An update on Larry the Libyan

The forces of Larry the lame Libyan Chief, so named because I had to remove his base and move his feet to fit him into the Hittite chariot, are slowly taking shape on my painting table.  The undercoating and skintone shading are done, as is the basing.  The original warband of ten swordsmen I had planned has been increased to 12 for my Chariot Rampant conversion, and these are the very definition of fierce foot. 

 I noted that Phil Barker calls the Early Libyans “extrovert.”  Perhaps a euphemism for being almost totally naked, and wearing a penis sheath!  Well then extrovert it is.  I'm still waiting for my Army Painter, but the tones I've done for the Libyans will darken considerably under that, so I'm pretty pleased with the result so far.

For the distinctive leather cloaks I’ve experimented with the giraffe patterns, zebra patterns as well as more 1970 weave like patterns, and they are a joy to paint. I fear they will be mince meat to the Egyptian war machine, but they will look good!

In other news my desert house has had two more shades, each progressively lighter.  I will use dip to seal and highlight, but it's almost there.  The first civilians are also coming along nicely too, baboon fighting, naked Ancient Egyptian slave girls with wine jars, what’s not to like?

The Mud Brick House.

The Mud Brick House by Renedra is a 1:56 scale model of a simple desert building that is probably one of the most useful and time proof models available. There is a deluxe version for £20, that has an extra sprue of details, such as an awning and domed roof, but mine is the £4 cheaper version.  Pretty much just the house then. Mud brick buildings like these have been built around the world for millenia.  I would be confident using it for games set in the Ancient Near East, in New Mexico and even for India.

I'm not sure what I expected for my £16, the building is solid, simple to construct, and actually a little bigger than expected.  My Wargames Foundry figures match it perfectly for scale. 

 What I didn't expect were the gaps, rift lines that simply won't glue together.  Time to reach for the polyfilla.

Once I had filled and smoothed it still looked terrible!

 Worse, because this is plastic, my normal acrylic paint refused to stick.  Cue some matt undercoat spray.  It was starting to look better.  

A quick coat of desert yellow and I was pretty happy, the house is beginning to look much more the part.  Still work to do on it of course.  All of which set me to thinking about what I was going to do with it. 

I enjoy games that have a strong narrative driving them and I made sure that when I collected my Egyptians I included a few packs of civilians.  

These will appear in any on table dwelling (so far that means my one desert house!), and an encounter will occur when any troops are within 6 inches of the settlement. Each character will have a motivation,  and a small back story will be composed to explain their presence.  I will keep a note of any and all civilians thus generated so that they can reappear in later games. 

At the end of each turn dice to see what happens to the Civilian.

Characters

1. A pair of monkey trainers and a Monkey fighting contest.
2. Slave girl collecting water
3. A rich merchant
4. A rich merchant’s wife
5. A young noble and his old retainer seeking to defect
6. A priest who will try to convert your men to the the Worship of Vectron
7. An escaped slave with vital information
8. A slave overseer looking for an escaped slave
9. A nobles nubile daughter, with a tray of sweetmeats.
10. A drunken Butler with a collection of wine amphora
11. A wise old lad drinking Egyptian beer and wanting to reminisce.
12. Two civilians appear, dice twice more.
13. A boy with a flock of goats.
14. A big and hungry crocodile appears in the exact centre of any river on table
15. Two slaves building a wall.
16. A burning bush that wants to talk to a Prince of Egypt.
17. A small fishing felucca, with an angry fisherman.
18. A farmer worrying about his crops
19. Ermintrude the Sacred cow, wandering about as usual
20. An escaped prisoner from the attacking army, who has knowledge of the enemies plans.

Character Motivation

6  The glory of Amun

5  looking for cash money

4  terrified

3  revenge

2  Appeasement of the foreigners

1  The power of love.

On dicing up a character and then fitting a motivation to them a backstory can be constructed, explaining the presence of this Civilian on the battlefield.  Some characters, such as the big crocodile, have obvious motivation.

