Eeee Pet.

Old John and Richard's visit will be covered in more detail once the war artist has delivered his final sketches of the action. In the meantime here's a photo taken in the shadowy light of the Abruzzo dawn moments before the fierce battle between Hannibal and his Roman adversary Convolvulus began.

Observe how, despite freezing weather and layer of icey snow, the Balearic slingers and Numidians have refused to wear anything other than the skimpiest little dresses. A similar attitude is displayed by the womenfolk of Tyneside on Friday and Saturday nights, though they throw more combat dice in melee obviously.

Now, we had it tough...

Back in the 1970s Britain crackled with the static generated by 20 million pairs of crimpelene slacks, men sprayed their hair with an evil smelling laquer called Cossack, the height of culinary sophistication was mechanically reclaimed meat and pubs in Britain were compelled by law to be shut whenever you wanted to buy a drink. Life was brutish (or more accurately Brut-ish), money was short and so we had to get our wargames enjoyment from things like this:

 

 

 

 

You sent off for the Micro series from Tabletop Games in Nottingham. The small bag you received in return for your cheque or postal order contained everything you needed for a wargame - troops, terrain, measuring devices and rules, all bar the latter made of thin cardboard. It might have looked like an Avalon Hill boardgame, with counters representing troops, but you played it like a figure game - the hills even had contours. From what I recall it was actually quite a good game, if visually underwhelming.  However, I only had the Micro Colonial set with the Rorke's Drift supplement, though doubtless there are people out their who can tell us what delights the Ancients package pictured above contained.

Well, come on, speak up now!

OMG! It's, Like, Sooo Over...Nearly

When I started accumulating ancient armies I had a figures wanted list that ran to several pages. Gradually over the years thanks to a whole variety of people - including a bloke in Leeds who bought cheap figures so he could melt them down for his Prince August moulds and removed any he thought I might be interested in - I have gradually crossed more and more and more figures off that list. By the time I started writing this blog there were about ten items left on it. Then there were two. Last night I won these PB range Libyan spearmen on eBay...

So now all I want is the six PB range Roman cavalrymen of the civil wars - to complete a unit of Hannibal's Noble Cavalry and I am done. Well, apart from painting the blasted stuff, obviously

A Crossword Clue...

...In a recent Daily Telegraph was "Pair of card games that go from bank to bank". Here are some Garrison 20mm Romans crossing the answer*.

As mentioned in the last post, these figures were some of the earliest John Braithwaite designs, following on from the 20mm JonBee range he did for Minifigs c.1966/7. Those figures - which are very hard to find - were largely based on conversions of the Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham/Robin Hood sets (Braithwaite wasn't the only figure designer to use Airfix as the basis for his creations - Les Higgins used Airfix ACW Confederates for a few of his ECW). Some of the Garrison 20mm Romans also began life in Sherwood Forest. These Roman auxiliaries, for example.

* Pontoon Bridge, giddy up, now.

Eagle In The Snow

(Roman bolt-throwers with Minifig PB and Garrison 20mm crews)

A while back I said I had no Imperial Romans. I was lying. About a year ago, inspired by boredom, I won half-a-dozen lots of painted Garrison 20mm figures on eBay. I then put them in a box - right next to the Eval Kneval friction bike - and pretended I hadn't just spent a hundred quid on something I didn't really want and had no use for.

Happily the impending arrival of Old John and Richard from Vintage20Mil combined with the inadequate playing space afforded by my new abode caused me to get them out again. We will be fighting a couple of battles with them over the weekend. Before that here are some pictures of the Romans on patrol in snowy Northumberland.

(Garrison 20mm Roman auxiliary cavalry with a converted standard bearer. The figures - bought of eBay - bear all the hallmarks of the true Old School wargamer including blobs of solder on the fists and beermat bases)

 (Garrison 20mm Legion. These must have been some of the first figures John Braithwaite made for the range - they are much smaller than the later Persians and Greeks - more akin to Airfix HO/OO. They feature heavily in Charles Grant's games, often in opposition to hordes of plastic Britons commanded by Andra the Beserker)

Chariots of Fewer

Yesterday I claimed that the only S range ancient figures I'd never seen were a few coded A2s. Looking at that old catalogue again, however I realise that couple of the chariots have so far dodged my attention - the Egyptian light chariot ( the top vehicle in photo one, above) and the Persian Bactrian vehicle which I'm guessing is the middle chariot in photo two (Below). I'm thinking that the Egyptian chariot is actually a remodel of the one I use in my Egyptian army, the Bactrian vehicle is a mystery, however. It seems to have some sort of external lattice-work on the body and feature a converted Assyrian javelinman as a driver. I've got a quite a few chariots in my collection - including the heavier Egyptian version with pharaoh in it, but I've never clapped eyes on the Bactrian cart.

A2s MIA

I must have spent a large chunk of 1973 studying the above Minifigs catalogue - well it either that or phsyics homework. I guess I must have got a copy during a foray to The Stamp Shop in Middlesbrough. My focus was the colonial section. Eventually after much deliberation I handed my mother a chunk of cash in return for a cheque and posted off an order for 50 S range zulus. About a month later the cheque was returned with a curt note telling me that the figures I had ordered had now been discontinued. No further explanation was forthcoming. S range had gone for ever. The era of the chunky monkeys was upon us.

Back then I wouldn't have been much delayed by the ancient section of the Minifigs catalogue. The only ancient gaming I did in those days was with a friend of mine and his younger brother who had aquired an odd assortment of 15mm Chinese and - if memory serves - Khmer from Peter Laing. Tiny, lumpy little things they were. And the figures were a bit odd too.

Anyway, I have more than made up for that oversight since. At some point on this blog I mentioned that one of the few S range ancients I have never seen is AA2s - Assyrian standard bearer. Oddly enough the only others I haven't seen are also A2s figures - AP2s (Persians standard bearer), AE2s (Egyptian standard bearer) and AS2s (Sassanid levy archer). Apart from that I've clocked all of them, even the Philistine ox chariot and the off-the-wall Gaul or Hun mounted archer.

It's odd that the standard bearers are the figures nobody seems to have bought as they usually rank high on any wargamer's shopping list. I wonder what happened to them all?