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Thursday 14 September 2017

Byzantium: Army Lists for the Portable Wargame: Ancients rules

Whilst I have been busy attending conferences and reading books, Archduke Piccolo has created two Byzantine Army Lists to use with my PORTABLE WARGAME: ANCIENTS rules.

The forces of Byzantium are covered in the first of two blog entries entitled SOLDIERS OF BYZANTIUM – A PROPOSED PORTABLE WARGAMES ARMY LIST, and it is illustrated with photographs of some of the beautifully-painted units.





The second blog entry is entitled AN ENEMY OF BYZANTIUM – THE BULGAR EMPIRE, and is also illustrated with a number of photographs.



I am not expert on the Byzantine Empire, but these two Army Lists seem to reflect my understanding of the sorts of forces fielded by both sides in its wars, and I hope that it will show other wargamers who are using or thinking of using my rules that creating your own Army Lists is possible. Furthermore, the fact that the based units Archduke Piccolo has created seem to fit very nicely into Memoir '44 hexes shows that players are not restricted to using Hexon II or homemade hexes (or even a squared grid) in their games.

Please note that all the photographs featured above are © Archduke Piccolo.

10 comments:

  1. Thasnk you for this posting, Bob.

    When I lit on this in my reading list I thought for a wild moment I had accidentally published a blog entry presently in draft. These are pics of a couple of games with these armies (46SP only). It'll be a day or two before it gets published I think...

    Thanks for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Archduke Piccolo,

      As I have written before, credit where credit is due. I hope that your Army Lists will inspire others to produce their own.

      I look forward to seeing your armies in action in the near future,

      All the best,

      Bob

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    2. I'd actually like to see more lists, from Ancient to pre-modern.

      Delete
    3. Justin Penwith,

      Hopefully they will appear in the fullness of time.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Bob,

    I have developed a grid-based Napoleonic game based on your rules in "The Portable Wargame." I would greatly appreciate any feedback or criticisms you may have on them. They can be found at compactwargaming.blogspot.com. I have been reading this blog for some time now and really appreciate it. Keep up the good work!

    Ryan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ryan Recker,

      I have looked your blog and left a comment. From what I have seen, you seem to be developing an interesting set of rules, and I wish you good luck with your efforts. I hope that I will be able to give you feed-back in due course, especially as I have been slowly developing my own PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME over the past year or so.

      All the best,

      Bob

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    2. I had a quick read. I'd like to give them a try some time. I have some ideas of my own about grid war gaming Napoleonics. They seem to indicate the possibility of splitting units between two (or more) grid areas. Still only thinking about them, though...

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    3. Archduke Piccolo,

      Now that Ryan has changed the blog template he was using, I can read the rules without any problems ... and they resemble the Morschauser-based rules I wrote and used a few years ago. I think that they will give a good game, and I will certainly give them a tryout if the opportunity - and the time - arises.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  3. Hi Bob
    I used your rules to play a very non-portable game in my refight of the battle of the Tchernaya River in the Crimea. Link below:

    http://bobthepainter.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Battle%20of%20Tchernaya%20River

    The rules provided a very fast moving and exciting game that allowed me to used large numbers of troops, during a short game. I will use them again.

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob Kett,

      Thanks very much for the link to your battle reports ... which I will mention in today's blog entry! I am really pleased that you found that they produced a fast moving and exciting game; that is exactly what they were designed to do.

      The actual tabletop battle might not be portable ... but the rules are in that they can be adapted quite easily to a variety of different historical periods.

      I look forward to reading future battle reports.

      All the best,

      Bob

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