A Mixed Bag of Goodies

Ancient galleys of all shapes and sizes at war over some five centuries. 

The back of the box

With the last flurry of activity in relation to the ongoing ‘churn and burn’ of my collection, I scored three items that have been on the acquisition list for a while. I can honestly say (said no wargamer ever!) that I am now at a convenient break point from all the ‘ducking and diving’ of recent months!

There are a couple of other items I have my eye on that have yet to be released but for now that is it.

First up is a board game I have been casting covetous eyes on for some time. War Galley is a tactical board game representing ancient naval warfare so lots of biremes, triremes and larger types feature with all the usual ‘ancient galley style shenanigans’ one would expect - oar rakes, the ‘Diekplus’, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Egyptians, Carthaginians and a whole pile of scenarios. This copy is unpunched and comes complete with the Salamis expansion set, several scenarios from magazines as well as the counters required to refight the naval battle from the film Ben Hur - “Row well and live!”

I still have all the material for my planned Salamis project - including a whole pile of MDF triremes. I have a feeling that using this board game may make the refight happen sooner rather than later - even if it does not it will still be a whole lot easier to set up.

Sagittarius Rising on the left (a Folio edition) and the outstanding work by Prof. Philip Sabin on ancient battles and how to game them.

The other two acquisitions are of the book variety. Sagittarius Rising covers the life of Cecil Lewis from 1915 to 1921 as a flyer and trainer of flyers. I read this in paperback a number of years ago so getting a cheap hardback Folio edition was a no brainer. Perfect inspiration for my ‘cardboard aircraft’ WW1 aerial project!

Lost Battles I have owned but but copy went missing some time ago and whilst a paperback edition was published this hardback edition came up at a very good price so again, it was too tempting to turn down. The book is essentially a toolkit to recreate ancient battles using a grid.

What’s not to like?

Very happy with all three of the above and at the time of writing I have one further acquisition that is currently en route from the US of A which will finish a particular project off. 

In the meantime though, back to DTPIW and also the flying bases and cardboard aircraft!