Xmas Gifts to Self - and one Unwanted Present

I hope everyone had a good Xmas, if you have been celebrating it.  Several bloggers  have been showing off  their 'hauls' of gifts, and I thought I might join in. I do make a rule of not asking my partner to buy me hobby-related gifts, however -  so any such items are purely 'gifts to self'.  Thanks to the inevitable 'Xmas sale' at the Naval and Military Press, I acquired a couple of interesting books. The first one was definately on the 'wants list', so it was great to see it come up as a special offer at a very good price : 

 

For anyone with an interest in the Seven Years War,  Christopher Duffy's books are a must-have, and this will join an expanding collection.  Prussia's Glory focusses on one month in 1757, during which Frederick of Prussia scored his tremendous victories at Rossbach and Leuthen. Duffy's writing style is eminently readable while also highly authoritative, and the book has a very manageable 190 pages. I am very glad to have it! 

And then I thought, might as well buy something else, as the postage (for UK buyers) is a fixed fee. Had a browse around, and this caught my eye: 

Battles and Battlefields of Ancient Greece by C. Jacob Butera and Matthew A. Sears looks pretty interesting.  Sub-titled A Guide to Their History, Topography and Archaeology , the authors (professors of Classics at US and Canadian universities) introduce it as a book designed for the traveller in Greece, whether the member of a tour group, the independent adventurer, or the curious scholar.  

Twenty battles are covered, ranging from  Marathon in 490BCE to Actium 31BCE, For each battle you get a historical outline section and one describing the battlefield today, diagrammatic map superimposed on satellite image, and suggestions for further reading. It's a truly 'weighty tome',  bieng of about 380 pages which are in heavy gloss paper - maybe not quite so handy when packing luggage! 

Having made a few holiday visits over the years to the Peloponnese, Crete, Pelion and Mani regions, I have liked Greece very much, and hope to get back there now that travel is normalising again. So this looks like it might be a pretty useful book which may influence choice of destinations.. I liked a comment in the introduction : Jenny Denault, Matthew Sears's wife and travelling companion, was with us at the American School, and has visited site after site with us since. Though we frequnetly tested her patience with our enthusiasm for dusty plains, she always kept us grounded and reminded us that beaches and seaside tavernas are a vital part of visiting Greece too,  I couldn't agree more!

Overall, I am very pleased with my 'Xmas gifts to self' -  not so much with an unwanted gift that was passed to me sometime in the past few days... 

After 3 years 9 months of avoiding it, it seems I have finally lost the viral equivalent the 'Whamageddon' game, and the the dreaded lurgi has caught up with me. Oh dear, bang goes our plan to host friends on NYE, among other things. I don't actually feel too bad so far, just like a common cold, runny nose etc but it has stuck around a few days. Hopefully it won't get any worse, and will pass soon enough.  At least I have plenty of interesting books to be getting on with in the meantime. As Jon Freitag  has said,  #IntrovertsDream.. 

Have a very Happy New Year, all,  and keep well, everyone. 

 

 

DBA: First Try (at First Edition)

Having ( at last ) completed painting armies for Alexandrian Macedonians and Later Achaemenid Persians,  I have played my first game of De Bellis Antiquitatis, better known as DBA. I rather enjoyed it, I will admit. 

30+ years old - finally getting used!

 

The Macedonian army comprised the following, in DBA terminology : 

1 x 3 Kn Companions, 1 x 3 Cv Thessalians,  1 x 3 Cv Greek Allied Cavalry,  1 x  2LH Prodromoi 

4 x 4 Pk Phalangites,  1 x 4 Ax Hypaspists,   1 x 4 Sp Mercenary Hoplites,   

1 x 2 Ps Agrianians, 1 x 2 Ps Archers 

Macedonians

and the Persian force was as follows: 

1 x 3Kn Heavy Cavalry,   3 x 3Cv Medium Cavalry,  2 x 2LH Light Cavalry

2 x 4Sp Greek Mercenary Hoplites,  2 x 4Ax 'Kardakes' 

1x 4Bw 'Sparabara', 1 x 4Bw Light Archers          

and Persians

I should explain, for anyone who has not used these rules, that the types as described in the rulebook, are as follows :  

Kn = 'Knights'  - horsemen that charged at first instance without shooting..breaking through and                                     destroying enemy as much by weight and impetus as by their weapons 

Cv = 'Cavalry' - the majority of horsemen, primarily armed with javelins, bows or other missile                                     weapons but combining this with sword or lance

LH = 'Light Horse'  - who skirmished in dispersed swarms with javelin, bow or crossbow and would                                 not charge unshaken enemy

Sp = 'Spears'  - close formation infantry fighting collectively with spears in a rigid shield wall 

Pk = 'Pikes'  -   close formation infantry fighting collectively with pikes or long spears wielded                                         in both hands 

Ax = 'Auxilia' -  foot able to fight hand-to-hand but emphasising agility and flexibility rather than                                 cohesion

Ps = 'Psiloi' - dispersed skirmishers on foot with javelin, sling, staff sling, bow.. 

