Prelude to "The Egyptian Adventure"

I have always been a fan of the Amelia Peabody Series of Adventures about Egyptology, mystery, murder, Hidden Kingdoms, Master Criminals and all sorts of mayhem. The series starts in 1884 with Crocodile on the Sandbank and finishes in 1922-1923 in the book The Tomb of the Golden Bird with the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb. As my gaming interests of late have drifted to the late 19th and early 20th Century, I finally convinced myself (it wasn't hard) to run a series of games based on these 20 books written by the Egyptologist Barbara Mertz under the pen name of Elizabeth Peters. For the games I will be using the adult version of all characters so their will be some "fudging" of time periods.

 Some of the tourists visiting the Valley of Luxor.

Over the years I've been looking for a figure to represent Amelia (more on her in future posts) but was unable to find a suitable figure with an umbrella (she is famous for her umbrella) in a field environment. While browsing Wargames Foundry's website I discovered a new (at least to me) range of figures called "Egyptian Adventurers". One of the female figures does have an umbrella and is dressed for adventure; however, she looked to stout for me to be Peabody (as her husband refers to her - another future post)  based on the descriptions of Peabody in the book. There are two figures of women excavating and the one standing - "Tah dah!" - would be the Peabody figure sans umbrella.

A bit out of focus but this will be my famous "Amelia Peabody". More and better pictures to come.

The "Egyptian Adventure" will include the Emerson-Peabody clan, the family of Abdullah ibn al-Wahhab, Emerson's reis or foreman, who supervises their archaeological digs, Master Criminals and evil assassins and smuggling cartels, espionage, and a couple of inter-dimesional surprises (non-canon) that will be thrown in. 

Many of their adventures take place in and around the "Valley of the Kings" near Luxor, Egypt. But knowing the Emerson-Peabody clan, we will be everywhere from England to Egypt to Palestine and a hidden kingdom. It'll be fun!

Of course there will be mummies!

Dux Bellorum Late Roman Army

Ever since I read Rosemary Sutcliff's novels about ancient Britain (The Eagle of Ninth, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, The Sword at Sunset, The Shining Company, etc!) I have had a fascination with the Late Roman era in the West and Dark Age Britain.  With the publishing of Dux Bellorum I have found a game that I truly enjoy for gaming a period that I enjoy so much.

I have completed my first army and now it is time to show off!

 

The might of a Rome, starting to fade but still packs a punch.

My General and Dux Bellorum (Leader of Battles) with his mounted comitatus.

 

The bulk of the Roman infantry is "Shield wall".  They can be superior infantry ("noble" in game terminology),ordinary or a combination or the two. I have four units for my army.

I have three cavalry units:  Cataphract (though actually they are modeled as the Clibinarri with bows), Riders and mounted Skirmishers with javelins. The riders can also be superior cavalry ("nobles").

Last but not least are my bow armed infantry and skirmishers.  I made 2 stands of bows; when separate they will be foot skirmishers with bows and when combined they will be bows.  In addition I have a foot skirmisher unit armed with javelins.

Now to finish those Saxons that keep raiding Britain . . .

Favorite Figures: The Fall of the West 300 - 500 AD, Part 1

I was looking at some of my figures the other day . . . well okay, I was setting them up and making fighting noises . . . when I started thinking to myself, "Hey, this was a fun figure to paint, that one was fun too . . . that one was a pain in the . . . " Well, you get the idea!

One of my all time favorite periods to game and paint is the Late Roman period in the West. I got interested in this period while doing research for a paper when I was attending the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS. If you are interested in the period, I recommend two very good books that have similar titles. The first is The Fall of The Roman Empire: The Military Explanation, by Arther Ferrill, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Washington and a regular contributor to The Quarterly Journal of Military History. The second is The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians by Peter Heather currently Professor of Medieval History at King's College London.

For historical fiction I recommend Eagle in the Snow, by Wallace Breem and The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff (she of The Eagle of the Ninth fame!)

