Time for one more play-test before we take our Cunaxa game with Alala! to the Society of Ancients Battle Day on 29 March. The game opens with Artaxerxes’ chariots surging forward against Cyrus’ Greek hoplites. The hoplites are unable to open ranks to let the chariots through as they do not hold an open ranks card (more on this later). Proxenus’ hoplites suffer a fair amount of disorder before the enemy chariots crash. Not to be outdone Cyrus sends forward his single chariot and we get a bit...

It is 1239, somewhere in Gaza.  Rukn al-Din al-Hijawi’s Ayyubid army has set a trap to rid the holy land of the invading crusaders. Using a caravan as bait he hopes to draw the crusaders out into the desert. Al-Hijawi’s plan is to use light cavalry to harass and break up the crusader formations and then converge to pick off isolated units. With the Ayyubid caravan (led by Al Muzaffir Umar) on table, two of the crusader players deploy their vanguard. Amaury de Montfort commands the right,...

...well if you are an American militiaman in the War of 1812 you might regret it. These men are just off the painting table and ready to join my British and Canadians in our next 1812 game. I think they look ready for some serious business. The figures are mostly Dixon and Old Glory that have been languishing unpainted in my lead pile for several years. I intend them to represent men of the western tribes — Shawnee, Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Odawa etc in my ongoing 1812 campaign. These tribes and...