Ancient Greek Collection in 6mm

I've been really lazy with my gaming during COVID, but I finally got it together enough to finish augmenting my Ancient Greek 6mm collection, which is something I've been meaning to do for some time.

The below show about 1200 figs arrayed on some 60 stands, deployed for the Battle of Delium, 424 BC. Stands are on 40mm fronts. The entire battle is on about a 48 inch front. The reason the bases look a little different from each other is because they were done in different batches, years apart (oh, well).

Athenians are on the right, facing the Theban led Boeotians on the high ground to the left. Thebans themselves are stacked-up in eight ranks on the Boeotian right.

There are many rules to choose from, but I will probably go with Big Battle DBA, with a few important modifications.

Next step is to build appropriately scaled buildings, walls, and triremes from Roman Seas (which I've already downloaded). Then the whole Peloponnesian War is a go!

Cheers,

What Red-blooded Canadian Boy?

A while back I encountered this plastic model kit at the local hobby store, and it took me right back to the fifth grade. What red-blooded Canadian boy didn't own an Aurora model Guillotine at one time or another (along with Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Godzilla, etc.)?

So, working under the logic that if you haven't grown up by the time you're 50 then you don't have to, it had to come home with me.

It sat in the closet for a couple of years, but what with COVID and all I thought it was time to give it a build.

Step 1: the victim sees his fate.

Step 2: line him up...

Step 3: in position ...

Step 4: hey, presto!

I could have smeared the blade, basket, etc., with blood like I did when I was a kid, but that would be tasteless.

 

Jhamjar Rising: Revenge of the Branchidae

Having read through Will B's background on his Jhamjar Rising alternate history campaign I've been running through my own limited 28mm collection to see what would fit. It was a stretch to see what could conceivably work, but I think I hit on something that would add colour to the campaign.

The Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus relates that during Alexander the Great's campaign in Afghanistan he came across a Greek people named the Branchidae, who were the descendants of some Greek mercenaries that had fought for the Persians. They welcomed Alexander and their fellow Greeks with open arms, but Alexander considered them the sons of traitors and massacred them out of hand.

I've got six dozen ancient Gauls who could pass for the long lost descendants of the survivors of the above massacre. They found refuge deep in the hidden valleys of the Hindu Kush where they lived for generations, retaining their ancient ways. They eschew firearms, of course. Led forth by a contemporary adventurer, they seek to redress ancient wrongs.

That adventurer is Colonel Butlin Utterly-Barking (6th Rajputs, ret.), of the Utterly-Barkings of Little Rollright, Oxon.

Upon retirement from the Indian Army the Colonel decided to pursue his hobby: the anthropology and ethnography of the Himalayas. He came upon above Branchidae and lived with them for many months, thus establishing an affinity with those peoples. It was while there that he heard of the traitorous outrages committed by the current Djelli of Jhamjar.

Unable to constrain himself, Utterly-Barking has led the Branchidae out of their mountainous fastnesses against the Djelli. In this he is aided by the Greek translator and mystic Costa Logikí, and by an assortment of fellow-travelers: for example, the ex-patriot American freebooters, the 'Friends of Blanco Posnet' (who are probably just in it for the cash).

Below are some pictures of their march southwards. These were captured by a wary photojournalist (who is something of an free-booting adventurer in his own right!). They are the only evidence we have to date of the Colonel's activities.

The Branchidae on the march. Left to right: Friends of Blanco Posnet, the Branchidae, a mountain gun section.

 

The Greek translator and mystic Costa Logoki. Like the other leaders of this undertaking, his sanity is in question.

 This blurry image is the only recent one we have of Utterly-Barking. He appears to sense that something is up, which lead to our photographer abandoning his efforts.

 An Indian Army mountain gun, manned by devoted followers of the Colonel.

Utterly-Barking at the head of his Host.

'Shall Not the Roundhead Soon be Confounded?'

The Battle of Edgehill, 1642

View from behind the left of the Parliamentarian line, with the village of Radway in the distance.

Will brought in his Jacobite Rebellion paper army to our local club in February, and along with them the rules for 'Rebels & Patriots' (of the 'Lion Rampant' school of thought).

This motivated me to modify the rules for fighting a big battle with my own 2mm nano-scale English Civil War collection. This I did, and hosted the same at the Trumpeter's Gaming Society in March.

Below is an account of the resulting the Battle of Edgehill (1642) re-fight, with myself as umpire and with Ian, Chris and Gary kind enough to give it a try.

A big shout-out to Will for lending me his camera!

The armies deployed, as seen from the Royalist right. Radway village sits in the middle of Royalist position, while the village of Edgehill sits on the heights to the left.  

In brief:

The Parliamentarians won a protracted cavalry battle on their right and followed up with their infantry in the centre. The Royalist Brigades of Foot eventually gave way after a long fight, thus leaving Rupert's Cavalry wing isolated.