Bw = 'Bows'  - foot who fought  in formed bodies with bow, longbow or crossbow and relied on                                     dense shooting, light spears, stakes, pavises or shield bearers for survival at                                             close quarters instead of skirmishing or evasion

My apologies if the above is too much information : I hope it gives a hint of the famous 'Barkerese' language used in the rulebook. I did have to re-read a few sentences repeatedly to 'get' the sense of them, but on the whole I found them fine. It's worth mentioning that after the definitions of troop types, basing, terrain etc,  the actual 'Battle Rules' section occupies just three pages of the booklet - I can't fault them for simplicity. 

 

initial setup : Macedonians left, Persians right

You can see the initial game setup above - I used my 3 feet square table (with ground scale 1 inch = 50 paces) , and opted for completely clear terrain to keep things as simple as possible. To decide deployments, I borrowed from Neil Thomas'  Ancient and Medieval Wargaming book, which gives suggested battle formations for the respective armies. As a result, the Persians concentrated their heavy and medium cavalry on their right flank, with infantry in the centre and Light Horse covering the left flank.  The Macedonians  put their Pike Phalanx in the centre, with Hypaspists and then Companions to their right, and the right flank covered by Psiloi and Prodromoi Light Horse - while deploying the Thessalian and Greek Allied cavalry plus Agrianian javelinmen,  on their left,  hoping to hold off the powerful Persian cavalry. 

All set, and away we go - a roll of the dice determined that the Persians moved first, and for Turn One another roll allowed them to move six units (known as 'elements' in the rules) or groups of units. Accordingly the Persian cavalry advanced in a body on their right, similarly the Light Horse on the left, while their foot Archers unit stepped forward,  though not yet within shooting range of the enemy. No combat, as yet.   In response, the Macedonians were allowed 5 moves - their Pike phalanx, Hypaspists and Hoplites started to rumble forward, while the Promodroi and Psiloi skirmished with the Persian Light Horse on the right, and the Thessalian and Greek Cavalry rather optimisitically charged against superior numbers of Persian horsemen. 

In each player's bound, after movement comes ranged shooting by eligible units of  both sides. The Persian  Archers let fly at the Macedonian phalanx - to no effect.   No less than four close combats then ensued - these are decided by pretty simple opposed die rolls, with each element adding modifiers according to its type and that of the opposition, plus some bonuses for rear support and reductions if 'overlapped' on a flank. Highest score wins, loser suffers effects based on their type and their opposition, and things are much worse if the winner's score was double the loser's. Very simple, and quite subtle. the first few dice rolls favoured Macedonia -  on their right, one Persian Light Horse units were 'recoiled' ( retire one base depth, facing forward ) and the other rolled so badly ( against only light foot archers )  that it suffered a 'flee' result, turning tail and retreating  600 paces in disgrace. On the other flank,  the Greek Allied cavalry rolled a '6' to the Persian Purple Cavalry's '1' - which destroyed the Persian unit.  First blood to Alexander! 

end of Turn 1 : Persian LH flee in shame

 

On Turn 2, Persia rolled 3 moves - their foot archers backed away from the Macedonian phalanx, as did the remaining  Light Horse on their left - but the Heavy Cavalry saw a chance, and charged at the Greek hoplite unit covering the left of the Macedonian pike block. Meanwhile on their right, their remaining cavalry units tussled with now equal numbers of opponents, having lost their numerical advantage. The Cavalry fight was inconclusive, but the Heavy Cavalry rolled low against the Hoplites, who doubtless raised a cheer as the armoured horsemen were forced to recoil. 

Macedonia rolled '6' for moves, alllowing plenty of manoevering,  The Phalanx and Hypaspists kept advancing in the centre, while on the left the Agrianians bravely pitched into the cavalry fight. On the right, the Companions, Promodroi and Archers advanced, and finally the Greek hoplites decided to follow-up their advantage by attacking the Persian Heavy Cavalry. The forward movement allowed both Persian 'Bows' units to shoot - the Sparabaras' fire forcing a 'Recoil' for the Hypaspists. In close combat, the dice favoured the Thessalians and Agrianians, and both Persian cavalry also Recoiled - but the Hoplites' optmism was misplaced, losing their combat with the Heavy Cavalry. Checking combat results -  'Spears' losing a combat against  'Knights'  are destroyed - that left a nasty gap in the Greek line, threatened by a very nasty unit of heavy cavalry! 

