Garrison Phrygian Spearmen in Reserve
I now have enough Phrygians for 2 x 24 man units. I really like the 25mm spearmen pictured above. I ordered a couple of axemen to throw in as officers as I'm not sold on the idea of a unit of armoured infantry with 2 handed axes as their primary armament. The wiley Rob threw in a sample Immortal in Persian robes in reserve, they are much better than is suggested by the pictures I have seen, and match exactly what I was looking for so now I will have to have at least 1 unit of them. The 20mm figure is classic early Garrison and I wanted at least 1 such unit in my army but I'll reserve judgement until I paint them. The presence of armoured infantry throwing javeleins will have me revisiting my army lists though!
Army lists are problematic beasts. In theory there is no reason that I can't sit down and just write a Lydian army list up, but I'm a bit lazy and I am wary of accidently designing a killer army if taking it into battle against maruding bands of Assyrians and Egyptians which I hope to do. I had been planning on using the Greek list but had 2 issues and now have 3. The list requires a high percentage of hoplites, I was planning on getting around this by fielding the minimum and counting any armoured Phyrgians as lightly armoured hoplites. This probably over estimates their abilities and downplays the importance of Greek and Carian allies and mercenaries. Now, looking at the figures, there is no way I can called the shield "large" and 1/2 of them are throwing javelins. The other option was to call them peltast equivalent but the list will have to be modified to allow armour and I am back to having too many Greeks. The other issue is that while the Thessalian option allows me to field enough decent cavalry to make me happy, they are slow. I had convinced myself that the Lydian lancers would be heavily armoured with high impact and thus fearsome to the lighter, faster Persians but it's iffy. I also like standards and the Greeks don't get 'em!
So, its modify the Greek list or have another look at the Persian list. Here my hoplites all come as mercenaries and I get as many good heavy lancers as I want as well as armoured infantry with spears and small shields. Rubbish in battle of course, but if you have enough they can defend a hill or obstacle well enough. The interesting bit is the need for unreliable levies and allies. The Lydian empire crumbled pretty quick when pushed and one wonders how dedicated some of the recently conquered subjects were.
A revised army roster is called for I think, then I can decide.
Try using the army DBM army lists - army 50, Lydian 687-546BC, as a basis. Assume only a proportion of the Lydians have converted to hoplites, the 25mm Phrygians are pre hoplite spearmen, the 20mm versions are standard peltast/LMI/auxlia types. Works for me, except that I don't use the 25mm ones so no pre hoplite spearmen - just lots of auxilia. The 2 handed axemen make a good bodyguard unit. As for cavalry standards - it's your army so use them.
ReplyDeleteThe other option that I like is the use of light 2 horse chariots, but you already know that!
Incidentally, for standard bearers we do some of the Persians with separate weapons - just include them and mention why and I'll include the standards.
Cheers
Rob
hmm, interesting. I don't really want to do my own list, mostly to avoid having to defend it if I win too many battles but the DBX stuff could provide a sanity check for my choices from the list should I feel the need. At the moment, I'm mostly concerned about translating the troops that I have into game terms so that the game mechanics match the look as well as the intended function. One plus for using the basic Persian list for the Lydians (it is a VERY flexible one) is that it will give me both pre-hoplite spearmen and mercenary hoplites.
ReplyDeleteIt would also give me light or heavy chariots which is interesting esp since I anticipate some battles vs chariot armies. Have to fill the warchest first though.