Irregular Wars Wargaming

  The last post of the 2023 brings Andrew's Project Seleukid progress up to date with four bases of Dahai horse archers and four bases of generic slingers - all are Victrix. I've now a lot of catching up to do, but will be starting on my phalanx in the new year! So bidding fairwell to 2023 and wishing everyone a happy new year! See you on the otherside. 😉

Here is the last epic dispatch of the year sent through from Mark.   The Portuguese invasion of Madagascar is an obscure facet of the contest for control of East Africa and the Indian Ocean, waged between the Portuguese and the Ottoman Turks for much of the C16. The Turks got involved to support their co-religionists as Islam gained influence in E Africa and SEA, and because the Portuguese strategy to strangle the old Spice Routes from India was a significant economic threat. There are some videos about the wider conflict (but not the Madagascar affair, oddly) on the Kings & Generals YouTube channel. You could start here if interested -  https://youtu.be/R3E1SYBgK4w The surviving archives of both sides are silent about the strategy and details of the Madagascan conflict. Fortunately a Venetian observer got himself attached to the expedition, and his relationes, in the Venetian State Archives, give some information. He was Sebastian Vernier, later commander of the Venetian ...

My final unit/s of 2023 for Project Seleukid are four companies of Arab camelry. These are Perry Mahdist camel riders with a couple of head-swaps and added bow-cases. They are lovely sculpts, but I do worry about how delicate some of the ankles are on those camels. Antiochos fielded an undisclosed number of Arabs fighting from camel-back at the battle of Magnesia. Both Appian and Livy give limited details about these forces; they were specified as archers who also carried a long sword for melee. Their position in the battle, screening the left wing suggests that they served as mounted skirmishers and that the sword was intended as a worst-case-scenario tool rather than part of their principal kit.   Neither Livy nor Appian mention whether the camelry also wore armour. According to Herodotus, the Arabian camelry who fought during the Greco-Persian wars were armoured (and possibly armed) in the same manner as their infantry archers; this means that they wore a long, thick robe with a...

Taking a quick detour back to the wasteland, I have added three more warriors to the Bedtime's Children, my growing tribal warband for This is Not a Test . All three are slightly large 28mm miniatures from Hasslefree. At this point I am running out of strictly onesie-wearing options, so have relented to allow models with alternative evening attire.  Sam is a sinewy chap with Y-fronts and a fireman fetish. He also has a handy fire axe which will help. Raz keeps it real with a relaxed style in her unicorn onesie, slippers and massive tool. Kitty, however, has other nocturnal pursuits in mind when she dons her evening wear. The tribe now has 12 members and three warbeasts. If I see any other suitable recruits I'll pick them up, but what I'm really after now is some sort of animatronic bear to serve as a depend-o-bot.

  Not content to let me try an catch up with Project Seleukid, Andrew has only gone and painted up some thureophoroi of his own! These are Aventine and simply beautiful figures.

The next unit for my Seleukid army comes in the form of a small unit of Kappakokian thureophoroi. Ariarathes IV, king of Kappadokia and son-in-law of Antiochos III, sent 2,000 Kappadokian foot to aid the Seleukid cause in the run-up to Magnesia. Appian and Livy both place them on the left flank where they are said to have been equipped in the same way as the Galatians. I have taken this to mean that they were equipped with large thureoi - said to have been adopted by Hellenistic states after their contact with Galatians in the 280s and 270s BC. The coins of the earlier Kappadokian kings (including Ariarathes III above) show the kings wearing the Iranian bashlyk, a legacy of the Achaemenid empire. However, from the reign of Ariarathes IV (above), the portraiture conforms wholly to Hellenised norms, showing the king as a diademed Greek-style ruler - a format that was to continue until the end of Kappadokian autonomy in the first century AD. For the unit, therefore, I have combined Hellen...

Part 3. The siege of Kupang fortress A couple of weeks have passed since the Lasiang landing and battle. Instead of following up the defeated Songkhla defenders at once, the Portuguese have completed a palisaded base and moved in the supplies necessary to support the army. Now it’s all done and Don Cristobel Da Crespo has left a small garrison and led his men to the fortress of Kupang.  A contingent of Timorese natives has joined the expedition, led by the missionaries.  The remaining Songkhka garrison has withdrawn into the fortress. Since it was captured over three years ago nothing much has been done to repair the damage, except a hastily-built and incomplete palisade in front of the breach. The Portuguese had been counting on this, it’s why they havn’t brought up siege artillery. As Don Cristobel is making his dispositions, a message arrives from Don Marco: the Sultan of Songkhka has sent a large relief force, and it has been sighted at Utara Pulau, to the SW. He’s going t...

Part 1 - the battle of Cape Solamoe You’ll all no doubt have vivid recollections of the fall of Kupang, reported by Mark back on 2020.  Galleys & Galleons - The Siege of Kupang (part 1) Galleys & Galleons - The Siege of Kupang (part 2) Galleys & Galleons - The Siege of Kupang (part 3) This Portuguese base on the NW coast of Timor was a vital part of their control of the Spice Islands. Its capture by an unholy alliance between the Sultan of Songkhla and the knights of St Michael of Singapore was a serious strategic blow to Portuguese ambitions in the East Indies. But now they’re planning a comeback. The enemy alliance has frayed. The fortress of Kupang has never been properly restored since the siege. It is now in poor condition and ill-defended, according to intelligence reports. The indigenous population is hostile to the Songkhka occupation on religious grounds thanks to the indefatigable efforts of the Jesuit missionaries. Don Marco sails from Malacca with an invasio...