"Know O Prince, that there was another time, before the mountains sank and the sea rose and that this was the Time of Legends. A time when unlettered Barbarians siezed glittering Cities and wealth beyond measure. Knowing only their own harsh code they bestrode civilised lands like colossi ; the strength of the swords matched only by their iron thews and raw violent instincts. The chronicles of these days lie now in the ruins of spider haunted towers in dark crypts and on strange parchments, scrawled in a curious script. Who now remembers Hyboria or Turan? Who dreams of Gor? Unroll the crackling pages, 0 Prince - read of Conan, Conran, Gonad the Barbarians!" Er, quite. The original Hyborean campaign was populated by armies ranging from the Assyrian to the medieval - a prime example of a DBA/DBM non-historical campaign. I remember reading the articles on hyboria with great pleasure, however and I think it still influences my wargaming. I do feel uncomfortable though with Persians taking on Normans and I am very taken with gripping Beasts' Dark Ages figures. In one review Mark has described their moors as very "Conan" with their pointy helmets with turbans wrapped around them - I have to agree. So the question is - which dark Ages armies can be used in Hyboria? There are some easy ones - Vanaheim and Ascard are obviously Norse; Cimmeria is vaguely Celtic though perhaps more Ancient British (minus chariots) than Irish. Aquilonia is Norman or perhaps early medieval. Nemedia has a strong hint of Roman so it could perhaps be Byzantine or Late Roman. Brythunia has a Saxon feel to it - early period rather than Alfred the Great though. Zingara can field Spanish figures. We now reach the "Spiked helmet' belt of Koth, Ophir, Shem, Khauran, Khojara and Zamora which I think are quite Andalusian. Corinth could be a Sicilian Norman enclave in a sea of spiked helmets. Stygia is always portrayed as Egyptian but what about the Berbers and Nubians from Gripping Beast? Turan could be Seljuk Turk, as could their rivals Hyrkania who can also have a hint of Hun. There are bands of wandering nomads towards the steppes who also seem quite Hunnish in style (although in the books they are also similar to cossacks). The various tribes of Hillmen seem fairly Afghan and Vendhya in the far SE is India - just as Khitai in the very Far East is of course China. The two countries that I have trouble with are Hyperborea and the Pictish Wilderness. You could use Picts straight from the range but in the books they seem almost like Iroquois indians. It is tempting to treat this as a "howling wilderness" which is avoided by all civilised folk. If you feel the urge to use the Picts, then you probably would not need The Gauntlet to tell you which figures to use still, we hope that Gonad will inspire you to use whatever Dark Age, Ancient or Classical figures you may have as a basis for your own games. Gonad the Barbarian - Battle of the Pool of Tarban Queen Taramis of Khauran, one of the smaller Hyborian realms, is threatened by Almuric, Prince of Koth and Duke Argades the Pretender, her illegitimate second cousin. Argades, accompanied by his own retinue marches into Khauran where he is joined by Roland of Aquilonia, a mercenary knight and his company of knights and two warbands of renegade Hyperboreans under Hakkonen the Infamous. Against this force the brave queen can only field some infantrymen and her savagely loyal Royal Guard of Aesir exiles . . . . By a coincidence, Gonad the Barbarian is passing through Khauran seeking adventure; an inveterate hater of Hyperboreans and notorious for his weakness for royal maidens in distress, the hulking swordsman offers his services - he has a cunning plan. The invaders must march south to the capital and need to water at the Pool of Tarban en route; guided by loyal Khaurani goatherds, the Royal Army force marches to the Pool and occupies the high ground blocking the route. Seeing the enemy, the Aquilonians charged on their knackered mounts, their foot slogging along behind; the Hyperboreans sneaked around the hills to flank the Loyalists on the hill. The Khaurani foot initially held their ground against the artnoured knights but were gradually forced back. The Pretender followed up the Aquilonians only to be charged from ambush by Gonad and a handful of loyal fanatics; the savage melee ended with the Pretender galloping for his life. Meanwhile the Khaurani foot gave ground until rallied by Gonad; the Hyperboreans appeared on the flank where they were charged by the Royal Guard. The Hyperboreans have the best of it until Gonad joined the fight and slayed Hakkonen in single combat...... Roland of Aquilonia realised he was next and sought quarter (and a potentially lucrative contract with the rich and winsome Queen). So that was the first of my impromptu fights with a Hyborean feel. It was based around my fairly small collection of Gripping Beast dark ages figures. A few ideas arose though for the role of Barbarian Heroes. A) Roll to see if the Aquilonians delay their attack - they do so on a 4,5,6 in which case roll a further D6: 1,2,3 - the heat gets to them and they are -1 in melee etc, 4,5,6 a band of mounted Ilbari ruffians and horse thieves ride up to join Gonad B) Gonad can lead all the units but can leave his loyal sidekick, Bostic, to lead a flank attack or ambush. In this battle Bostic botched it leading the Royal Guard to get cut up by the Hyperboreans until Gonad saved the day... C) If Gonad is in a melee, roll 2xd6 to see what happens 1,2 It goes badly for our hero, an unexpected and vile Stygian sorceror stuns him - see below 3 Swamped by enemy swords. He fights for his life and makes no especial impact on the battle. 4,5 Slays enemy left, right and centre - +1 (or whatever) to his unit. 6 Goes berserk, carnage ensues, enemy runs +1 if vs hated foes If the second dice is a double, the soldier on his right is revealed as the Queen in disguise - she will succumb to any sorcery instead and our hero must fight the sorceror to rescue her..... D) If Gonad does succumb to sorcery: 1 Rendered insensible and shipped off to a vile dungeon. 2,3 His barbaric instincts fight back - roll again. 4 A fellow soldier is revealed as the Queen, she presses "The Sword of A Thousand Men" (Hooray!) into his fist and he hacks their way clear. 5,6 As 4 but her clothing is so torn that it distracts the enemy. Gonad kills him barehanded, steals a horse and makes off with the Queen . . . Back to The Gauntlet No. 19 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com