Irregular Wars Wargaming

At the start of the month we braved the July heat to return to Greece - this time, to explore some of the sites across (and around) the plain of Argos. The region is packed full of amazing archaeological sites and some lovely smaller museums. Here are a few of the sites and sights that we visited that could be inspiring for wargamers/builders of model Bronze Age walls... Bronze Age/Late Helladic sites in the area were the focus of our trip and really it was a bit of a study of cyclopaean architecture. There are four very impressive Mycenaean citadels overlooking the Argive plain. Mycene to the north, Midea to the east, Tiryns to the south, and Argos to the west. From book 2 of the Iliad we know that Agamemnon was supposed to have ruled at Mycenae (and further north), while Argos and Tiryns were ruled by Diomedes. Midea is not mentioned in the Iliad , but feels more at home with Argos and Tiryns. Mycenae Lion Gate and cyclopaean walls. Modern guardian of the gate. Grave Circle A, where...

Fine tuning the Ilium rules for various scenarios, we returned to the Night Mission last week with the Trojan cousins, Helenos and Aeneas, sneaking into the Achaean camp to steal the horses of the Cretan king, Idomeneus. The Trojan heroes arrived at the edge of Machaon's campfire (top right). Having the good fortune to activate both heroes before an Achaean so much as coughed, they stealthily killed three of Machaon's sleeping promachoi and his sentry, ensuring that no warning could be raised in the first turn. They next sprang on Machaon, taking him by surprise and wounding him before he had even stood up. The Thessalian lord tried to fight back, but it was to no avail and he fell to the combined attacks of the Trojan princes. As Helenos finished off the last of the sleeping Thessalians, the cautious Athenian sentry from Menestheus' camp caught sight of the Trojan prince. Helenos fired his bow, but it was a very literal shot in the dark and went wide. Idomeneus' sentr...

 It took us a while to get here, but I finally have another video playthrough recorded!  

The sixth wargear to be completed is this awesomely chunky chap from Grim Prints.    This is the version equipped with a siege canon, based on a 60x80mm base. And finally, here is a shot of the six wargears all together in their box.

This week we were putting the settlement raid mission through its paces again for Ilium: A Game of Heroes . The Achaeans were once more on the offensive, raiding a small Trojan-allied settlement somewhere in the Bosporos. The game was set a couple of years before the fall of Troy, and would see Penthesileia and Hektor fight side-by-side. We rolled for the attacker/defender, with the Trojans and their allies being the defenders. The Trojans began with Penthesileia, queen of the Amazons, holding the centre of the village, with the Achaean kings, Menestheus and Idomeneus, already on the outskirts. With the weight of numbers in their favour, the Achaeans pressed forward. Menestheus personally killed two of the Amazonian promachoi next to the village well, while the Achaean bowmen focused their fire on the Amazonian archers on the roof tops. Soon, the nearest two houses in the village were alight, with only Penthesileia and a single Amazonian warrior standing the way of the Achaean flood. H...