Turn 2 : Unequal fights on Greek left..

  

Turn 3 - Persians rolled '4' for moves. The Heavy Cavalry took full advantage, charging into the rear of the Phalanx ( though the pikeman could simply turn about to face their assailants, if I read the rules correctly). On the left, the 'Red' and 'Blue' cavalry continued fighting against Thessalians and Agrianians, while  on the right the Persian Light Horse having re-grouped, came whirling back and skirmished against the Promodroi from front and flank. In the shooting phase the Persian Archers and Sparabara kept up their volleying against the phalanx, but the dice were not with them - no effect. Close combat followed - the Persian right-wing Cavalry did better, initially, forcing the Agrianians to 'Recoil', but the Thessalians 'rolled high' and the Persian Blue Cavalry was destroyed - very bad news, Macedonians gaining the upper hand on that wing.  The Greeks continued to do well, the Phalangites shrugging off the Heavy Cavalry attack and forcing it to Recoil, while the Promodroi did the same to one of the Persian Light Horse units. Overall, no joy for Persia!

Turn 3: looking good for Persian LH

 

..while Heavies hit the Phalanx

Macedonians again rolled '6' for moves - the Dice Gods certainly seemed to favour Alexander. His Pike Phalanx charged the Persian infantry line with all four units, joined by the Hypaspists attacking Sparabara, and Companions crashing into a unit of Kardakes. On the flanks, Psiloi and Promodroi  kept up the fight against Persian Light Horse, while Thessalians attacked the sole remaining Persian Medium Cavalry. No shooting, but fighting all along the line, no less than seven  close combats.  

The main event - Companions, Hypsaspists & Phalanx charge in!

 

The player who's 'bound' it is gets to choose the order of the combats, which can be quite advantageous if the gods are with you. In this case I simply worked from  the Greek right flank to left, with results as follows : 

- Promodroi forced Persian LH to Recoil 

- Psiloi ( archers ) vs Persian LH - a draw, no effect 

- Companions defeated Kardakes - being beaten by 'Kn', the Kardakes were destroyed, and being 'Kn' the Companions advanced one base depth in pursuit - which put them in contact with the Sparabaras flank, and..

- Hypaspists defeated Sparabaras - now 'Bw' defeated and in contact with  any mounted enemy are also destroyed, so they went as well!

- Right-hand Phalangites (2 units)  were beaten by the Persians' Mercenary Hoplites (who rolled a '6'), so the Pikes 'recoiled'.  

- Left-hand Phalangites (2 units ) defeated Persian Archers, who Recoiled

- Thessalians and Greek Allied Cavalry narrowly beat Persian 'Red' Cavalry, who Recoiled. 

The Macedonians didn't win every opposed die roll, but only lost a couple, and combat modifiers worked to their advantage. The Companion cavalry were particularly effective, and rolled a '6' - even though their Kardakes opponents also rolled  '6', the Companions as 'Kn' got better modifiers than their 'Ax' opponents, and most foot defeated by 'Kn' are destroyed. The resulting pursuit resulted in the destruction of the Sparabara too. 

end result; left-centre shattered, Persians defeated

 

Victory conditions are simple - if you destroy 4 of the enemy's 12 elements, and do not lose as many of your own, that's a win.  At the end of Turn 3 the losses were Persians 4, Macedonians 1, so a clear Macedonian win, in some style!  We may imagine  Alexander at the head of his Companions, running amok among the Persian infantry line, which has been 'pinned' by the advance of the Phalanx. Almost textbook? 

That was rather fun  -  I'll spare you any more detailed analysis, but I thought the rules worked pretty well, giving a simple and quick game that 'felt' mostly right.  The dice gods were certainly with Alexander, I felt that if the Persians had rolled better dice they might have given Alexander a much harder time, especially with that powerful right wing of cavalry. Which is a good enough reason to give the game another spin... 

I'd better leave it at that for now, we are fast approaching the table-top Xmas Truce and 'tis the season of over-eating.. Some more thoughts on DBA next time, perhaps. 

Meanwhile, I'd like to wish everyone who reads this a very Merry Xmas and a Happy gaming New Year!  Thanks for reading, and for all your brilliant friendly, supportive and informative comments over the past year  - hard to believe this is the fourth year of this blog.  Have a great break, if you are having one, and keep well, everyone.

Persians Painted - at last

Hello again all, if you are still out there.. once again a bit too much reality has been getting in the way of hobby time recently, so progress has been slow, But I have, finally, managed to finish what must be one of the slowest-painted Persian DBA armies ever! 