Civilian end of turn actions D6

6  Stands

5  Flees

4  Hides

3  surrenders

2  fights

1  prays

Spank the Monkey

I didn't expect to get two of the Egyptian monkey handlers in my civilians packs.  I'm pretty sure one of these is a mistake.  No matter, I have re-invented the ancient Egyptian sport of Monkey Fighting, get your shekels down, it's a totally made up, ancient traditional sport.
Players must bet a (victory point) shekel each on the outcome.
Each monkey handler has their tunics lined blue and red to make it easy, so release your monkeys and dice...
Handlers dice for initiative, to see whose monkey has the most aggression, and the winner attacks first, in a simple IGOUGO game...

A Win: 5 or 6
6.  The monkey savages it's rival and wins outright.
5.  The monkey jumps onto it's rival and attempts monkey sex
The fight continues: 3 or 4
4.  The monkey throws it's poo at the audience
3.  The monkey waves it's monkey penis at the audience
A Loser: 1 or 2
2.  The monkey shows its arse and runs away.
1.  With a shriek the monkey bites it's handler, infecting him with biblical ebola.

Meet Larry the Libyan

The Libyans, a Tribal coalition that the Egyptians fought in the western deserts, raided the nile valley and the delta with savage regularity during the New Kingdom.  They were of a very similar skin colour and probably ethnicity to their Egyptian neighbours.  One of the principal tribes, the Libu, gave their name to the whole people, and ultimately to the region too.  We have little idea of their histories or culture, but we have an excellent record of their appearance.  Many Egyptian inscriptions had detailed drawings of Early Libyans.  They had good reason to.

Early Libyan from the tomb of Seti I

Better still the Egyptians kept excellent records, and these same inscriptions, and various papyrus documents give us a wealth of detail.  The history thus recorded is of course biased.  The Egyptians provide the narrative for the Libyans, and it is a narrative that can only be interpreted through Egyptian culture.

The Early Libyans were ancestors of the modern day Berber, and like their descendants they adapted to the desert.  It was however a very different desert to the one we know today.  The desiccation of the Sahara began in the Bronze Age, and gradually worsened, turning the traditional nomadic grazing environment into a harsh unforgiving desert.  

The Tribes occupied two main areas.   A strip of settlements ran along the Mediterranean coast.  Mersa Matruh was an important trade port, and archeology has shown trade links with Crete,  and even a Mycenaean trade enclave on a small island in the port itself.  Bardia, Tobruk, Derna and even Benghazi had settlements, all small ports with trade.

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The other Libyan settlement was in the areas of the great oases running almost parallel to the west of the upper nile southward into the desert proper.  The nomadic lifestyle of the tribal herdsmen made them endemic raiders and plunderers, travelling across the region as nomads, but the oasis had semi permanent settlements because of the water sources.

My initial plan for my Libyan wargames army was to paint them dark skinned and use them as both Libyan, and Nubian.  I'm not sure how viable that plan is longer term, given that it has taken me weeks to experiment with a skin tone that I am happy with.  My initial purchase of these superb Wargames Foundry figures were of swordsmen, javelinmen and archers.  The Big Chief was also supplied with a Hittite Chariot that will serve as his command vehicle.  Eventually I will add a Sea People warband, either mercenaries or allies of the Libyans.

My Libyans based and grouped.

My Libyans muster a command pack, a pack of swordsmen, two packs of Archers, and a pack of javelinmen.  The command pack breaks down as eight figures in four separate sculpts.  Two chieftains with javelins pointing, two archers,  two swordsmen, two javelinmen.  The swordsmen, archers and javelin-men bulk out my groups to give me: a warband of twelve swordsmen, a group of 6 Javelin skirmishers three groups of 6 archer skirmishers, 4 command figures and a command chariot.  

Mighty Uriah holding his stave.

The Hittite chariot comes with three crew, but goodness knows how they fit in there.  I have painted Larry as my Libyan Chief, and done terrible things to his feet to get him to fit the car. Larry the lame would be about right for him, but that is no epithet for a brave Libyan warlord.  I also painted up the Hittite crew, (excellent figures in long bronze scale armour) with Uriah able to evict Larry as necessary.

