The Boys of Sumer

Pat Lowinger hosted another PNW Rampant event at the Gig Harbor library. We had a truncated day due to new library rules about how long anyone can book the meeting room for, but I still got in two games with my freshly-painted, you-can-still-smell-the-dullcote Sumerians that I painted for use with Pat's Chariots Rampant variant to the Lion Rampant rules by Dan Mersey.

The traffic was good driving down from formerly bucolic Lynnwood, WA. I made it in just over an hour and got there early enough to set up before our official 1:00 start time. The plan was to play two games with Scott Abbott; one a Chariots Rampant game against his Mycenaeans and the second being a Rebels and Patriots game with Jubal Tardee's company of butternut-clad Rebs against Scott's blue-clad 6th Wisconsin. Alas, Scott dropped the box containing his Lincolnite hirelings when he was loading it into his car, so we played two games of Chariots Rampant. We'll have to schedule a Rebels and Patriots game for some time later—after the repair work has been done.

I set up the table using my 'desert mat,' which is a piece of flannel with a tan tie-dye pattern that I got at Jo-Ann's fabrics, along with a few old Games Workshop 'desert' rocky hills, some lichen, and a small pond that served as the oasis whose possession was the victory condition for our games. Water is dear in the desert.

Scott's force was the following:

     2 x Light Chariots + expert drivers + bow-armed (like Mounted Yeomen in LR)
     3 x Spearmen (like Foot Sergeants in LR, but no schiltron)

My force comprised the following:

     1 x Heavy Chariots (like Mounted Men at Arms in LR, but can shoot javelins 6")
     2 x Spearmen (see above)
     1 x Archers (same as in LR)
     3 x Skirmishers (like Bidowers in LR)

I designed to force to be shooty with just a we bit of punch (and quite wee it was). I could also have replaced two Skirmisher units with a light chariot and chariot runners. In hindsight, I ought to have done so for the second game just to see how the rule works.

Deployment

Scott's lack of missile troops, apart from his Light Chariots, was decisive. I was able to sit back and let him smack into my Spearmen while the Archers and Skirmishers pelted him with arrows, javelins, and slingstones.

My one foray into aggressive behavior in the first game was when I sent my Heavy Chariots, led by my general, against one of Scott's light chariot units. That got me stuck in a beehive. Scott kept bashing into me with his Spearmen. I managed to bounce most of the attacks and pass the morale checks and dodge the lucky blows, but I kept taking losses unit I had just one hit left before they went. I kept trying to move him back to safety, but several turns running he kept failing his move activation. Finally, Scott got one more blow at him and he was gone.

Leading with my chin

However, Scott lost his general just before that. He'd been smacking away at my poor Archers, which had always managed to pass morale and thus managed to survive the game, albeit much abused. I managed to inflict a bit of harm on his General's unit with every attack, but it took getting caught after trying to evade my Spearmen that did him in.

Attacked by Spearmen

Going...

Almost gone...

The Heavy Chariots were the only unit I lost, however. Even the poor Archers came through. My Spearmen were pretty beaten up as well. The Skirmishers kept to the difficult terrain for the most part and escaped punishment. Scott was aggressive, but not so much that he'd send his Light Chariots into the rough to get at me.

Mycenaean last hurrah

In the end, Scott lost all his units and my Sumerians were able to quench their thirst in the oasis' cool waters.

The end of game 1: Miller time for Sumer

The second game went similar to the first. I was more cautious with my general and his donkey carts. He never got into action at any point in the game. Heavy Chariots are tough (like mounted men-at-arms), but brittle. I thought that keeping him back directing things and giving his +1 to my morale checks was a better use than getting him beat up by a bunch of proto-Greeks.

The bowmen take position in the oasis

My general mastering masterly inaction

Hard pressed on my right

 One big factor in the second game was my skirmishers up on two rocky hills (rough terrain) from which they could shoot at Scott's units with impunity.

It was great to finally get my Sumerians in action—as well as finally finishing them. I started them some time in 2018, but they sat partially completed until just last week when I could pull myself away from the 1672 project long enough to get the last bit done.

Pat is running a dedicated Chariots Rampant game day in March and next month we have a dedicated Dark Ages Lion Rampant variant day. This may be the occasion to work myself into putting together my 20+ year old Old Glory Picts into a proper LR retinue.

Sumer-time and the paintin' is easy

Sumer? Yes, Sumer, I Akkad you not. I may be rash, mercurial—even mistaken—but to Ur is human and the urge to Ur is upon me. As with many serendipitous projects, the moment has met the man and I'm going full speed ahead. Sæpe erro, nunquam dubito!

I blame Ernie Calvillo for this sudden development. (The cats are innocent—this time.) He posted on the Lion Rampant Facebook Group about the Sumerians he was painting, and that got me all worked up.