I finished varnishing and basing yesterday, and today they underwent a photo session in an admittedly not-very-Persian looking setting. So without further ado, here is the (small) Persian horde, 

 The force is made up of the following : 

Front left:    1 x 4Bw Light Archers

Rear Left:    1 x 3Kn Heavy Cavalry,   3 x 3Cv Medium Cavalry 

Centre:        2 x 4Sp Greek Mercenary Hoplites,  2 x 4Ax 'Kardakes'

Front Right:  2 x 2LH Light Cavalry

Rear right :   1x 4Bw 'Sparabara'           

 

**UPDATE** the above provoked some interesting discussion (see comments, many thanks to Neil and Rob) about 'Sparabara' and 'Kardakes' types. I should have said that the descriptions above are taken straight from the DBA 1st Edition rulebook, army list no.33 Later Achaemenid. From background reading the name  Sparabara seems to have meant 'shield bearers', and it appears they would have had a front rank equipped with Spara (a form of wicker shield) and spear, and other ranks armed with bows. DBA has obviously decided to treat them as mainly bow-armed, but gives them quite a shallow base, hence close-order formation. I am toying with the idea of giving them Spara, but I think it might look a bit awkward on the restricted base. I am told that later editions of DBA have them as double-depth bases with 8 figures, front rank with shields, which might look better - but of course that sort of  implies 50% carrying shields? Tricky.. 

Kardakes  are quite enigmatic - some say  the name means 'Foreign Mercenary', and it is suggested that they may have been Persian infantry equipped similarly to Greek Hoplites, which would make them 'Sp' class in DBA.  But others think they may have been more like the Greek Peltasts,  in which case the DBA class would be 'Ax'.  Clearly Phil Barker has plumped for the latter option in DBA 1st Edition, which does have the benefit of adding another variety of troops to the army, rather than just more 'Spears'.  

This is all a nice introduction to some of the uncertainty and debate which inevitably surrounds ancient armies, given the scarcity of source material for scholars. It also perhaps allows us quite a lot of 'artistic license' when forming our miniature armies! 

Having said all that, all in all it looks quite a handy force, it will be interesting to see how it does against Alexander's Phalanx and Companions.   My first attempt at a DBA game ( despite owning the 1st edition rules for about 30 years! )  will be coming up soon, and duly reported here. 

They were actually quite fun to paint, and interesting to read a bit and work out colour schemes - I think my favourites of the infantry were the Kardakes, the inspiration for which I found in the box art of the HaT  Achaemenid Persian Army set. I think I got away with painting the interesting patterns on the trousers as rather indistinct stripes - it will do fine at table distance!  But now I think about it, I suspect the HaT figures are leaning much more towards the 'Hoplite equivalent' than the 'pseudo-Peltast' theory.. 

 

Kardakes..

and Sparabara - without the 'Spara'

 

I should say, I have been rather loving seeing another and much larger Persian army being shown off by Rob Young on his Eastern Garrison blog - it really is a huge and impressive army, and I love the 'old school' style of both figures ( Garrison of course, and old Minifigs 'S' and 'PB' ranges ) and painting. I confess, I would rather like to have some of those..   

In the meantime, tonight I have the  honour to be first to represent King Emmanuele III of Piedmont-Sardinia in Jon Freitag's re-fight of  the battle of  Madonna dell' Olmo, 1744 .  It looks a daunting task, to be frank - attacking entrenched positions without superior numbers, and against wily and cunning opponents too!  Watch Jon's blog for the battle report, which should be interesting - I admit I am pretty nervous!    

I'd better get back to revising the QRS and battle breifing for that, then, so will leave it there. Hopefully some DBA action next time.. Until then keep well, everyone.

Book Bargains - If You Hurry

There's been a lot of 'real life' recently and not much time for hobbies, though the painting of Persians continues (very slowly). I hope to make a bit more progress this week - in the meantime, my attention has been drawn to a couple of book bargains that might interest some of you out there.. 

Many will no doubt be aware of the Naval and Military Press - they are currently doing a 'Black Friday' promotion  ( I do so hate the whole Black Friday thing, I have to admit, but hopefully a bargain is a bargain), and a couple of their offers caught my eye: 

Firstly for the 'Toy Soldier' enthusiasts,  this : 

 

The History of Toy Soldiers, by Luigi Toiati.  I'll spare you the seller's hype but it seems it is 600+ pages with hundreds of colour photos, many of the author's own collection. Originally priced at £45, now on offer at £6.99 - N&MP can do some pretty good prices!   I'll add a couple of their  example page images: 

And a much more daunting prospect, but presumably a huge bargain for those interested in the subject, this :  British Warship Recognition - the Richard Perkins Warship Identification Albums. 

