Sunday, January 8, 2017

Future Ancients Plans

        I have watched just about all of the Time Commanders videos on Youtube. Between these shows and reading up on Command & Colors Ancients, I have found myself excited about doing more gaming of this period.  My knowledge of Ancients is next to nil. This is one reason why I have done little with all the Peter Laing Ancients I have, which, by the way, is what I have most of. I do have a book, Greece and Rome at War, and several books put out by Barnes and Noble, including  Battles of the Bible 1400BC -73 AD, Battles of the Ancient World 1285BC- AD451, and  The Ancient Warrior 3000BCE-500CE (which I am currently reading).  However, I really do not know anything about the period.  The fact that 20 years ago, when I started really getting into wargaming, I concentrated on the Horse & Musket period, dabbling in other periods.  It is quite exciting to take the plunge into another period.

   As I know little of Ancient armies, I wanted to find a book that might have a good overview of what different armies looked like. I also wanted to find a book from the period that Peter Laing was active.  Someone pointed out to me that Peter Laing seemed to use Wargame Research Group books to design his figures. I looked up what WRG books were available, being interested in the period before Rome's dominance of the ancient world.  What I found were quite pricy.  then I came across a title that I had seen in the past, Blandfords' Warriors & Weapons, which was published in 1972. Having several Blandford books from this period, it seemed that this book might be a good book to begin with.

     Right now my plans are to use C&C Ancients scenarios on Heroscape terrain.  The ruleset to be used is still unknown. Among sets I plan to test play is Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame Anicents, Command & Colors Ancients (without the card set), and variants of both Battlelore and Battle Cry.  As for the armies, I haven't worked that out. I have several ideas on armies. One is having generic "blue" vs "red" armies that would be made up of random figures. I also have large collections of PL Greeks and Assyrians. Using these, I could make up two or more Greek city-state armies to fight against each other. Another possibility is an Assyrian army vs another army similarly dressed as the Assyrians. one idea I had was to make a core of an army, say, the king's bodyguard, then having the majority of figures painted and the king could build up his army using these figures as mercenaries. Right now all is on hold until Warriors & Weapons arrives; hopefully this will inspire me on how to proceed with my armies.

4 comments:

  1. Dear John, I can still remember the physical feeling of excitement on finding any of the Blandford books on the shelves of the library. The cover illustrations are just great. I hope that the book arrives soon and you can lay down somw paint. Thanks very much for sharing.

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  2. I am like a little kid. The last few days I run to the mailbox excitedly anticipating seeing the envelope with the book in it, only to be crestfallen when it's not there. Hopefully my enthusiasm will continue so I can get some armies on the field of battle.

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  3. John, you describe that beautifully. that's just how it is. I greet our postman like a cherished friend when I am expecting a delivery and have a face like a smacked arse when what he has is for my son or daughter. I feel betrayed ! As if the postman has been somehow unfaithful. Hope the book has arrived.

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  4. Chris, the book arrived today. It wasn't a disappointment, however, it didn't answer the questions that I had. Still, it will give me something to read tonight.

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