Diversionary Tactics

 David Crook recently posted on his excellent A Wargaming Odyssey blog,  about his list of current projects, to which my response was I suspect that often just after such a list is written, something completely different pops up and overtakes all the things one has carefully listed!  And so it proves.  I have been trying to concentrate my somewhat inadequate hobby efforts on Eighteenth Century,  WW2 in Italy, and Thirty Years' War periods - plenty of reading, organising, painting and gaming to be getting on with on each of them, and not enough actually being done.  But then the other morning I strolled into an Oxfam charity bookshop, made a habitual scan of the Military History shelf, and spotted this: 

 

Blimey, that's a little specialised for a charity shop! Phil Barker and Ian Heath's Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome, 4th Edition ( 1981 ).  In pretty  good condition, and fairly priced, I thought  - I couldn't leave it there, could I?  Indeed not - money changed hands and I took the book home.  It joins a small collection of books acquired fairly recently, on an 'Ancients' theme, because I've been having certain thoughts..

Charity shops started it, really, because I found a couple of vintage volumes by Peter Connolly : The Greek Armies ( 1977) and Greece and Rome at War ( 1981/2012 ). 

 

The former covers the period from the Trojan War  to Alexander The Great, and is actually a children's educational book, but none the worse for that - the writing style is clear and simple, but not in the least patronising.  Both volumes have plentiful and rather lovely illustrations. I've always had a hankering to investigate the Ancient Greek world - and the second book adds an account of Rome, up to 450AD. So, I think I've got a good set of introductory texts to work with. 

 

If this is going to lead to any gaming, then rules will be needed, and I have some options there too. Sometime in 1990 or soon after, I spent the princely sum of £2  at Leisure Games in Finchley for a copy of the latest thing in Ancient Wargaming - the first edition of  De Bellis Antiquitatis,  known to us all as DBA. For whatever reason, I never actually played it, but I kept the booklet - 'it might be useful one day'. More recently, what with certain ideas being mulled over and various special offers coming up, I have also picked up  Graham Evans/Trebian's Spartans and Successors, which are billed as Simple Tabletop Wargames Rules for the Classical Ancient Period in the Golden Age of Greece and Macedon. 

  

And finally, Neil Thomas' well-regarded Ancient and Medieval Wargaming.   Plenty of options and ideas between those three volumes, I reckon. 

Hmmm... if this is going anywhere, some armies will be needed. Although today's find is obviously all about Rome, I admit that the Greek/Persian/Macedonian wars have interested me most so far ( though of course using DBA could allow multiple armies covering various periods to be mobilised quite easily and relatively cheaply ), the triumverate of Greeks/Macedonians, Persians and Indians seems to have all sorts of possibilities and variations. 

But  this is the dilemma - what scale to choose?  Again, if going down the DBA route,  pretty much any scale could be used, for example a 25/28mm DBA force would not involve a large number of figures, and should therefore be fairly quick and cheap to recruit, while smaller scales would give a 'mass' look to the units ( which must be good if deploying Roman Legions or Greek Phalanxes ) while also being relatively inexpensive. Plastic 20mm figures are perhaps  another 'budget' option.  I could do any of  25/28mm,  1:72/20mm, 15mm, 10mm and 6mm - maybe even 2mm, though I have some reservations about those.  I admit I was sorely tempted to try buying  a few nice old-style Lamming  Greeks and Persians, but my timing is not good it seems, as their website says that they are going to stop taking orders for a couple of months due to illness. Sorry to hear that, I wish them a swift recovery and return.

So, I will have to mull over the possibilities of different scales and makes, and we'll see what if anything, comes out of that.  I'd welcome any thoughts from readers who have been down this track themselves.  At the very least, I have some pleasant and interesting  reading options to browse. Here is a bit of inspiration, courtesy of Peter Connolly : 

Also in the next few days the paintbrushes and glue really have to come out - the lead/plastic piles of 7YW, 30YW or WW2 need to be adressed!  Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.