The Assyrians

Like a Wolf on the Fold

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee…

For my first post I thought I’d add some pictures of the Assyrian army I used against Toby this week. I’m still working on a 400pt version of this army – previous incarnations have done well at Britcon but very poorly at the Italian ITC. I’ve recently been using it for doubles at 450/500 pts where I think it performs better – particularly with a Mede Ally.

The figures are almost all from Museum Miniatures. I like the figures but they suffer from generally having only a few poses. Replacing cast spears with pins, mixing what figures they have and painting uniforms in various shades helps break up the mono-pose appearance a bit.

Firstly the cavalry, sweeping down on some unfortunate fold….

Assyrian Cavalry 1

Flanked on one side by a Kallipani chariot (AxS/PsO)and on the other by some light horse archers (LhF) and lead from the front by General Sin-shumu-lishir.

Assyrian Cavalry 2

Next the infantry: Kisir Sharruti (AxS) in the front rank, supported by archers (PsO)  and with Sha Qurbute (SpO/S) behind. Prince Sin-shar-ishkun lurking alongside keeping an eye on his brother…

Assyrian Infantry - All

Rear view of the same group.

Assyrian Infantry - SpO

The Assyrian Divine Chariot, flanked by the massed hordes of the Dikut Mati. The front ranks of each element are the Museum Babylonian and Judean spearmen. The second ranks are a mix of biblical figures scrounged from friends. The banner is from the Little Big Man Sassanid transfers.

Assyrian Divine Chariot

Baggage elements, featuring a row between two Imperial Tax collectors and a hairy-arsed wagon driver. Said row about to be settled by the ‘Youth with baseball bat’. Also featuring some wretched looking prisoners. Not the most beautiful of sculpts from Museum. Frankly, if I’d captured them, I’d give them back…

Assyrian Baggage

King Ashurbanipal about to do some serious smiting beneath his fancy umbrella…..

Assyrian Chariots 3

Crown Prince Ashur-etil-ilani ‘protecting’ his father’s flank…..

Assyrian Chariots 1

Assyrian Chariots 2

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.

More next week…

 

 

 

 

 

This week

World War II predominated this week, at 6mm and 25mm.  Here are Andy and Colin playing in 25mm:

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Dave and I played DBMM, and his Assyrians gave me a complete drubbing, as usual. The army was better structured than last time, but my terrain placement was bad and I didn’t think to use my inferior bowmen as march blockers. Here the Assyrian chariots are about to retreat from my infantry.

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There is no meeting next week because the Scouts are holding a jumble sale.

This week

This week’s games at the club (last Wednesday).
Mark, Chris and Paul were playing what looked like a homebrew sci-fi skirmish game.
Mark, Findlay, Dave and Andy W were playing a double DBMM game (Later Sargonid Assyrian vs Early Hoplite Greek).
Andy B and Colin were playing a 25mm Second World War skirmish game. Didn’t catch the name of the rules though.

SoA Battle Day 2013 – The Battle of Chalons

Army lists for the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, or Chalons, as fought at the Society of Ancients Battle Day 2013.

I decided that since there was very little in the way of detailed historical information for the battle, to just play it as a 9 contingent get-as-much-lead-on-the-table type battle, with the additional interest of some per-command victory conditions, rather than per-army victory conditions.

The 9 contingents were nominally divided into two sides – the Romand side and the Hunnic side, although they might have as much interest in the defeat of the contingents on their own side as on the other side.

The Roman contingents were:

  • Aetius, Magister Militum, Last of the Romans, Dux et Patricius.
  • Theodoric, King of the Visigoths.
  • Merovech, King of the Franks.
  • Gondoic, King of the Burgundians.
  • Sangiban, King of the Alans.

The Hunnic contingents were:

  • Attila, the Scourge of God, Great Khan of the Huns.
  • Ellac, Prince of the Huns.
  • Valamir, King of the Ostrogoths.
  • Ardaric, King of the Gepids.

The complete orders of battle are available after the break.

Continue reading “SoA Battle Day 2013 – The Battle of Chalons”

Welcome…

… to the new Pinner Wargames Website.  I have just migrated it from Joomla to WordPress to make it easier to maintain and hopefully to encourage me (and others) to post here a bit more frequently and give the impression that we are all still alive (which we are).

Anyway, to remind people, we meet every Wednesday evening from 7pm to 11pm, in the scout hut behind the church of St Edmund the King in Northwood Hills, HA6 1QS.

Everyone welcome – come along and join in.