Uriah nicks the chariot as Larry the Lame hobless along behind.

Basing this lot up I followed my ideas for “Chariot Rampant,” the hand to hand swordsmen, on pennies and the command and skirmishers on 2p coins.  It wasn't until I had done this that I decided I may need a second chariot, and almost certainly a group of 12 Sea Peoples, probably Sherden in their distinctive horned helmets.

The Libyans will find my Egyptians challenging opponents.  The fast chariots, the solid spearmen and the firepower of the close ranked bowmen represent a force that seriously over matches the Libyans.  However, with some Sea Peoples fierce foot, and their own warband swordsmen, the Libyans do have some options for rushing the Egyptian lines.  Add in some close terrain to channel attacks and give the Libyan skirmishers some refuge against the those rampaging chariots, and suddenly the Libyans have possibilities.

For the painting I decided that rather than a black undercoat I would go white, to give the colours some shine.  The skin tone problem that has had me gnawing my paintbrush was solved with a pot of Vajello tanned skin, followed by a dip.  I have to admit that, expensive as it is, I may be going back to army painter.

My intention is to complete the Libyans before moving on to the Egyptians, whom I see as a more difficult job.  I am also a good way through my amendments to Lion Rampant to make it Chariot Rampant.  That however may need some playtesting.

Uriah, waves his paintbrush

Happy with his pigments

His chariot looking pretty damn fine

But needing a dip.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Ramesses Brynner vs Moses Heston, Wargames terrain.

I blame Cecil B.Demille.  Somewhat less to blame are Moses Heston and Ramesses Brynner, but then I question the acting ability of the pair of them.  Cecil remains the major culprit however, say what you will, that boy knew how to film an epic.  And it is an Epic, ‘The Ten Commandments,’ in glorious “technicolor.”  That’s pretty much just “colour” to us, but in 1956 Cecil was radical, and in one respect I agree, it's glorious.

Cecil's epic.

The colours are vibrant, and we are shown Hollywood Ancient Egypt in all its US accented detail.  Nobody ever explains why the Pharaoh speaks with a Russian accent of course!  Hollywood biblical architecture was created on back lots, with wood and paper, no CGI, and a fortune spent on extras.   But Cecil achieves “the look.”

Some of my preconceptions about Bronze Age terrain are then firmly the fault of old Cecil.  In wargaming what I need is “the look.”  I can adopt some of his “Epic” for my tabletop Bronze Age Near East.  But only for Egypt I'm afraid.  In Egypt small villages and isolated dwellings would have spread along the Nile, but further North into Canaan walled cities of 10000 population become more the norm, and that would be where a lot of my wargames would be set.

The look...

In “The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy” Mario Liverani postulates that a few fortified building settlements with smaller populations would spread into uplands, but that the overarching pattern would remain the Bronze Age city.  Small settlements such as isolated farms or villages are rare or just don't happen.  This will affect my project terrain, no “raiding the village” games.

Wilkinson, in “Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East,” points out that these nucleated Bronze Age settlements were focused on plains or rocky outcrops adjacent to the plains, a defensible city site, and a cultivated area.  The city would have a chariot force that could defend its cultivated area from nomadic raiders, who would strike from the hills or the sea.  

Moses Heston brandishes a pair of the latest tablets. 

The image is one redolent of the Bible, Habiru tribes subsisting in the hills, enviously eyeing the ‘promised land’ of the city states on the plains below.

The population growth of the early Iron Age would drastically alter this pattern as regions hitherto unsettled were expanded into, and these too would have relied on fortified buildings.  As Flag Fen and other European Bronze and Iron Age sites seem to attest the city state was a phenomenon of the Near East and its endemic culture of warfare.  

There are commercial models available.

More peaceful Egypt could afford to use a different settlement pattern, one focused on food production and the nile, rather than almost solely on defence.

This then gives me a basis for my project terrain.  A desert landscape, rocky hills, a walled city, some Egyptian features and cultivated areas.

Terrain list for my Bronze Age Wargaming project.

City walls 6” high in 3 x 10 inch sections.  Great gate 9 inches high towers.  Corner tower 8” high.  Will double as an Egyptian Fort,  or coastal town.

