Sumerians and Dinotanks

I've been fascinated for years with ancient history...no, not those Johnny-Come-lately Romans and Greeks, really ancient history- The dawn of civilization, the first cities and city states, the first written records, the agricultural revolution, the oldest stories that we know of and inevitably, the first wars.  I am of course referring to the Sumerians!

And there just so happens to be some lovely figures available for the Sumerians, and after reading the Epic of Gilgamesh, how could I not want to put together the army of  the city state of Uruk, with Gilgamesh and Enkidu at its head...

 Gilgamesh and Enkidu lead the Men of Uruk into battle.  These two are from Eureka.  Most of the infantry is from Wargames foundry, though there is a couple of Newline Designs figures in there.

 These young ladies are from Foundry's Amazon range with a few modifications- they had sumerian style kilts greenstuffed on in my usual skilless way, and the incense burner thingy was replaced with Snake, which I thought was a bit more appropriate.  The Eureka Humbaba is skulking at the back...

 The infantry consists of 12 Javelin men, 12 Slingers (converted from spare javelinmen) and 36 Spearmen.

For the Spearmen I um'ed and ah'ed for a while on how to paint their cloaks. There are two schools of thought about these- some say they are simply cloaks made from the skins of some sort of spotted animal, probably a big cat. Other reckon its more like a form of composite armour, with a fabric cloak covered in metal presumably copper or bronze studs or plates sown in. After scrutinizing the Standard of Ur (a part of which is shown below) I decided that the catskin cloak option was the most likely, though I am aware that someone found some copper studs from the period I think I'm correct in saying nobody has demonstrated they were part of any kind of armour.

When you look at the whole of the Standard of Ur you can see its creator has been pretty consistent with colour- copper or bronze weapons are all shown in a light colour, but the spots on the cloaks are black...so, as much as I like the idea behind the copper studded cloak, I can't agree that it is the correct interpretation.

I've arranged the army units of 12 as I expect it'll see most use with the Dragon Rampant rules, which is fine as it suits the heroic nature of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and I don't think anyone else around here has an army from the period!  All I really want to add is a unit of  Battle Carts, and some Gutian mercenaries, but, whether another city state attacks, some timber needs stealing from Humbaba, or if some jilted deity unleashes the Bull of Heaven to lay waste to Uruk, the Men of Uruk are ready for battle!

Ive made some other stuff recently too; Some very old school space-cacti made from cocktail sticks and polystyrene balls, and then painted bright colours. Very handy for Ghost Archipelago too...

 And My Ork army wanted some heavy support.  I couldn't find a tank I liked the look of , but I had a pair of Dinosaurs on the shelf waiting for howdahs, and I decided gun turrets would be much better!

 And they have even seen a bit of battle recently, with this three way game between my Orks, Ricks Nid's and Chris's Spikey Gits.  Naturally they both decided the Dinotanks had to be dealt with and I was attacked on both fronts!

The game looked great, and was great fun, and da boyz even claimed victory, a victory only slightly marred by Rick and Chris claiming victory too...


Thanks for Reading!