Assessing amassed Assyrians

My recent Tigranocerta game required a number of 'Armenian' infantry units, so not having such things I decided to give my Assyrians an outing.  These chaps were part of the batch rescued from JR's attic last year and after much repair, refurbishing and rebasing this was their first action under my ownership. 

I was delighted to acquire these chaps as I remember fondly the Hinchliffe Assyrian range from the 1970s.  The fact that I can (in the fullness of time...) add to the infantry with nicely cheap HAT cavalry and chariots just adds to their appeal. 

Above are the three stands of heavy spearmen.  All big lads and raring to go.

These cavalry troopers came in a batch of other stuff from eBay.  Only one had been finished so I repaired him and painted the others to more or less match him.

I'm not even sure if these slingers are Assyrians.  But they are now.

There were a lot of archers, so I based these chaps as half and half bowmen and shield bearers.

And last but not least the archers themselves.

I confess to knowing relatively little about the history of Assyrian campaigns.  Can anyone recommend a good book on the subject?

Call it Qids

On Monday I visited a friend near Northampton.  To conceal his true identity let's just call him Trebian.  As he had been heavily involved with the design of the 2012 Society of Ancients game 'Call it Qids', Graham, er I mean Trebian was keen for me to try it out.
The game aims to recreate the Battle of Kasesh (1274BC) between the Egyptians under Ramesses II and the Hittites under Muwatalli II and features loads of 6mm toys - mostly chariots, an over scale Pharaoh and an almost unbearably cute fort.
This game will be at a number of shows throughout 2012.  If you see it, give it a try. 

The custom-built game board.  The Hittite chariots can be seen massing for their attack.  The Egyptian camp can also be seen. There are more Egyptians just off camera left of the river.

The Egyptian camp.  Ramesses may look a bit over scale, but that is the way he is depicted on reliefs from the period.  So it must be true.

The Hittite attack gets underway - their objective is to grab the enemy baggage so that they'll starve and bu**er off back to Egypt.

The delightful fort.  This has no role in the game except to distract Hittite players so the Egyptians can win.  At least that's what happened when I played it...