I was excited to read in recent volumes of SAGA comments by Terry Gore that he felt biblicals was one of the growing areas of ancients play. This was followed by his decision to look for a Classical/Biblical associate editor. This is after all one of the most colorful eras of ancients play if not all wargaming. I mean this is the era of Achilles and Hector, David and Goliath, Ramses, 'donkey'-drawn battle cars, the Trojan horse, the Ark of the Covenant, muleriding pharaohs, chariots, chariots, and more chariots. Expansion in the area can not help but be good for the hobby. I was however brought down to earth by a report in "Spearpoint" #43. It seems that the DBA tournament at COLD WARS '92 was to include a Biblical era division, but this was dropped because of lack of entrants.

While I, like Terry, have seen some interest in the Bronze age armies recently, I am not surprised by the poor showing at DBA-COLD WARS. This is consistent with what I often hear when I express my own interest in the Biblical era and its armies - "Why would you want to build a chariot army, they cost too much and they aren't competitive in tournaments".

Biblical armies do not have to cost too much! True, under most rule sets, those chariot models will cost more dollars per point value than other troop types. In some chariot heavy armies, e.g. Hyksos, this can really add up. Even in the non-chariot biblicals, the foot tends to be unarmored and low or average morale, meaning one has to buy more figures for a 1500 point Nubian army than for a Late Roman. But as a trade off, once you have built your basic chariot army , in most cases you won't need to spend a lot of extra cash to put together variant lists. With a lot of the Biblical armies, no matter how many variant lists you put together, the composition will be basically the same: a lot of chariots and javelin-armed foot soldiers. Many times the biggest difference in your variants will be how many chariots you want to include and what you have to leave out to get them. The "it costs too much" complaint can even come from those Seleucid and Roman players who can spend $300-500 on lead to create a list for cavalry opponents, one for infantry opponents, one for light cavalry opponents, one for irregular foot opponents, etc. With the biblicals you basically buy infantry and chariots and throw them against whomever you face. If you lose, you can always blame it on the 'inherent weaknesses' of a chariot army when facing ahistorical opponents. (I find it's a nice change of pace from blaming unlucky dice all the time.)

Recent releases from manufacturers make it easier to put together your army in 15mm and save costs. A year or two ago Essex (available from Wargames in the U.S.) put out an excellent New Kingdom Egypt line. They have since followed this up with Sumerians, Old Kingdom Egyptians, Hyksos, Hittites, Greeks, Nubians, and Libyans. These are some of the finest sculpted 15's I have seen. If you really want to save cash but try the era, go for a DBA army. My own Minoan Greek DBA army cost me $19.99. A glance at Wargames' price list shows me about nine other DBA biblical armies under $25. Painting doesn't have to be expensive. Borrow a copy of WRG's "Armies and enemies of the Ancient Near East" and you will have more than enough info on 'uniforms'. Jars of white, black, brown, and bronze paint can be mixed to give you all the colors you need to paint 95% of your army (except for those especially colorful chariots). Your chariot army does not have to be expensive, and what extra costs are involved are worth it to see those 1020 beautifully painted chariots charge in action.

Chariot Armies can be fun at tournaments) While it is true that unless you are using an Assyrian or Babylonian (or sometimes Midianite Arabs) army you are not likely to be competitive against more serious tournament armies, not all games have to be tournament or tournament warm-ups. If you do base your decision to build an army on its tournament potential all is not lost. While biblical armies do tend to rely on their chariot arms, and these arms do not stand up well to pikes and pila (particularly light chariots). I believe you should be able to bring your chariot army to the tournament and still have fun. Your tournament organizer should be understanding and try to be reasonable in selecting your opponent pairings. Better yet, encourage your organizers (especially at the bigger cons) to have a Biblical division or Biblicale-only event.

Back at COLD WARS '91 I saw how well this can work. Borrowing Scott Bolder's Later Hebrews, I entered NASAMW'e Bronze Age tourney. It was easily one of my most enjoyable convention experiences. Most of the really serious tournament garners were busy with the national team championship or had their 'killer' armies in the open event, leaving the Bronze Age to the 'tournaments should be fun' crowd. My first match was against Jim Kaeper's infamous Philistines. This, my first venture into the era was highlighted by my postdeployment comment "Gee, you don't get many troops with that list do you?" Jim's response was a knowing (or incredulous?) glance. I learned the value of checking the list book for your opponent's army when half his force appeared on a flank march and rolled-up my battle line. The reason I was suckered was that most of his army was cheap 'D' class fodder.

My next game was even more memorable for me. It came against Bob Luddy's Hittites. Bob had hand sculpted, molded, and poured the lead for his army, the ultimate in individuality) The game was also my first (and maybe only) crushing victory in a tournament. Before it sounds like I am taking credit for anything I must explain the role luck played. A seemingly minor foot melee turned deadly when an incredible roll on my part routed his unit. What followed was the absolute worse dice rolling I have ever seen or will believe. The rout caused a chain reaction of waver tests. Six rolls and Bob rolled six straight 'ones'! The string was only broken on Bob's seventh roll - a two)

My final game was against an Urartian army. This is a Neo-Hittite successor from NASAMW's army lists (Many of you probably did not even know there was such an army - see what you're missing). It is also one of those odd biblical lists with some good cavalry. Fortunately the Hebrew light chariots were able to strike an early blow causing enough waver tests to neutralize this cavalry so that the heavy chariots could get in and finish the job.

Getting back on point, the biblical armies can be enjoyable even in a tournament setting, although maybe more than any other era they need theme-type tournaments that keep out the out-of-period opponents. Overall there is plenty of fun and excitement in the biblical era for those willing to give it a try.