Sumer of '69

It was the Sumer summer of 2569 BCE, that is.  Thanks to Ray for the catchy post title!  Last week, four of Postie's Rejects gathered for a remote game on the plains of Sumeria to test their hands at running battle cars (I use "chariot" synonymously).  Attendees were Ray and Steve commanding the Blue Army while Richard and Lee took command of the Red Army.  Army and player dispositions illustrated in the map below:

This Reject foursome has seen action fighting with chariots in an earlier Egypt vs Hittite clash but this would be their first attempt at running the bulkier Sumerian battle cars.

Let's see how they got on in driving battle cars.

As the battle opens, both armies move forward to close the distance with the enemy.  Skirmishing erupts all along the battle line as skirmishers attack and then fall back.  Lee moves up his massed archers to bring the enemy under fire.  After softening them up, Lee crashes into one of the skirmishers who cannot evade.  Ray's skirmisher is dispatched but Lee fails to pursue.  Or did Lee choose not to pursue into the waiting enemy battle line? 

Battle lines close...

as skirmishing begins.

Lee moves the Left Wing forward...

and prepares an attack.

Ray's skirmishers scatter in the face of heavy infantry.

On the other wing, with enemy skirmishers cleared from his front, Steve sends his battle car in against Red Army's Right.  This is a bold move since both archers get a chance at defensive fire before the chariot closes.  Both bodies of massed bowmen let loose their arrows.  Little damage is done but the chariot is disordered on the approach.  In the clash, the missile fire must have made the difference.  Richard's bowmen stand firm and the chariot is driven off in retreat.  

As Steve's chariot veers to the left, Richard brings forward his battle car.  Richard engages Steve in a chariot-on-chariot clash.  Richard comes out the better as Steve's car continues its retreat.     

Steve attacks!

The enemy stands strong.  Steve is forced to retreat.

Richard opts to pursue.  Without having the maneuverability to turn about to follow the retreating chariot, Richard's chariot plunges ahead.  Straight into enemy archers!  Surprised at seeing an enemy battle car bearing down upon them, the archers put up a stiff, nonetheless.  Still, after a protracted battle, the archers are scattered.  Richard pursues again but fails to reach the enemy's second battle line.

Richard pursues...

cutting through the enemy's first line.

Seeing the carnage to his left, Steve, pushes his large spear block forward to engage the enemy and, perhaps, steady the ship.  Steve's spear block crashes into Richard's spear block.  In the initial contact, Steve manages an impressive number of hits to which Richard responds by scoring no hits and then failing his Cohesion Test.  Richard's back rank is destroyed.  What remains retreats.  Steve pursues.  Steve's spear catches the retreating spear and again send them packing.  Even Richard's archers offering some support reel back!  Steve continues his pursuit as he catches Richard's skirmishers in the open.  They are dispatched.  Steve stops there, probably exhausted.  The line joining Richard and Lee's commands is severed.

Steve's spear block attacks...

and attacks...

and attacks!

Perhaps over-extending the pursuit in all of the excitement, Steve's spear block is taken by surprise when Red Lugal's chariot turns about and strikes these spearmen from the rear.  Well, being hit from the rear is no good and Steve's spear rout away.  That score has been settled!

Revenge!

With the center outcome settled for now, focus shifts to the Red Army's Left Flank.  Lee starts off the action by sending his chariot in against Ray's spear block.  Not surprisingly, Lee's attack is repulsed as Ray's spear stand firm.  Lee's chariot veers off to the left heading back to his own line.  As a counterpunch, Ray sends his chariot forward against Lee's spear block.  Ray's result is much different!  Ray overpowers Lee's spear block and sends it back in retreat.  Ray continues on, trampling the spearmen as they run. 

Ray and Lee's battle cars in action.

Seeing the collapse of his spear block, Lee wheels his chariot around to take up the chase on Ray's chariot rampaging in the Red Army's rear.  Making the turn around his own bowmen, Lee catches Ray in the flank.  Nice maneuver!  Ray may never have seen this coming.  In the clash, Ray loses the melee and is forced to retreat.  He routs!  With the enemy chariot dispatched, Richard and Lee's routing spearmen may have a chance to rally.

Ray's chariot caught in flank!

Red Army survivors can breathe a bit easier.

At this point in the battle, both armies have seen significant casualties.  Both armies teeter on the breaking point.  The next army to suffer loss would likely be pushed over the brink to destruction.