 

Seven volumes :  to quote the N&MP,  Richard Perkins tirelessly compiled and diligently drew an epic collection of hand-drawn profile recognition illustrations; he organised and categorised just about every single ship afloat within the Royal Navy between 1860 and 1939 as well as keeping track of their alterations and documenting them along the way.

Theses are on offer for £9.99,  each their original price being £70 each, it seems. So if you are very keen, you can have the lot for about £70 + P&P,  as opposed to £490!  For the real Naval enthusiast, this may be something of a treasure trove.. 

I will admit that I am neither a 'classic toy soldier' nor a naval history buff, so of course I can't vouch for either of these publications, but they do look interesting, and for those that are keen, well, Xmas is coming up.. I can say that I have bought quite a few books from Naval and Military Press, and their service has always been prompt and efficient, I have no complaints about them.  

For these and all the other 'special offers' from N&MP,  this link will take you to the relevant page of their website.  The Black Friday ( ugh!) event runs until the end of November, so a couple of days left at the time of writing ( if you miss the deadline, I have a feeling they will still be available, at only slightly increased prices.. ).   Happy hunting!

I hope to be back soon with some more 'active' hobby stuff,  meanwhile keep well ( and warm, as winter seems to be arriving here in UK ) everyone. 

 

Pressing on: Painting Plastic Persians

In between quite a lot of 'real life' ( including some '1:1 scale terrain' painting ), I have tried to keep on with painting my DBA Persian army to face Alexander's Macedonians,  concentrating mainly on the cavalry so far. I have no completely finished units yet, but maybe enough 'nearly done' to show here. 

So here we are, 'on the bottletops', so to speak . Front row left (green coats) are heavy cavalry with horse-armour, front right (Purple coats)  medium cavalry,   second row two more units of mediums (Blue, and Red).  Back row left is my sole infantry unit so far, some light archers, and back right is two bases worth of light cavalry. 

I've tried to go for a fairly colourful look while keeping a (relatively) limited palette, and taken inspiration from  Osprey  The Persian Army 560-330BC  ( the mediums loosely based on the 'National Cavalry' depicted there), and Phil Barker's Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars - in particular for the lighter troops, he thinks they would have simpler dress of natural wool material. He also mentions 'embroidery bands' on trousers and tunic, but I have not been so ambitious with my detail painting! Maybe on the next lot..

Here's another view, rather jumbled-up in the waiting area for further painting - they need a wash of 'soft tone',  then some varnish and finally basing.  Possibly a bit too revealing - don't look too closely! I make no claims to painting talent, and try to 'Keep It Simple, Stupid' ( I am certainly the latter )  but I think they will do at 'table distance'.  A minor success: at the suggestion of my old gaming  comrade Tony I tried doing the horses with a simple coat of 'contrast' paint ( Army Painter Speed Paint ), and I was very pleased with the result of that. 

 

 

When it comes to sources of inspiration, I have one other interesting picture - back in July I went to the British Museum to see an exhibition about ancient Greek and Persian culture, which included this : 

 

This is a modern reconstruction of an Ancient Persian outfit, which if memory serves was that of a member of the Imperial messenger service.  It certainly seems to reinforce the general impression of colourful clothing for those in the Achaemenids employ.  The patterning is interesting, and I think I should probably try to use a bit more of that if possible - I was a bit shy of trying it so far. Next up are the bulk of the Persian infantry and their mercenary Greek Hoplites, and I may need to be a bit more adventurous with the former! 

I'll keep this brief - need to spend some time preparing to participate in one of Jon Freitag's excellent remote games - this time set in the Spanish-American War of the 1890s. I'll be a Spanish commander, trying to hold the Dominica Plantation against assulting Yankees. We'll see how that goes - watch out for a no doubt excellent battle report from Jon!

After that,  it will be back to the Persians - really need to get them finished and actually try a game with them and the Macedonians!  Meanwhile keep well, everyone.  

The Latest Research, 47 Years on

I have been looking around for sources of information on the armies of Alexander the Great and his Persian opponents, so I was quite pleased to find a copy of this book on ebay, at a very reasonable price: 

 

Published by the Wargames Research Group in 1976 ( 47 years ago! ) this is a softback with  60 pages of 'organisation, tactics, dress and weapons. 72 illustrations'.  Phil Barker's introduction states that 'there has to now been a complete lack of specialist publications dealing with ancient armies. This booklet is the first of a series intended to end this situation' - I think it was quite a leap forward at the time. The chapters are Major Battles of the Period,  Tactical Methods,  Composition of Armies, Organisation and Formations, and  Dress and Equipment.  In fact the last of these takes up 3/4 of the book, and that is fine by me. I have very few sources to inspire the painting of my Macedonians and (especially) Persians, so this is may be a help. 

