Saturday 26 May 2018

ADG - Who can I fight?

Knowing when to stop... nope, haven't read that chapter yet. I recently sat down to dwell over my 6mm ancient and medieval armies to work out which one I need to build next and it got me thinking, if I added a couple more units of one sort or another, I could morph my existing forces into new armies of the same period. You know, sort of a 'value adding' exercise.

Order duly placed for a few more packs, I sat down and listed historical enemies for the armies I can currently field without stretching too many button-counting friendships. Obviously there is a fair bit of overlap - my Seleukids, Arabs, Armenians, Kommagenians, Ituraeans can all fight the Parthians for example - but there are still quite a host of foes for my brave boys to smite. My armies are in bold, followed by their enemies.

30. Minoans
12. Libyan, 14. New Kingdom Egyptians, 20. Hittites, 22. Syria, Canaan and Ugarit, 24. Sea Peoples, 30. Mycenaean

42. Seleukids
41. Early Successor, 42. Seleukid, 43. Ptolemaic, 53. Republican Roman, 61. Hellenistic Greek, 63. Thracian, 67. Bithynian, 69. Kappadokian, 71. Armenian, 72. Galatian, 73. Pergamon, 74. Aramaean, 75. Early Arab, 76. Skythian, 79. Classical Indian, 102. Parthian, 103. Judaean Jewish, 104. Kommagene

44. Pyrrhic
41. Early Successor, 51. Campanian, Lucanian, Apulian and Bruttian, 52. Camillan Roman, 54. Early Carthaginian, 60. Classical Greek, 61. Hellenistic Greek, 62. Illyrian, 63, Thracian, 72 Galatian

47. Samnites (100 points)
47. Italian Tribe, 48. Etruscan, 49. Tullian Roman, 50. Syracusan, 51. Campanian, Lucanian, Apulian and Bruttian, 52. Camillan Roman, 54. Early Carthaginian, 60. Classical Greek

71. Armenian
42. Seleukid, 69. Kappadokian, 71. Armenian, 74 Aramaean, 82. Triumvirate Roman, 102. Parthian, 103. Judaean Jewish, 104. Kommagene, 105 Mithridatic

74. Ituraean
42. Seleukid, 43. Ptolemaic, 71. Armenian, 74 Aramaean, 75. Early Arab, 82. Triumvirate Roman, 102. Parthian, 103. Judaean Jewish

75. Early Arab (100 points)
42. Seleukid, 43. Ptolemaic, 71. Armenian, 74 Aramaean, 75. Early Arab, 82. Triumvirate Roman, 102. Parthian, 103. Judaean Jewish, 104. Kommagene

104. Kommagene
42. Seleukid, 69. Kappadokian, 71. Armenian, 72 Galatian, 73, Pergamon, 74 Aramaean, 75 Early Arab, 82. Triumvirate Roman, 84 Early Imperial Roman, 102. Parthian,

105. Mithridatic
63, Thracian, 67. Bithynian, 69. Kappadokian, 71 Armenian, 72 Galatian, 82. Triumvirate Roman

107. Kushan
79. Classical Indian, 81. Ch’iang and Ti, 102. Parthian, 107. Kushan, 117 Han Chinese

178. Anglo-Irish
177. Feudal Scots, 178. Anglo-Irish, 179. Scots Isles and Highlanders, 222. Medieval Scots, 223. Medieval Irish, 225. Hundred Years War English

225. Hundred Years War English
178. Anglo-Irish, 179. Scots Isles and Highlanders, 222. Medieval Scots, 223. Medieval Irish, 226. Hundred Years War French, 228. Medieval Spanish, 229. Navarrese, 231. Burgundian, 232. Low Countries, 233. Medieval Welsh

236. Yorkists
178. Anglo-Irish, 179. Scots Isles and Highlanders, 222. Medieval Scots, 223. Medieval Irish, 231. Burgundian, 232. Low Countries, 234. French Ordonnance, 235 Burgundian Ordonnance, 236. Wars of the Roses

Friday 25 May 2018

OGAM - The Delphi Incident

In 279 BC, hordes of Celtic invaders swept down on the Greek world from the wilds of the north, destroying all before them. One branch of the invading army attacked the sacred oracle of Apollo at Delphi. According to ancient writers, the god Apollo appeared before the barbarians and put them to flight. This is the story of the Delphi incident...

