First Assyrian Cavalry

10mm figures from Newline Designs

I've Started ... But I Won't Finish 6

Mostly 25mm Miniature Figurines

I've Started ... But I Won't Finish 5

6mm Heroics

I've Started ... But I Won't Finish 4

30mm Spencer Smiths

I've Started ... But I Won't Finish 3

15mm Miniature Figurines, and some odds and ends

I've Started ... But I Won't Finish 2

25mm Miniature Figurines

I've Started ... But I Won't Finish

GOING through boxes in my old bedroom at my parents' house, I came across the remains of many an uncompleted wargaming project, some of them going back more than 50 years.

Airfix WW1 Germans, 'converted' (spikes cut off pickelhaubes) and painted as Victorian British soldiers, and as Royal Navy reserve

Second Batch of Assyrian Infantry

Another mixed unit of spearmen and archers - 10mm figures from Newline Designs

North Men

ONE of my best recent charity-shop finds is The Men Of The North, which I bought from Oxfam at Greenwich in November for £4.99.

The subtitle, The Britons Of Southern Scotland, gives a better clue as to the subject.

As most people know, before the arrival of Angles, Jutes, Saxons, etc in what was to become England, most of Britain was occupied by people whose descendants were to be restricted by the Germanic immigrants to Wales and Cornwall.

But what is less well-known is that as well as in Wales and Cornwall, there were petty kingdoms of the 'Welsh' in what is now northwest England and southwest Scotland.

These are The Men Of The North, to be differentiated from the other men of the north in those days, namely the Picts and, in increasing numbers from Ireland, the Scots.

As Tim Clarkson shows in his book, the picture was complicated, the sources are limited and not always reliable, and the archaeological evidence is by no means conclusive.

I knew about the Ancient Britons, as the Celtic tribes are often called, and their kingdom of Strathclyde.

But I really knew very little, and I did not know how intricate the various alliances were, and indeed that there were many petty realms I had never heard of, let alone studied.

I was also not aware, or at least not as aware as I should have been, that much of the fighting was not ethnic - Britons also fought Britons, Scots fought Scots, and proto-English fought proto-English.

Great read

The book has inspired me to hunt down and buy a copy of the famous boardgame Britannia.

I can hardly wait to watch history unfold on my tabletop.

Summing Up Four Go To War

TOWARDS the end it looked like being a nail-biting finish between Richard's Romans and Andy's Persians, but the former were plagued by late revolts, while Andy was able to take advantage of Macedonian weakness to first reach the Mediterranean, and then capture double-scoring AEGYPTUS.

Here are the updated standings (four points for a win, three for coming second, etc).

ANDY
Game One: 4pts (Macedonians)
Game Two: 3.5pts (Persians/Parthians)
Game Three: 3pts (Romans)
Game Four: 2.5pts (Carthaginians)

Game Five: 2pts (Romans)

Game Six: 4pts (Persians)
Total: 19pts

ME

Game One: 3pts (Carthaginians)
Game Two: 3.5pts (Romans)
Game Three: 4pts (Persians)
Game Four: 1pt (Macedonians)

Game Five: 4pts (Persians/Parthians)

Game Six: 2pts (Carthaginians)
Total: 17.5pts

REGULAR OPPONENT
Game One: 1pt (Persians/Parthians)
Game Two: 2pts (Carthaginians)
Game Three: 1pt (Macedonians)
Game Four: 4pts (Romans)

Game Five: 3pts (Carthaginians)

Game Six: 1pt (Macedonians)
Total: 12pts

RICHARD JOHNSON
Game One: 2pts (Romans)
Game Two: 1pt (Macedonians)
Game Three: 2pts (Carthaginians)
Game Four: 2.5pts (Persians/Parthians)

Game Five: 1pt (Macedonians)

Game Six: 3pts (Romans)
Total: 11.5pts

SCORES BY PEOPLES
Persians/Parthians: 19pts

Romans: 17.5pts
Carthaginians: 14.5pts
Macedonians: 9pts

The main points:

*Andy has regained the lead..

*Both my outright wins have come in command of the Persians/Parthians, including game three where Parthia never fell and so my people were Persians throughout.

*Richard's second place in game six is his best score..

*Looking at the peoples' stats, the Persians/Parthians have scored more than twice as many points as the Macedonians.

*Only the Carthaginians have failed to win a game.