The MPGC list of Great Captains

Since I am enjoying an afternoon sampling the bars of Paphos I thought that I would set the esteemed committee of the Petains a challenge.   Identify the individuals you would call the Great Captains.  I have not used Google or anything else reference wise, but this is my guess, with several under considerations added in.

Notice that a true Great Captain seems to be recognisable by just one name, or can you think of an exception to that rule?
Also, just being a Great isn't necessarily a qualification.  I haven't listed Peter or Alfred...

Farthingdale's list

Alexander
Hannibal
Scipio
Caesar
Marlborough
Frederick
Napoleon
Nelson
Rommel

Under consideration
Seti
Wellington
Patton
Saxe
Edward IV
Timur
Zukov
Saladin
The Lionheart

Painting those pesky Peleset

Painting those pesky Peleset has not been easy or quick.  

I began the Peleset with a general cleanup.  Scraping and filing away any flash and using a white undercoat, quite thinly applied, but sufficient to colour.  This should allow the colours I use on top of that to be brighter than my usual black undercoat.  

Next the flesh colour.  Let's, reluctantly, talk games Workshop here.   A basecoat of elf flesh, a wash of bronzed flesh and then a second thinner wash of tanned flesh, picking out some detail.  For those without the GW speak that is a light flesh, a yellower one, and then a redder one.  Some of my Peleset, especially the naked skirmishers, require a lot of bare skin painting.  Actually since a good few of these figures are, in the vernacular, "tackle out," it needs some care.

Since I am painting these figures in Cyprus, and my warpainter dip is in the UK, I will have to wait a few months to finally complete these figures, but in the meantime I intend to get as much detail as I can onto the metal.

That's the plan anyway.

The Peleset represent about a third of my Sea Peoples.   They have only one chariot, twenty swordsmen, eight skirmishers  and a baggage cart.  I painted up one command figure on foot, and based my chariot Lord on a 1cm magnetic disk.  This allows me to move him between the chariot with its own magnetic base in the car, and a washer the size of a 2p coin flocked to allow the figure to take its place in the line of foot warriors.

The half painted Nestor

For my Peleset Commander I selected Nestor from the Wargames Foundry Trojan wars range.  This is a powerful figure, nicely posed a sculpture that shouts "command."  I hasten to point out that he is only painted with block colours here, and will have a lot more detail added as I progress.  Even painted at this level it's a lovely figure.

I used the bare skinned option as my chariot driver, but did a hat swap with a Peleset horn player (deciding that I would only need one horn player)  The result is not perfect as the driver's hat looks slightly too high on his head but he will just have to live with it!  I`m quite pleased with the chariot, but again it needs a lot more work.  I will accept criticism that once again I`m using "Brown" horses, however my reading indicates that the varied colours of modern horses are as a result of human interference in their breeding and that the horses of the Bronze Age, as well as being smaller, were almost all dark in colour...  No socks or blaizes on these guys.

As part of my Sea Peoples second tranche order I included a Bronze age slaver set, as well as the Sea Peoples baggage wagon.  The Slaver has a few nude ladies, a manacled slave and a guard in his retinue.  I used Games Workshop Dark Flesh for a couple of these figures.  Since a bronze age slave trader is essentially just a trader, I also did some milliput amphorae and copper plates as trade goods. I will give them a typical Cypriot ware patterning. 

The trade goods reminded me of a wargames magazine article about an Exploration of Africa game where the trade goods, bought from Foundry as their African trade goods set, became the campaign currency.  These could also operate in a similar manner to the boasts rules in Lion Rampant.  I`m essentially a solo gamer, but it's an interesting idea and I may make a few more.

I am acutely aware that a challenge game is scheduled against Dr Pea's Trojan war figures.  All I can say is that my Sea Peoples are demonstrably on track, and I stake three Amphora of traders wine that I will drive the enemy from the field entirely as the outcome.  

