A bee in my Bronze age bonnet

[Bezzo]

Okay I admit a few things came together.

I read the Osprey "First Armies" book and got interested in the really early forms of warfare.
I bought a great army of Foundry Bronze Age figures at a marvellous price - (thanks Steve!)
I have visited Ireland and Malta and am already fascinated by the temples/tombs/architecture of the era.

So I am pretty "in" to the era at the moment. At Phalanx '97 the Perry twins game based on the era was universally acclaimed (see Mike Siggins' comments).

So I go "googling" and there is...... there is....exactly... this an era in (populous) Europe of several centuries there has to be something. Virtually nothing. Okay I am now well versed on crannogs and such. But it seems as a continent we just "aint bothered" to exploit this in wargame terms. Whereas a promiscuous wife in the Aegean is kidnapped by her latest lover and "whoa!" Games, figures, battles refought.

I will also confess we did not have Homer to celebrate the times but is that the only reason our warriors of the era are ignored? By the way Beowulf is centuries too late to qualify.

I'd be really happy to get feedback on this. It has come as a bit of a surprise to me to find such a 'chunk' of history all but ignored.

Bezzo (perplexed)

[Plynkes]

The thing is that it isn't a chunk of history but of pre-history. That is precisely the problem for me. Hard to get excited when all you have to go on is post-holes and potsherds. It's no surprise to me at all that the Bronze Age Mediterranean is much more popular. Those people wrote stuff down (or those that didn't kept it alive for later generations who did), they left their mark in a way that still captures the imagination.

The Iliads and Odysseys of Bronze Age Europe meanwhile are lost forever to us. They will always be mere blank phantoms because we don't know their stories. What did they call themselves? What were the names of their tribes, their heroes and villains and their gods?

Stories, I think, are what inspire us; but these people cannot tell us theirs. No wine-dark sea, no helmet flashing, no sad lament of kings. Just silence.


That's my tuppence worth on the subject, anyway.

[joroas]

Perhaps the mobile nature of northern Europe's population, either to avoid the inclement weather, flee from enemies or find fertile soil, meant that they did not lay down the cultural roots that those in sunnier climes did. 

Britain was attached to Europe for a long time, maybe Ireland without a land bridge, became more settled and passed stories on.

[twrchtrwyth]

You also have the Welsh Mabinogi. The tales could easily have their roots in the bronze age.

I was thinking of using those bronze age minis as Nemedians or Partholonians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemed

And an even more fantastic twist

http://www.thecimmerian.com/of-celts-and-nameless-cults-the-irish-nemedian-chronicles/

[Plynkes]

Unless Irish mythology has less "weight" than Homeric?

Never in life, Irish and Welsh mythology can give the Greeks a run for their money any damn day of the week by my reckoning. I love that stuff. But I thought we were talking about the Bronze Age. If your game is going to be populated by Cú Chulainn and Queen Medb or Bendigeidfran and Branwen you are gaming Dark Ages mythology, something separated from the Bronze Age by a huge gulf of time and several cultures.

Nothing wrong with doing that, though. Would make for some great gaming, I reckon.

[Emir of Askaristan]

I think you need to look at the similarities rather than the differances between these equally heroic periods. Eastern mythology is recorded precisely because it was passed by word of mouth, round the hearth fire or the feast table, until someone said, I like that one....get it on a scroll!

Similarly North European myths have their roots in a far older time. Read them by all means, but take the essential core material from them. The heroic leader and his followers raid on the next tribes lands, bringing cattle and slaves home.  The kidnap of a princess. The single combat between mighty kings to decide the fate of their lands and people's. These things don't change for centuries.

Haves read of Barry Cunliffe's book Europe Between the Oceans or Francis Pryor's books on the earl British isles. Take a gander at what's been written about Otzi the Iceman as background for games....and get gaming mate....it's all out there for you 

[Plynkes]

You must do this. It would be quite a project, quite the spectacle when done, and we would want photos of course. 

[Emir of Askaristan]

I had a similar idea.
Points for each warrior killed, deductions for each lost. Points gained for wine/cattle/chattles/slaves or deducted for citizens/goods/crops lost. More prestige gained for killing a hero or for a lower class defeating a higher grade champion.

That way you have to balance what success means. What do you defend - your home or your flocks? Do you detach warriors to escort the slaves back to the ship and risk the remainder of your raiders being overrun?

As a final touch boast about your victory afterwards regardless of how you actually won or lost...post this online......here of course. Your name and your deeds will then become immortal just like Achilles, Cu Culainn, Gigamesh - Bezzo the High King 

[WuZhuiQiu]

Actually, according to a couple of books that I read a while back on Stonehenge and "Seahenge", at least the bronze age peoples of what is now England were fairly settled, and that for centuries. Sadly, though, none of their oral tradition would seem to have been passed down to us.

This is the book that I read on Seahenge:
Francis Pryor, Seahenge (Harper Collins, London: 2001).

Might Bernard Cornwell's novel Stonehenge provide some ideas?

[joroas]

The "Bernard Cornwell" is not a name I would use in this forum if you wish to retain respect or credibility.

Didn't he write Sharp Practice for Too fat Lardies? 

[WuZhuiQiu]

Well, excuse me for trying to be helpful.

I only mentioned his novel (novels are fiction, after all) Stonehenge because it may suggest a few scenarios, ones that might be just as (im)plausible as the ones that were already put forward...

By the way, your reply did not seem to be in keeping with what I had thought to be the generally friendly and helpful tone of this forum...

WuZhuiQiu - word to the wise

The "Bernard Cornwell" is not a name I would use in this forum if you wish to retain respect or credibility.

[WuZhuiQiu]

"Overly sensitive"? No, not really. However, you don't know me and I don't know you, so smileys would have helped.

[WuZhuiQiu]

Replied! As mentioned, I think that we may have (re-)enacted another possible bronze age scenario! Representatives from two neighbouring tribes meet at a river ford, misunderstand each other's dialects, and a fight ensues!
 

[LeadAsbestos]

I will happily add that my own Arthurian project has a HUGE Cornwell influence! And I will fight to defend the respectability of that!

[janner]

We are, afterall, playing with small toy soldiers rather than writing an article for a peer reviewed journal.

So each to his own