Ernie's Sumerians

I've been a fan of Sumerians for pretty much ever. Yet in all that time, the only Sumerian minis I've painted were for a 15mm DBA army (Essex Miniatures), since sold. I'd wanted to do a 28mm army for a while, but I never had a feel for the right minis to use. Wargames Foundry started a range years ago. I love their minis. The range looked promising, but they abandoned it. It was unavailable for a long time and is now available again. However, it's a very limited, unfinished range and there's no chariots; in fact, it's just spearmen and javelinmen.

Cutting Edge (Warlord) makes Sumerians, but I can't bring myself to use that range. I bought some Middle Bronze Age Amorites (think Mari) from them a few years ago. I was pretty eager when I orderd, but then very disappointed by the minis when the order arrived. They're beautiful and have a lot of nice detail—but they're so wee! Compared to other 28mm ranges, they're like skinny children. I like chunk. Cutting Edge minis have no chunk at all.

Newline (L) and Cutting Edge (R)

I'd seen a few other ranges, such as Eureka Miniatures and Castaway Arts from Down Under, but I hung back. I didn't want to make a move without first seeing the minis or at least seeing better pictures of them.

Finally, I just wasn't sure of what I would do with a lot of Sumerians after I'd painted them. I love Ancients, but the state of that part of the hobby seemed to be in a doldrums, at least to me. But now I know: I'll use 'em for Pat Lowinger's Chariots Rampant variant for Lion Rampant (Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy, Issue 82).

Ernie and I gamed together back in San Jose, CA 30+ years ago. He's now in San Antonio, TX and I'm in here in Beautiful, Formerly-Bucolic Lynnwood, WA. Ernie has always been an excellent—and prolific—painter.  He's also always had an eye for good minis. When I saw the pics in his post, I asked who made them. He told me that they were Newline Designs and that for July they were 20% off their normally reasonable price of a bit more than £1.00 per figure. In my head the voices screamed, "BUY NOW!" What could I do? I bought now and for a ridiculously low price, I got more than enough minis for a Chariots Rampant army—with options! Now I have an unexpected summer Sumer project on my hands.

So, why Sumerians?

Well, because they're cool. They're one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. So old they're just on the cusp of being prehistoric—and I like prehistoric things (see my love for prehistorical Europe) as I love all that is old and arcane. I strive every day to be older and arcaner myself.

Sumerian soldiers wear sheepskin skirts and go barefoot; they're like The Flintstones with ziggurats. They used four-wheeled, shambling proto-chariots drawn by "equids," i.e., not quite horses. They fought in phalanxes 2000+ years before the Greeks figured it out. They wore shiny copper helmets and fearsome, metal-studded capes long before Batman made wearing capes cool.

Caped Crusaders - 3rd Millennium BC

Sumerians invented writing, art, literature, and law. (They also invented government bureaucracy, so it's not all good.) They invented the cat—no, seriously, see this. They invented cities. They had ginormous eyes.

They invented sexagesimal mathematics, which we still use to calculate time, angles, and compass points. They invented the sail (maybe) and the wheel (also maybe—at least it wasn't that guy from the B.C. comic strip). They created the first armies and also produced the first records of how soldiers looked (ca. 2500 BC) on the Standard of Ur and the Stele of the Vultures.

Standard of Ur

Stele of the Vultures - detail

So, yeah, Sumerians are cool.

They're also easy to paint. Prehistoric, and nearly prehistoric, people dressed simpler than we do, and we dress simpler than people in the past. Try painting early 18th c. British regulars to see what I mean. But I digress.

The sheepskin, capes, and shiny helmets I mentioned above are about all the costume the Sumerian soldiers had. Only bare-nekkid Celts could be simpler—and they have those elaborate shield patterns to muck up the whole simplicity groove thing.

Sans spear, axe, cape, helmet, and shield he'd pass as Cro-Magnon

I ordered from Newline in two batches. After my initial order, I convinced myself that I needed more and made a wee supplemental order. The second smaller order came on Wednesday. It contained more of the infantry I ordered (spearmen, slingers, javelinmen, command), but also three straddle carts. The straddle cart seems to have been developed a bit later than the better known four-wheeled battle car. I haven't seen any actual Sumerian art depicting them. Yigael Yadin doesn't address them in The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, but The Two Nigels show them in Armies of the Ancient Near East 3,000 BC to 539 BC. I had one in the first order, so I have four. I'm not really sure I wanted four.

Straddle this x4

I cleaned up several minis right away. The flash is minimal and the metal is softish (not rock-hard pewter), so cleaning was pretty easy. I replaced the cast lead spears/javelins with Northstar wire spears. I love those things. I must have bought a thousand of them.

Bronze Age warriors with brass spears

At this point, the first order hasn't arrived. International postal service isn't a science. I expect it'll come this week. Meanwhile, I've started painting what I have. So far, it's just the skin tone. I used Vallejo Medium Flesh. They look suitably Sumerian to me. There's not much else to paint for the most of them. They either wear a fringed kilt or some kind of sheepskin. It won't take much time.

I have a lot on my plate right now, but I hope to get a few units of these banged out this month and the rest in September. Then it's time for another Rampant game day.