This week I finally managed my first game of the month. It has just been one of those months... Jim popped up the mountain to visit and we reprised our old roles as Greek and Irish deities for a game of Of Gods and Mortals (Osprey Games). I took Apollo and a force of Greco-Macedonians defending the temple of Apollo, against his Irish, lead by Lugh of the Long Arm.

Apollo and his escort of centaur archers.

Lugh, supported by Queen Medb and the warriors of Connacht.

I had less-than-stealthily placed my Macedonian hypaspists on top of the hill to dominate the table. Jim won the initiative, activated his banshee and watched my face turn white. She saunted up behind my heavy infantry and let out a terrifying cry to cull the weak. In a moment, I lost three of my eight men in the unit. Lugh also immediately killed the hero Atalanta before she could so much as take a step! That first turn really set the tone for the evening.

As soon as I could, I used a reaction to get Herakles into combat to punish the banshee. He took her out with his first hammering blow, but by that stage, the damage was done to the hypaspists.

Apollo used his healing power to bring back one of the hypaspists, and put a plague on the Irish warriors of Connacht over by Lugh. Meanwhile, my hoplite shades and the hypaspists both charged into Medb. In a succession of tied combat rolls, my shades lost several of their number thanks to Medb's armour.

She was eventually beaten in the combat, but only enough to force a recoil. And then she charged the hypastists alone.

Meanwhile, Apollo started making his way over towards the action and Cú Chullainn snuck in behind him to attack the centaurs.

Here too, we drew two consecutive combat rolls and while I lost figures, the Irish hero's armour saved him.

What you can't see in this shot is Lugh throwing a spear and defeating Apollo, forcing him to quit the field. The centaurs failed one morale roll and retired further away from Cú Chullainn.

Lugh also managed to take down another of my shades, reducing the unit to a fairly useless three models.

And then Medb and my hypaspists had yet more drawn combats, killing three of my men in succession. I now had three units of mortals in play, none with more than three figures, meaning I couldn't invoke Apollo again and we called an end to the game. So, without engaging a single one of his mortal units, Jim had me well and truly beaten. Probably my most comprehensive (yet still enjoyable) defeat on record in any game.

Looking back on it though... I failed to remember to use Apollo's prophesy dice which could have saved him or Atalanta from Lugh's attacks, and, and this is really a pretty big AND, I forgot that my hypaspists were armoured, so their combats with Medb should have ended a couple of turns earlier, and with her death! These are the learning points we must take forward.

The moral of the story - don't believe everything written down by ancient historians!


Thursday 17 May 2018

Fireside Tales is here!


With great pleasure and little fanfare, I'm please to say that Palaeo Diet: Fireside Tales (PDFT) has now been unleashed on the public. PDFT is a narrative campaign for Palaeo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten. Join Herc, the last of his people, as he regales a new tribe with tales of his heroic exploits, making excuses for his torn clothing, and remaining rather vague about exactly what happened to his old companions.

PDFT includes:

  • Five new scenarios with primary and secondary objectives;
  • Four new beast profiles and reaction tables;
  • New optional rules for unwashed hunters and guidelines for hunting juvenile beasts.

A copy of Palaeo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten is required to play.


So far it is only found on Ganesha's Gumroad store, but it will soon be available through all the usual avenues in pdf and paperback.

Saturday 5 May 2018

Fireside Tales - angry critters

Fireside Tales introduces four new fearsome threats to Palaeo Diet: Eat or be Eaten. The least of the new beasts is the angry critter. Angry critters represent small but aggressively territorial beasts such as badgers, stoats, snakes, wild cats or even swooping magpies. They do not pose any significant threat to hominids or other larger creatures, but they can certainly be a nuisance.

These wee beasties are pretty much the antithesis of the much more timid 'regular' critters in the core game. Flushed out of hiding in the same way, they will always attack the hunter or hound that discovered them, and then will continue to patrol their terrain piece with bravado far bigger than they are.

These two little guys are the newly released stoats/weasels from Krakon Games Gnomes Kickstarter.

Here we can see the 'flexible' scaling allowable in a prehistoric game... Frygga, my converted Flytrap huntress, a Flytrap mammoth, and a rabbit from Warheads. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable being that bunny.


Of course, other angry critters are also viable options... 😀