Fnurban #30 A Mighty (Roman) Fortress

Following on from last time's Roman theme,  I have recently visited an impressive Roman site - Burgh Castle,  on the Norfolk coast.  Last month we spent a few days at Great Yarmouth, and Burgh is just out of town from there, so we took the chance to see it. It was well worth a visit! 

About a 15-minute drive out of  Yarmouth town, the site is owned by the Norfolk Archaeoligical Trust (the stone walls are managed by English Heritage). There's a car park, then a short walk across a field to the site - passing the nearby round-towered church (a Norfolk and Suffolk speciality) which is also worth a  look. .You are greeted with this sight: 

 

What you are seeing here is just over half the width - the gap in the wall to the left is the East Gate of the fort, which is in the middle of the East wall. Overall, that wall looks to be a bit over 200m long, and as you can see it is pretty much complete.  That goes for the North (shorter) Wall too, and the South Wall is about half-preserved - the West Wall has gone, probably tumbled into the river it sat alongside. So overall, more than half the fort's walls remain, and they survive to their original height, too, with complete bastions at intervals along the walls and at the corners. 

Bastion in East Wall

 

and a closer view, note red tile courses

North-East corner

Visitors can go through the gate and look around inside the enclosed area, which gives views across marshes and the River Waveney running next to the site.  There are no remaining structures or ruins inside the walls, but you get a good impression of the area that would have been enclosed - about 2.2 hectares in all. 

It seems that Burgh was built in 'the late 200s AD' which I take to mean late in the 3rd Century, as part of the 'Saxon Shore' ( Litus Saxonicum ) chain of forts which stretched from Brancaster, Norfolk, to Porchester, Hampshire - the name seems to mean 'the shore attacked by the Saxons' or  'The shore of the Saxon Sea' .  It is possible that the forts may have originally been built as naval bases for controlling and protecting trade across the North Sea,  but they are now mainly associated with defending the coast of Roman Britain from Saxon invaders, whose first documented raid on Britain was in 286 AD.  The landscape has changed since then, but originally Burgh would have stood at the mouth of a 'Great Esturary' into which flowed several rivers,  with another fort, Caister Castle, standing on the oppoiste side.  The fort would have been able to house 500-1000 infantry, or up to  500 cavalry. It is known that the garrsion included a cavalry  unit called the Equites Stablesiani.  There is also substantial archaeological evidence of a significant civilian settlement ( vicus )  outside the walls.

The walls themselves are about 3.2m thick at the bottom, 1.5m thick at the top, and 4.6m tall - complete except for a parapet which would have stood on top. They were  built with  a rubble and mortar core and  flint facing stones, with up to seven triple layers of red fired clay tiles helping bond the facing stones to the core. Six of the original  ten bastions survive.   All very impressive - the relatively complete walls give a powerful impression of how imposing the fort would have been when in use. Needless to say, if you are interested in Roman military history, you really should see this!  By chance we visited on an 'open day' with a stall and display by the Norfolk Archaeological Trust, which allowed us to buy a guidebook covering Burgh, Caister and Brancaster - from which the information here is taken. Of course there are websites - from English Heritage and Norfolk Archaeological Trust.   

Great Yarmouth itself has a decent selection of historical sites, including some stretches of medieval town walls - and for those interested in the  ECW, you can visit the Elizabethan House Museum,  a 16th Century merchant's house  with its rather grand 'Conspiracy Room': 

 It seems that in 1648 the heads of the New Model Army ( including Cromwell ) were  at Yarmouth, and the house's owner John Carter was commander of the local Trained Bands, and would have hosted the senior officers. It is said that in this room a meeting was held, at which the decision was taken to put King Charles on trial for treason - this of course resulted in his execution the following year. 'A great reckoning in a (fairly) small room', perhaps?

That's enough historical meandering  for now.  In the meantime there has been a little hobby progress, as I have been getting on with painting my 'D-Day Dodgers'  WW2 Indian battalion 

 

Very much a work  in progress, but we are getting there - perhaps the next post here will show off the completed unit, if I keep up with the painting sessions.  Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.

