Falling Off the Straight and Narrow

 

 

It seems that wargaming is slowly re-starting.  Members of our club (Wakefield & District) have commenced Garden Games followed by Home Hosting.  Later on the church hall may become available. So, real, social interactivity in the future - maybe!  Seems that the Staines club has managed it.

Recent emails with Chris have got me thinking about Post-Lockdown Wargaming and how it might change the status quo.  For me the usual fare of regular DBM games has lost its appeal.  During lockdown DBA v3.0 has been the mainstay of my diet - with some variations: DBN, DBA-HX, DB3H2, DBA-RRR, DBC & HotT.  I have also played Pre-Dreadnought naval (what next?).  

[You will notice that "DB stutter" (as Bob called it) does not feature in the above list.  This is mainly because, for me, it shares too many mechanisms with DBR.]

The 'pastures new' that I am looking at are:

(1)  Spaceships/Starships/Sci-Fi - 'Full Thrust' looks like a good system (plus our own 'home grown rules').  For ground actions maybe the emerging, and free, WTF rules. Also considering adapting 'Wings of War'.

(2)  Pre-Dreadnought naval - tried 'Damn Battleships Again' but was not enamoured.  Need a fairly simple, fast action, set of rules.  Any recommendations?

(3)  Renaissance - have played DBA-RRR for some time now and have over 20 armies available.  Watched another rules set being played at the club (Baroque - I think!) and that seemed to flow OK.

(4)  Rebel & Patriot - plus other sets from the 'Lion Rampant stable'.  Unfortunately LR does seem to get a bit bogged down so, maybe, swerve that one.

How many of us have thought about what we used to do pre-Covid?  Anybody considering going off in a different direction?  Will we be able to persuade others to join in?

I'm somewhat concerned about the prevailing ethos at club level.  Having been a member of well over a dozen clubs since 1975 I have noted certain traits, trends and retrenchments.  

(a)  Fracturing of established rule sets.  At one time there were dominant rules e.g WRG 'Ancients.  Now they are multiple and competing.

(b)  Isolationism - increasingly small islands of players dedicated to one particular set to the exclusion of all others.  Difficult to get into these Brobdignavian enclaves.

(c)  In all my years as a wargamer I have met fewer than 10 female wargamers. They are, however, present at FRP clubs. Is this cultural stereotyping?  Noticed more and more females at conventions but they are usually either accompanying their partners or helping out on demo games.  Maybe we need to ask them why they don't join in!

Anyway...I'm looking forward to re-starting face-to-face gaming again.  Roll on the lifting of restrictions so that we can all recover from this extended 'Annus Horribilis'.

No Wheels & Horses Please…..We're Americans

 The inhabitants of the Americas discovered the wheel outside of the ‘Ancients’ period. It’s a similar story regarding horses.

 Lurkio - Chinantec command

On Saturday I used my, newly painted, Incas against Ian’s Aztecs and got slaughtered. I muttered under my breath that the victorious forces were once mine. When I got home I started looking through my Meso-American boxes again and wondering where I could purchase figures to make up some more armies (It’s the masochist in me).

My researches turned up some manufactures of 15mm figures suitable for DBA armies of North, Central & South America:

Tribe / Nation	DBA	Manufacturers	Notes
Amazonian	4.72	Eureka(1)
American, Eastern Forest	4.9
American, North-Western	4.11
Araucanian	4.84	Khurasan, Lurkio
Aztecs	4.63	Essex, Gladiator(a), Irregular, Tin Soldier
Canari		Lurkio
Chanca or Chinchaysuya	4.70	Irregular
Chichimecs	3.41	Khurasan
Chimor or Chimu	4.71	Irregular, Lurkio
Chinantecs	4.19	Khurasan
Cholula*	4.19		Toltec city-state
Colhuacan*	4.19		Toltec city-state
Conchoco	4.71
Cuilapan (Mixtec)	4.53
Eskimo	4.11	Mick Yarrow	NW American
Huexotingo*	4.19		Toltec city-state
Inca	4.81	Khurasan, Lurkio, Irregular
Inuit	4.11	Mick Yarrow
Iroquois	4.9	Khurasan	EF American
Mapuche	4.84	Khurasan, Lurkio
Mayan	3.22	Gladiator(a)
Mixtec	4.53	Gladiator(a)
Moche		Lurkio	Not in Meshwesh
Mound Builder	4.10	Eureka(2)
Pueblo Cultures	3.41
Tallanes	4.71
Tarascan	4.19
Tlaxcalan*	4.19	Gladiator(a)	Toltec city-state
Tlingit	4.11	Eureka(3)
Toltec	3.59
Toltec-Chichimec	4.19
Tupi	4.29	Gladiator(b), Khurasan
Zapotec	4.53	Gladiator(a)
Zuachila	4.53

---------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the links:

https://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/collections/15mm-medieval-aztec

(1) https://www.eurekaminuk.com/collections/amazonian-indians

(2) https://www.eurekaminuk.com/collections/mound-builder-north-american-indians(3) https://www.eurekaminuk.com/collections/tlingit-north-american-indians

