Irregular Wars Wargaming

At the completion of ProjectSeleukid , Andrew and I have amassed a fairly respectable 28mm 2nd century BC Seleukid army. Since starting this project off in July last year, between us we've painted: 284 foot, 86 mounted, 3 elephants (+ crew), and 2 scythed chariots. Not bad for 16 months given other projects going on along side. Starting with the order of battle for Magnesia, we split the army roughly down the centre, with Andrew taking the right, and the left falling to me. The division enabled us to build forces of roughly equal size meaning that we could use them together, or in opposition, with the three rulesets we're likely to use - Fantastic Battles , Hail Caesar , and l'Art de la Guerre . We decided to stick with 60x60mm bases for everything, using 9 figures to a base to represent pikemen, 6 to represent other solid foot, 4 to represent irregular foot and three for skirmishers; mounted were based 3 for heavy/medium cavalry or 2 for light units. By applying a roughly ...

And there we go, with the completion of two more Seleukid commanders and 16 months after embarking on ProjectSeleukid, its initial ambition is complete! I can now field half of the Seleukid centre, and the left wing for the battle of Magnesia (190 BC) at a sliding scale of 1:200 - 1:250.  The strategoi stands are both made up of 28mm miniatures from Aventine Miniatures. The green captain uses a spare officer and infantryman from the thorakitai/imitation legionary unit, while the mounted yellow captain is from the South Italian cavalry pack used to make up my Tarantine cavalry. His Attic helmet is an older model, but it checks out. I'll do a complete army showcase in the near future, but here are the lads all packed up in preparation for an epic 1900-point game of Fantastic Battles against Andrew's half of the Seleukid project this weekend. Across two 10.5 litre Really Useful boxes I have: 1x royal commander (Warlord) 4x commanders (captains) 1x priest (magic-user) 4x cavalry u...

The final unit for the left wing of our Magnesia order of battle is a unit of Cataphracts. These are Blitzkreig Miniatures 3D prints. They are about the same height as my Aventine Seleukid Companion cavalry, but a lot heftier. There was a wee problem with 'lumpy' undercoat which is mostly disguised in these pictures, but the overall look is not too shabby! Just two captains to go, and it'll be time to get them on the table!

This week saw the completion of the second-to-last unit on my Magnesia roster for ProjectSeleukid. I needed an elephant - the iconic peice of Seleukid wargear .  After my previous work on an Aventine beastie , I would have loved another. However, storage-box-height concerns meant that I needed to make certain compromises. After a bit of a search, I figured that scalecreep might be my friend for a change, and ordered an elephant from Essex. What can I say? The inside of the elephant is marked Essex 1984 - the sculpt is 40 years old. While it's showing it's age - especially the crew which have the same proportions of Essex 15mm ranges - the elephant itself isn't bad. It is roughly the same height as the Aventine one, it is significantly narrower, and the head is smaller. The howdah was equally tall and skinny, so I cut it down by about 10mm to allow it to fit in the storage box.  Just a couple more commanders and a three-comapny unit of cataphaacts to go!

Attempting to keep up some momentum - although I'll admit these were a struggle - this week we add two companies of scythed chariots to my 28mm late Seleukid army. The models are from 1st Corp. They were fiddly to build, but look decent painted up and, most importantly, just about fit on a 60x60mm base! Scythed chariots are an enigmatic legacy of the Acheamenid army, absorbed into the Seleukid military machine. While we know almost nothing about their exact look and fit out, they were seemingly employed by the Seleukids from the 4th to at least the mid-2nd centuies BC, present also at Ipsos (301 BC), against Demetrios Poliorketes in Kyrrhestis (285 BC), on the left flank at Magnesia (190 BC), 140 were paraded at Daphne (166 BC), and were perhaps also used by Lysias in Judaea (162 BC). In Fantastic Battles, I plan to use these as fantastic beasts with the expendible, furious charge and reckless traits to represent their battlefield role as one-shot disruptive terror weapons. 

Taking advantage of having a day off work, I forged on and painted up another unit for my 28mm Seleukids, this time its the mercenary Galatian cavalry. These'uns are from Crusader Miniatures Celtic range and they are pretty nice La Tène mounted nobles. I wanted an irregular feel, but always prefer to stick with a limited palette (so they don't look too much like a rainbow), so stuck with a green theme with a bit of red, but multiple different horse colours. The army is now coming together nicely and the last units needed for Magnesia have been ordered... more to come.

Sitting down to get started on my Galatian cavalry, I had to wait for some wash to dry on the horses, slipped, and painted up a small unit of slingers. These are Macedonian slingers from Crusader Miniatures; decent if unremarkable figures. Nominally they are sitting in as Trallian slingers for our Magnesia project. According to Livy, 1,500 Trallians were deployed on each flank at Magnesia. Other Trallians are listed (by Livy and Appian) among the mercenaries fighting for Pergamon and Rome on the otherside of the battlefield. Beyond that, there doesn't seem too much consensus on who they were, or what they may have looked like.  Duncan Head argues very plausibly that they were armed as slingers. In both armies they were partnered with Cretan archers, and on the Pergamene side, they were also joined by Achaian peltasts. In a later passage, the "the Cretan archers, the slingers and javelinmen" are mentioned facing off against the Seleukid chariots, Presuming the javelinmen a...

