Contemplating the Great Divide

For the last 15 years, I have done my best to keep my ancient armies "compatible" with hobby standards, which meant, amongst other things, maintaining the ability to field 60mm wide elements regardless of how I based my troops. It hasn't always worked well for me and during that time, my Greeks and Persians have had, that I can recall, 8 opportunities to face some one else's army across the table, 5 of them against large 25mm figures using WHAB which isn't element based, 2 against large 25mm figures using Warmaster which neither of us were based for, and 1 using WHAB against a 1/72 plastic army based for WRG 3rd). The last opposed game was over 2 years ago. I don't see the opportunities increasing in the near future. Most of the large-25mm armies I might face aren't terribly appropriate enemies for my Persians anyway and the option to borrow an opponent always exists for away games. Hardly seems worth  the effort does it?

In amongst this, I have been looking at the old Grant book and looking over what's on hand with an eye to either refurbishing another old unit or starting a new one. My eye was caught on some of my older troops still based on a 15mm frontage and it brought me back to older days. My new units, in a mad attempt to harmonize 24 man  units with the option to go 2 deep or deeper while maintaining 60mm elements, and while accomodating some poorly disciplined spearmen, slid up to a 20mm frontage. Five mm doesn't sound like much but over the frontage of an army, it can mean an extra unit or 2 in the battle line, and now that I've cut my table down, that matters. It also happens to look more like massed troops.

So I am now contemplating heresy, mounting  6 heavy/medium infantry, 4 light infantry or 2 cavalry on a 45mm square base. Skirmishers will simply have their bases spread out. This will allow me to continue to field an average of 4 bases per unit so that they can go 2 deep or 4 deep but with the troops massed a little tighter with hoplites shield to shield.  I do have some heavy/medium infantry, which will remain unnamed, which cannot be squeezed onto a 15mm frontage but luckily, these can be squeezed comfortable into a 15mm depth so can be deployed 2 wide and 3 deep on the same base, so still 6 figures per element. Everyone is accommodated. That 2 of the new bases will fit inside a 4" hex is almost a coincidence that may or may not become important down the road. What ever the terrain is like, this will facilitate pursuing some Morschauser inspired rules and fitting the planned armies on the smaller table.

Not going to rush out and rebase the troops that have been recently rebased but I will try this out on the next units to be raised or refurbished. These questions of  basing, organization and compatibility have been  sticking points ever since I got frustrated with my experiment with singles and movement trays. Hopefully the way is now open to forge ahead again. My rules, my troops, my basing and organization and my not quite historical setting. Armies that only play at home, but guests welcome.

The Campaign Begins

I'm not sure that re-reading several volumes of Robert E Howard's original Conan stories was the most appropriate preparation for a vaguely historical campaign but it seems to have done the trick.  My original idea was to wait until both armies were fully ready with old troops refurbished, new ones painted, all units re-based to a new standard and so forth. It has become clear that this condition is unlikely to be met this year so I decided to start with what I had ready. The overall campaign forces are the same but units may not be used before they are ready and no stand ins will be allowed. As units are completed, they may be fielded (which may drive the painting as other units get eliminated).

I have also decided that, since time is at a premium and the mini-campaign a mere precursor,  the battles should be kept small, so I have effectively cut the scenario forces in  half. The paradigm for this round will be 6 cavalry or 12 infantry per scenario "unit". These will be grouped into wargame units as appropriate. This is an ultra lazy campaign with minimal background and paper work, If a unit is destroyed during a game then it is no longer available for future games, otherwise all units will take the field at full strength each game. Each side may choose units up to the scenario limit from their pool of units..

If I didn't mention it before, I have also decided that since I don't speak any ancient languages, I am not going to pretend but will stick to modern English as far as possible and thus will field  Generals, Regiments etc..
Not calling the Greek hoplites, hoplites will be tricky due to habit.


Each side had a theoretical force of 3 cavalry and 10 infantry regiments each of 24 figures plus conscripted pioneers if needed. The forces are as follows:

MEDES led by General Rosius in a light Chariot.