Fnuraban #29 I Am Legion

The other day I was fortunate to be able to visit the British Museum, to see their exhibition Legion: Life in the Roman Army.  the first thing to say is that it's well worth a visit if you have any interest in the Roman Army,  but be sure to book ahead and be prepared for it to be pretty busy! ( not intolerably so at 11:00 am on a Thursday morning,  I'm glad to say ). 

I took some pictures, and I'll simply show those I think, with a brief commentary.  Of course these are only a minority of the objects in the whole show. So, in more or less the order of the exhibition: 

Auxiliary Infantry

 There were a fair number of these sculptural pieces depicting Roman soldiers with identifiable weapons, standards etc. I didn't take detailed notes, but I think these are 3 auxiliary spearmen.  

 

Legionary Sandals 

Some amazing survivials of perishable items were included - there was even a pair of legionary socks, with a division for the big toe,  allowing them to be worn with sandals. Sadly I didn't get a picture of that.  

Legionary equipment: Sword, Belt, Dagger, Tools

An interesting point made was that the mark of being a Roman soldier  was the belt, sword and dagger etc rather than any particular items of clothing/uniform.  One of the caption cards even stated  there was no specific uniform beyond a military belt.   Now that very much caught my eye, given the very uniform appearance of all modern depictions of Legionaries - though it was also stated that helmets, armour etc did tend to be standardised (even if made in local workshops which allowed some variation), and I suppose this would tend to impose a 'uniform' look.  

Another fact that I had not been aware of was that soldiers were expected to provide or pay for their own equipment - the narrative of the show was maintained by following the story of a real soldier of the early second century AD whose letters have survived. In fact, most of the letters quoted seemed to be dominated by his pleading requests for money or equipment ( 'I have replaced my  footwear twice a month').  It was also interesting that there were hurdles to be cleared even to join up - only a Roman Citizen could be a Legionary, and they needed letters of reference to support their application. Our example soldier had to join the lower-status Marines first, before eventually getting into a Legion.   Surprisingly to me, the pay rates quoted were 250 denarii per annum for an Auxiliary (non-citizen) but only 300 denarii for a Legionary. Obviously, more senior ranks were paid a lot more - a Junior Centurion about 15 times the Legionary rate, I think? 

There were quite a few depictions of actual soldiers in their equipment, taken from their funeral monuments - it seems that they signed up for 25 years service, but only about 50% survived to see out the full term, owing to disease as much as battle. Many of the monuments were to men aged 30 or below.  I took pictures of a small selection of them, including a young Centurion named Marcus Favonius Facilis,  who had died at Colchester sometime before the Boudicca revolt of 61AD.  

Literate soldier holding a book 

Standard Bearer with 'Emperor head'

Grave Monument of a Centurion (Marcus Favonius Facilis) at Colchester, 50-60AD 

Legionary Shield and Boss

..and from the back

Now this was really interesting, and may be the only complete example of such a shield in existence?  It was stated that the wood and leather construction means that the curve has been exagerrated by shrinkage/warping over time, it would originally have been more gently curved. Note also the metal boss, of course.  It was fantastic to see this item, along with one or two others (see below) it was worth the price of admission just to see that! 

 

Swords, Daggers and Helmets (and someone trying on a replica helmet!)

'new pattern' short sword, c.79AD

high-quality helmet and segmented armour

Legionaries in Battle Formation

Cataphract Horse Armour c.200AD - amazing stuff!

The Cataphract Horse Armour was another real eye-opener - if you are interested in the later Roman army, you probaly have to see it.   Pretty much the entire 'trunk' of the horse was covered by overlapping metal scales, which must have been pretty heavy, too!   