In the time-honored tradition of mythic heroes, the two Lugals wheel about to face each other and decide the issue once and for all.  In the crash of chariots, Blue Lugal gains the upper hand and Red Lugal is forced to veer away in retreat.  While Red Lugal avoids destruction, his retreat opens a line of sight to Richard's routing spearmen.  Ray pursues and catches the spearmen in the rear.  It is all over 'cept the crying. 

Clash of Titans!

Red Lugal veers off...

opening a path to destruction!

Victory to the Blue Army with Ray and Steve leading the way!

The battle really came down to the last combat (and nearly the last die roll) in a fitting fashion.  That is, with the two Lugals facing-off in singlehanded combat.  Richard and Lee fought hard throughout with victory up for grabs until the very last.  

Very exciting clash and very fun to watch unfold.  There was much laughter and good-natured ribbing along the way. 

Fantastic session, guys!  Thank you!

After three Sumerian games, time to switch periods.  Next time, expect to see action set during the Spanish Reconquista.

Spanish Infantry: Burgos and Espana

The recent spate of record-breaking heat has forced a modest time shift in daily activities. Each morning, I am out on the bike before the temperatures rise to uncomfortable and sometimes dangerously exhausting levels.  Same situation arises for yardwork.  Even with the early morning routines, the efforts and heat tend to bring on fatigue.  Often I end up spending some of the remaining afternoon in recovery and rehydration mode.  What is the rule of cycling recovery?  Don’t run when you can walk.  Don't walk when you can stand.  Don’t stand when you can sit.  Don’t sit when you can recline.  I want to get back downstairs to the game room where it is cool and put some time in at the painting desk but motivation slips away as I am simply exhausted.  More often than not, reading or computer work in the line of fire of a fan takes the place of painting.  Much of the week will see triple digits on the thermometer.

Despite these excuses, work progresses on the hobby front with the mustering out of two, 23-figure Spanish regiments of foot for the 18mm SYW/WAS project.  Regiments marching out today are Burgos (red facings) and Espana (green facings).  Figures are Old Glory foot led by Eureka mounted colonels.  Flags are by David from Not by Appointment.

Gaming continues even though the Dog Days of summer approach.  Last week saw the Rejects take to the field in a remote Sumerian clash.  That battle report still awaits chronicling.  I need to brush up on my cuneiform translation skills to get the details of the battle correct.  This week sees two or maybe even three battles on the docket.  The two confirmed games fall both on Thursday.  I may regret double booking myself by Thursday's close.  Luckily, I am only hosting one of the games.

Below is a teaser from the Rejects' Sumerian battle.  What is the caption for this photo?

More 15/18mm figures are in work at the painting desk including the start on a FPW Prussian Army.  I know.  I have been pondering this for a few years now and finally pulled the trigger.  Will it last?  Stay tuned.

Finally, I really appreciate the interest and feedback on the GWS Least Liked post.  The post has received a lot of great responses.  Thank you!  With such encouragement, I may next test the waters with a similar analysis on the Most Liked wargaming aspects.  

What Do You Like Least About Miniatures Wargaming?

One question in WSS' 2023 Great Wargaming Survey asked, 

What do you like least about miniatures wargaming?

Well, this is a loaded question if I ever saw one!  In this case, the question was open-ended meaning respondents could enter whatever was on their mind.  Some did! 

Given that the responses were free text with about a 2100 character limit, responses could be quite long and detailed.  Out of the total number of survey responses, 7,278 entries had text in this field.  A sample snippet of these responses is illustrated below:

As seen from the text snippet, anything goes.

How can we bring order and meaning out of these unstructured texts?  For that, we turn to text analytics including cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA).  Without going into details of the machine learning techniques, simply understand that it is a data reduction method that summarizes large quantities of text data into fewer clusters and principal components.  The results are then wrangled to present (hopefully) interpretable graphics.

To begin, each text response is parsed and tokenized to create words.  For example, the highlighted line, below, can be parsed into the following word tokens.  That is, 

"people" "who" "are" "too" "pedanttic" "about" "details".

Preprocessing requires a number of text transformations (including correcting spelling errors) to get the tokens into a standard and more usable form.  In addition, synonyms are used to group similar tokens.  After tokenization and preprocessing, 4,918 unique tokens (words) resulted from over 36 million token combinations.  The result is a large dataset with useful inferences likely obscured by such a large sample space.