Cavalry:
Royal Chariots: 3 Heavy chariots  (counted as equal to 12 cavalry)
Hyrcanians: 12 Medium Cavalry (bow, spear, shield)
Raffum Regt: 24 Medium Cavalry   (javelin and shield, 1 squadron also has light armour)
Saka: 18 Light Cavalry Horse Archers,
Arabs: 6 Medium Camelry ( bow and spear) (eventually will be 12 strong)

Infantry:
Ecbatana, Raffum and Hyrcanian Regiments: Medium infantry with spear, bow and wicker shields.
Saka: Medium infantry with bow and wicker shields
Uxians: Light Infantry with bow and shield, levy
Scythians: Light Infantry with bow and axe, mercenaries
Armenians: Skirmishers with javelin, sling or bow, levies.
(being recruited: Susa Medium infantry regiment, Cappadocian Light Infantry, Dara Medium Spearmen)

The Mede army enters the pass.

LYDIANS led by General Aloettes

Cavalry
1/2 Regiment of Lydian Heavy cavalry (armour, spear, stubborn)
1 Regiments of Mercenary Medium cavalry (javelin, 1 squadron with shields)
1/2 regiment of mercenary light cavalry (javelin, buckler)
(another, full regiment of Lydian cavalry is being formed)

Infantry
Sardis Medium Infantry Regiment (armour, shield, spear)
Ionian and Aeolian Heavy Infantry Regiments (armour, large shield, spear, phalanx)
Thracians and Mercenary Light Infantry Regiments (shield, spear and javelin, mercenary)
Bythnian Light Infantry (shield, sickle and javelin, levy)
Archers (bow, skirmishers, levy)
Skirmishers (javelin or sling, levy)
Egyptian Allies 1/2 regiment of Ethiopean archers (1/2 regiment of Nubian archers is en route)
 Phrygian light infantry with javelin and axe is being recruited

It is interesting the psychological effect that shifting the African troops has had. I am used to thinking of the Persians as a polyglot, multi-racial army defending the established power structure but suddenly it is the Lydians who have a multi-racial army representing the powers of the day and the Mede army is a coalition of related Aryan peoples sweeping down from the hills to establish a new order.

The Battle of the Pass was fought on June 26th and a report will appear soon on my battlegame of the month blog.

Missing Post

The following post was supposed to go up 3 weeks ago but I think I waited for pictures and then forgot it!

Belatedly:
The first infantry regiment has now been through the refurbishing mill. Originally I was just going to rebase the infantry but when dealing with individual figures, its a big help if you can easily identify which regiment stray figures came from. I don't buy suggestions that units were issued particular patterns of intricately embroidered clothing even if some items were handed down from above but I do want each regiment to have its own character as well as making it easy to identify which unit a figure comes from.

For the initial campaign, there will be 4 units of spara-bara, line infantry if you will. These are:

The Hyrkanian Regiment. (formerly fielded as Immortals, I have taken their rout in the last game as an excuse to down grade them and will order 'proper' Immortals in long robes to replace them)  Yellow caps, red tunics, garrison miniatures carrying bow, spear and shield. This regiment has an associated cavalry regiment with similar dress and weaponry.

The Ecbatana Garrison Regiment. A regiment of Medes in white domed felt hats. Again, all garrison figures, 6 archers, 6 spear and spara (hats slightly modified), 12 bow, spear and shield.

The Raffum Regiment. A regiment of Iranians with white tiara, 12 archers, 12 spearmen. All RAFM figures.

The Scaran Regiment. A regiment of saka in coloured scythian caps, a mix of Garrison and Bennasi figures, all archers but the front rank will have spara (hats slightly modified and spears replaced).

Other planned regiments are the Susa Regiment of Elamite infantry in long robes and fillet, an as yet unnamed regiment of Mede spearmen, another Saka regiment which may be spara bara or light infantry and a regiment of guards in long robes..
  