A couple of town houses, and Perry Miniatures do a great one.

Plinth for the city to raise it higher still making it a classic Bronze Age city on a mound.  Plinth to be recessed to hold the wall sections in place.

Rocky area templates, x 6, of different shapes, built up to 1” high.  To include a burning bush!

Tented camp, for nomads or for a siege encampment.

Palm trees.

Egyptian Statuary in various degree of ruin, made with Das.

Broken down stone wall in the desert. 1” high.

Sea Peoples ship based on the template if the 15mm Essex ship.



"Behold,  a bush that can act."

Lastly of course I will need a burning bush, appearing randomly among any rocky areas on the tabletop, to remind me of one of my favourite moments from Cecil’s movie, where Moses Heston is out acted by a bush.

(In the interests of balance I would just point out that he is also out acted by a golden calf, two stone tablets and his own walking stick, which parts the Red Sea almost without his help.  In later movies in his illustrious career he was out acted by monkeys, and the Statue of Liberty.  Indeed so decisively did Madam Liberty outshine him that he ended that movie in a proper huff beating the sand and cursing the American viewing public.)

What time is it Eccles?

Uriah thinks about chariot wargaming.

I've been doing some background reading for my Biblical wargaming project, and it seems that there are some interesting parallels in Near Eastern armies before the first millennium BC.  The reason I record this here is that it has some impact on my proposed Biblical collection.

A tomb bronze model chariot. 

It begins with the Mittani,  probably the ones who modified the big six spoke, four wheeled carts, of earlier times, to the four spoke light chariots that came to dominate the Near East for about 500 years.

Mittani Maryannu or 'Young hero' charioty were a noble elite, holding land grants, the knights of their respective time, generally clad in bronze scale armour, fighting with a bow, and a large supply of arrows on board.  A chariot runner would accompany the Maryannu in battle, and indeed Egyptian chariots had a support crew of five men, not necessarily in battle of course.

The Mittani "empire" seems not to have existed for long (although both Stillman and Rohl point out that it lasted possibly as long as the British Empire, so let's not get smug)  The chariotry, or at least the idea, was exported far and wild.  Indo European tribes up in the back of beyond began using them, and the Hyksos spread them to Egypt.

Egyptian?  Or Canaanite perhaps.

 The list is a long one, even before we get to Egypt.  Babylonian,  Middle Assyrian, Elamite, Ugarit,  Israelite, Philistine, Hittite, Cannanite, even the Greeks.  The fighting platform moving quickly on the field of battle became the core of virtually all the city state armies.  Bronze scale armour, land grant noble warriors, professionalism and use of the bow, were all common factors.

Egyptian Chariot warriors had quite a difficult training regime tasks, Amenhotep could thread twelve targets, twelve yards apart, with arrows, while the horses were at the gallop for instance.   The Maryannu wears that bronze scale to save himself being peppered by foot, or other chariots, and the horses would be similarly armoured.

Egyptian chariots operated in formations of five, ten and fifty, as did the Mitanni, and most everyone else.   These were full time soldiers, regulars in DBM parlance, who practiced formations and tactics.  I would argue that the chariot forces of most city states would be very similar, and here's the wargaming point... they look identical.  Rohl makes much of the fact that they even spoke a similar language.  Egyptian chariotry was after all derived from the Hyksos,  Cannanite invaders, who later returned to Canaan.

We are told that the Egyptians struggled to breed horses that would compete with the more northern Maryannu chariots, and that Egyptians used horses which we would today call ponies.  I'm not as convinced that this would necessarily mean different tactics, and prevent the three man crew. The chariot runner seems to have been a long standing member of a Maryannu chariot team.  Despite some rather odd ideas in wargaming rules I would find it difficult to believe that any of the chariots from this period were intended as shock weapons, certainly not against formed infantry, but the use of chariot runners to protect the car and it's warrior and driver seems obvious.  Other members of the team could lead spare horses, postulated as the beginnings of cavalry among the Assyrians.

Battle of Quadesh relief.

