Acheson Acquisitions

 

Back in May, Acheson Creations had a 20% off sale. Having anumber of new items that I had my eye on, this was a no brainer to take advantage of!

This is the Iroquois Village in 15 mm. The long house was so key to the identity of the Iroquois, that their own name for themselves, "Haudenosuanee", means "People of the Long House". Craig makes a 25 mm version as well, but that the buildings  much larger and much more expensive. That would be fine fora skirmish game, but I don't really do those. These are intended mostly for the planned Fall 2027 Campaign in a Day event based upon the Saratoga time frame of 1777. They don't look utof place with the 25 mm figures especially if you figure a stand is probably representing at least 50 to 100 men!

I'll need a fort or two for that event, and this should fit the bill admirably!

So much so that I bought enough for 2 (and the sections could easily be assembled to make a roughly double sized fort as well. AchesonCreations products have always been very good values (at least if you live in the US), but at 20% (and less shipping proportionately for a large order), it was a VERY good deal!  :-)

Craig has also been pumping outa bunch of Assyrian buildings, something you don't see much of. 

Side view of building #1

Assyrian building #2

and #3

Assyrian ceremonial bath with bas-relief

Assyrian steles and a free "ruins" Craig tossed in with the order. 

All the Assyrian pieces together. Along with all the Assyrian stuff I already have and have made, perhaps a pulp adventure set in an Assyrian archeological dig, or even a fantasy RPG set in Assyria come to mind as possible future project ideas! 

At the Gates of Nineveh - with To the Strongest! at Historicon 2025

I ran my "At the Gates of Nineveh" game on Friday afternoon, right after Jim's Grunwald game (more on that anon). 

Hittite players included David, Mark T., ? Robert and John M.; Assyrian players included Sam and Andy C., Mike, and ? John H.

The Hittites pressed forwards aggressively, making use of their numerous chariots!  Rules were To the Strongest... of course!

The walls of Nineveh(the towers counted as fortified camps). 

Close up of the Chariot Wars on the Assyrian Left. Green bead indicate Light Chariots, Red beads indicate Veteran Heavy Chariots. 

Each player had both an infantry and a Chariot command. 

Andy C. on the Assyrian right had bad card plays most of the game!

Hittite Chariot charges!

Situation on the ASssyrian Right. 

One of Andy C's Heavy Chariots takes on Hittite Camp and then threatens another!

Open flanks here and there. 

Overview, mid game. 

There's a lot of space on the Assyrian right, mostly due top the elimination of almost all of Andy's commands!

Situation at the end of the game; the Hittites have 5 Victory Medals left, but the loss of the 2nd camp could have put them down to 2. The Hittites sack the Assyrian Capitol!

Some clearer views of the walls of Nineveh back home.

More troops on the walls than there were for the game. :-)

The main gate

The panels are Nisroth, Assyrian god of farming and fertility, and the Assyrian Tree of Life. 

I forgot to put out two the Lamassu guarding the gates (Assyrian winged Bulls). 

View from one end...

and the other. 

Behind the walls 

I constructed and finished the walls in the three days prior to leaving for Historicon

A few more details to finish for the future!

"And his Chariots were gleaming in Purple and Gold"

With apologies to Lord Byron...

I needed some more 2 horse Assyrian chariots for the earlier years of the Empire.

These are from Old Glory, and fit the bill nicely!

Once again assembly issues arose. the triangular piece above the pole is clearly designed to go the other way around (pointing down), but it just didn't fit!

So, I just went with it as it did fit!

We saw the Purple, so here's the Gold!

I di glue on the extr quivers on the side of the cab. 

The reigns were once again made from painted dental tape. 

In To the Strongest terms, these would be more "Chariots" than Light Chariots or Heavy Chariots. 

I used epoxy to fix the crew into the cab - always a challenge!

Here's the third and last Chariot. 

If you are in the US, it's hard to beat the value of Old Glory!

Chariots are a pain, but they always look super on the tabletop!

Rebasing project for my 45 year old Minifigs Assyrian army underway; the chariots are staying on their original bases - way to difficult to re-do them! Also seen are some new Foundry Assyrians from Richard to add to the army; it seems unlikely that I will get to them until after Historicon!

Rebasing done - nothing fancy, green bases, green turf blend flocking. Have I mentioned that I hate rebasing? 

The Assyrians came in, like a Dog from the Cold...

Richard over at the My Wargaming Habit blog recently made an offer of some free Assyrian figures  to someone who might provide them a new home. I wound up accepting, and in addition to the free lead, Richard generously covered the substantial postage charges from the UK as well. The figures, expertly packed, arrived in record time. They included some 14 heavy spearmen with 4 copmmand figures as seen above, and...

and a a further 18 medium spearmen wearing conical helmets, and...

a further 12 spearmen, 10 of them bareheaded, plus the requisite shields. All in all, incredibly gernerous of Richard. Thanks again.  

I have a small amount of unpainted Assyrian lead on hand myself - three Old Glory 2-horse chariots

and six Newline Designs command figures

I have a much larger contingent of painted Assyrians already on hand. My Assyrian army is chiefly "new" Minifigs, plus Hinchliffe 4 Horse chariots, all painted back in the late 1970's while I was in Medical School. Those figures were primarily for our own gridded Ancient rules based upon the FGU rules, Legion!  Those rules, which I have termed Legio Quaternarius, were inspired by Charlie Sweet's own gridded Ancient rules, which were themselves my first introduction to Ancient wargaming. A unit in those rules is just 2 stands, so the figures were based and organized with that in mind. 

While I still enjoy those rules, for the past 10+ years, Simon Miller's excellent Ancient rules, To the Strongest, which are similarly gridded, have been my go to Ancient rules. While I could easily play with 2 stand units on a 3" grid (and have truly massive forces), my preferred set up is 6" boxes, and 4 stand units for most formed infantry. 

For some time, a low priority project has been to reorganize and rebase these troops to that standard, while also decreasing the heavy spear units to 3 figures on a 60 x 30 base instead of 4 figures on a 60 x 20 mm base. 

The plan would be to have 6 x 12 figure heavy spear units, 2 x Quaradu (Assyrian household/guard spearmen), and increase the heavy slingers to 2 units of 12, and  the heavy archers  to 4 units of 12, chiefly by the judicious addition of new command figures. My 2 existing Medium spear units of 18 figures would become 3 units of 12 each. The light infantry, all the cavalry and chariots would be unchanged. In addition to the core Minifigs troops, in recent years I have added some figures from the collection of the late Bill McHugh (mostly seen with the arid basing), and few additions from Eureka and Black Tree Designs ranges. Richard's figures, as already noted would add another heavy infantry spear and 3-4 Medium spear units. I may need to add a few more command figures to flesh out some of the units. I  plan to do more "arid" basing scheme for these troops, akin to that I have used for my Egyptians. Considering the size of the collection, I am seriously considering basing half of the troops in subtly different fashion, so that they could represent rival Assyrian factions or even a Babylonian army. 

Anyway, thanks again to Richard and his most gracious and very generous gift. Serious work on Project Assyria will likely not occur until after Historicon. I might even shop for a few packs of the necessary command figures in the Dealer's area while I am there in July!