Making some further progress with ProjectSeleukid, were are my Companion cavalry in 28mm from Aventine Miniatures. These are lovely sculpts with loads of detail.  Sadly, the weather has been so very mediocre that these boys still need to be varnished for protection and the remove some of the shine. Two elite Seleukid cavalry units, each 1,000 strong, appear to have served alternatively or together as the king's bodyguard. The Royal Companion cavalry, drawn from the best horsemen of Greco-Macedonian descent in the kingdom, and the Agema cavalry, drawn from the best Iranian horsemen in the kingdom. After the loss of Media in the 140s BC, the Agema seem to have been recruited from the city of Larissa in Syria, a colony settled by Thessalians a century and a half before.  For our Magnesia project, Andrew has the Agema (right flank) and I have the Companions (left flank). This wonderful Angus McBride painting (used here without permission) shows his interpretation of the Companions...

Quickly finishing up another small, two company unit for my Seleukids this week, here is a small unit of Cretan archers, 3D prints from Blitzkrieg Miniatures. These minis have fairly simple, bold details making them a dream to paint. I have a 'history' with Cretan archers ... especially those serving in the Levant in the 2nd century BC. There may have been several years of ongoing research. There was certainly a wee article in Ancient Warfare Magazine (vol. 11.1) which summarised a more detailed paper published in BASOR (vol. 380) in 2018. You can access the BASOR article HERE . Suffice to say, these guys have a special place in my heart, I'm delighted to have them ready for battle and, knowing the laws of wargaming, I suspect they will be utterly routed in the first turn!

Joining my 28mm Seleukid army is a small two-company unit of Tarentine light horse. These are lovely figures from Aventine Miniatures. Originally hailing from the Greek city of Taras in south Italy, Tarantine cavalry developed a reputation as superb light horsemen, fighting with javelin and shield, in the late fouth-early third centirues BC. As the Helleinstic period proceeded, Tarantines appear in armies across the Mediterranean.  By the time you get to the 2nd century BC, it is impossible to know if the Tarentines fighting for the Seleukids were genuine Italiote Greeks, or if the title had become a psuedo-ethnic, applied to all cavalry that fought in the manner made famous by the Tarantines, skirmishing with shield and javelin.  Regardless, the shield devices chosen for this unit - tiny, tiny, dolphins, are inspired by the autonomous silver coinage of Taras which often showed a horseman on one side (usually the obverse), and the eponymous hero riding a dolphin on the other.

The latest unit for ProjectSeleukid are these 28mm armoured heavy infantry with thureos shields and short spears from Aventine Miniatures. For Magnesia, these will represent the 4,000 Lykians, Pisidians, Pamphylians brigaded together. Their equipment if not specified in the sources, although as part of the main battle line it is likely that they were either thureophoroi or thorakitai. In more generic 2nd and 1st century BC battles, I will field the unit as reformed Argyraspides (hence the fancy silvered metalwork and super ostentatious purple helmets). I am yet to see any specific evidence that suggests there was much of a difference between the so-called imitation legionaries, and generic thorakitai in Seleukid armies. At Daphne (166 BC) the only real description of these troops - given by Polybius 30.25.3 - is less than detailed. Heading were some men equipped in the Roman manner in mail cuirasses, five thousand men in the prime of their life. For a number of convincing reasons, it i...

Here is another command stand for ProjectSeleukid - this time a royal party consisting of a king and shield-bearer from Aventine Miniatures, and a queen carried on a litter by Checkpoint Miniatures (CP Models). I went with a purple a colour scheme as I dared to indicate just how very royal the royal couple are. This base will not be used for the planned Magnesia scenario, a) because I am running the left flank commanded by Seleukos (future Seleukos IV, but in 190 BC still just the heir apparent), and b) because radiate crowns are not a feature of Seleukid iconography until c.170/169 BC, midway through the reign of Antiochos IV Epiphanes (Seleukos IV's younger brother).  Technically speaking, only a small number of Seleukid king's used the divinising feature: Antiochos IV,  Alexander I, Antiochos VI, Alexander II, Antiochos VIII, and Demetrios III. Here's something I wrote a while ago on the matter LINK .  I intentionally set the king figure slightly back on the base to ma...

Over the last couple of weeks I've been slowly plugging away at my first 28mm pike phalanx. These are 3D printed sculpts from Blitzkrieg Miniatures with 80mm metal pikes (sized to fit in the allocated storage box). I don't really enjoy painting large block units like this which is why I originally built a 6mm Seleukid army and was hesitant to do a Hellenistic project in this scale. However, having finished them, I think they do look good. The sculpts are clean and well printed, although delivered with quite a few supports still in place. The detail on the linen cuirass is crisp, but overall the minis don't have the deep over-exaggerated cloth folds typical of ranges like Victrix (and that's a good thing - I don't like the deep cloth folds).  There are four different heads/helmets - not including the command pack which has a fifth - and a little variety in the shield straps/baldrics, but the rest of the sculpt is identical throughout. This is really not a drama with ...

Taking a brief break from painting up skirmish stuff, I was able to get a few bases of Trojans done up over the past couple of weeks. Admittedly not all the stuff in the above picture - just one base from each of the three units. These were part of a bulk lot that Andrew picked up, and I pilfered. They've been on the painting queue for the last six months or so, just judging me quietly... There is a mix there of Eureka (axemen and archers) and Redoubt (tower shields), all very easy to paint up really. The challenge when I've been doing lots of detail and layering was to paint them to the same standard (a simplified full army army approach of base colours, wash, highlight with base colours) and the same colour scheme as the units they were to reinforce. From the top pic you can see that I got it pretty close... And here is the full army, all in one 10L really useful box: 4x chariots, 9x long spears, 3x axes, 6x bows, 2x medium javelins, 2x skirmish javelins, 2x skirmish sling an...