(a) https://fighting15s.com/product-category/gladiator-miniatures/aztecs-and-enemies/?v=79cba1185463

(b) https://fighting15s.com/product-category/gladiator-miniatures/tupi/?v=79cba1185463

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/

https://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/historicalindex.html

http://lurkio.co.uk/lurk10live/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=130

http://lurkio.co.uk/lurk10live/images/chimu/CHBG02_gen.jpg

https://www.magistermilitum.com/fgim52-aztec-temple.html

http://www.spanglefish.com/mickyarrowminiatures/index.asp?pageid=192885

https://tinsoldieruk.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=413_186_195&zenid=d181d23f098f33a6a4224d83ed9eaea4

----------------------------------------------

Notes:

 Magister Militum has a 15mm Aztec Temple (FGIM52)

Minifigs & Naismith used to produce ranges of suitable figures but they are no longer available (trawling Ebay might help though).

Breaking Up the Ottomans - Part 3

 

Minifigs 150Xc - Sipahis of the Porte

Whilst struggling to identify my 'Ottomans' I checked "Armies of the Middle Ages, volume 2" by Ian Heath.  On page 114, item 23, the following paragraph is more than relevant:

".....virtually identical armour was worn throughout all the Iranian lands during this period, and ....could....equally well be Ilkhanids, Jalayrids, Black Sheep or White Sheep Turks or Timurids."

[Mr Barker would be proud of this one sentence paragraph.]

Whilst not giving me complete carte blanche It does provide some room for manoeuvre.  

The relevant DBA lists are:
 
4.42 - Islamic Persian
4.46 - Ilkhanid
4.67 - Jalayrid
4.75 - Timurid
4.77 - Black or White Sheep Turkomans

The Jalayrid list requires 7 x Mongol horse archers and the Ilkhanid 9. Both would be better considered as Mongol morphs.  

A compound list for 4.42 & 4.75 could be:

1 x Cv(g); 8 x Cv; 1 x Cv (Georgian nobles)
3 x Lh (Turkoman); 1 x Lh (horse archer)
1 x 4Bw (Sabadar); 2 x 3Bw (Persian or Afghan); 2 x Ps bow (Persian or Afghan)
1 x 3Ax (hillmen); 1 x 3Pk (Afghan spearmen); 1 x 7Hd
1 x El (Timurid)

Museum - Arab citizen cavalry

In my 'Arab horse' tin there were 6 cavalry figures (as pictured above) that had been given to me as possible 'chinese'.  Indeed they served as such until more suitable models were found.  At that point they were sent to pad out my Arab cavalry.  Now they will be added to my Islamic Persian DBA force.

Closer inspection of the (Ottoman) box also revealed a few more Museum Persian Cv plus 3 Georgian Cv.

So, what about the Turkomans?  Well, that's a story for the next posting.

Breaking Up The Ottomans (Pt.2)

 

The Impetus for this action came about when I tried to form an Ottoman DBN army.  Amongst my tins and boxes was a (mostly) unpainted DBM Ottoman army languishing in dark obscurity. As a DBM force it was lackluster and soon abandoned (I'm told it works in DBMM though).

After doing the necessary research (see earlier postings) I added various musketeers and more modern guns to the Nap army.  Play testing has further slimmed down my requirements.  So this left quite a number of unpainted and unidentified figures.

Time to look at the 15mm sites.  Outpost & Museum were useful especially as they revealed many of the figures were Turkoman Lh or Cv.  The 'rump' of this group have yet to reveal their origins.

My first plan is to reserve figures for a later Ottoman DBA army (the earlier is largely Lh that can be 'fudged').  The DBN army is complete and I am moving on to the Qajars.

The Turkomans - Book 4 - 49 Anatolian; 77 Black & White Sheep

Combining the two lists gives these requirements:

1 x Art; 2 x 3Ax; 2 x 3Bw; 2 x 4Bw; 1 x Cv(g); 6 x Cv;
1 x 7Hd; 6 x Lh; 2 x Ps bow; 1 x Ps hg

I do not have the Art, 3Bw, Hd or Ps hg (my current Ps are Xb).

This does not account for all the available Cv & Lh that I seem to have - only 7 & 6 respectively.  

Turkomans do, however, crop up in other armies:

4.6a -     Remnant Syrian states - 4
4.8 -      Ghurid - 4 "Turkish horse archers"
4.20 -     Ayyubid Egyptian - 2
4.22 -     Serbian Imperial - 2
4.24a -   Khwarizmian state - 1
4.24b -   Khwarizmian refugee - 6
4.35 -     Mongol Conquest - 3
4.42 -     Islamic Persian - 1
4.45 -     Mamluk Egyptian - 2
4.46 -     Ilkhanid - 1
4.52 -     Later Nomadic Mongol - 2
4.65 -     Wallachian or Moldavian - 1 "Turkish horse archers"
4.67 -     Jalayrid - 1
4.75 -     Timurid - 3

Looks like I will be purchasing the extra figures to make up these Turkoman armies.  What comes after that depends upon me identifying the remaining bare metal.

Don't hold your breath!