Innholdsfortegnelse for WSS 118 i Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy

“Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders – the most famous of which is: ‘Never get involved in a land war in Asia’ – but only slightly less well-known is this: ‘Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!’”– The last words of Vizzini the Sicilian Yes, for this issue I’ve gone with a quote from The Princess Bride, not a historical one for a change. Vizzini proved a poor example of his own phrase – his own arrogance and iocaine powder were his downfall. So, what would Sicilians do against an oppressor? Bluff their opponents, so they could choose the time and place for the engagement and blend into the local population. They would ensure the odds were in their…

What follows is the very briefest of histories of the island. We hope this will encourage the reader to delve into the rich history of the island of Sicily. The first major clash for hegemony was the struggle between the Greek and Phoenician colonies followed by the internal conflicts between the Greeks, such as the disastrous Athenian expedition (415-413 BC). Carthage then became involved in a protracted war for control of Sicily (580-265 BC). There was a brief Pyrrhic experience (278-275 BC); he proved so popular that the Sicilians invited the Carthaginians back! During the First Punic War (264-241 BC), Rome expelled the Carthaginians, capturing most of Sicily except Syracuse, which they conquered in 213-212 BC, despite Archimedes’ inventions. The Second Servile War (104-100 BC) saw a slave uprising on…

After that battle, a group of 300 French knights, led by Count Walter V of Brienne and two other barons, arrived in Sicily to avenge their defeated relatives. They named themselves the “Company of Death” and swore for revenge or death. Their hatred was mainly directed against the main leader of the Battle of Falconara, Guillem Galceran de Cartellà, Count of Catanzaro, and Blasco de Alagón el Viejo, the right-hand man of King Fredrick in Sicily. At the beginning of the year, the castellan of Gagliano informed the Angevins that both Galceran and Blasco were guests in his castle and announced his desire to surrender the castle and its garrison to King Charles. It was the occasion the French were waiting for. The Company of Death left for the castle,…

Here is a list of suggested profiles for the Garibaldini and the Kingdom of Two Sicilies for Rebels and Patriots. Garibaldi’s Army The Thousand – shock infantry @6 points The volunteers of the initial expedition, “The Thousand”, were a very mixed batch, composed of young enthusiastic students and veterans from the First and the Second Wars of Italian Independence. While lacking formal training and armed with outdated weapons, they were well led by expert officers and their high elan surprised more than one opponent. Since Garibaldi’s tactics employed fierce charges more than prolonged firefights, I rated these men as shock infantry. The reduced firing range of this unit simulates the outdated weapons. Special rules: Lack of training: The Thousand shock infantry can form close order, but they cannot use volley…

SPRAY THAT AGAIN Applying flock to a surface that isn’t flat, such as a hedge or tree, can be a pain. ‘Painting’ watered-down PVA on branches is cumbersome and ineffective. You can use watered-down PVA in a hand sprayer, but these don’t tend to last long as they clog easily with dried PVA. As an alternative, consider using a spray adhesive instead; it can really help. It comes in a spray can – simply spray it on (you may want to mask any areas you do not want covered!) and sprinkle your flock on afterwards. A second layer after application may be wise to prevent shedding in the future. Do note that such glues come in permanent variants and non-permanent ones that stay sticky – the latter may not be…

April 23, 1014. Good Friday. As the sun sinks peacefully over the waters of Dublin Bay, nearly 10,000 men lie dead or wounded on the fields outside the city walls. In the waning hours, up to 1000 Viking mercenaries flounder in the ocean, as high tide cuts them off from the safety of their longships. Most of the retreating Vikings drown or are hacked down on the shoreline. Clontarf – one of the great battles in Irish history – is now over. The grinding, day-long engagement pitted Irish lords against Irish lords, with large contingents of Viking warriors involved. In this moment of bloody triumph, High King Brian Boru consolidated his position as the most powerful man in Ireland. It was no small feat. Ireland in this age had over…

The Almogavars arrived in Sicily following Peter of Aragon in 1282, and they rapidly earned a fearful reputation for their unpredictable raids and ferocious assaults. These hardened mercenaries were recruited from among shepherds and outlaws from the hilly regions of the Northern Iberian Peninsula and, although lightly equipped, they proved capable of fighting (and often defeating) the Angevin knights, the flower of the feudal chivalry of the time. The Almogavars usually performed their raids at dusk or dawn, shouting their war cry “Desperta Ferro!” (“awake the iron!”) and striking their weapons with flints causing sparks in the darkness, which disheartened the less motivated enemy, leading sometimes to immediate surrender. If the enemy stayed to fight, the Catalan infantry would start their assault with a javelin volley, followed by hand-to-hand combat…

