Working up to Thymbra

Well, here I am, starting out on the 2nd year of the Median Revival.  I didn't get as many figures painted as I would have liked and didn't really get the campaign humming along properly but I did played more Mede/Persian  games than I expected even if they were all solo. I'm not ready to take another stab at the campaign, it didn't work well to drive painting and I need more stuff table-ready before I try again. So, what am I going to do?

Well, 2 of the games last year were refights of Greco-Persian battles, Marathon and Platea. Now its time to push the Lydians a bit so I am setting my sights on Thymbra. Evidence is shaky at best as usual but there is enough floating around  to make a workable game around what figures I have. The odds of me finding a few thousand allied Egyptian "hoplites" anytime this year is pretty remote so I suspect that there will be substitutions and concessions as usual.  I also want to fit the game on a 5'x6' playing area and play the game in 3 hours. This implies some serious compression, something on the order of 1-3,000 men per "element".

I should have a rough OB, a painting schedule. and a planned play date later this month. June would be the earliest date and I'm now thinking September or October as a more likely date and I might push it to the end of the year.  There will be other games in the meantime. New troops and rules will have to be tested if nothing else. I may stick with Gathering of Hosts but am tempted to try adapting Legio and may also give Basic Impetus a try.

and now, a gratuitous and completely  irrelevant shot of my 1/72nd plastic barbarian horde fighting amongst itself. (standing in as DBA Early Visigoths vs Late Germans)

(and yes they owe their existence to the inclusion of scaled down copies of Marx's 25mm "Vikings") 

The Gathering Resumes

It has been more than 6 months now since the last unit of 25mm Ancients left the painting table. For most of this time, there have been 10 1/2 painted 20mm Phyrgians sitting at the back of my table. For some reason, I'm not sure why, I just couldn't get a feel for them. I haven't been painting much anyway and so I let them slide when I did find the time and energy.

Just before Christmas, I got a sudden urge to convert the whole project to Sassinid vs Romans. Several days of  day dreaming and considering possibilities passed before I remembered that I was going to drain off any Roman impulse into the Prince Valiant 40mm project and began to dig about on the net for info on the Babylonians and Assyrians as a distraction. Worked like a charm, by Boxing Day evening I was relaxed, had time of my choosing and within minutes of starting to apply stripes, it was all good and so the first 1/2 unit of Phyrgians "light" infantry has emerged.

 
Those for an eye & a memory for such things may note that the single figure rebellion appears to have been quelled. I had a few bad moments when I was tempted to emulate the excellent 4 man 40mm sq bases that my 25mm ECW Scots have adopted but in the nick of time sanity reigned and I remembered how useful it can be to have something approaching "hobby standard"  for 25mm Ancients and how annoying it can be to have inconvenient non-standard arrangements. So it had to be single figures or 60mm elements.  My 40mm Prince Valiant figures give me "ancient" singles so its back to elements for the little guys. (Whew, glad I only rebased troops who needed it for other reasons!)

Ambush played

A battle report on the Ambush of Queen Demiramis has been posted on my Battlegames blog. Some thoughts on rules to follow shortly along with the tweaked version.

Escort Duties

I've been trying to focus on my 19thC interests but every time I turn my back I can hear the rythamic clash spear against shield. In order to quiet them, I have decided to dig out an old Table Top Teaser.

"..You are to select positions for your force to ambush a convoy proceeding from the west. This convoy consists of Princess Zenobii of Kali and her considerable dowry escorted by soldiers of the future husband, the Emperor Osbosis of Dubris. You are to intercept and seize both Princess and dowry before They cross the bridge to the south and safety.".

http://www.box.net/shared/pym6zu3xit  for the original refight thanks to Steve the Wargamer

Tempting to use this as an excuse to paint up some Clibinari and set the game farther east but I'm sure the hills of Anatolia will provide a suitable site for an ambush.

Red Force (Ambush Party)             

1 unit of light archers  

1 unit of light slingers

1 unit of light/medium javelins

1 unit of light cavalry   

Blue Force (Road Party)

1 unit of light cavalry 

2 units of medium infantry

1 unit of light archers

1 small unit of super heavy cavalry

1 litter with bearers

1 wagon of treasure

1 unit of heavy cavalry 

hmm, I don't see any mention of a Priestess riding a Tiger, must be a misprint.

Now which side is which?

Old Soldiers

For those of you are fans of Charles Grant's book The Ancient Wargame as well as various magazine articles about historical battles re-fought, hie thee to the Garrison website for a treat. Rob has acquired some of Charles' old figures and has begun posting colour pictures.

In solidarity with and in homage to the herd of veteran Airfix elephants, I present Ellie. My own Airfix elephant, converted probably 1974/75 though the original Roman charioteer crew was replaced at some point in the 80's by RAFM figures. The original mahout still serves, but with a RAFM head.