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Saturday 23 June 2012

Raphia Work



On the first weekend in September Old John from 20mm Nostalgic Revival and Richard from Vintage 20mil are coming up for weekend of wargaming.  My initial thought is to have at least one mighty battle of the Diadokhoi. There is plenty of information about Gabene and Paraetacene and I also wondered about Raphia. Searching on google for more information on the battle orders of the two armies in that latter clash - all my books are currently packed in boxes awaiting transport to the new HQ - I came across clips of the now sadly defunct BBC TV series Time Commanders, in which teams of celebrities refought great battles of the ancient world using some of the dodgiest computer graphics seen since Tellytubbies was in its glory years.

The refight of Raphia saw popular UK comedian and self-confessed military history nut Al "Pub Landlord" Murray leading one of the armies alongside Kate Silverton and two actors from the shouty Cockney soap opera East Enders.

The elephants are truly appalling - the size of houses and built like a mouse with a hose on its snout - while the phalanx behaves like the sort of maddened and legless mob you might expect to see in a British town centre after the nightclubs close.

Still at least it was more or less wargaming on prime time national TV. Nowadays all we have is property shows.

http://youtu.be/RV-8Wb_6XBo

2 comments:

  1. Tis a fine show English, but tis no "Game of War".

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  2. I agree, Celtic Tiger. But - unless you know different - there appears to be no surviving footage of The Game of War, not even of Angela Ripon looking like she's actually really rather fascinated when Iain Dickie or one of the other men-in-polyester-cardigans starts explaining why they are throwing dice. I bet she destroyed it all.

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