The Egyptians used their chariot runners to fill the spaces, and interestingly they were expected to keep up, perhaps explaining that extra Hittite crewman on the reliefs.   The gap between chariots had to allow for manoeuvre, and the turning circle of a chariot seems to have been more than its length, as well as being dependant on its speed.  Stillman argues for threading an enemy formation based on this, and it seems plausible.

So then my conclusion is that chariots fought other chariots, or hunted down light foot.  So called "heavy" chariots were intended to kill enemy chariots rather than engage formed enemy foot.  Light foot troops would follow up the chariots as support, protecting them from being swamped by enemy light foot.  This seems to be what Homer is telling us in the Illiad, and I mention this because Homer's description of the Fighting seems to parallel this.  I don't mean the descriptions of heroes fighting, but Nestor's description of his chariot formations, fighting in rigid lines with foot support.

A heroic depiction of the Pharaoh, overthrowing his enemies.  

I argue then that Hittite, Middle Assyrian or even an Egyptian chariots, all look the same.  The vehicles seem pretty much interchangeable to me.   If you can tell the difference between the crews of those "nationalities" then you are doing well.  Yes, the Egyptians are distinctive, but only to a certain extent, yes the Hittites have long hair braids hanging from their helmets, and possibly being thus identified as both Homer's Amazons and Rameses' "women warriors," but in 28mm, at £14 for a chariot?  Get real here, I intend to use generic Maryannu, with perhaps a command chariot of the right nationality, and while I'm on the subject I intend to use generic Levy foot too, probably Canaanite, since they served as vassals or allies for virtually everyone anyway.

Cynically of course it's down to the lack of graphical evidence.  The Egyptian reliefs are impressive, but they are supported by evidence that is less so when it comes to the actual appearance of soldiery.  Army standards are distinctive, so that is an area I can use to differentiate economically.

The ubiquitous Maryannu.

In wargaming terms this logic means that a few Canaanite or Mitanni chariots would allow me to fight from Babylon to Ilion, or even down into Nubia without feeling too guilty.  My Libyan Chief will on occasion have to give up his chariot for a more northerly crew of course.

I have also taken other implications from my reading over the years.  Skirmish games can realistically use forces based on thimgs like a few chariots chasing tribesmen, Bedouin,  Shassu, Libyan, Nubian, or Anatolian Hillmen, take your pick.  Chariots were not restricted to a battlefield role, fast courier tasks, skirmishing around an army, or around the city, reconnaissance against an advancing host, catching groups of raiding bandits, raiding enemy villages, and into enemy cities cultivated zones.  It's a list that could spawn dozens of scenarios.   It has been suggested that dismounted chariot crews, better trained, armed and armoured than any availabe infantry, would fight in siege lines as archers, but I'm not sure I would go that far.  The Egyptians sent out chariots to keep enemy at bay, and it seems like giving a trained fighter pilot a rifle and putting him in the trenches.  Then again in the mindset of those Heroes of Homer's epics I'm sure those guys would not hesitate.  It would also make a good scenario!

This is a key point, and one that wargames battle rules don't really address.  Battles like Megiddo, or Quadesh, were generational fights.  Patrols to quell non city tribes and "Bandits" were routine.  Egyptian chariots needed a lot of maintenance, hence the high support staff, and the reason seems to be that they took a lot of bashing.  The crews trained hard of course, but it would also seem to indicate that they were used hard.

Larry the Libyan, undipped as yet, work needed ...

So that's where I'm at in Chariot Rampant, drawing up my scenarios, and working out chariot tactics.  My painting not so much.  I have a single Libyan Swordsman painted, and I just can't seem to get the skin tone right, or the detail on the leather cloak, which I may try to detail again as a giraffe skin.   I'll get there... It just may take a while.

The Wanderer

The Senet Campaign game

The Ancient Egyptian board game Senet was a precursor of the game we know as ludo.  In Senet pawns had to travel a track of 30 squares, meeting the requirements of the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the square, and landing on each in the correct sequence to exit the board.  The symbol for “waters of chaos” for example meant that the pawn must return to the beginning, “house of the three truths” that a three must be rolled to leave that square, and so on.

