's original gun was light: When he added the water jacket it became heavy. If I wanted to go ASB I could always introduce the AK-47.:) But let's not.

As for accuracy: The telescopic sight was invented in 1880. So we have one part of this equation. Maxims were used, so we have another. Mortars existed, and dynamite was common. So we can have a much better insurgency with new tactics.
 
I think the problem isn't so much with the technology as with the tactics. This isn't how most people at the time expected wars to be fought, and though they would fairly quickly adapt, by then getting the equipment together would be difficult. Very few rifles at the time were accurate over anything like 600 metres, and mortars weren't portable by definition. A lot of the nasties of modern war (including poison gas) were already known in the late 19th century, but you nweed the infrastructure to make them in place before the war. Where would the Boers get white phosphorus, for instance?
 
Look at the tactics used against Napoleon in Spain. Hell, smoke could be even caused by the burning of black powder, something I learned pretty well myself. I think the Boers would have either just given in to England or adapted the guerilla tactics if the Brits had come on with even more force.
 

mowque

Banned
I wish the Boers luck, but they have the deck stacked against them. They are going up a powerful empire, one that has a well trained military and no outside power can help them out.
 
Then the concentration camps would have been started earlier, without instant media news coverage the Empire could and did get away with extremely ruthless actions.
 

mowque

Banned
The camps in South Africa crushed the Boers in OTL, in this TL they would have been resorted to earlier in my opinion.

Well the exact tactics are unimportant. The biggest issue is that they can get no foreign aid (unlike the Americans in own Rev.). Without aid, and even without any foreign oversight they can use whatever techniques they want (like camps, scorched earth).
 
Well the exact tactics are unimportant. The biggest issue is that they can get no foreign aid (unlike the Americans in own Rev.). Without aid, and even without any foreign oversight they can use whatever techniques they want (like camps, scorched earth).

As I said the Empire cared not who it offended, it was the end result that mattered.
 
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