To begin data reduction, records having near-zero variance are removed.  After that reduction, only a manageable number of tokens are retained.  Some ambiguous tokens are, likewise, removed.  After the data reduction is complete, only eight tokens remain.  These remaining tokens are:

• rules_lawyer
• painting
• people
• time
• cost
• competition
• find
• miniatures

Already, I reckon these eight tokens tell an interesting story.

Using cluster analysis, these eight tokens are grouped to produce the dendrogram shown below:

Interesting!

Looking at a two-cluster solution,

the resulting clusters are "rules_lawyer" and everything else.  Rules lawyers seem to find themselves high on the "Do not like" list and separate and distinct from all other tokens in a two-cluster solution.  Into the rules_lawyer category, I dumped discussions of rules, themselves, including complexity, ambiguity, arguments, etc..  A four-cluster solution looks like,

with the four clusters as, (1) rules_lawyer, (2) painting, (3) people, and (4) time/cost/competition/find/miniatures.  After rules lawyers, respondents tend to dislike painting followed by people(!) and then the remaining effort constraints.  The "find" and "miniatures" tokens require some explanation.  Into the "find" grouping were lumped discussions on finding opponents, rules, figures, places and time to play, and money to fund the hobby.  Into the "miniatures" grouping were included discussions on painting, storing, assembling, price and quality.

Turning to PCA (and without going into details), the PCA Variable plot below illustrates the loadings of each of the eight variables in 2D space.  Color and length of each vector denotes its contribution to the PCA analysis.

One of the useful traits of PCA analysis when displayed as a graphic is that inferences are easier to understand.  While only two of the dimensional plots are illustrated here, both of these dimensions lend themselves to interpretation.

Looking at Dim1, the graphic suggests that the dislikes are bifurcated into two groups.  These two groups are "People" related attributes and "Effort" related attributes.

Similarly, looking at Dim2, the graphic suggests that the dislikes are again bifurcated into two groups.  Those two groups are "Cost" and then everything else.

First, I find the results amazing in that a 36 million cell tokenized matrix can be distilled down to meaningful inferences.  Second, I find the results surprising in that rules lawyers and gamers, themselves, rise out of the murk to irritate many.  I suppose that I should not be that surprised.  I once had a wargaming friend (I still consider him a friend!) who confidently stated that the hobby would be great if it were not for the people!

Do these Top 8 wargaming dislikes reflect your own hobby dislikes?  Does a rules lawyer stand alone at the top of your wargaming dislike ranking?  If not, what do you like least about the miniature wargaming hobby?

The survey also asks a parallel question only in this question, respondents are asked what they like most about miniatures wargaming.  I may look into that topic another time. 

The Turkish Problem and the Cold War

In mid-May, I received an email from Richard L. asking if I would be interested in participating in a multi-player, map-based strategy Zoom game.  Richard would share none of the details beyond saying that there would be six strategic commanders, four ground commanders, and two umpires.  The game would be played on 07 July with an 0600 start time for me on the West Coast.  Richard knows I am an early riser so thought the early start would be no problem.  He was right and I happily accepted the invitation.

On the day of the scheduled game and about an hour before start time, the six remote players received briefing packets describing the situation and their roles in the exercise.  The incident to be gamed was the 1974 Greco-Turkish crisis when a Greek junta-sponsored coup was launched by the Cypriot National Guard.  The goal was to depose Archbishop Makarios III (President of Cyprus) and place Nikos Sampson in his place.

The six Strategic Commanders (Remote Players) would assume the roles of:

• General Phaedon Gizikis, President of Greece
• Jim Callaghan, UK Foreign Secretary
• Archbishop Makarios III, President of Cyprus
• Bülent Ecevit, Prime Minister of Turkey
• Andrei Gromyko, USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State

In the room there are four Ground Commanders playing:

• Nikos Sampson, Greek Appointed Commander
• Air Marshal Sir John Aiken, British and NATO Commander
• Lt. General Dewan Prem Chand, UN and other Commander
• Lt. General Nurettin Ersin, Turkish Commander

Being the token American in the group, Richard assigned me the role of Henry Kissinger.

Each of the remote players had objectives to attain, the main goal for the USA and USSR was to prevent the situation from escalating into a Hot War while backing the “correct” government.

