Welcome
to the Herero Wars homepage. Herero Wars moves the focus of historical
wargaming to Southwest Africa: specifically, German Southwest Africa
(present-day Namibia) in 1904, home of the Hereros. This website expresses
years of research and passion about things German and African. This site is new
and still evolving.
The recently completely project on which I worked for many years was a collaborative effort with my friend Eric Alvarado. In 2014 Eric and I released a scenario and rules book on the Herero War of 1904. The scenarios and rules were derived from the original German sources: official histories, first-person accounts, and original maps. The rules and scenarios were then playtested over several years and dozens of games, to ensure play balance.
To the extent that the book and this website ever even got off the ground, it is because of Eric's help and encouragement.
WHAT'S NEW (July 28, 2024)
(1) HISTORICON 2024: HERERO AND NAMA WAR LECTURE AND GAMES
(2) "THE NAMA WARS" SCENARIO BOOK IS NOW UNDER DEVELOPMENT.
Work has begun on The Nama Wars scenario book, the follow-on to The Herero War scenario book released in 2014. To help orient people unfamiliar with this post-Herero-War phase in German South-West African history, I've created two new pages:
This provides a brief historical introduction to the Nama - who are they, where did they originate, what was their relationship to the Hereros, etc.
This provides a brief historical summary of the Nama Wars - the origins of the Nama Wars, their relationship to the Herero War, the major Nama leaders, how the war progressed and ended.
(3) "THE HERERO WAR" BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN GERMANY!!!
THE BOOK CAN BE PURCHASED FROM BERLINER ZINNFIGUREN. FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW:
THE BOOK CAN BE PURCHASED FROM THE FOLLOWING DEALERS IN THE USA: RECREATIONAL CONFLICT and ON MILITARY MATTERS; AVAILABLE IN THE UK AT CALIVER BOOKS
(4) NEW HISTORICAL RESEARCH RESULTS:
There is a misconception among some that German casualties were generally light during the Herero War and thus the battles and engagements were one-sided in favor of the Germans.
Using the casualty lists, casualty numbers, and orders of battle found in the original German sources, I've calculated and analyzed German combat casualty rates for the individual Herero War battles.
Those battles were far from one-sided. In fact, German casualty rates were as high as 70% (at Owikokorero, a disastrous German defeat), with casualty rates well above 10% in several other battles (e.g., 47% at Okaharui and 19% at Hamakari).
Officer casualty rates were often especially high during Herero War battles: 25% officer casualties at Hamakari, 33% officer casualties at Otjihinamaparero, 75% officer casualties at Okaharui, 91% officer casualties at Owikokorero.
The underlying raw data needed to calculate German combat casualty rates for the Herero War have been publicly available for more than a century. However, with one exception (Löbell’s unsuccessful attempt for Owikokorero), even the official histories and the other original German sources never presented the casualty rates.
The following essay by Roy Jones is thus the first work to present and analyze German casualty rates for the individual Herero War battles:
