Persian Army 490 BC

 I was a proud recipient of an army donated to me by fellow wargamer and blogger Ross MacFarlane

 ( battlegameofmonth.blogspot.com ). The Persians I am told date back decades. No doubt they are veterans of many battles and I have faced them across the table on more than one occasion. Ross is in the process of paring down his collection while I remain an avid collector.

Persians under Ross' command at my place 10 years ago

Persian Line from 10 years ago

I am not sure of the figures manufacturer. They are true 25mm so they do not scale up well with the bulk of my collection. Happily, I had acquired a 25mm Greek army to oppose my new Persians but more on them in a later post.

I have always wanted an Eastern army. I have dabbled in Turks, Arabs, Saracens and the like but never splashed for the whole army. I found some good motivation for refurbishing and rebasing my gift into a fighting force fit for my preferred game systems. The more figures on the base, the heavier the formation. I purchased many 2x4" bases from Litko for this project. Expensive but I saved a bundle already on the figures so I felt justified in the expense.

 4 Immortals/Guards - 10 men to base

 6 Sparabara - 10 men to a base

I built the army to be able to play over a 200 year stretch of time. They are best suited to earlier Persians but they tend to lack the fun elephants and scythed chariots so I am suspending belief when my Sparabara represent Takabara or Levies.

These archers were donated to me by a friendly gent at my last visit to Huzzah. I found a home for them as a contingent of archers in the Imperial Persian Army. I think they are 7th century Arabs but I think they look the part. There were a few unpainted archers in the pile but they looked Egyptian or Babylonian. I got as far as cleaning them up and priming them before cooler heads prevailed and I went with the already painted Arabs. Skirmisher have six figures to a base.

The Persians had many light troops as skirmishers and here are javelin and sling armed troops. I had to remove most of the figures from previous bases. I had to reattach weapons arms and heads on many of the figures. They also had a good amount of dust on them, attesting to their venerable age. This I cleaned up with a soft dry brush and an air compressor.

The Persians were renowned for their numerous and excellent cavalry. Ross' collection was well supplied. I took what I needed to complete my order of battle and still have many cavalry figures left over. 

2 Guard Heavy and Cataphract Cavalry - 5 to a base

I based the models on 3mm plywood bases. I loaded up the base with PVA glue, added the figures and then sanded the base. I mixed three different kinds of sand to give different sizes to it. I went for a desert look to match my new game mat. I added a yellow grass flock as well as a green flock in spots for contrast. Finished with a matte varnish.

4 Medium Cavalry - 4 to a base

These models are unique in that not only do you have to clue on weapons, you also have to assemble heads and arms to bodies. I spent time cursing this process and can only imagine what the original builder went through to get them to stay together. It would have been less frustrating if I wasn't doing the whole project in one go.

4 Horse Archers - 3 to a base

4 Skirmish Cavalry

A highlight of the project was getting the funnies ready. There were some beautiful chariots and elephants in the collection. They required minimal work as I did not need to rebase them. The biggest job was getting into the cracks to remove dust.

Ellies - two are manned with Sassanid crews

The army was built with the goal of fighting the scenario for Gaugamela 331 BC against Alexander's Macedonians. I have managed to run the game 4 times and have tweaked the scenario to balance it as best I can. Ready to take to Huzzah in May.

 Brave Commanders

All told about 200 infantry and 50 cavalry. Next up Greeks and Macedonians!