Painting the Ila The most distinctive feature of Ila warriors was the  extraordinary hair cone or “isusu”, which was allegedly  designed to allow the members of hunting or war parties to  see each other over the tall grass of the Kafue floodplain. It  consisted of a short ponytail at the back, wrapped with cloth,  and a circlet of small feathers surrounding a tall pointed cone  made from plaited hair stiffened with a sliver of antelope  horn. Unlike the hairstyles of some other African tribes the  “isusu” was not permanent, but was usually worn for two or  three months before being shaved off. Feathers might also be  worn in the hair; black cock feathers or the long grey plumes  of the crane were popular for decoration, but others were  marks of skill or courage. Blue jay feathers were the sign of a  particularly brave man, while one who had killed an enemy  warrior or a lion or leopard was entitled to wear the metallic  green, blue or yellow tail feathers of the touraco.  A shell ornament, known as an “impande”, was worn either on  the front of the head or on the chest. Apparently most Ila men  originally went naked, but hide loincloths and cloth blankets  were coming into widespread use by the late 19th century.  Chiefs would substitute lion or leopard skins for the normal  brown cow hide, and might add a ruff around the neck made  from the mane of a lion or the greyish coloured hair of a  baboon, and smaller black and white striped zebra-mane ruffs  on the arms. Warriors painted their faces and bodies white for  war, often in varied patterns of lines and dots. The most  popular colour for trade beads was also white, and ivory or  copper bangles could be worn around the wrists and ankles.

An Ila Army for “Death in the Dark Continent” The Ila are covered in Army List number 16, “The Warrior  Herdsmen”, which means that they are all basically Skirmishers  armed with spears. However because of their fighting  reputation they are allowed to upgrade any or all of these to  Elite, which makes them a very different proposition from the  ordinary villager type. Most usefully, Elite Skirmishers can  initiate a charge into hand-to-hand combat, and as long as they  keep the initiative they are fairly effective in that role. They  should be able to sweep away ordinary Skirmishers and even  give a good account of themselves against Soldiers as long as  they can avoid getting shot on the way in. To do that, of course, they need to take maximum advantage of cover, but as their  home terrain is Grassland and their aggression factor is 0  (which means that most games will take place in their own  territory) they should get plenty of tall grass etc. to conceal  their movements.  Against Warriors like the Matabele and  Ngoni the Ila will have to try and keep at a distance and rely on  missiles, but they will be more mobile than their opponents,  especially in difficult terrain.   It is perhaps worth mentioning that this is an army which can be completed with a relatively small number of figures. At 8 points  per base for Elite Skirmishers, and 2 men to a base, you can do  a 300 point army with less than 70 figures - especially if you do  what I do and include some bases mounting a single figure and  a lot of vegetation, to represent men hidden in ambush. Above  all it should be a fun army to use if you like manoeuvre and  dirty tricks rather than brute force and firepower - perfect for  ambushing unwary explorers - and I am looking forward to  getting mine into action.