And then to complete a trio of wonders, an almost-complete Legionary Cuirass...  This was stated to have come from the battle site of the huge defeat in  9 AD , at the hands of Arminius ( aka 'Herman the German')  in the Teutoburger Wald, and I think stated to be the most complete that has been found.   Another 'worth the price on its own' moment? 

Complete Legionary Cuirass - from Teutoburger Wald

Father and Son soldiers - with hand-me-down equipment

After the required 25 years there would be a handsome bonus for retiring soldiers - and non-citizen auxiliaries would be granted citizenship. The Army was a tough life, but was clearly seen as a good career, and sons would follow fathers into the ranks - sometimes weapons and equipment would be passed down, as depicted above. 

I was also interested to learn about the size of the army - we are told that when Augustus first instituted the Imperial  Roman army,  it had a strength of about 300,000 (half of them Legionaries),  while the population of the Empire stodd at about 60 million.  A map of the empire about 100 years later ( which I really should have photographed!) showed I think about 20 to  30  legions and where they were stationed in the Empire - unsurprisingly, most were along the borders with barbarian areas and other empires such as the Parthians. From my memory, the whole of Gaul required only one Legion.  Given the sheer size of the Empire, a surprisingly modest establishment?   ( c.f. today's British army, also defending about 60 million population - much less than 300,000! )   

If all this (and the chance to wear a replica helmet at one point, which I did not take alas )  inspires the re-enactor in you, the gift shop will oblige - I was slightly surprised that the armour was priced at about £200 - I think I would have expected it to be more! Didn't see anyone buying, though. The exhibition catalogue is well-produced and  doubtless most interesting, but at £30 for the paperback version, I thought I'm not quite enough of a Romanist.. 

from the Gift Shop : be your own Legion (for a few hundred quid)

And finally, there had to be a gaming angle - in a display on camp/barracks life,  examples of a Roman board game -  and  a dice tower, just as many gamers would use today. The caption stated that these were seen as a way of preventing cheating when rolling dice. Nothing new under the sun...  

nothing new under the sun: that's a Roman Dice Tower!

 

That's about all the pictures I took, I probably should have taken many more and made extensive notes, but it would have been a much slower visit, and I was with a 'civilian' ( i.e.  non-wargaming!) friend! Going at an average visitor pace it was about a 90-minute visit,  I suspect I could have stayed longer. Lunch was required, and the Italian Cafe ( 'Tropea' ) in Russell Square gardens seemed highly appropriate, on a nice sunny spring day.  The exhibition was a thoroughly worthwhile visit;  if you are interested and able to get to London easily then I'd recommend it. 

Meanwhile I have made slow progress painting WW2 Indian infantry, so hope to show the results soon, but next time  I think a bit more recent Roman-related sightseeing. Until then, keep well, everyone.

Lurking in the Loft - continued

I was sure I would get on with painting and/or gaming this past week or two, but those have rather fallen by the wayside - apart from a great evening in the (remote)  company of Jon Freitag and fellow bloggers Tony MS Foy, Mark  Jolly Broom Man and Chris Nundanket,  playing Jon's Third Battle of Trasimene - many thanks, all! 

One of the things that has taken up some time has been finally getting round to looking at a whole bunch of hobby-related stuff that was still lurking in the loft, some for several decades!  These really need sorting through, and reducing (in terms of  volume occupied, at the very least), and some stuff probably needs to go to a more caring home. 

The largest task has been going through many and various boxes of old (mainly) Airfix figures. As a first tranche, I found this selection of random boxes : 

 

what lies within..?

Gotta love the random selection of boxes and tins that must have been all that came to hand years ago (the box from the Japanese fighter plane kit has a price label marked 33p!) .  I wasn't a smoker as a child, I hasten to add(!), but an elderly 'aunt'  ( do kids still have 'aunts' that are not really aunts? ) rolled her own and was a good source of those nice tobacco tins. And yes, that's a classic Hinchcliffe box, too - pocket money never stretched to them, so where did that come from?! 

