Raphia: A Reappraisal

[Chris]

Gentlemen,

As announced in the 'Games last Played' sub forum, I recently staged a refight of Raphia.

Below, see the title and the first 300 words (approximately) to either entice you to click on the provided link or to move on to other, more interesting, topics in different sub forums.

In addition to a battle report, I also look at the history of refighting Raphia, offer brief comments on the source material, and provide detailed orders of battle.


RAPHIA: A REAPPRAISAL

With regard to the battlefield's size and appearance, I set up my 10.5 feet by 3.75 feet table and then covered it with a simple light brown (i.e., desert-colored) sheet. A similar minimalist approach to preparing the model landscape for a miniature reconstruction of the well known 217 BC/BCE contest between the large army of Antiochus III (the Great) and equally large army of Ptolemy IV has been used by many other more accomplished as well as traditional historical wargamers. In researching this Hellenistic engagement, I made a note of Simon Miller's comments about the alleged nature of the ground at Raphia. In a post to his well-known-in-the wargaming-community blog, dated 26 April 2016, the accomplished rule writer and conductor of some simply spectacular demonstration/participation games at a fair number of wargaming shows explained: "I have plans to make the terrain more arid . . . since the site of the battle was probably covered in sand and scrub." He continued, relating that the prolific Jeff Jonas had told him "there were limestone outcrops and cacti" present on the otherwise comparatively flat and featureless plain. Anyway, the terrain "problem" solved, I turned my attention to the depiction of the formations and troops that would do battle on a 39.37 square-foot tabletop.

With regard to the representation of armies, I employed my usual (or unusual) method of fabricating two-dimensional color counters. I have been wargaming this way since 1992, approximately. Evidently, I was a foreign exchange student, then graduate, and finally an advocate (mostly silent) of what could be called "The Perkins School." (In the March 1980 issue of Slingshot, then subtitled as the 'Official Journal of the Society of Ancients,' a fellow by the name of Jon Perkins offered readers a one-page summary of the advantages to playing at ancient or medieval war with cardboard armies.

Here is the link: https://nopaintingrequired.blogspot.com/search/label/Raphia%3A%20A%20Reappraisal

[Imperial Dave]

very nice indeed Chris and much appreciated for taking the time to do this