Urnfield and Early Bronze Age North Europe Lists

[Piyan Glupak]

One of the pleasures of writing a set of army lists is to suffer a load of special pleading by owners of armies who are not especially knowledgeable about the subject(s) being pleaded about. Here goes...

I notice that the Early Bronze Age North Europe list ends in 1401 BC, and that the Urnfield Culture list starts in 1400 BC. Given that both lists covered a reasonably wide geographic area and the changes were not (as far as I am aware) linked to massive changes in population or sudden overthrow of a single state, would it please be possible to have an overlap in time (perhaps something like 20 to 100 years)? If I was really bold then I would also suggest listing them as possible enemies to represent more forward looking political entities having a bash at more conservative or less wealthy tribes.

[David Kuijt]

Seems reasonable.

For both cultures we are using a very broad brush, naturally. The shift from that of primarily bow users (EBANE) to primarily melee weapons (Urnfield) was not sudden or event-driven, so some overlap time-wise would allow for representation of interaction between coalitions of tribes where one side has made the shift and another has not. Maybe there should even be allies of the other type, which would allow some representation of the period where the shift in military technology was in process. That would be completely speculative (i.e., we have no data) but at first glance seems more reasonable than a sudden and complete shift across the whole region.

Should probably do the same thing for the transition between Urnfield Culture and Hallstat/La Tene too, I guess.

Gonna have to go back and do some reading on these guys to figure how best to expand the dates and allow some overlap.

[Piyan Glupak]

Thank you David. That would be great.

Under previous rule sets I used my Hallstat/LaTene army mainly against Illyrians and Gauls. With the Urnfield army now mainly Light Foot instead of '3Sp'/'Light Spear', the Urnfield vs Hallstat match-up might give a slightly longer and less predictable game.

[David Kuijt]

Okay, fixed. 46a (Early Bronze Age, which includes the Tumulus culture) now goes down to 1200, giving a 200 year overlap, and I started 46c Hallstat at 800 BC, giving a century overlap with the Urnfielders (46b). I didn't change the dates for Urnfield (except to make 701 BC into 700 BC as the end date out of a sense of fussiness). Both the previous and the subsequent cultures now have an enemy link with the Urnfielders.

If you spot any other enemies links in this Bronze Age North Europe set that are missing, please let me know, as the cultures are largely out of my wheelhouse and so it is quite likely that something might have fallen through the cracks.

Note when I say "fixed" I mean that the underlying data is now fixed -- you won't be able to see any change in Meshwesh until Jack propagates the change upward into the active database. That might be a little while, as he's still frantically working on getting the Allies going in the rules and in Meshwesh.

[Piyan Glupak]

Thanks again David. That is great.

I think that Meshwesh has all the enemies listed that were in the second version of the previous rules' lists. All their enemies seem to list them as enemies. I will check the Hallstat/La Tene army list soon because it is one of the next armies that I will be looking at.

I have just begun the process of working through my armies to plan conversion to Triumph!, in preparation for the start of the painting and basing season. The first gaming session with a live opponent will probably have to use 6mm troops. (My 6mm armies are triple sized.)

[David Kuijt]

I have just begun the process of working through my armies to plan conversion to Triumph!, in preparation for the start of the painting and basing season.

Wait -- there's a painting and basing season?!?

[Piyan Glupak]

The place where I like to paint and base figures is in an outbuilding with no heating, and several of the window panes missing. (I have thought about replacing the missing panes, but you sometimes get housemartins nesting there in the spring and summer.) It is very pleasant in warm weather, but not quite so comfortable when there is snow on the ground and daytime temperatures barely rise towards freezing point.

I can do a little bit inside the house, but it isn't convenient to have a lot going on for more than a short time.