    

Shields up

The Raffum Cavalry Regiment

The first full regiment of Mede cavalry has now been refurbished, reorganized and rebased. If memory serves, they were originally raised in the mid-80's as three 10 man units for WRG 6th ed (2 heavy, 1 light) and have since fought under WRG 7th, Hoplite, DBA, Armati and WHAB. Most of the figures are converted RAFM Hellenistic cavalry but there are a few converted Ral Partha Scythians and a new Garrison standard bearer. Roughly half wear visible armour, the rest might have armour under their tunics, or not. The new individual bases have been lightly coated in sawdust to soften the edges of the figures' bases and then painted to match my tabletop. This treatment helps the troops to blend into their surroundings.

Their original equipment did not include shields. The use of shields use by Mede cavalry is moot and possibly the figures look better without them but it was late, the new standard bearer had a round shield and there was this pile of painted shields recently removed from a unit of slingers and they will come in useful against some of the enemies that I might ask them to fight. The shields I have used are probably not the most likely shape and design, rather they were what I had available.

There are two main reasons for wargame cavalry to carry shields, the first is that the historical troops definitely carried them, the second is that the troops might have used them and the chosen rules reward their use. A Persian wargame army using WHAB falls under the later category, especially if it might be used as a stand-in for later armies. Since WHAB is old fashioned enough to give saving throws based on how much armour a unit is carrying, more is better as long as it isn't heavy enough to slow the unit down. The points assigned can be skewed though. A shield or a light armour will double the save chances for a cavlryman but a shield is only 1/2 the price of the armour. This of of course encourages players to choose Persian cavalry with shield and no armour rather than the more probable armour and no shield. Having both is better yet. Now this is all pretty much irrelevant  for my solo mini-campaign since I won't be counting points anyway but it bugs me none the less.

Did the Medes carry shields? Without getting too tedious, the evidence both written and pictorial would seem to indicate that at least some did at least some of the time. Why would they choose to use or not use shields in real life? The answer may be that a light shield is most useful to a horsemen engaged in hand to hand combat with other cavalry and to defend himself and his mount against missile fire but is an encumbrance to the bridal arm and makes control of the mount more difficult. When facing a Greek army, the opposing missile fire would not be a major issue and a shield would be insufficient protection to allow a frontal charge on a phalanx and wouldn't be needed if they were pursuing a broken one or attacking the flank or rear. When fighting an enemy with shock cavalry or one who relied on massed missile fire, a shield might have been more useful. The main armies that my Medes expect to face are: Lydians, Assyrians, Egyptians, fictional Alexandrian Successor, Romans and "barbarians". In all these cases, the shields will be useful if questionable.

Reviewing how my Mede cavalry works under the rules, I became aware of a problem. They don't have the oomph to be shock cavalry but if they ride up to opposing infantry to throw their javelins, they will be unable to avoid being charged except by fleeing with the possibility of causing panics and of never rallying. I have decided to deal with this in 2 ways. I intend to grant them the Parthian shot special rule which will allow them to ride up to infantry, shoot, then pull back out of charge reach. Against cavalry, they will still have to brace for impact or flee. Secondly, I have taken the step of deploying them as 6 man squadrons. These will be little threat by themselves and can be driven off by enemy missile fire but they will be very maneuverable (deployed 3 wide and 2 deep they will be able to "fast march" 24 inches per turn if they don't shoot and aren't embroiled with the enemy) and with several used together or if they can penetrate gaps in the enemy  to hit his flank or rear, they are a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand, if routed, they will be too small to bother my main combat units. The rules make standards useful, but only 1 per combat is needed so I have decided  to stay with 1 for each 2 units. This will allow me to field 4x 6 man units or 2x 12 man units.

So, without further ado we have:

Imagineering Bureaucracy

In an early post, I dabbled briefly in the background of my semi-historical Mede army. On the surface it may seem like a bit of a useless exercise but if I progress beyond stray scenarios the information may come in useful and in any event since I don't want to bother with points, it gives me a rationale for what units to deploy and how they should be organized.