The content is, how shall I say -  brief and to the point. The illustrations are, well, 'basic' springs to mind, and Phil Barker states 'we have not gone in for glossy coloured illustrations for the sake of of prestige, when a black and white sketch with colour notes fulfills the purpose adequately',,, because  'This cuts down on the space required and reduces the expense to the reader'.    

keeping it simple..

What a contrast with the 'eye candy' dominated rulebooks and expansions of today,  they'd never dream of such a philosophy, and you can't charge £30 a pop for that!  ( and this must in effect be the first 'expansion module' , mustn't it?  Readers almost certainly had the WRG Ancients rules, this gave them the details  needed to recruit forces for ths particular period, which Phil terms 'Pike and Elephant' - now why didn't that stick, it's quite  a good label! ).  Thinking around this, it's worth noting that publication date of 1976 - the inflation rate that year was nearly 17%,  having hit 25% the year before!  I can well understand the emphasis on reducing 'the expense to the reader',  publishing anything in that climate must have been a nightmare. Of course it was a success, and it spawned a whole series of related publications, still well-regarded today. Is it possible that today's 'cost of living crisis' may generate a back-to-basics approach and an emphasis on simplicity and low cost? I suppose  Rapid Fire Reloaded springs to mind.. 

I need to think about how to paint my Persians, and this book ( along with the same author's Alexander the Great's Campaigns )  has helped with a few ideas, in particular regarding the lower status Persian troops, who he thinks would be likely to wear costumes made from natural/undyed fabrics. The idea of plainer colours for lower status troops, while the higher status units sport  more colourful finery, works well for me, and may tone down some of the more psychadelic tendencies that can be tempting for Persian armies.. 

Being only 60 pages, I read this in one sitting and am suitably inspired - and of course it features not just Alexandrian and Persian but Indians, Macedonian/Hellenistic Successors, Carthaginians, Republican Romans,  Gallic, Spanish and Numidians, all very tempting for the future. So all in all, I am pleased with my purchase, and also enjoyed opening a little window on wargaming times gone by.  That nostalgic aspect was boosted when I spotted a small label on the back of the book, clearly from a previous seller: 

 

Athena books was of course run by the late great Terry Wise - it's nice to think my copy was probably once in the master's hands.  And it looks like he only wanted £1.50 for it - that must have been quite a long time ago! If books could talk, what tales would this one tell, how many other hands has this been through, and how many armies has it helped to inspire? 

So now with this inspiration,  I need to get the brushes and paints out and raise that Persian army! With luck, some painting progress to report next time. Meanwhile keep well, everyone.

another week, another show : SELWG

 It's been a rather unusual seven ( or eight )  days,  I've been to two wargame shows! Last Sunday the extravaganza the was The Other Partizan -   this Sunday, the slightly more low-key SELWG, at LeaValley Leisure Centre in London. Here is a view of the hall as I arrived, about 11:00am:

traditional 'games in the middle, traders round the edge' formation

Notice a small patrol of Imperial Stormtroopers moving among the punters - maybe picking up some model TIE fighters?   I like the venue, it is the very definition of a light-filled  and spacious area, albeit slightly unusual to have to walk across a running track to reach the central area! Plenty of room for all the games and traders, with the busy  'bring and buy' in the separate upper area - and I think, some further  (possibly competition) games going on in another higher-level area.  Plenty of games to look at, of course, and I photographed some of them, so I will show them in more or less the order I saw them:

First up a nice big ancients game - Hydaspes 326BC, Alexander vs Porus of course, put on by Newbury and Reading Wargames Society and using Warlord Advance Guard rules ( from Caliver Books ).   Alexander and his Macedonians on the left with nice big pike phalanx, Porus and his Indians on the right with an impressive array of elephants! Having just taken far too long to paint about 50 figures for Alexander's army in DBA, I somehow doubt I will ever reach this level.. though once the Persians are done, I think an Indian force has to be next? 

Hydaspes - early doors

 

Nice Macedonian Phalanx

..and those lovely Elephants

On a slightly less grandiose scale, the Society of Ancients ran a Roman Civil War game, Thapsus 46BC, using Impetus rules. I was interested in this, having recently taken part in one of Jon Frietag's remote games using his adaptation of  Basic Impetus  ( see his report - I was utterly destroyed in short order, but it was still great fun! ). The SoA guys were very friendly and happy to chat about the game, and some of the differences in the full version of the rules, so it was pretty interesting. I confess I didn't go into too much detail of my recent experience with Jon's game, in case they had seen his blog ( oh, you were that guy..! ). 

