Introducing ProjectSeleukid

When Andrew came to me and suggested a joint project building a 28mm Seleukid army, I admit I was seriously tempted. Then he went on to say that he'd like to do it properly. How could I say no to that!? Now I suspect that he might regret the proposition, because he's unleased the monster I like to keep inside me!

I have done Seleukid armies in the past - first in 15mm for DBA (sadly that army was among the fallen after the big move), and then to a massive extent in 6mm. This will be my first foray into 28mm for the period. In my other life, both my honour thesis and PhD focused on the Seleukids, and I have worked on Hellenistic sites in the Middle East and Central Asia. Oh my, oh my, but this will be a project to get my teeth into!

Thirteen years ago now I posted a few passages I was working on for my PhD on this blog looking at the ethnic break down of the Seleukid army. The gist of it still stands up to scrutiny and remains a useful resource. The summary strongly indicates that the phalanx element of Seleukid armies, always at their centre, was not a large part of the army. In reality a Seleukid army was diverse and polyglot. There are various other earlier posts - mostly from the 6mm army building process - that I will come back to as well for their exploration of different troops types.

The starting principles of ProjectSeleukid

• 28mm armies, multibased on 60x60mm bases - this will enable use across different rule sets, specifically Hail Caesar, L'Art de la Guerre, and Fantastic Battles.
• Working from a fixed point of reference - of the three orders of battle recorded for the Seleukids, Andrew chose Magnesia (190 BC) as the army to build.
• Rationalising units - playing with a ration of between 1:200 and 1:250, we can break down the Seleukid army into gaming units with relative ease (and only a little fudging).
• Research - where possible, lets go back to the ancient sources to find out how different units may have looked and functioned.

The army list

Having decided on Magnesia, we then set about working out the army and how to allocate units to both Andrew and I, hoping that neither of us would be landed with anything more onerous than the other.

By splitting the amy into a centre (shared) and two wings (taking one each), we end up with a fairly even distribution which allows us each to field all the minimum bases required for an ADLG. With Andrew taking the right (the most honourable flank, commanded by Antiochos the Great himself) and the better part of the centre, he ends up with c.38 mounted models, two elephants and 114 infantry, plus commanders. Taking the remainder of the centre and the left flank commanded by the future Seleukos IV, I will be assigned 36 mounted, 1 elephant, both scythed chariots and somewhere between 113 and 131 infantry - depending on how I end up running the Arab contingent.

Of course Magnesia is only the starting point and we hope to be able to develop this into a larger army still if the momentum continues - aiming at a fully fledged 2nd century BC Seleukid civil war.

So with that in mind, keep an eye out for sporadic future posts as Andrew and I get our toys painted!