And this is the Bronze Age - how?

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

(Rudyard Kipling)

In previous posts I have answered most of Mr Kipling’s questions, namely:

What? – A new project based on the Bronze Age.

Why? – I’ve had a long held fascination with the Trojan War since I was a nipper.

When? – The Late Bronze Age.

Where? – North-West Anatolia, in particular the Troad

Who? – The Akhaioí  and Dardanoi

That only leaves how? Although, I’m still indulging in a lot of background reading and only have a vague idea of what I want to do, it’s probably about time I turned to the nitty gritty aspects and thought about how to bring the project to fruition. After all it’s all about ‘toys on the table’.

First off, I’m still pondering on the best figure ranges for the project. This is, as yet, undecided but I am leaning towards Warlord’s Cutting Edge Miniatures range. 

They’ve just released Sea Peoples chariots and I’m sure I have seen pictures of armoured Sea Peoples somewhere, although the latter don’t appear to be on the website yet.

Cutting Edge Armoured Achaeans

I’m not sure how well they fit with other ranges but I do like their more ‘realistic’ proportions. I believe armoured Achaeans are also in the pipeline so I will be keeping an eye on these.

Eureka Bronze Age characters

Another range worth watching is the Eureka range; they’ve just added some nice character figures, including women, to their range. These are at the high end of the price range, for my budget, but are worth bearing in mind for characters rather than rank and file.

Casting Room Miniatures Trojans

I’ve also just discovered a manufacturer of whom I was previously unaware; Casting Room Miniatures.

http://www.castingroomminiatures.com/collections/trojans

They do a Trojan War range as well as Hittites and (just for Uriah) Nubians. They’re a bit chunky for my taste but look like they may fit with Foundry and Redoubt.

So after that short figure update it’s time to look at that old favourite - ‘army lists’. I’m not ready to start worrying about troop types and all that nonsense yet but I do want to look at potential force sizes. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m thinking along the lines of the warbands and factions used in the big skirmish style of game. At the moment, the main contenders for this project are variants on Dux Britanniarum, Lion Rampant or Saga. Sharp Practice is also worth considering although I suspect that would take more work to convert. That said, there is a rumour that TFL may be looking at doing an ‘ancients’ set, so you never know.

As a way of gauging force size, I’ll start with Dux Britanniarum, using the Romano-British as a basis for comparison. It remains to be seen whether the troop types have anything in common with their Bronze Age counter parts but the point is that there is a nice mix of troop types and this force size does give a good game.

In Dux Britanniarum the starter force is of a fixed size and composition:

1 Lord with champion

2 Nobles

1 six figure group of household troops

2 six figure groups of warriors

3 six figure groups of levy

1 four figure group of missile troops (archers or slingers)

This gives a total of 40 rank and file plus 4 command figures.

By comparison, Lion Rampant uses a variable force size with units chosen to match an agreed points total. A 24 point retinue is typical.

Using the Landwaster (Dark Ages) supplement a 24 point retinue may look something like the following:

1 Leader (free)

1 six figure group of Foot Companions (6 pts)

2 twelve figure groups of Upper Class Spearmen (8 pts)

3 twelve figure groups of Lower Class Spearmen (9 pts)

1 six figure group of slingers (1 pt)

This mirrors the Dux Britanniarum warband quite well but comes in at 72 figures plus 1 command.

Turning now to Saga, this a bit of an oddity in the way units are created. Units can be between 4 and 12 figures strong but are bought in increments of 4, 8 or 12 figures, depending on troop class. A standard warband is 6 points.

The Late Roman supplement is due for release in the near future but approximating the Dux Britanniarum list, using the standard Viking age types, gives us something like this:

1 Warlord (free)

1 eight figure group of Hearthguard (2 lots of four figures @ 2pts)

2 eight figure groups of Warriors (2 lots of eight figures @ 2 pts)

3 eight figure groups of Levy (2 lots of twelve figures @ 2 pts)

I’ve cheated a bit here as Levy normally refers to missile troops but I believe there is a precedent for Levy spearmen in the Anglo-Saxon list. I’ve also left out any archers or slingers as these can only be bought in increments of 12 figures, which I’ve always found a bit odd.

So this gives us a total of 48 figures plus 1 command figure.

From this little exercise it would seem that Saga and Dux Britanniarum have very similar figure requirements but Lion Rampant is almost double that. However, at the unit level all three games utilise about 6 groups of figures. This also tallies well with Uriah’s seven group forces for his Egyptian campaign.

So if I say that my warbands will consist of about 6 groups of figures, I now need to work out of the composition of the groups. To do this I also need to have an idea of what I’m trying to represent. For example, I could say that each figure represents 1 man and the warband is part of the force available to a particular Homeric hero – say Achilles and his Myrmidons. In this case, 50 or so spearmen would seem to be a reasonable size for a small raid and would likely consist completely of Myrmidons. On the other hand, if I designate my warband as a larger force, using a figure scale of one figure represents 20 men; my 50 figure warband then becomes 1000 men. It seems reasonable to expect that my Myrmidons might be supplemented by Mycenaeans, Pylians or other Achaeans in such a larger force.

Of course this could be a moot point if all the above mentioned contingents look the same anyway. The ‘look’ is a topic I’m yet to explore. A solution might be to collect a fairly generic force but tailor it by adding the odd distinctive unit, so by swapping the ‘special’ unit the nature and identity of the whole force is modified.

Another option is simply to not worry about it and just field what looks good. There is a precedent for this in Sharp Practice. For instance a basic starter force for the French in the Peninsular consists of 4 groups of line infantry and 2 groups of voltigeurs. In reality, for a force this small, one might expect the groups to consist solely of line troops or solely of voltigeurs. No doubt allowing a bit more variation provides for a more interesting game but also provides a bit of intentional wooliness so that in the words of the author ‘In some games, one figure is one man, while in other games a few Groups of figures might represent a larger body of men, such as a Company. Generally one figure represents between one and five real men, but the scale is always flexible in the same way that television dramas will often use fifty or sixty men to represent a battalion.’

On reflection this may be the way to go. Perhaps I should aim for the feel of Homeric warfare rather than the actuality of Bronze Age conflict; especially as we don’t really know what the latter is anyway.