One of the sticking points is that one of the few bits of information that comes easily  to hand and to mind is the organization of Persian (and presumably earlier Mede) armies into 10's, 100's and 1,000's, (not to mention 10,000's). As mentioned in earlier posts, this caused me some grief as it does not match convenient 25mm wargame unit sizes. It also does not explain how smaller forces would be selected (for example where one finds say 300 cavalry being deployed). An advantage of semi-historical gaming, especially in a poorly documented era, is that I can use my discretion and imagination to provide solutions with a clear conscience. After a mad minute where I contemplated fielding 50 man wargame units each with 10 x 5 man subunits, I settled on the following theoretical and practical organizations.

The smallest unit, the 10 man file is too small for me to work with on table, so I will begin with the 100 man sub-unit as the basis of my organization. Without worrying about niceties of ground scale, I flatly declare that 3 wargame figures or 1 chariot or elephant and crew constitute a COMPANY of 100 men.   Ten such companies constitute a REGIMENT. A full strength regiment is thus 30 figures. Three men don't look like much on the table (and aren't a legal unit under WHAB) so companies will not normally be fielded on their own, instead the regiment is divided into 5 SQUADRONS each of 2 companies or 6 men. This will be the minimum size of wargame unit. On occasion, a unit of more than squadron size but smaller than regiment size is needed. In these cases, 2 squadrons are formed into an adhoc unit called a WING.

Now, armies are rarely at full paper strength and there are two main ways to deal with this. The most common method is to maintain the number of sub-units but allow their strength to drop. This results in uneven sized subunits and so in some armies the administrative unit was not used as a tactical unit. For example, a battalion of 10 administrative companies might be fallen in and numbered off into 8 equal tactical platoons each morning, resulting in each being composed of men from several different companies.

Another, less common method, was to maintain the subdivisions as close as possible to full strength and reduce the number of sub-divisions when numbers failed. In particular, some later regiments maintained field and depot battalions or squadrons with the field ones being sent to war at, as near as possible, full strength. This is the system my Medes will adopt. Indeed, it now appears that the common practice in my army is to  send 4 squadrons into the field and hold 1 squadron back as a depot.(conveniently giving me my basic 24 man units with a rationale for smaller units).  The depot squadron is responsible for recruitment and training, looking after convalescent men, sending drafts to the front when needed and for rear area security.  
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District regiments are normally recruited in one area and armed alike. Auxiliary regiments may be composed of various contingents of mercenaries or tribal levies from the fringes of the empire. One common practice is to brigade 2 squadrons of skirmishers with a wing of light infantry equipped to either skirmish or fight hand to hand.

Skirmishers and cavalry are usually deployed by squadron, but heavier shock cavalry usually deploy in at least wing strength and occasionally as full regiments. Light infantry operating in support of the skirmishers and cavalry normally deploy by wing while massed infantry  normally deploys by regiment.

For the upcoming Lydian campaign, the following troops have been earmarked and are now completing their mobilization: 1 District cavalry regiment, 1 Auxiliary light cavalry regiment, 1 chariot wing, 6 District infantry regiments, 2 Auxilliary light infantry regiments, 1 Sapper squadron. All of these will be under the command of Rosius, Satrap of West Hantsia.  Pictures and details will hopefully be available for posting by next week.

Whether the Lydians conveniently adopt a similar system, as far as possible given their haphazard empire and reliance on seasonal mercenaries,  or go a different route, remains to be seen.

Second Thoughts

I spent a considerable time and effort convincing myself that 18 figure units, or more accurately, units with 3 bases each of 6 infantry or 6 bases of 3 cavalry, were the way to go. Maybe one day I'll learn that when I have to work that hard to convince myself of something then its probably not right. While preparing to refight Marathon, I ended up having to play with unit configurations and found that surprise, surprise, the 24 man units that I had originally envisaged were flexible and looked good.

As originally envisaged: 24 man units with 12 man light infantry and cavalry units.

