Irregular Wars Wargaming

Note that this post is picture heavy and may not be suitable for work computers (NSFW) or slower connections. Of course if you are reading this, you've already clicked on the link and it may be too late... This week saw the invasion of the Seleukid highland satarapy of Glenavia by the loathful lowland Romans. Although the general consensus around our way is that the points system in Hail Caesar is not necessarily capable of producing evenly matched games - the system was never intended for competition play - both forces were composed of roughly 330 points arranged in three divisions.  Why 330 points you ask? Because that is what I currently have painted and it allowed me to run a Seleukid army without any substitutions for the first time. "All trees present and accounted for sir!" The Seleukid crown prince aids in preparing the battlefield. The forced assemble and deploy - Seleukids screen left, Romans screen right. The Romans: Left - One Roman legion compo...

From the limited sources available to us regarding the composition of the Seleukid army , and the details are sketchy despite what some wargaming army lists would have us believe, it is clear that at least some Seleukid kings and generals made use of irregular fighters from the desert frontiers of Syria and Mesopotamia. Roman denarius depicting the supplication of the Nabataean king Aretas III - with camel Antiochos III is reported to have fielded a unit Arabs at the battle of Raphia in 217 BC. According to Polybius, the Arabs and neighbouring tribes numbered about ten thousand and were commanded by Zabdibelus. Considering the entire Seleukid infantry - among whom the Arabs are list - at Raphia only (only!) numbered 58,000, the Arab contingent amounted to 17.24% of the manpower. Such a total is almost unheard of in wargaming army lists and that is where the joy of Hail Caesar 's approach come in. If you want Arabs, you can have them. McBride painting of Iron Age A...

Like the other Ganesha games based on the Song of ... engine, Song of Shadows and Dust uses three different measuring sticks to determine movement and ranges. The measurements are fairly standard across the different games: For 15mm scale or smaller models, use the following lengths: Short 50mm; Medium 80mm; Long 120mm For larger scale models, use the following lengths: Short 75mm; Medium 120mm; Long 180mm Initially, I used lengths of 10mm diameter dowel or 2.8mm diameter copper rod as my measuring sticks and they certainly did the job most adequately. Eventually, then I was drawn towards the Litko Ganesha Games set which includes a triangular distance template. Litko produce these for both 15mm and 28mm scales. They also come with a range of other useful counters to mark wounds and entanglements etc. I bought the 28mm set for my Song of Blades and Heroes and Song of Arthur and Merlin games. Even though I use 10mm models for the latter, I still like to use the longer ran...

I always get a juvenile excitement when I see new gamers take an interest in my games and start a new project. I get a similar joy watching my almost three year old son make me a fajita, but that is another story. I've recently stumbled across a couple of new projects that are worth keeping an eye on. The Song of Blades and Heroes friendface page was recently treated with a couple of shots of Keith Finn's 15-20mm scale city for Song of Shadows and Dust . A really simple but effective use of paper mache boxes bought from a craft store. I with I had thought of that.... Keith doesn't appear to have a blog of his own, but here are the photos for those who missed them on friendface. Secondly, Paul of Paul's Bods has been posting up more pictures of his wonderful 1:72/20mm Roman city which would put a museum display to shame. I have previously shown off some of his work here - the 1:72 scale Roman civilians/Christians, and am delighted that he is talking of usin...

Last weekend I got a chance to have another training game of Hail Caesar under my belt. With my current painted commands (one mounted, one of light infantry) and two borrowed commands of Italians masquerading as pikemen and other cavalry. I don't have a lot of decent shots from the evening, but here is my line a deployment. Antiochos led the right flank cavalry who performed most nobly. Even with the borrowed commands, I was out-pointed significantly - around 400 points to about 550 points. Brett brought his Romans onto the table in line of march; three heavy infantry divisions and one cavalry division. Antiochos very quickly dismissed the Roman cavalry who lasted only slightly longer on the field of battle than it took them to march on the table. In the centre though, the infantry didn't fair quite so well. That said, my Arab light infantry and light cavalry served most honourably and stood their ground for multiple turns against great odds. My mounted divis...

I'm delighted to say that that Song of Shadows and Dust is now for sale in hardcopy, currently available through Lulu.com The rules come as a 42 page perfect-bound softback American letter format book. There is a 20% off sale on all Ganesha Games products over at Lulu at the moment: just use the code CORNUCOPIA at checkout. The offer is only available until 11:59pm, November 15th. As with all sales of the SSD rules, 50% of all author royalties will be donated to UNHRC, the United Nations body responsible for refugees fleeing war and persecution.