The Royal Armouries, Leeds. The morning of Sunday, 31 October 2021. It’s raining heavily. Outside the New Dock Hall, a queue of paying public is forming. Starved by months of pandemic restrictions, they have come to see wargames at the Fiasco wargaming show. Good ones. One of the very first things this discerning crowd will come across, just inside the main door, is my game. It’s a 700-figure 28mm attempt at the Battle of Stoke Field 1487, the last battle of the Wars of the Roses. My friend Richard Hudson has brought his fifteenth-century Irish collection and has added them to the Yorkist army. We’re as ready as we’re going to be. I stand back from the table and assess our efforts. A thought flies unexpectedly through the fog of…

SAGA: Age of Invasions By Alex Buchel (Studio Tomahawk, 2021) £30.00 D6 and SAGA dice, alternate turn Age of Invasions is the latest in the Saga product line. It provides details for armies of the fourth and fifth centuries AD in Europe and the Near East. This is the end of the Roman Empire in the West (AD 476), the era of the great barbarian migrations, and the dominance of the Sassanid Empire in the East. The book is very much an expanded and revised Aetius & Arthur from Saga first edition. An expansion was sold to convert Aetius & Arthur to second edition, but Age of Invasions is in many ways a very different product. The format is very similar to what has been seen in previous expansions: new…

It is, of course, human nature to feel comfortable with ideas that are familiar. Indeed, even those who proclaim a desire to see interesting new ideas in their games can find that some interesting new ideas are actually just a bit too interesting. As a result, game design is usually an evolutionary process rather than a revolutionary one. That said, even a glacial pace of change can see some ideas that are beyond the pale today become accepted in the future and become the norm someway further down the line. For me, game design is always an evolutionary process. No set of rules is ever truly finished, as events tend to trigger off ideas that make you think, “I wish I’d included that,” or, hopefully less often, “I wish I…

The shrine has now attracted the attention of intrepid adventurers. Some are eager to destroy the altar and drive off the evil beings that occupy the dark woods. Others are looking for arcane knowledge and explore the shrine for any treasure, no matter who intervenes. SET-UP Place a small shrine, no more than 3” x 3”, in the centre of the table. Place eight individual trees around the shrine so that they form a 3 x 3 grid, treating the shrine as the centre tree. Each tree should be 6” from its closest neighbours, so that the whole grid is just slightly bigger than 12”, depending on the size of the trees. The only other terrain that should be placed inside this grid should be low brush or small rocks,…

We undertake the solitary aspects (painting, collecting, and reading) to participate in a social pursuit – pushing small soldiers around a table and having a few laughs. Regardless of who you play with, your ‘Six Steps to Napoleonics’ should take this into consideration. For instance, if you are planning to play with a very new wargamer, perhaps you will choose the easier and quicker rules over the more flavoursome but more complex rules. You might let him or her choose their army first and accept that you will automatically choose their usual opposition for the sake of getting games on the table quickly. On the other hand, your approach will be different if you are playing with more experienced wargamers. In this case your choices throughout the ‘Six Steps’ will…

This list allows you to build a CLASH list for Mamertines, the Campanian mercenaries that controlled Messana. Agema Miniatures has some nice Mamertine figures that can be used to represent these troops. Your army must include at least one character of level II or higher and cannot include more characters than the total number of line units army. All standard characteristics and equipment apply (see 12.1 CLASH of Spears) Mamertine line troops Cutthroat: (This trait is available in the Rise of Eagles expansion and is added here for completion.) If an enemy unit is forced to take a morale test from melee while they have more fatigue points than the cutthroat soldiers they are fighting, they must add 1D6 to the test just as if they had suffered an additional casualty.…

While there are very many different models that might be suitable for Sicily, we have stuck rigidly to those who had a distinct impression on the island. We have deliberately ignored things such as Greeks, Romans, Normans, etc. While each had a hand in shaping the island, we have also already covered them in previous issues of WS&S. So, be aware there are plenty of other models that might be useful for the Tyrant of Syracuse, or for Sextus Pompeius, or for the Norman invasion, etc. The following is the briefest of guides to some of the models especifically suitable for Sicily. As always, the limits of time and magazine space prohibit us from covering every single manufacturer. We classify ranges as follows: Basic (basic infantry); Standard (has the essentials);…

The Somme 1916 – Beyond the first day By Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland ISBN: 978-1526738127 (Pen and Sword Books, 2021) – £16.99 The book is intended first and foremost as a visitor’s guide to the areas mentioned in the title. It has more to it than that though, although any gamers visiting the Somme battlefields will find it invaluable as a guide and atlas. It would be useful as a ‘tour guide’, as it has cycling and walking routes, but it also contains lots of descriptive accounts of the events at various points of interest – along with mentioning which forces were engaged on either side and how the attacks unfolded. While reading the accounts, I found myself creating scenarios in my head from some of them, as they…