Irregular Wars Wargaming

Ptandrew and I met up again this week for our second bout of the newish 4th edition of L'Art de la Guerre . This battle saw Ptandrew fielding a Hellenistic army for the first time in the shape of a late Ptolemaic force. I dressed to match with a late Seleukid army, c.120 BC. By the late 2nd century, both 'empires' still had a couple of generations of juice in the tank, but both were also very much approaching (if not already mired in) their autumn years. The armies were rather asymmetrical, with the Seleukids composed of massed pikes and cataphracts with a little bit of support from two units of imitation legionaries, some levy bowmen, two units each of skirmishing Cretan archers and slingers, and a unit of Bedouin medium camelry. Nothing too fancy. The Ptolemies had a much more diverse army mixing elite Galatian cavalry, pikemen, imitation legionaries, thorakitai, and a tumble of mediocre spearmen and mediocre elephants. Out-foxed during deployment, The Seleukid cataphract...

Following on from his leopards comes Dionysos himself, accompanied by his wee mate Eros. These two will serve as the army mage-lord and rogue respectively.  Dionysos is, far and away, the single most expensive model I have ever bought. Lets not talk about actual real-world moneys (after all, my wife might read this one day...), but suffice to say he is a custom designed miniature from Heroforge.  There are only two off-the-shelf Dionysioi that I know of, from Foundry and from Wargods of Olympus. Both (in my opinion) overplay the drunkenness - one is more-or-less naked with bunch of grapes and a patera, and the other is ... very robust - a modern take on the god - holding a goblet. I wanted a much more understated, youthful and lithe figure holding a thyrsos; a god of exstasis (ecstasy, or being out of mind) and fertility. After several visits to Heroforge, I umm'd and ahhh'd for a couple of weeks before placing the order, but here is the result. The stubby horns serve a coupl...

Another cracking missive from Mark in Thailand: I’ve been mulling this game almost since the COVID pandemic began, considering various scenarios, but I kept putting it off as over-complicated. But at last, with too much time on my hands (tho it seems never enough) I gave it a go. Here are the results. The rules used are Song of Shadows and Dust : Miniature skirmish rules for urban violence and civil disruption in the Ancient World (Nic Wright, published by Ganesha Games 2013). ************* Rumours of a terrible contagion have been coming down country for months, with traders and visitors. Now, a mob of refugees is approaching Pattayavium. The municipal authorities have not been idle, but will their preparations be enough? Or will the plague get into the town and wreak havoc? And how will the people of Pattayavium respond to the imminent threat? Many have already fled, to their home villages or - if wealthy - their country villas. ⬇️ Here’s the bit of Pattayavium just inside the Mapyai...

  The association between Dionysos and leopards runs deep in Classical art and literature - likely linked to the god's conquest of India. He is often shown accompanied by, riding on, or driving a chariot pulled by leopards or panthers.  For my Fantastic Battles  army, I am planning on fielding these as fantastic beasts with the ephemeral, fast, and feast traits. The above depictions are a famous 4th C. BC Paestan krater, now in the Louvre, and a contemporary mosaic floor from Pella (and still there!).  These 28mm beasties are from Warmonger Miniatures. They are slightly over-sized for the scale - which is a good thing for divine cats - and the moulds are getting a bit roapy around the eyes of the sculpts, but they are still a decent set. I found the thought of painting leopard spots a bit daunting. The trick for me was to stare long enough at photos of leopards to realise the spots are all irregular, and most of them are actually tan/light brown surrounded by a darke...

The next large project that I embark on will be a 28mm, Greek myth-inspired, Dionysiac army for Fantastic Battles . The intention is to base the army around a core of maenads and satyrs, supported by a mixture of centaurs, various animals and erotes. The simplest way to start the project was by rebasing a few 28mm figures already in my collection - a company of nymphs from Shadowforge, and a Eurkea Miniatures Pan with a wee scratch built set of pipes. Pan will serve as a captain in the army, and I am planning on using the nymphs as a company of magic-using, skirmishing, fantastic beasts.

  Andrew and I played out first game of L'Art de la Guerre  for almost a year this week. To add to the confusion of foggy memories, this was also the first run through of the new 4th edition of the rules. I ran a quintisentially late Hellenistic army from Kommagene, while he played about with those western savages of the Roamn Triumvirate (well, one of the triumvirs anyway). We did quite a few things wrong to begin with, but not in a way that disadvataged either side more than the other. After we settled into the rhythm again, it all went swimmingly and and it certainly looked the part.  The Romans generally made a mess of the Kommagenean left flank, and were badly mauled on their own left flank, while the central melee between legions and pikemen ground on with equal bouts of heroism and cowardice on both sides. Classic moments to be recorded by non-partisan historians should include when the Kommagenian archers shot down and routed the Numidian cavalry (including their ...

  Finishing off phase 2 of ProjectTROY is the Trojan mule train/camp, previewed earlier in the month . Simple, but I reckon it'll be effective enough. And by having the chap with the sword I can even stretch friendships like claiming it is a fortified camp! I am by-no-means suggesting this is the end of the army, but I now have enough Trojans for a 1200 point army for  Fantastic Battles , 200 points in l'Art de la Guerre , and two large (or three small) commands for Hail Caesar , so time to turn my attention to other projects - at least for a while.