But enough about the boxes - you can see how  sorting through this stuff can be a slow process.. On to the actual figures themselves. Let's start with the real vintage ones : 

The 'classic' 1960s Airfix Germans

 

and rather fewer British, of similar vintage 

I'm quite glad to have about 80 of those vintage Germans, they are the figures my gaming started with as a kid, and there will be enough to raise a few more Wehrmacht units for my 'D-Day Dodgers' to fight.  The British 'Combat Group' is more tricky as there are not many of them - and I don't think I ever liked them that much. My first  British infantry battalion (in Rapid Fire order of battle)  has been built around some 1970s Matchbox figures which I liked, but there are only a few more of those, and the Airfix 1970s update to British infantry are a bit rubbish, tbh! So I may have to find an alternative which may involve much more modern figures. I suppose I will just have to put up with the much better quality sculpts(!).  

Having said that, the following couple of sets may come in handy: .

old-school (1960s) British 8th Army..

      

..and German Afrika Korps

I think these two sets could be quite useful when  running games that purport to be set in the Italian summertime, such as Sicily in July/August  1943.  After all, it was pretty much the 8th Army making up the British  contingent, and they would have surely continued wearing their tropical uniforms - and I assume  the Germans would have worn 'hot weather'  gear too. So there is scope for a judicious mixture on both sides - and the various 'early Airfix' will go together OK, so I think I can use these. Yes, I am really going to try to use some of these -  I should say I am entirely aware that more modern figures are much 'better', i.e more detailed, dynamically posed  and well-proportioned, but this is at least partly an exercise in nostalgia for me, I have had these figures a very long time and it will be lovely to make use of them - and to finally get them painted!  

I'll spare you too many   more of these pictures, but so far I have also found Airfix British paratroops (terrible poses and blobby physiques ),  Commandos ( men holding up anchors!), a few WW1 British,  WW2 Russians, Japanese and US Marines, plus the later (1970s) Germans,  and 1980s Esci British and German WW2 - which have an old-fashioned look which may just fit in.  

 

the famous 'Michelin Man' Paratroopers

Switching periods, a couple more random aircraft kit boxes revealed a small collection of (badly-painted)  Airfix Ancient Britains - ancient indeed,  probably at least 40 years old! I think based for WRG 6th Edition:

yet another US Cavalry conversion

 

I had just been reading Alan Gruber's  Duchy of Tradgardland blog featuring lovely conversions of old Airfix figures, in which it was mentioned just how versatile the US Cavalry figures were - and guess what?  Yes, very clearly they are the basis for these Ancient British horsemen - you can see the dark blue plastic where the paint has flaked off saddles etc. The US cavalrymen have had their body rather brutally cut off at the waist, and the top half of a British foot warrior glued in place - and as if to prove it, one of them has suffered a catastrophic glue failure and separated into its consituent parts. I'm afraid the conversion wasn't terribly well thought-out,  as the shields get in the way and prevent the man sitting securely on the horse - but at least the younger me had a try!

There's plenty more in the loft, which means a lot more sorting required, I suspect, and perhaps one or two more blog posts.  Meanwhile, if anyone out there is desperate to add to their collections of say, those blobby British Paratroopers or slightly bizarre Commandos, do drop me a line via the comments and we'll see what we can do - just cover the postage, maybe?  I can't quite bring myself to actually throw them in the bin. 

To end on a positive note, this Sunday is the Cavalier wargames show run by Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society,  and I will be going along, I have never been before, so it will be interesting. Given the quotation on my blog page header, I really should pay homage to the club that George Gush founded. The website lists about 20 traders and 17 games, so a nice medium-size show, which I hope makes  everything a bit more relaxed than the big shows like Salute, and allows visitors to spend a bit more  time looking at each game or stand. I'm glad to say I have arranged a couple of meet-ups with friends old and new, too, and it will be great to have a bit of a chat.  Hopefully a nice start to the 'show season' for 2024.  

Right, now back to the boxes, let's see what else there is... Until next time, keep well, everyone.

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.

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.