Persia- Last of the Achaemenids

 

This is my Achaemenid Persian Army. That of Darius, King of Kings, King of Aryans and Non Aryans etc and so forth.  Darius wasn't a bad General and the Army was a good one. Alexander though, was something else altogether. Not to mention the first rate army he inherited from Phillip.

We might note Mithridates of Pontus claimed Achaemenid and Seleucid descent. It was still politically useful in his day and in his case true enough.

Lots of Greeks didn't fancy Macedonian rule at all. For some fighting for the Great King was lucrative and principled. The golden combination. I'm right and I'm getting rich. Once again the basing follows Civitates Bellantes, saving skirmish cavalry on single bases. Essex ones above.

Here are the Hoplites arrayed.  

The best ones are from Forged in Battle. 

Gladiator are nice but the spears are too short. 

The Essex ones are lovely, but spears need gluing, and don't have the right shields. Luckily Geoff at QRF sent me shields to enable  replacement surgery. Fiddly, but a good result. I'll refrain from further knowing one's arse from one's aspis jokes. 

With Forged in Battle you just need to paint them. Lancashire Games below. Not a bad Darius at all.  Nice light infantry too. They can also appear for some Diadochi Armies.

The Persians had one of those martial shifts that surprise. They abandoned mass archery. These are Old Glory Cardaces carrying both spear and bow. 

The shield is a bit odd, nearly an aspis but with an under developed boss. I'm going to treat them as Light Spearmen under Civitates Bellantes.  Although they have a bow case no arrows are visible. They should be quite capable and have high morale comprised as they were of the youth of the Persian nobility.

Old Glory Scythian nobles below. I should manage another base worth of these.

A few shooters remained either able to close fight or accompanied by close fighters. A debate rumbles on about who was who and did what, how. I'm not up to date with it.

Above, QRF Asiatic Archers. These ones are good for Pontic Armies too.

Above Old Glory Persian Archers and Darius in chariot from Lancashire Games. Body guards from Xyston, I have another six to paint. 

Old Glory Persian heavy cavalry above. Essex Kinsmen Body Guard cavalry next.  Bill Lamming sold me these at a discount from his shop. He was about to retire. How time flies by. These were painted decades ago when I still did the eyes.

The obvious thing to do with all these fellows is to get the Hoplites to hold  the Macedonian Phalanx and swarm the flanks. History tells us that was easier said than done. Fun to try all the same.