A Tranche of Trojans

As I haven't posted in awhile, this is just a short update on how my Bronze Age project is coming along.
For a number of years now I have been in the habit of treating myself to a belated, gaming related, Christmas present. This Christmas was no exception and I used the opportunity to begin amassing my Trojan forces.

Once again, I went for Warlord figures. I will leave the details for another post, suffice to say that they are very nice indeed. One disappointment though was a miscast command figure, missing half its shield. As this is destined to be one of my character figures, I was a bit miffed. I wouldn't normally bother for a single figure but I have contacted Warlord, so lets see how I get along with there customer service department.
Other than that, I've started painting up the Achaeans. its been a slow start but I decided to actually have a go at painting these properly, which is a novelty for me. I  usually use a fast paint technique, which is purely intended to get the toys on the table. They're a bit rough and ready, compared to figures by those out there that can actually paint well, but I reckon they're a least half decent wargames standard.

First up are the Newline archers, more in the line of a practice run before I attempted the nicer Warlord figures. The amount of bare flesh was daunting and I agonized over what is the correct skin tone. In the end, with the aid of several figure painting websites, I settled on a 'Mediterranean' skin tone. They look quite pale in the photos but held against my own pale and pasty northern European flesh, they do look more tanned.
After the archers, I moved on to the Newline javelinmen and have now made a start on the Warlord Achaeans.

With a bit of luck the next post should see my Achaean force start to take shape. As I have a March deadline to get figures ready for WorLard 3 and an April target, to face off against Uriah's Sea Peoples, I better get cracking.

Lord de Quincy and those sneaky Frenchies

Having prevailed upon the Honourable Chairman of the Marshal Petain Gentleman's Club to program an old school mini-campaign game I went proper old school...  Don Featherstone old school...

My 6mm medievals are completed.  Mainly Baccus, but with a few Irregular miniatures diehards still knocking about among them.  This was to be a game of the Hundred Years War, using a map from Don`s Wargames Campaigns, a book I owned before the big eBay sell up to retire to Cyprus.  £30 seemed a good deal at the time, but I sometimes wonder if I should have hung onto it.

Long time Don fans will recognise that I have taken certain liberties with his map in the interests of my own game.  I`m certain he would have approved.  This is the map that the chairman received in his guise as the Lord de Quincy, Marshal of the English Host.

Lord de Quincy,

 

Your lordship has been commanded as Marshal of the English host to extricate the Prince from the mess he now finds himself in Campaigning in France.

 

I will be commanding the French Pursuit as La Compte du Figuin, the French Constable..

 

Can you give me the march route of the English as they try to escape.  You enter the Map at point D, with the Prince the Earl and the Marshal, 6000 men.

 

The French Constable with the Count and Baron start at B, with 6000 men, but have the option of ferrying across the river for half a day to start from A.

The French King, Dauphin, Marquis, Herald and Duke begin at D in pursuit 24 hours later with 12000 men

 

The English have 1500 men at arms, 4000 archers and 500 bidowers.

The French have a mixture of 50% Men at arms, with lots of Crossbowmen and Spearmen

 

Terrain is impassable unless there is a track

Towns will surrender if besieged for a full day.

Castles will surrender if besieged for two full days

 

The English can evacuate back to their rainy islands by ship from point C

A French traitor has informed the Prince that there is a hidden ford across the river at village 2.

The English can also evacuate from point B if they encamp there for a day, or if they capture the town.

Capturing town 3 and its castle would be a major English victory.

The Plan from the English was devious, but constrained by Don`s terrain.  By the end of day 1 the English were almost at Castle 1.  It was held against them preventing a river crossing.  The French had already planned to use their blocking force to move from point A and prevent the English crossing at the ford at town 2.

This meant an encounter battle on the afternoon of the second day.  With a french army closing in behind him the English Marshal had to defeat the enemy and then get across that river.

The battle lines are drawn up.  Rules Sword and Spear, and ironically a big game!

