Ancient Wargaming

Airfix Magazine Guide 9

Airfix Magazine Guide 9: Ancient Wargaming by Phil Barker.

Now any wargamer can lead a Roman legion into battle, ride to war on an elephant or chariot or relieve the siege of Troy. This book, written by expert wargamer Phil Barker, provides all the basic information required to amass anf fight intelligently with Greek hoplites, Roman legionaries, Parthian horse archers and many of the other colourful troops of the ancient world. It includes details on troop types, tactics and how to win battles using Wargames Research Group playing rules.

Contents

  • Title: Ancient Wargaming, Airfix Magazine Guide 9
  • Period: Antiquity
  • Author: Phil Barker
  • Format: 64-page hardcover
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge, England
  • Published: 1975

Chapters

Editor’s Introduction by Bruce Quarrie, 1 page

  1. Troop types, weapons and equipment, 12 pages
  2. Formations and drill, 3 pages
  3. Tactical precepts, 5 pages
  4. How ancient wargaming began, 3 pages
  5. The Wargames Research Group rules, 5 pages
  6. Choosing your army, 12 pages
  7. Raising an army, 7 pages
  8. Tactics on the wargames table, 10 pages
  9. Wargames campaigns, reconstructions and fantasy gaming, 2 pages

Bibliography, 1 page

Evaluation

Phil Barker offers a welcome introduction into Ancient Wargaming with miniatures. The book covers Egyptian, Assyrian, Achaemenid Persian, Greek, Seleucid, Carthaginian, Parthian, Ancient British, Roman, Sassanid Persian, Hunnic, and Byzantine armies, listing their troop types and point cost in WRG Ancient Wargaming Rules.

The chapter on raising an army covers the most important manufacturers of the 1970s, including Airfix and their Roman and Ancient Britons plastic figure sets. Phil Barker provides useful conversion ideas, using a heated needle for soldering plastic miniatures, and creating Roman cavalry by mounting Airfix Romans on Airfix US Cavalry horses. He is also among the first hobbyists to correctly point out that flexible soft plastic figures need to be painted with flexible artist acrylic paint.

Plastic figures are best painted with one of the water-based acrylic paints such as Rowneys, available from art shops. – Phil Barker (Ancient Wargaming, p. 48)

Phil Barker‘s insights into tactics on the wargames table are very helpful, focusing on the principles of war “Concentration” and “Maintenance of the Aim” as well as the tactical challenges associated with elephants, chariots, and Cantabrian circles, or light versus heavy cavalry on the ancient battlefield.

While this book does not actually contain any of Phil Barker‘s Ancient Wargaming Rules, these may be found in Donald Featherstone’s War Games.

Wargame Rules