While the remote players could see the Cyprus map with troops moving around, we could not hear any of the table discussions as dice were rolled, units were picked up and removed, and new units added onto the board.  For the Strategic Commanders it was a bit of a tense guessing game as dispatches flew in Zoom Chat.

Who could be trusted and who was telling the truth?

After overseeing each turn on the operational map, Richard would return to interview one of the Strategic Commanders and provide news and updates.  During the crisis, Richard Nixon was impeached and resigned from office.  Kissinger (me!) was hauled before a Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs to answer questions about what I knew and when did I know it.  In the end, Kissinger kept his position and stayed on under the newly appointed President Gerald Ford.  Whew!

Much of our simulation followed the historical events quite closely.  Uncannily so in many situations and quite surprising.  In the end, the UN deployed troops on the ground to separate the Greeks from the Turks, British nationals were successfully evacuated, the island was partitioned, and order restored.  The USA and USSR did not intervene directly but the USA's reluctance to intervene on behalf of Greece gave the Greek government grist for withdrawing from NATO.

Very interesting game and situation in which Richard handled seamlessly throughout.  With no time to prepare and information coming in as if through a fire hose, the Strategic Commanders were forced to think quickly and live with those decisions.  Under a constant barrage of questions from the press, other governments, and the US Senate Committee, decisions were made without fully understanding the real situation down on the ground.  Immersive game.   

Hats off to Richard for organizing and pulling off such an ambitious endeavor.  Well done and really good fun.  Still in awe of his organizational skills.  Not something I have ever experienced at the wargaming table and something I would enjoy tackling again.  

Still Sumer Time!

Back to the Sumerian battlefield once again.  In this encounter, the same armies face off as in the earlier clash (Sumer Time) but this time, with a whole new cast of four players.  In today's fight, fought 02 July, Mark and Chris take command of the Blue Army (blue and black dice) while David and Tony pick up the reins to the Red Army (red and green dice).  Player commands are distributed as shown on the battle map below:

Army and Player dispositions

Let's drop right into the action to see how Tuesday's battle unfolded.

As the battle opens, both armies advance to close the distance to bring themselves within missile range.  With skirmishers screening both battle lines, missile fire is ineffective.  Tony leads his red battle car up on the right plugging the gap between his bowmen while David holds back both green and lugal battle cars.  Dust cloud trailing Tony's car shows that it is in motion.  Both armies anchor their lines upon the rocks on one flank and the oasis on the other.

Battle lines close.

Red battle car moves smartly up on the right.

With flanks secure, the battle begins!

Tony gets the battle rocking as he drives his car into the enemy line.  Mark lets loose a volley of arrows as the car closes but missile fire is ineffective.  The battle car reaches the enemy line but the bowmen, with limited support from friendly skirmishers, manage to drive the battle car off in disorder.  Oh my!  Tony's car veers off to return back from whence it began.  The difference this time is Tony exposes a rear to the enemy!

Tony tests the waters...

and finds the going too hazardous.

With his battle car now in motion, Chris launches his blue battle car into the enemy line.  The skirmishers in his path are overrun.  Chris continues in pursuit.  The car's pursuit carries Chris into a position similar to Tony's earlier exploits.  Chris faces massed archers and skirmishers blocking his path to the enemy's rear.  Like we saw with Tony's attack and repulse a few minutes before, Chris' battle car is driven off.  The car clumsily veers off to the right.

Chris attacks with the blue battle car!

Pursuit carries Chris into the enemy line.

Realizing his battle car can get into trouble more quickly than it can get out of it, Chris finds himself in a jam.  Unable to quickly extricate himself from this tight spot, the enemy lends a helping hand.  David brings up his green battle car striking Chris' car in the flank.  Disordered by the impact from his flank, the fight is uneven.  David dispatches Chris' car but fails to pursue.

Counterattack!

Chris' pursuit stopped cold.

With his battle car gone, Chris turns his attention to getting his heavy infantry into the fight.  He sets them in motion toward the enemy line.  The heavy shielded spearmen face a volley of arrows as they close.  Disordered and taking hits from the missile fire, the heavies march on into the enemy line.  Disregarding losses and disorder, Chris' heavy infantry push the enemy aside.  Some break and run.  Chris' heavies continue their pursuit into the enemy's center.  Has the blue spear block outmarched its support?  

Spearmen attack...

and the enemy recoils!