Society of Ancients: Thapsus 46BC  'Impetus'

 Milton Hundred Wargames Club brought a 'Third World War' 1980s game Endlich! Die Letzte Brucke!  ( Finally! The Last Bridge!' ), I think using Team Yankee rules.  I'm always impressed with the huge numbers of track-to-track tanks in such games, but have slight questions about how 'realistic' that would have been? Looked impressive, anyway!

Milton Hundred's 1980s Cold War

Another fine table from Shepway Wargames Club, Dornier Down  : 'September 1940, somewhere in Kent between Lydd, Ashford and Hythe' - with the German invasion of Britain under way, German paratroopers try to free a German high-ranking intelligence officer captured by the Home Guard when his Do17 crashed.  

Dornier Down..

 

at the other end, Germans advance to the rescue

Too Fat Lardies were out in force with three games, one of which was the Dave Brown Memorial Game, a nice-looking large scale Napoleonics game using General d’Armee 2. Simple but effective terrain, I liked that big central hill.

TooFat Lardies Napoleonics

SEEMS ( South East Essex ) usually do something interesting, this time it was a Franco-Prussian War 'large skirmish' type game 'Nach Paris' which used The Men Who Would Be Kings rules - which of course are designed for Colonial settings. But they are the right period, they were simply pitting two European regular forces against each other rather than Europeans vs indigenous forces. That seems quite a neat idea.  Also nice to see the scenario was essentially taken from Charles S. Grant's vintage Table Top Teaser  'Reserve Demolition' - I think I still have the edition of Battle For Wargamers where that scenario made its public debut! 

SEEMS Franco-Prussian 'Colonial' game - clever stuff!

The Retired Wargamers Reloaded group having wowed us all with their Carentan 1944 game at shows last year,  are now back with a new game 'Hold Until Relieved',  depicting Pegasus Bridge on D-Day. 

Retired Wargamers Reloaded : Pegasus Bridge 1944

 

Well, they have done it again, a really great layout - they told me all the buildings are 3D-printed and represent the real buildings at the actual scene. 15mm scale, and gamed with Rapid Fire Reloaded. They won a very well-deserved 'best in show' prize - watch out for this at future shows ( they will be at Salute 2024, I assume!).  Sadly I managed to miss meeting my old gaming friend Tony who is part of the 'RWR' group, I just happened to always be passing their table when he'd gone to lunch or whatever! We'll catch up at a future event, no doubt - I will certainly be interested to see how this ( not quite finished yet, I gather) excellent setup develops. I need no excuse to include a few more pictures of this game:

Gliders landed bang on the objective..

..but bad news for this Dakota

I really liked the way the troops and vehicles subtly merge into the scenery ( just like their real-life equivalents would want to ) and then you come across interesting little scenes, like this column of German half-tracks moving up in response..   

All in all a really nice-looking game, do look out for it! 

Another nice-looking game was 'Escape from Distraction' by The League of Anti-Alchemist Cowboys (are these group names getting a bit out of hand, do you think?) - 'Distraction' being the Wild West town from which various ne'er-do-wells needed to escape, pursued by the forces of law and order and regulated by What a Cowboy rules.

A town called 'Distraction'

Now the next one doesn't look so much, but was a very interesting idea - Mr. John Kersey (1/72 Wargames) with his  Defence of Duffer's Drift 1900 , a game of the well-known book on Boer War tactics. Sadly his gaming buddy had gone sick, so John was not actually running the game, but happy to talk about it, and it seems to me an excellent idea - the book being after all, a sort of instructional manual, why not make it into a game and let readers or potential readers see how they might fair?  John mentioned that he had been invited to take the game to Salute in 2024, I look forward to seeing it there!

Duffers Drift - work in progress, but v. interesting!

Zulu Kraals are very 'in' this year

Central London Wargames Club were demonstrating their new edition Napoleonic rules Emperor of the Battlefield (by club member Ian Godwin)  and were most enthusiastic and engaging, even when I confessed ( to general mock-horror ) that I don't play Napoleonics!  

Central London Club's Rules

 

..and clever dual-purpose table setup

 

As you can see there was a central game table with a 28mm battle, but also two 'side-tables' with 15mm setups, which were used for ad-hoc demonstrations of rules mechanisms. I was immediately given a pair of dice to roll as a unit of cavalry proposed to charge an infantry unit in march column,  on the side table, and I have to say my dice-rolling caused the foot to fail to form square, and subsequently rout!  It was a nice way to involve viewers and show the ( gratifyingly simple ) mechanisms of the rules; full marks for engagement with the wargaming public!

