Saturday, December 29, 2007

The Successors

Lookit me, I'm a blog-posting foo'!

Taking stock of a few more things we move on to my ancients stuff. This one was easy as NONE of it is painted yet!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

This is a pile of old Rafm “Armies of the Hellenistic Period” packs that a friend got from a distributor that was closing down. He more or less gave them to me and then asked if I’d paint a 15mm Greek DBA army for him in exchange… I have the army… I just haven’t painted it yet… (well… I THINK I still have it… somewhere!?). It’s been a few years not that they’ve bee sitting in a box under my work table.

Unfortunately I know NOTHING about the period. Originally I was thinking I’d paint these up someday and base them as per 25mm DBA armies. I’d probably get a few armies out of them. My good friend Mikey K was visiting earlier this year and helped me sort them out a bit. I made some notes on the packs as to what they might be and circled some armies in my DBA book and then put them back in the box…

Recently I picked up Warmaster Ancients and started thinking about these again and how I might make a WMA Successor army out of these using the basing system discussed in a previous post on Rules and basing. So with that in mind…..

Here’s what I’ve got in that pile pictured above, how I might use it, and some of the things I’d need to get… when I get around to painting these up:


1x AH-30 (of course these are old codes that Rafm doesn’e even use anymore – this one, for example is now RAF07130, but I’m just going to use the ones on the package…) Macedonian Prodomos with Kontos. I’m not sure what a “Prodomos” is… or a Kontos for that matter. But in DBA I imagine it would be 3Cv and Warmaster I’m going to call them “Heavy Cavalry”… not that I can do much with one pack…

7x AH-18 Illyrian Light Cavalry. Now that’s more like it… definitely 2LH or “Mounted Skirmishers”! Ten stands of them! (so, three units in Warmaster, I’d need one more pack to make four)

2x AH-38 Babylonian Levy Archer and 2x AH-39 Arab Archers. If I mixed the two I could make one unit of archers (using the 6/base system for regular troops…) the rest could become skirmishers…? Of course if I did them 4/base I could have a unit of each… hmmm….

1x AH-32 Greek Archer Kneeling – maybe mix with the left overs from the Arab Archers to make a unit of skirmishers…?

1x AH-24 Staff slingers… hmmmm…

2x Mysian Peltast – this will become one unit of 4/base “light infantry” – which I will call Ax if using DBA…

4x AH-15 Extra Heavy Companion Cavalry – Now “Extra Heavy” would lead me to think that they are heavier than heavy and therefore “Cataphract” in Warmaster ancients… However in the Rafm line there are “Cataphracts” which do look like they have even MORE armour on their horses… Whatever, they’re going on stands 3/base and will make me one unit and the beginning of a second (or some command stands, I guess…). Either way in DBA I’m sure they’re Kn.

3x AH-1 Imitation Legionnaire – Poof! One unit of Heavy Infantry – not normally “allowed” in a Successor army. Three stands of Bd in DBA.

2x AH-41 and 2x AH-42 Macedonian Pikemen (front and rear ranks) - One unit of Phalanx. These would be 8/base… or maybe 9 in three rows of three on a deeper base…? We shall see… In the latter case I’d need another pack… I’ll need more packs anyway as these are the foundation of Successor armies and I currently have only enough for about two phalanx.

3x AH-5 Phalangist in Quilted Armour and 2x AH-6 Phalangist in Asian Dress? Another Phallanx, possibly the beginnings of a third if I go with the 8/base. In the end I’ll probably do something REALLY stupid and decide I need to do 12/base on a 60x60mm base…

1x AH-43 Macedonian Hypaspis in Leather Armour. Not sure what they do what work but in the notes I made when Mikey K was here I need to paint them white with a silver shield and they might be Sp in DBA…

2x RA-10 Auxillary Slinger – okay this is getting into the “armies of the Caesars” line… still skirmishers are skirmishers (or Ps are Ps…). This would make a unit of them.

2x RA-57 Dacian Archers – again with the Romans and their enemies – more skirmishers…

So, tallying that all up for Warmaster I'd have:

3-4 Units of Mounted Skirmishers (Illyrian Light Horse)
1 Unit of Archers (Babylonian and Arab)
2 Units of Phalanx
1 Unit of Heavy Infantry (Imitation Legionaires)
1 Unit of Cataphracts (or Heavy Cavalry)
1 Unit of Light Infantry (Mysian Peltasts)
4-5 Units of Skirmishers (including the Greeks, Staff Slingers, Roman Auxillary Slingers and Dacian Archers...)

for DBA multiply by three... and add a Sp and Cv stand (Hypaspists and Prodomos)

Well I certainly have not shortage of Skirmishers! I do like to do two opposing armies at a time and I probably have enough skirmishers for both. When I ever do get around to painting these I will definitely need a pile of more pike/phalangists…

If anybody out there actually knows anything about the armies of this era and know that some of these definitely don’t belong in the same army together or I’ve categorized these wrong please, PLEASE do feel free to post a comment and set me straight!!

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