Men of Bronze and Packages

First of all the Spartans are coming along rather well. The four skirmishers are now all washed along with the Hero and two champions. I'll hopefully be able to get the hoplites done later or tomorrow evening. That's all the figure news for the moment due to a few new presents from Royal Mail today.

These two little rulesets arrived today. I have yet to have an in depth read of them but they look rather fun. Broken Legions is for general ancient funsies and some interim games while Aristeia takes shape. I have a few early Saxons that can double as Ancient Germans as needed. I look forward to testing it out relatively soon.

The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK) has been on my radar for a while. I'm a keen colonial wargamer (although it hasn't shown up in this blog yet!) with large forces for the 1st Anglo-Sudan War (a great number are also usable for the 2nd Anglo-Afghan and North West Frontier) and having quite a lot of experience with the Anglo Zulu war due to former club games and displays. TMWWBK I think fills a nice niche in terms of game size for the Colonial market, a little smaller than A Death in the Dark Continent but larger and more unit focused than the new CONGO (as well as a rather different theme). It's is by the same chap that wrote Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant. As far as I am aware it also shares the same system but with a few tweaks, notable to activations. This seems like a rather good excuse to get some packs of those new Perry Afghans, that may be a project in the near future!

And finally, I've read three quarters of the articles contained within 'Men of Bronze'. So far it contains a good range of diverse opinions in regards to the beginnings of hoplite warfare and their associated role in the development of the Greek polis. It seems a rather good introduction to the topic due to such diversity of opinion and its synthesis of the previous 150 years of academic thought on the subject. I have a few questions in regards to the topic and some words to say on the topic given my background as an archaeologist and biological anthropologist (albeit specialising in the Early Medieval period but there are some relevant similarities I feel). I shall give a more in depth 'review' (although I'm in no way qualified to give a true review) in the coming weeks.