The cavalry on the Parliamentarian left were strangely inactive throughout the battle, but Rupert's Royalist Horse could not come to gripes with them (lots of bad activation dice rolling by poor Rupert!). And while Parliament's left were pushed back as far as the town of Kineton, the Royalist could do nothing to exploit this by battle's end.

The centre of the Royalist position as seem from the village of Edgehill on the heights behind it.

Wilmot commands the Royalist left.

Prince Rupert can make no headway on the Royalist right. The visually devastating die makes a good status marker at this scale. The white clot on Rupert's command stand is his 2mm devil-dog, 'Boye'.

Meanwhile Parliament's right regroups...

Parliament's left stands firm. Ballard's regiments of foot have gone into 'hedgehog'.

The Royalist right and centre collapse.

A strange episode from the battle: With his left threatened, King Charles led his last reserve -- the Gentlemen Pensioners -- in an attack on some Parliamentarian Horse. He routed Fielding's Regiment from the field... and then pursued them off to the far left, thus abandoning his army! Did he think, in the smoke-filled swirl of battle, that he was charging into the heart of the enemy position? Or did he think that his army was done for and decided to do a runner? Or did he simply loose his tiny 2mm mind?

Last moves: Ian seals off the what's left of the Royalists, and with them their fate. With their left gone, along with four of their five infantry brigades (and Charles himself!), Rupert throws in the towel.

Game was a chess-like and interesting one that kept everyone engaged. Once again, these rules proved impressive for their flexibility and simplicity.  Thanks to Ian (Essex), Chris (King Charles/Rupert), and Gary (Ramsay) for taking part.

So,was the Roundhead confounded? Not this time! Below is the Royalist recruiting song that the title of this blog posting was taken from:

What, though the zealots pull down the prelates,

Push at the pulpit, and kick at the crown;

Shall we not never once more endeavour,

And strive to purchase our ancient renown?

Shall not the Roundhead soon be confounded?

Sa- sa- sa- say, boys; ha- ha- ha- hey, boys,

Then we'll return with triumph and joy!

Then we’ll be merry, drink claret and sherry;

Then we will sing, boys, ‘God Bless the King!’ boys,

Cast up our caps, and cry, ‘VIVE LE ROY!’

What, though that ‘wise-ache’ Alderman Isaac

Puts us in prison and steals our estates;

Though we be forcèd to be un-horsèd,

And walk on foot as it pleaseth the fates;

In the King's army no man shall harm ye!

Then come along, boys, valiant and strong, boys,

Fight for your goods, which the Roundheads enjoy!

And when you venture London to enter,

And when you come, boys, with pike and drum, boys,

Isaac himself shall cry, ‘VIVE LE ROY!’

If you should choose Charles (do not refuse Charles,

Since ‘honest Parliament' ever were thieves!),

Charles will not further have rogues dripped in murder,

Neither by pardons, long life, or reprieves;

Such propositions and conditions

Will not be granted. Then be not daunted!

We will our honest old customs enjoy!

St. Paul's, now rejected, shall be respected,

And in the choir, voices sing higher,

Thanks be to heaven, and cry, ‘VIVE LE ROY!’

Forest Bathing

In keeping with the 'Season of Good Will' and all that, I thought I would post something of a peaceful nature.

One of my presents this Xmas was a book called 'Forest Bathing'. The basic idea is that immersing yourself in a sea of green will do you a power of good. (Well, a walk in the woods never harmed anyone -- apart from Varus's legions -- so why not?)

Apparently even some green in your work place is good for you, so my wife put together a small Bonsai arrangement for my office desk. I supplied a 28mm Japanese peasant in order to add some character, and what you see is the result.

The figure is from a 28mm Essex miniatures set of Heian era villagers which I bought for my Ronin Wars collection in order to spice it up. See below:

28mm Essex Heian period. Front row L to R: Rotten Little Kid, Harassed Mother, Woman with Attitude, Lord & Lady. Rear  row L to R: Two Working Stiffs, Woman with Load, Old Man.

The set also includes four additional (unpainted) figures which are not shown.

Cheers!

New Collection: An Impulse Buy

I've mentioned before in this blog the wisdom of the old-timers' saying: "Choose your period, and stick to it", and how impossible that is, for me at least. I blame this, in part, on all the fabulously illustrated, and often cheap, rules that are available these days -- to say nothing of the new figures that are on offer.

Here is a classic example:

While browsing in the bookstore a couple of years ago I came across a new set of Osprey Wargames rules, Broken Legions: Fantasy Skirmish Wargames in the Roman Empire.

Never mind that I'm not really into fantasy gaming. Never mind that I didn't own any figures to support this thing. I had to have them, didn't I? And they were so cheap! So home they came, in a moment of pure madness. And I suspect that my fellow gamers have many such moments.

I explained this to fellow-gamer JohnA one game night.

"You bought what?" he asked, wide-eyed.