Chris' spearmen are in hot pursuit!

While earlier regretting his decision to attack into the enemy line with his battle car, Tony reconsiders that decision when he sees Chris' spear block dead ahead.  Coming in on the flank, Tony makes an attack.  Again, the defenders drive Tony away!  Tony!  

Tony attacks!

Chris' spear block is not out of danger yet.  David brings up his car to make his attack.  He sees more success than Tony experienced moments before. The clash causes the spearmen to lose half their number.  The remnants of Chris' heavy infantry are driven back.  David pursues!  At this point in the battle, it looks like the Red Army has gained the upper hand.  While the battle rages to his right, what are Mark and his wing doing?  They are advancing methodically up through the palms to bring Tony's right under pressure.  

David crashes into the spear block...

and pursues the vanquished...

as the enemy is driven back.

Mark stealthily moves up through the palms.

With Chris' spearmen falling back, the Blue Lugal moves up to plug the gap and take on the enemy car.  David's car loses the exchange and veers off in retreat.  Blue Lugal pursues.  The Lugal's pursuit carries into the path of Tony's battle car.  Hit from behind, Tony does not have much of a chance.  His car routs away with Chris in pursuit.  Cutting a wide swath through the enemy's battle line, Chris and his Lugal pursue deep into the enemy's rear, scattering skirmishers as he goes.  Blue Army's deep penetration into the enemy has split Red Army's line.  These vigorous actions bring the two Army Breakpoint clocks back into balance.  The problem for both armies now is that both teeter near the breaking point.

Blue Lugal counterattacks!

Tony's car is destroyed as Chris' Lugal rampages on.

Tony caught from behind!

Breaking through, the enemy backfield is open.

The Red Army's battle line is split!

Sensing the time is right, Mark brings his heavy spear block forward to engage the enemy.  In the melee, Tony's spear block is cut down to half size.  The loss of those men is just enough to break the Red Army.  Victory to Chris, Mark, and the Blue Army! 

Mark delivers the coup de grace!

What a bloody and very exciting battle!

While this was the first game for these fellas to try their hands at running battle cars and Sumerian armies, tactics evolved as the battle wore on.  I reckon they all have a much better idea of how to handle these unwieldy cars when we next return to this period.     

Again, the battle saw much ebb and flow throughout with victory only settled with Mark's final attack in a spear-on-spear fight to the death.  Watching the players jockey for position while bringing their battle cars into the fight was tremendous fun.  Attempting to extricate the cars from harm was even more fun to watch.  Play was fast and furious with the contest lasting about two-and-a-half hours.

My condolences to David and Tony in defeat but, really, everyone played an excellent game. 

Good fun and thank you!

Picking Up the Pace

Painting output picked up in June finding me now ahead of my painting goal of 750 figures established back in January.  With June counts formally entered into the Painting Log, YTD counts stand at 470 figures painted.  These counts show 386 foot, 68 horse, and 4 chariots.  Good to be ahead of schedule.  Can I maintain this pace through the summer months?  Well, we will see.  Mileage on the bike has been ramping up as temperatures rise.  It will be a hot one this holiday weekend as highs are expected to hit and possibly exceed 100F by early next week.  That's hot!

In the quiet coolness of the morning, four regiments of 10mm ACW Confederate infantry muster out from the painting desk.  A small addition in size but a big addition for the annual count.  Figures are Old Glory.  I do not enjoy painting these little 10s as much as I once did but I do enjoy the mass effect of these little guys on the gaming table.  Still quite a lot more of these figures in The Lead Pile.  I picked up a bagful of 10mm ACW Blaze Away cavalry in Lancaster Games' year end sale.  These little fellas are really impressive sculpts and make Old Glory figures look shabby in comparison.  I look forward to putting a few of these fine figures into the painting queue at some point.

Tuesday witnessed another rip-roaring Sumerian battle fought out in a four-player remote game.  The game featured great fun and high drama in great company.  Perhaps I can scrape a report together over the weekend?  Until that time, below is a teaser highlighting some of the action.  In this case, we see one battle car crashing into the flank of the enemy's battle car.   

Finally, another photo of Spokane Falls as I passed through downtown on a recent bike ride.  The photo looks toward the Lower Falls with the Monroe Street Bridge spanning the gorge.  As soon as the temperatures rise a bit more this morning, I will be heading out for another spin.