The Start of Something Persian

My Macedonian army will be needing someone to fight and as mentioned before I would be supplying the Persians and of course bought the army pack from Baccus about a month or so back. I did manage to get them started with a few infantry and cavalry units during the challenge.

Three units each of 36 figures were dashed off the painting table, quite a colourful bunch that will please some and raise the blood pressure of others.

These are under Hail Caesar are Levies with either spear or spear and bow. Under old 6th Edition they would be Kardrakes with JLS and bow and they rocked. Not so much these days but under Field of Glory they lost the bow altogether and were quite a poor choice in a game.

I just could not resist adding a couple of silly shields to one unit. Talking of shields these were just a series of random patterns with the idea that they just blend in when viewed on the table top. Again my idea of LOTS of units mean that the view of mass and quick painting are the main concern.

The second spear only armed unit. I intend to paint up roughly two spear to one mixed until I have a fairly large number then I will possibly do more mixed once a few games have been played and see how it works out.

From behind they look more of a uniform colour, this is to allow me to roughly colour code all the units into divisions on the table but without them all looking the same.

One rank of spear and two of bow, these I hope will give the Persians an edge in the game up to the point of contact, then it all comes down to how badly they have mauled the Macedonian's. Having yet to commit to a definite set of rules we may have fun sorting this out. My feeling that Hail Caesar will bog down too much with fifty plus units per side. I am most interested in taking a little from the Command & Colors Ancients and making changes that will suit our armies.

I can almost make up three units of these for every single Phalanx I paint up so I expect the units to quickly pile up when I really get into painting them. A good thing too as I will be needing thirty plus levy units along with the ten plus Hoplite units etc.

Not that I can just rely on the foot so I have started with a couple of units of Persian Satrap cavalry. I have enough figures for two more units before moving onto the Colonist cavalry. Again I will be needing many more of these, but the same can also be said about my Companion cavalry.

Again I could not resist doing something a little naughty. Seems my cavalry has picked up a sponsor. This battle is brought to you by McD, I'm lovin' it!

The red unit is a little bit more traditional. In both cases I forgot to add the dice cells, I have an idea of attaching one to them but not sure if it will not just add other issues so will have to ponder.

So a start has been made on the Persian elements of the army, just a small stab into what will be a long term project. The Macedonian part will continue to get the most of my painting time for this project though our plans to put an Ancients game on at this years Joy of Six has had to be shelved in favour of another Napoleonic game, the question remains what exactly will we put on?