My armies for the period are about 99.5% Wargames Foundry's Late Roman Range of figures that also include their Franks and Saxons, Germans, Huns and Age of Arthur ranges sculpted by the Perry Twins Michael and Allan. The other .5% are Old Glory Miniatures. One of the advantages of gaming and collecting this period is that every unit can be on any side - talk about a blessing for a gamer!

When I personally take the field of battle, here is the figure I usually use to represent me:

This is a Late Roman mounted commander from the Mounted Commanders blister pack.

Also from the Mounted Commanders blister pack is one of my all time favorites:

Every commander needs a good musician. The animation and bearing of the figure is second to none. Plus, it was fun to paint. He is the musician for my commander's mounted body guard.


Speaking of bodyguards, I based my commander on Flavius Aetius, the "Last of the Romans." Aetius is famous for defeating Attila the Hun at the Battle of Chalons in 451 AD. Interestingly, Aetius had spent many of his formative years as an official "hostage" with the Huns and his body guard (Bucellarii) was almost exclusively Huns:

Aetius' Bucellarii

Since this unit is serving with the "Roman" army, I painted them as much as possible to resemble Huns with Roman equipment and tunics. Note the chip paint on the spear. Nothing like dropping a figure and knocking the spear off right before you take a picture!

I like the Horse tail standard.

Speaking of Huns, I'm slowly adding other Huns to my collection. The below is one of the nicest animated figures I have run across; you can just feel the breeze in your hair (if you take your helmet off!):






The infantry need good commanders and this is from Foundry's "Age of Arthur" range. I forget which character he is supposed to represent, but he makes a great officer for Late Roman or Romano-British armies.

Favorite Figures - The Greatest Detective Ever

Not really a genre I game . . . but how could I pass up Sherlock Holmes and Watson?

Figures from Wargames Foundry.

Patrick Rambaud's The Battle: Lost in Translation?

The Battle, by Patrick Rambaud is a historical novel about the Battle of Aspern-Essling which takes place in 1809 as part of the War of the Fifth Coalition. The novel, which is written in French, was awarded the the Prix Goncourt (prize for for French Literature) and another French literature prize the Grand Prix de l'Academie francaise in 1997. Since I don't know how to read French, I read the 2001 translation by Will Hobson.

The Battle of Aspern-Essling is possibly Napoleon's first defeat( depends on the historian - did he lose or was it a draw?). It is obvious that the novel was well researched . . . but, it really did nothing for me. If you know nothing about the War of the Fifth Coalition, if you know nothing about the events of the age, if you know nothing about the Battle of Aspern-Essling - well, you are out of luck. The book just starts, and it just ends with no context of what is happening in Europe or the forces that are at play. In fact, it just seems to be parts of the battle strung together to provide a narrative - but I'm not sure the purpose of the narrative. Though written from a French perspective, it gives you no insight at all about the Austrian personalities or forces.

The novel does follow many French historical figures during the battle, most notably Colonel Louis Francois Lejeune, who during the battle was one of Marshal Berthier's aide-de-camps (ADC). Later (not in the novel) Lejeune would become Marshal Davout's ADC and was later promoted to general de brigade. As a side note, Lejeuene designed the distinctive uniforms with red shakos and red paints that Berthier's ADC's wore and was one of the great battle painters of his age.

In the novel, Lejeune barely has a personality, which is saying a lot considering that none of the other historical figures have a personality. Every French marshal and general in the book seems the same; and, if I did not know who they were, I would not have been able to tell them apart in the plot except for their names. Each marshal or general has facts about them recited to give "background" and they all seem to speak with the same mannerisms and lack of personality.

Rambaud attempts to give what it was like to be a common soldier during the battle; the confusion, the fear and the "why" are we fighting. I don't know. I just did not think it was a good book. I have experienced this feeling before with translated works - maybe the meaning and skill of the book was lost in translation.

I returned the book to the library today and lo and behold, I checked out The Battle, A New History of Waterloo by an Italian writer, Alessandro Barbero, translated by John Cullen. Hopefully this book won't suffer from translation issues.