Now if I do revert to 24 man infantry units, what do I do with the cavalry? Keeping to the premise that all regiments are 1,000 strong I have 2 choices: field 24 man cavalry and skirmisher units or field the cavalry and light infantry as 1/2 units or wings, for example the Skythian horse archer unit would be 24 strong but might take the field as two 12 man wings or even four 6 man troops on the day of battle. Actually having the "quarter" as an administrative and tactical sub-unit appeals to me. I have no reason to believe the Persians used such an organization but then, as I've said before, this is "MY" army.

Of course, now I'll need to paint up more troops, but that's not a bad thing.

Rosius The Forgotten, King of the Medes

There more than a few blurry spots in our knowledge of the 6thC BC, there could be a lost king whose name has not survived and perhaps whose deeds have been assigned to another, in any event, I dislike pretending to be a dead fellow. (Rosius is presumably sleeping somewhere in a cave until the call comes...)


Rosius the Forgotten, showing the effects of 30 years in the field. Oddly his personal standard appears to be nearly identical to that once carried behind Queen Johanna of Valdur. (Hinchliff Sassinid and Minifig Seleucid figures)

A few more things need to be considered before we get to a list of units, how big is the army going to be and how is the army theoretically raised and maintained so that if and when a major campaign is launched, there'll be a basis for replacing casualties (Please note that I make no reference to paying for said army, I find financial matters tedius enough in this world).

In reverse order, lets look at how the army is raised and please do not confuse this with the historical Persian army. The core of the army, both native Medes and subject regiments are raised by district. Young men are selected each year to serve for 4 years, should they live so long. Each winter an order is sent home as to how many recruits are required to bring the unit up to strength once the full timers have been dismissed. Assuming that there are enough young men to replace not only the released men but also any sick. wounded and dead soldiers, the units are thus brought up to full strength by the start of the campaign season. The soldiers who have served their time, return to their homes but remain liable for call up with each district being resposible to furnish a 2nd full strength unit, normally for home defence. Most districts supply what we may call line infantry, equipped according to their native fashion, but some districts supply cavalry.

In addition to the district regiments, the pick of the young noblemen of the kingdom are drawn off to serve in the King's guards, both horse and foot. Once they have served their 4 years, most return home but some are picked for long time service as senior oficers in the district regiments or as members of the palace guard which does not normally take the field. Casualties to the guards are immediately made good by other regiments in the army. There are also some small technical units which are maintained directly by the king on a full time basis, the Corps of Charioteers, the Department of the Quartermaster, and the Engineers.

There remain two other sources to be considered, on occasion, contingents from allied kingdoms may be found fighting alongside the Medes or even under their command and, when needed, mercenaries may be hired. This is normally done as a way of obtaining specialist troop types not available in the district regiments or during times of political unrest. Mercenary units do not have a regular system for replacing casualties and may be brought up to strength periodically or left to dwindle away and be repalced by a fresh unit as expedient.


Apulian mercenaries in Persian service? Who knew?

Now we know how the units are raised, how many should there be? I'm certainly not going to paint even 120,000 Medes at 1:50 which leaves me various options but the one I am going to choose is to fight the campaign with those units that I can field even though they will never all be on the table at once and even though this means I will be fighting a major war of with an army of almost certainly less than 20,000 men.

The army, following its reorganizaation, and omitting any Greek or Bythnian units, currently has 4 regiments of cavalry, 9 of infantry plus a small contingent of chariots and camelry. The Immortals are actually a double sized unit which is fielded as wings and some of the light infantry regiments are currently understrength and currently take the field in combined units. The cavalry has never been properly reorganized and are also currently fielded as composite regiments. This is probably as big an army as I would ever want to put on the table at once but there are some more units that I want to build, like Persian infantry in long robes, and of course, the composite regiments need to be split and filled out or 1 of the units scrapped. Its a rare table top teaser that has as many as 16 units and of course, in a 'proper' campaign, the size of a force will be determined by the events leading up to a battle. So if I plan on 6 cavalry units, counting the chariots and cavalry as one, and 14 infantry units, then I should be all set.