Tuesday 6 December 2011

A Lost Continent - Ancient Wargaming


I once read an article in a miniature wargames mag about the concept of fantasy-historical campaigns, being around 10-12 years ago this was quite unusual and it stuck with me. The basic premise was to create a fictional land/continent/island etc where each nation could be who you wished, for example the accompanying picture was of Norman knights charging a bridge guarded by Roman legionaries.

This springs to mind now because of the current variety of 'ancients' in terms of periods at the RGMB. Personally I'm collecting imperial Romans, AD80 or so, as is Dave, while Luke is looking at one of the Celtic barbarian nations. All fits so far, but then Aidan's troops are Romano-Brits, AD800ish, while Red swings the other way (could resist, sorry) to BC500 with his Greek Hoplites, and finally Chris is going all Viking on us.

If only there was a way of all being able to play nicely together. Like on a fictional lost continent. And there's where the train of thought currently ends, a nice fictional land with a bit of Greece, couple of roman empires, some barbarians and some celts(I know, no such thing but it's a nice generic title) and some extra unknown space for future exploration and different opponents. All fighting nicely against each other using the Hail Caesar rules. Sounds like something I may have to look into.

I also came across the following paragraph or two written by a friend.  He may have gone a bit further into the bizarre than the period I was aiming for, but he is on the right lines!

THE SECOND ANACHRONISTIC WAR


The second anachronistic war will have been fought by just about anybody who couldn’t possibly have been there due to not having been born yet, or having died a long time before. In fact the situation was so bad that it was missed from the Annals and Histories of the period simply because no contemporary that could have been there, was there, and thus the greatest conflict in history passed almost completely unnoticed. 


When the battlefields of the war began to be uncovered they revealed impossible battles between Dinosaurs and Romans, Zulus and Martians, Spartans and Americans, and more besides: It was thought to be a hoax and still is amongst conspiracy theorists. It has given archaeologists major headaches trying to work out the anachronology (warning: not a real word) of the war or the period it took place. It is currently assumed to have taken place at least partly during the beginning of the 21st century, on the basis no finds from this period will have been found on the battlefields. 


No trace of the First Anachronistic War is going to have been found yet. 

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