"Ancient Roman fantasy skirmish rules."

"What the *$#%* are 'Ancient Roman fantasy skirmish rules'?"

Exactly.

Flash forward a couple of years to another game night at Trumpeters. DougH brought in about two dozen 28mm Marian Romans along with four dozen Gauls for the sales table. Price? Eighteen bucks, Canadian. My mind flashed back to those rules I had sitting on my bookshelf, and out came my wallet. 

So, what you see here is the result of a couple of weeks painting (I'm not sure what manufacturer they are).

My new 28mm Romans. If you think that the rules intend to represent one man per fig, then what you see are three contubernia (eight man sections), each led by a Decanus, and overall by a Centurian.  If you think that ten men per fig is more appropriate, then the above are a group of three centuries led by a Primus Pilus ('Top Kick' Centurian) or a Tribune.

Gauls. (Who let them in?)

Above is an illustration by Alan Lathwell from page 16 of Mark Latham's Broken Legions (Latham, Mark, Broken Legions : Fantasy Skirmish Wargames in the Roman Empire, Osprey Publishing, 2016, p.16). 

Here's my recreation of the above illustration from the rules. Since I don't own any Wulfkind figs, my Grendel figure had to fill in.  

Bottom line? I'm probably not going to use Broken Legions at all! More likely, I'll use a modified form of Ronin. Like I said, I'm not really a fantasy gamer.

Cheers,

Gettysburg Revisited

The divisions of Syke's V Corps moving northwards towards Gettysburg. 

If you've seen the previous post, you'll know that I've made up some 6mm ACW armies to fight big battles with small figs, "in the grand style".

These I took in to our latest monthly Bonsor game night, where Chris (Union), Doug (A.P. Hill & Longstreet) and Gary (Lee & Ewell) were kind enough to give it a try.

Here's the vain pitch I made on our club website:

"Yep, three days of Gettysburg in three hours at Bonsor. 'Bonnie Blue Flag!' home brew big battle rules have been specifically written to accommodate our game night limitations, and these will hopefully allow us to finish the darned battle!  They feature command & control, big operational moves, and fast combat on a 14 by 12 mile table top. Longstreet's dream flanking move to the right and Custer's cavalry battle on the 'East Field' are now do-able. Lots of commands are available, and late arriving corps are there for late joiners."

Well, it didn't go three days, for a start. The end of the first day was the best we could manage -- just four turns and a night phase. That's the bad news.

The good news is that just about everything else worked really well. The players appeared engaged, and really seemed to enjoy what was going on, even if the blood-letting on this July 1st was pretty minor. There were even two or three spectators who were engrossed, as if watching a movie, which I guess is a good sign.

A view of the central part of the field, from the west. Chris's moves his troops up the slopes of Little Round Top. 

What happened, in brief:

Ewell and A.P. Hill moved in on Gettysburg from the north and west, as per the script. But this particular Union Cavalry commander, Buford (AKA Chris), was having none of it, and immediately retreated all the way back to Culp's Hill! That ended any historical resemblance right there (but that's what wargaming's all about isn't it? Why play, otherwise?).  Most of the day was then spent with the Confederates maneuvering to lengthen the Union line in order to create a weak point, while the Bluebellies reinforced ("What? Another Union Corps?" cries Doug. "No, two." says I).

Southern gentlemen pass through Gettysburg.

If you've seen the movie you'll recall the point where the Confederate General complains "Give me one division... one brigade... one regiment, and I will take that hill!" Same here. Gary had a corps of 20,000 men and 90 guns sitting at the foot of Culp's Hill and Little Round Top -- each manned by about 4,000 Union troops -- and refused to move. All afternoon his corps sat, passing on about four opportunities to attack, with fresh Union reinforcements arriving all the while.

The view from the east. Johnny Reb sits at the foot of Little Round Top, which is becoming increasingly infested by Yankees.

Meantime Doug struggled to bring his troops online along the poor road net. Eventually (c. 5:00pm in game time) he found the weak spot he was looking for. The "hinge/elbow" of the Yankee I Corp's exposed left flank was hanging gloriously in the air! with empty heights and an open road to Washington in its rear. Doug threw Anderson's Division and whatever else he could bring to bear at it. But the dice Gods were rather unsympathetic, and a 'Bloody Exchange' was the best he could do.

I'll let Doug explain this inexplicable episode in his own words.

Chris put the seal on Day One with an equally bloody counter-attack in (what else?) 'Bloody Woods'.

Thus ended the game.

One of the reasons I chose to stage this very big battle was because I wanted to see how much I could fit into a single gaming session using my grand tactical rules. I think that one of the reasons we only completed a single day was due to the fact that players were handling very large commands. But if it can work with something this big, it can work with just about anything.

Perhaps something like First Bull Run would be more appropriate?

Thanks to all who showed interest.

The field just prior to the attack of Anderson's Division,
which took place just south of the Wheat Field.