 

The French close in

The English longbows cut down three of the Genoese Crossbowmen units.  Heayyy!

The French try to shore up a line as the English come pouring forward

Game over for the French. The Lord de Quincy escapes across the ford.  As the French Constable I came to a sticky end.  I can only hope that my King will avenge me when he catches up with the filthy Engleesh as this mini campaign develops.

Uriah gets his Philistine headress sorted

Uriah the Peleset.  Still needs work! 

My fellow Petains are well aware of my deep interest in (obsession with) the Ancient Egyptians.  Quite why I am leaving my Egyptian forces until last in my Bronze Age project is a bit of a mystery, however my current painting project  is the Sea Peoples, and more specifically the Peleset.   

I sourced the miniatures from Wargames Foundry (my firm favourite and a range of figures I`ve had a longstanding interest in) and Newline Designs, which match perfectly in size but lack some of the crisp detail.  Much cheaper though!

In the case of the Peleset the main difference between the two ranges is that the Newline have a narrower headress, or reed helmet.

Don`t fancy yours much!  

Not only that, the Newline have some interesting vignette sets, such as the baggage cart, straight from the Stillman and Tallis WRG text illustration.  It is inspired by the Egyptian inscription of the fighting in 1177 BC, but there is something not quite right about it as a cart.  How do you get into it for a start!

The second vignette is the Slave trader.  I`m part way through painting this one up too.  Three slaves, a trader and a guard.  Very useful for the narrative type of games I`m planning.   

Almost everything we know about the Sea Peoples comes to us from the Egyptian inscriptions.   This is a double edged sword.  The inscriptions themselves have to be read in context, and often in cultural and religious context. 

From the Medine Habu reliefs

Broadly, according to the Egyptian texts, the Sea Peoples set up camp in Syria before proceeding down the coast of Canaan and into the Nile delta of Egypt.   They had "conquered all before them," but in Egypt they were faced with something new, a large and regular standing army. 

They were twice defeated—in 1207 and 1177 BC in the old chronology—by Merneptah and Rameses III.   According to the Egyptians the Sea peoples had left behind them a great trail of destruction, indeed the great civilizations of the day—the Hittites, the Mycenaeans, the Canaanites and the Cypriots all crumbled.

The Egyptians describe the Sea Peoples as nine separate groups:  the Peleset, Tjekker, Shekelesh, Shardana, Lukka, Teresh, Ekwesh, Danuna, and the Weshesh.   It is nearly impossible to ascertain who these groups were because we don’t know where they came from.  Actually, with one exception, we don`t  even know where they went!

The exception are the Peleset, the only group that has ever been positively identified, being generally accepted to be the biblical Philistines (who according to the Bible came from Crete)   

The discovery of a Philistine cemetery at Ashkelon in Israel seems to have settled the origins of the Peleset.  Aegean burial practices as well as pottery, radically different from the local Canaanite archaeology.  Professor Cline argues that Ramses settled the Philistines in their five cities after the battle of 1177 BC, and that the excavation of the Ashkelon cemetery can prove this.   

Continuing Egyptian influence in the hinterland of the Philistine pentapolis (I`m really pleased with "pentapolis" it's a word I intend to use in all conversation from now on) suggests a nominal claim on the land conquered by the Philistines.  They may well have been vassals guarding the imperial frontier.  Of course the Philistines quickly rose to a position of power in the region owing to their military superiority over the local population.  

The Osprey illustrations are a useful guide for painting these guys, but I`m still a little wary of the detail needed.  Those reed helmets for instance look great in an illustration but are difficult to paint.   Tackling this on the back of painting my 6mm ancients is probably a good thing.  So it`s fine brushes out, and the best acrylics I have.  30 foot, an ox cart and a Commander in his chariot may not sound a lot, but I really want to get this project right, so it`s taking some time... 

At this point those Egyptians seem as far away as ever!