A Senet gameboard and game pieces from tomb KV62

The game came to symbolise a journey, so much so that by the time of the New Kingdom it had come to represent the journey of the dead into the west, the underworld of Osiris, and examples have been found in the tombs of the the period.  The Senet track curled like a snake, perhaps originally representing the nile.  It was regarded as a difficult game to win, very much the chess of its time.

Using Senet to represent my Ancient Egyptian campaign world was something I was keen to try.  I adopted the 30 squares, and hieroglyphic symbols, for my campaign map, adding another Senet board across the first.   Egypt stands as the axis of these two tracks, the nile, running North South, and the Road of Kings running East West.   Each track consists of 30 squares, with 15 in each compass arm.  As in Senet the tracks “snake” around the board, and as in Senet landing on a square determines the course of action.  Squares may represent a skirmish to be resolved on tabletop, a supply problem, an eager commander who presses onward etc…  the final square on each compass point represents the victory square, but must be won in battle.

 d

Ancient Senet used an early cylinder type dice.  I recommend the traditional ludo d6.  It's less rolly.   Squares have a numerical value, representing the prestige that the Egyptian gods achieve during the campaign season.  If Ptah reaches square 9, then he gains 9 points for this turn, etc...  The first god to 300 points, or to conquer the entire board, wins the game.  


The campaigning forces return to their depots after the year represented by the move on the Senet track, although may leave a Garrison or vassal marker in situ, at captured locations.  At the end of the year the Prestige of the gods is compared, harvests are gathered and the new year declared.  

Method.

Each square has a campaign event and the turn represents a year.  Each city's god moves in turn along the track in its set direction, only continuing if the Senet board allows.  Re for example campaigns Westward against the Libyans, but can only continue to a second dice roll if it lands on a square that allows that.

Square one represents a poor march.  There are problems and the omens must be tested to proceed.  The god’s move could end there.  If it gets to square 6 it faces a skirmish against raiders, a Chariot Rampant level of game.  Larger sword and spear battles await our heroes further down the board.  Square 6 also allows the establishment of an Egyptian border fort that means the army can stage another move, a dice roll to go further down the ten remaining squares on the Senet track, or end the turn and begin next year's campaign from the fort.

Re, god of Helios, campaigns Westward into Libya, Ptah, god of Memphis, campaigns Eastward into Syria.  Amun, god of Thebes, campaigns south into Nubia.  This is roughly how the New Kingdom operated strategically, although the Pharaoh can lead one of his armies in person, spending Treasury points, to focus on attacking one area, and bypass some of the Senet square restrictions.  Similarly any non Egyptian army that wins three consecutive battled may declare a Great King, and add d6 x 100 shekels to their treasury.  The Great King will then operate as a Pharaoh but from their end of the Senet track.  It will be possible to subdue tribes, and make cities vassals so that movement through that part of the board has less restrictions.

A Pharaoh, or declared Great King, may pay 1000 shekels from the treasury to ignore the instruction in a Senet square, and re roll the dice to advance from the square he has bribed.  He may only do this once per campaign season

My Senet Campaign Map... it's a work in progress!

Technically it should be possible to conquer the board, but the Tribes and cities outside Egypt also have gods that move on the Senet board, and it is equally possible that they could conquer two cities in Egypt and set up a foreign dynasty to win the game.  Foreign dynasties of course become Egyptian almost immediately and the nile still flows.

Locations

A city must be won in battle against the cities forces. It is then declared a vassal and acts in the same way as a fort.

A tribal area can only be won in a battle against the tribe for the adjacent square.  The tribe become vassals and are out of the game unless the Tribal god occupies that square and frees them.

A fort counter can be placed by winning in squares 6 or 9.  The next year’s campaign can start at that at point.

Forts can be constructed on the tracks, or cities occupied.  The event recorded on the track will stand, but an enemy cannot move past a fort without first capturing it.  Cities are staging posts outside the squares of the track.  They bring in wealth and prestige if their gods are subdued and occupied or declared vassals.  Cities bring in d6 x 10 Shekels each year representing the harvest

Activation Table For The Gods

In strict order of Prestige.