Palestine 1938: Green Howards advance

 

.. and finally, another 'always interesting' group are Deal Wargames Associaton with their 'WW2 or thereabouts'  games - this time A Crown of Thorns, the Green Howards in Beit Faruk, Palestine 1938 depicting an incident in the Arab rebellion against the British mandate in Palestine in 1938, and inspired by the official history of the Green Howards regiment.  The excellent explanatory leaflet (another speciality of this group) says the game 'pits overwhelming firepower, mechanised forces and artillery against a lightly-armed but wily enemy fighting in his own back yard'.  All very sadly topical, I suppose.

Air power to the fore again - good!

  

view from the Arab side

As usual I was pleased to see some nice aircraft over the table - with 20th-Century scenarios you really can't not have air power involved, surely? The period setting just before WW2 made things interesting, with Gloster Gladiators and a Vickers Wellesley making up the RAF strike force, and the same pre-war and non-European environment made for a nicely unusual selection of troops and equipment - all good fun. The game was played with Rapid Fire ( 2nd Edition ) rules, which seemed to suit the relatively limited scale of the forces and should also allow brisk play. 

And that's all I photographed - of course there were quite a few more games! The program listed 37 games in all, so I have showed less than 1/3 of them.  I should probably apologise, I'm afraid I don't really 'get' Fantasy and Sci-Fi games, so I tend  not to feature those  unless espeically interesting or spectacular looking, admittedly I have thus ruled out another 1/3 of the games present.  There was perhaps a slightly  subdued feeling to the atmosphere at the show, but that maybe just my impression, formed by the tendency to compare with the Partizan extravaganza only seven days before.Actually I think the spacious hall made for a much lower 'population density' which was much more relaxing!  Always good to meet and chat with other gamers of course, and I was pleased to bump into David Crook of Wargaming Odyssey fame, we had a good talk and he introduced me to his friend Nick Huband, who showed us  pictures of his  fantastic collection of vintage Peter Laing 15mm WW1 figures - David and I urged him to show them to the wider world on a blog!  Nick's rules for 'Portable WW1'  gaming are included in Bob Cordery's recent  Second Portable Wargame Compendium .     

 As well as 37 games, the program listed 36 traders, and a little light shopping was duly undertaken: 

Persian painting inspiration

 

and what to do with those Persians

pure nostalgia

What a show looked like back then..

..and what the games looked like

As you can see, this ran to a vintage Osprey (very cheap indeed) from the assorted book box at Stonewall Figures, which will give some more inspiration for painting my Persian DBA army,  an expansion for Helion/Philip Garton's  Three Ages of Rome rules which covers Alexander and his successors with army lists and scenarios ( at a bargain price from Paul Meekins books ) and last but not least a lovely bit of pure nostalgia in the form of Shire Publications pocket-sized Discovering Wargames  by John Tunstill, in a 1970 edition. It's an interesting read - within the first couple of pages we are into a quite detailed discussion of ground and time scales for wargames! As you can see, some very 'period' pictures of games too, and a flashback to what wargames shows looked like 55 years ago.. 

Also bought, but not pictured ( just not photgenic )  was a 15cwt Truck, a Bedford QLT and a Bren Carrier (with Indian crew - very useful)  all resin models  from Grubby Tanks for my 20mm WW2 in Italy 'D-Day Dodgers' - I am going for a lorried Indian infantry battalion, so these are try-outs for that, and will hopefully appear on this blog when assembled and painted.  Finally my first 'Speed/Contrast' paint - in a suitable shade of brown as a trial for painting horses  with a bit of contrast, but quickly. To be tried out on the Persians - we'll see how it goes!

All in all a good day at the show, I'd always recommend SELWG if you can get there without too long a trip! I spent a good 4 hours there and could have spent longer, if I had gone for a participation game as well - something I must get round to at a future show. Can I book a place on Duffers Drift at Salute? Many thanks, of course, to everyone involved in running SELWG and its games and traders.  

*** UPDATE **** SELWG have posted their list of prize-winning games as follows: 

Best in Show - Retired Wargamers Reloaded - 'Hold Until Relieved'

Best Participation Game - Prince Rupert's Bluecoats - 'It's a Funny Old Game'

Best Demo Game - Deal Wargamers - 'Uprising in Palestine 1938'

Best Scenery - Milton Hundred Wargames Club - 'Endlich! Die Letzte Brücke!'

All except one of which I managed to include in my report - I seem to remember  Prince Rupert's Bluecoats were 'on a break' when I passed by, should have gone back.  I think it was a game depicting  one of those traditional  English 'football' matches where the whole village joins in and it turns into a drunken brawl - an ideal subject!  

Back to normal reading/painting/gaming now and in future posts, with inspiration somewhat boosted by two good shows in two weekends. Until then keep well, everyone.