All That Glitters is… Bronze! Part 4 – I Think We Should Sea Other Peoples

Over the last couple of years, we’ve been gradually expanding our great range of Bronze Age army deals for Hail Caesar, which are perfect for jumping straight into this fascinating era of wargaming. Let’s have a look at the latest batch!

We’ll start with the later Akkadians. Arguably the world’s first ‘empire’, and the first really great expansionist power of Mesopotamia, Akkad succeeded Sumer as the region’s dominant state under its founder, the legendary Sargon of Akkad. Its heyday lasted for almost two centuries before collapsing in the face of external invasion and climatic change, but in its day was a serious military power capable of imposing the will of its kings on neighbouring states. To do that, it needed soldiers, and the Later City-State of Akkad bundle gives you plenty of those! A rock-solid core of 48 Akkadian Medium Infantry bring their long spears and wicker shields to the fray, providing you with an effective battleline to build your army around. They’re ably supported by two small units of skirmishers with javelins and slings, as well as sixteen Household Archers to provide some effective shooting. For your offensive punch, there’s a brace of Onager (donkey)-drawn light chariots to plough into the foe, and finally (this being one of our bundles after all), you get your commanders absolutely free! This force is ideal for bullying all your Sumerian-playing friends up and down the table and imposing the will of Sargon on your local club!

Jumping forward in history we have even more goodness for the Egyptians, with the Later 18^th/Early 19^th Dynasty. This is a great complementary force that fills out the New Kingdom period range, allowing you to either pick a specific period and conflict to wargame as a standalone army, or combine it with the other New Kingdom options for an awesome ‘generic’ host for the period! With big blocks of medium infantry and archers, backed up by four (count ‘em!) light chariots, plus Libyan and Kushite mercenary skirmishers, it’s a pretty classic Egyptian army, and your command and accompanying chariot runners are included in this deal absolutely free! No matter how in-depth you like to go with your Egyptians, we’ve got you covered, and you can never have too many of them.

If you believe that you can, in fact, have too many Egyptians, or you’ve got a hankering to bring the Bronze Age crashing down, then we’ve got the perfect deal for you! The Sea Peoples are a source of endless mystery to historians, and it seems unlikely that there’ll ever be a definitive answer to some basic questions about them – who were they? Where exactly did they come from? Why did they strike at so many Bronze Age communities? Whoever they may have been, the Sea Peoples wreaked havoc across the Mediterranean and played a significant role in what would become known as the ‘Bronze Age Collapse’. Most of what we know about them comes from the records and triumphal inscriptions of the Egyptians, and so cannot be considered as absolute gospel, but there’s plenty enough to wargame with! This army bundle nets you two big units of medium infantry, plus one of armoured medium infantry, all in their distinctive headgear so often represented in Egyptian art, as well as a pair of two-horse chariots and attendant chariot runners – and of course the command is free!

Finally, there’s even more heroic, Homeric excellence in the shape of the Late Mycenaean/Trojan army deal. Perfect for portraying both sides of the Trojan War (and who doesn’t love a bit of hero-on-hero action), it’s packed full of excellent infantry (two units of medium and one armoured, alongside skirmishers with slings and javelins and light archers), as well as a pair of chariots, because you’ll need something to drag your vanquished enemies behind, after all! Included for free is also a unit of mercenary Lukka medium infantry – sea raiders with a fearsome reputation who can bolster your forces, or serve as an addition to a Sea Peoples force (see above!).