Irregular Wars Wargaming

The bulwark of Seleukid power was the military, particularly the royal army. The support of the army enabled Seleukos I to establish himself first as satrap of Babylon and later as king – none of his successors were able to maintain their position without the army’s support. As a body, the army provides a second insight into the ethnic composition of the population living under the kings. Unfortunately the extant historical sources, deficient at the best of times in regards to the Seleukids, provide the modern scholar with only three detailed breakdowns (listing nationalities and numbers) of the Seleukid order of battle. Of these, two represent the army in pitched battle (Raphia, 217 BC and Magnesia, 190 BC), the other is a description of a festive military parade (Daphne, 167 BC). That said, the three examples taken together can be used to extract a great deal of information regarding the sources of manpower in the royal army during the late third and early second centuries BC. ...

The 'elite', but irregular, forces of the VOC ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie  = Free [Dutch] East India Company), based up for Irregular Wars . This is quite an effective little battle, but it does suffer from being quite small - a maximum of 10 companies. Scale is 15mm, all foot figures are Grumpy, the mounted are Essex. Merchant adventurers (1); trained shot (d3);  ruijters (1);  halberdiers (d2);  native scouts (d2);  ship's guns (1).

Here is my late Seleukid DBA army - this was the army which sucked me back into wargaming. They are 15mm, the figures are Xyston, the tent is Baueda. I rarely win with them, but that's ok - I'm devoted to the history not the victories....  <holding back tears> 1x4Kn (Gen), 1x4Kn, 1x2LH, 1x4Bd, 4x4Pk, 1x4Ax, 3x2 Ps. The latest Seleukid list covers the period 166-83 BC. The dates really do seem very arbitrary - the start date is in the middle of the reign of Antiochos IV Epiphanies, and the end date is 19 years before the end of the Seleukid kingdom. It used to be believed that the Seleukid territories were conquered by Tigranes II in 83 BC, but it has now been established that he did not take Antioch until 75/4 BC, Damascus (which was probably the capital of Kleopatra Selene and Antiochos XIII) until 72 BC, or Ake-Ptolemais until 69 BC. The Seleukids were then re-installed in Antioch from 69-64 BC. Never mind. DBA is an abstract enough system that I suppose real dates ...

Here are a few pictures of my Irish battle for Irregular Wars. There are actually the two compulsory types shown along with six options, so they wouldn't all be fielded together under normal circumstances. The figures are all 15mm. Mainly Essex but with a couple of Freikorp15 kern and a single Peter Pig pirate-queen as a stand in Grace O'Malley (should the need arise). The full rising. I wanted a really irregular feel to these guys, so no sense of uniformity - but I felt that they still needed some sense of identity. I chose the Irish harp as my 'badge' and put it on both flags and all the Irish shields. I know that it wasn't the universal symbol of Irish nationalism like it is today, but it added a nice touch of overt Irish-ness to the battle. The lord and his galloglasses. The kern of the rising out. Irish horse. Bonnachts or alternative galloglasses (with the O'Malley 'lord'). Priest and redshanks. Spanish targeteers.