Sumerian Nim Skirmishers

While I was playing a Sumerian game last weekend (see previous post) I noticed some of the Wargames Foundry skirmishers were painted but not completed. These are great figures, sculpted by the Perrys, so I thought I'd finish them off. Apparently Nim means 'flies', their opponents found them numerous, persistent and irritating! My three favourite 28mm Sumerian ranges are Foundry, Cutting Edge and Eureka. Eureka have just released a great looking 15mm Sumerian range, sculpted by Alan Marsh, based on their superb 28mm Sumerian range.

Early Sumerian Chariots Rampant Game

Army of Lagash on the left, Army of Ur on the right

View from the Lagash lines

Opposite end of the table

Gutians

Battle cars of Ur screened by javelinmen

Armies advance

King of Ur leads the way

Battle cars charge

Here are some photos of another solo Chariots Rampant game I played recently with the Early Sumerian armies of Ur and Lagash. This was a 48 point game that see sawed back and forth, with heavy casualties on both sides before the army of Ur collapsed at the end, to suffer quite a heavy defeat. There were only three units left of the army of Ur, including the undefeated Royal Guard. The Gutians who were tribal warriors and count as fierce foot were particularly destructive.

Gutians charge the Lagash battle cars

Battle cars charge on the other flank

Royal Guard of Ur

Army of Ur suffers heavy casualties

Royal Guard of Ur remain undefeated

Spearmen of Ur

The sole surviving battle car of Lagash

The winter here, in the bush capital, is a great time for seeing all the cockatoos, parrots and gang-gangs that escape from the snow and cold weather in the mountains. Twice last week a large flock of 40-50 Sulphur Crested White Cockatoos descended and started work on our front lawn! They are hilarious to watch, they're so raucous and playful. King Parrots, Gang-Gangs and Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos are often seen at this time of the year in the suburbs and areas of bush like Mt Ainslie, Mt Majura, Majura Pines and Bruce Ridge.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoos on the front lawn

Male Gang-Gang

Samnite versus Camillan Roman Basic Impetus Game

I've just finished painting another unit for my Samnites (see photos above) and thought I would try a solo Basic Impetus game with them against my Camillan Romans out in the shed. I bought these A&A and Gripping Beast figures second hand and although they were painted it still took a fair bit of work to get them to a reasonable standard. Most have LBM shield transfers, except for some of the back ranks, which include some rather dodgy hand painted, swastika type shield designs! I think the Italian officer figure was a freebie from an old Ancient Warfare magazine subscription offer.

In the game I gave both sides an extra medium cavalry unit (CM) each and I had to draft in a unit of Velites for the Romans as I didn't have enough painted Leves as skirmishers. The Romans were the attackers and didn't have too much trouble at all against the Samnites. The Samnites caught the Roman Leves who failed to evade early in the game and later also managed to rout one Roman cavalry unit, including the Roman commander. Apart from that it was pretty much a Roman one way street!

View of the table with armies deployed

Samnite right flank near the wood

Samnite left flank - between a rock and a hard place!

Opposite end of the table

Both armies advance

The Linen Legion are the Samnite reserves in the centre

Samnite cavalry skirt the woods

The armies get closer

Samnites charge the Leves who fail to evade

Roman Hastati and Principes charge

Samnites are driven back

Roman Cavalry rout Samnite Cavalry

Samnite army is about to rout

The Alexander Sarcophagus, Istanbul Archaeological Museum

Here are some photos of the famous Alexander Sarcophagus at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. The sarcophagus was discovered at a necropolis near Sidon in Lebanon in 1887 and was made for Abdalonymus, the king of Sidon, who died in 311 BC. One long side depicts Alexander fighting the Persians at the Battle of Issus. The opposite side depicts Alexander and Macedonians hunting lions, together with Abdalonymus and Persians. The coloured reconstructions show how the sarcophagus was originally painted.

The two photos at the bottom of the post show Ptolemaic troop types, see Nick Sekunda's Montvert book, The Ptolemaic Army for more detail. I have heaps of photos of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum and will post these at some stage. There are actually three separate museums, the Archaeological Museum (in the main building), the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Museum of Islamic Art.

Coloured reconstruction

Coloured reconstruction of Alexander

Sidon Stele (3) - The Stele of Salmas

Sidon Stele (7) - The Stele of Dioskourides of Balboura