Squares:

1.   The Ankh.  A poor march.  Test the omens.

2.   A problem with supply.  The omens must be tested.

3.   A Bountiful harvest 2D6 x 100 shekels are added to the treasury. D6 prestige

4.   The Commander presses forward d6 squares.

5.   A trade route bonus 1d6 x 100 shekels are added to the treasury.

6    A small force skirmish scenario, randomly generated. D6 prestige points are at stake. The winner may establish a fort or tribal village.

7    A raid on the borders.  The army must return to its base to fight a skirmish against desert raiders.  D6 prestige points are at stake  It may loan a unit to another tribe or city yet to campaign this season.

8.   A new character is noted by, and dedicated to god.  Generate for this city/tribe/force. Add d6 prestige points.

9.  Battle.  A larger scale fight occurs.  D6 x10 prestige points are at stake. The winner may establish a fort.

10.  The Reaping of souls.  A plague of the gods strikes a random city.  Dice for survival of all characters there. Deduct d6 x 10 prestige.

11.   The House of Rejuvenation.  The army is reinforced before its final push.
12.   The waters of chaos.  The campaign bogs down. The army returns to its base.

13.   The house of the three truths.   A siege begins, and can only be won on a roll of 3.

14.   The Eye of Horus.  A skirmish game involving the Generals of both sides.

15.   The Viper.  A victory and a betrayal.  You subdue the enemy, but rebellion may yet appear from these people.

Ptah is the king of the gods, with a starting prestige of 100

Amun is god of the sky, his prestige begins at 90

Re is god of the sun, and his prestige is 80

Baal is the Canaanite Storm god.  His prestige is 70

Neith or Athene, 7 the warrior goddess of the Libyans.  She has a prestige of 60

The Sisters are the goddesses of the Nubians, with a joint prestige of 50

The Sea Lord Poisedon is god of the Sea Peoples, with a Prestige of 40.  He may enter the Senet track into Libya or Canaan.

El, the old man, is the god of the desert peoples.  His prestige is only 30, and he cannot alter this unless the desert raiders win a skirmish.

A god who reaches zero prestige will eventually be replaced by another from the Pantheon,  as belief in them wanes, or combined with another god to maintain their believers, as in Amun-Re.  The new god begins on 10 prestige points, in the city of the previous god.  It's a god eat god world.

The Postman rings twice and groans.

The Postman looked a little disgruntled as he handed it over.  “That’s a heavy one,” is all he said.  Yes it was, the heft of my impetuous launch into Biblical Wargaming.  Twenty packs from Wargames Foundry.  We are talking kilograms of alloy.  Post free too, a nice touch!

Unpacking the box I noted that only two packs were in blisters, the rest being in simple zip lock plastic bags.  Its probably just as well, the parcel would have been huge if more blisters had been included. I also saw that Foundry now supply separate steel spears.  Nice.  At one time you had to buy those separately.  

The figures are as seen on their website... absolutely stunning.  I did note some flash on the Egyptian Spearmen, but that will be soon dealt with.  These will be older moulds of course, but age has not withered them.  My eyesight is no longer tip top of course, but I subjected them to forensic scrutiny,  and I declare them to be most excellent figures.

One issue is that I am already in the middle of the painting plan for my Union company for Sharp Practice 2, “Parson” Floyd Farthingdale’s 11th Massachusetts. Tesify brothers!  I had to decide which of the Biblicals I would paint first.  Not an easy decision, but a break from dark blue.

I suspect that I am not alone in drawing up a painting plan.  I probably am one of the few who record it.  I have written a wargames diary for years, using A5 W H Smith black hardback notebooks, with a transferable leather cover that has seen service for the last 20 years.  (Other High Street Stationers are available, and Rymans do a book that matches)  Ideas, scenarios, historical notes, campaign ideas or mechanisms,the only thing it isn’t is an actual diary.  One of these 300 page books lasts me a year or more, and I still have one,  but I am attempting to use blogging to replace it.

A painting plan for a new army would always feature in my wargames diary.  Since I'm now blogging as TheCyprusWargamer, instead of pen and paper, I will probably do that in detail online.  Ah, the modern world…

Suffice it to say I intend to undercoat black, use acrylic paints in shades and finish with a dip.   I may not have the skills of a Kevin Dallimore, but I do have enthusiasm.  

The chariot set of Pharoah Ramesses II will not be among my first figures to paint.  Something like that will need a carefull approach, so it's my Early Libyan Command first.  The tattoos concern me of course.

What colour is an ancient penis sheath?  

Anyone? 

King Kenneth I, and the Duc de Departure, 100 Years War.

The Annual General Meeting of the Marshal Petain Gentlemen’s Club for 2016 was delayed until July.  As Treasurer I once again declared that all club funds were currently “resting in my account.”  The club chairman had produced an unexpected and heretofore unseen collection of Hundred Years War figures, a pairing of two armies, French and English.  I declared these figures to be “most righteously painted!”  Awesome actually.

I was given command of the Frenchmen, a force heavy in chivalric horsemen, with some nice foot in support.  The club Secretary took the English, and his inscrutable expression said it all, this would be “Armed and Hostile Brexit.”  King Kenneth “luvvy”  Branagh, and his purple prose, versus the Chevalier Gérard Duc de Departure, and his Gallic phlegm.

The Club President was introducing us to the Sword and Spear rules.  I'd had these for some time but had never actually played them.  With selling up a large part of my wargames collection for my own Brexit to live in Cyprus I hadn't played Ancients or Medieval full battle rules for quite some time, and these were at one time the classic (and only) Petain period.

Terrain dice were good for me.  I needed wide open spaces to operate those Knights in.  There was a single wood out on the left flank, and a hill that I failed to secure, but managed to get into my opponent’s deployment area.  This is probably just as well, since I have a character defect that forces me to occupy and remain on any hill within my own deployment zone.  It has cost me many battles.

I expected that hill to be the centre of my opponent’s line, and so it was.  The armies went down with my horse massed on the left, my foot on the right.  My plan was always a hammering attack across the left flank, avoiding the English Men at Arms, standing on their hill.

Initially I intended to hold back my Infantry, using only a limited echelon advance to protect the flank of my horse.  I expected a general advance of the English, as at Azincourt, to force my attack.  As it happens however Sword and Spear exceeded my expectations.  My Knight's thundered forward in a charge, with two of my Generals in support.  They shrugged off the longbow fire and crashed into the archers, only to begin a slogging match.  While that fight was raging on the left the enemy could only use a few resources to move on my right.  As it was his Welsh Knifemen went missing on a jaunt into the woods, and his archers advanced only a short distance.

However my old illness reasserted itself.  He had a hill, and I wanted it.  I started forward my Infantry line including the Genoese Crossbowmen,  whom the Club Secretary advertised to me as being “mighty.”

The Knights finally broke through the English archers, as well as their supporting mounted Knights.  Then began rallying them on the flank to attempt to encircle the hill.  Yes that hill…

His archers began thumping the “mighty” Genoese Crossbowmen.  I could only reply with my best Italian accent, mimicking Geno de Campo, with a high pitched “Heeeay!”  This annoying sound of disappointment was to become my strongest memory of the game as the Italians were trounced.

My knights captured his camp, and raged in attack against that damn hill.  I had an almost 360° encirclement of his Men at arms on the hill of dead Englishmen. 

King Kenneth the “luvvy” threw down his sword, and the game was done.  The usual Petain dissection of the game and rules over a pint began.  For me the game was really enjoyable, but more importantly it sold me on Sword and Spear.  We took on board the Club Secretary's comments on the playability of the Hundred Years war, but I remain convinced that it has something going for it.  So much so that I am open for a rematch, and he can bring his stakes next time.  

I only hope that the Genoese are slightly more “mighty.”

The club Secretary then commenced to draw us in with his talk of Biblical warfare using Sword and Spear, or perhaps a version of Lion Rampant.  I'm easily lead...

“Heeeay!”