Mighty Morphin' Armies
One of the best ideas to come out of the DBA community was when someone realised, given that armour and uniform changed at a slow pace for a few centuries, if one was judicious in the choice of figures and paint schemes, one could assemble a single army that was useable as several others - in effect, several armies for the price (and painting effort) of one. Here are a few examples
- how to build 8 roman armies for the price of two,
- the same thing with Alexander and his successors,
- and with Egyptian armies.
Anything that saves me money, and effort, is a Good Thing as far as I'm concerned, and I've decided to try a morph of my own. I realised last night that the 15mm Nubians I've got from Chariot Miniatures give me enough figures to morph an Early Libyan army from them. I laid out all the unpainted figures this morning to see if the numbers work out, and this is what I can field with existing stock:
Nubians
1 x 3Bows (General)
2 x 3Warband
8 x 2Psiloi
I'm short of 1 more 2Psiloi base, which is easily remedied by bringing across the slingers from the Mycenaean army - one naked skirmisher is little different from another.
Early Libyans (1250BC to 660BC)
1 x LightChariot (General)
3 x 3Warband
3 x 3Bows
5 x 2Psiloi
I'll have to sacrifice my spare Sea Peoples chariot to provide the command base - which is alright, give that I have another chariot painted up. Although the chariot design is therefore a Sea Peoples one, the crossover is historically plausible, since the Libyans were closely allied with the Sea Peoples in the period I'm painting them in, and its likely that the Libyans could have used, or copied chariot designs from the Sea Peoples. According to the army list, the Libyans at this time were divided into the traditionalist Lubu (good old throwing spears and bows) and more 'advanced' Meshwesh tribes (new fangled swords and chariots) so I suppose I'll have an army consisting of Lubu luddites being led by a progressive Meshwesh chieftain. None of this makes any difference to the game, of course, but its always nice to know more about the armies you're painting, and it adds colour (verbal, rather than visual) to the game to be able to personalize your figures down to their tribes. Pictures will follow soon.
- how to build 8 roman armies for the price of two,
- the same thing with Alexander and his successors,
- and with Egyptian armies.
Anything that saves me money, and effort, is a Good Thing as far as I'm concerned, and I've decided to try a morph of my own. I realised last night that the 15mm Nubians I've got from Chariot Miniatures give me enough figures to morph an Early Libyan army from them. I laid out all the unpainted figures this morning to see if the numbers work out, and this is what I can field with existing stock:
Nubians
1 x 3Bows (General)
2 x 3Warband
8 x 2Psiloi
I'm short of 1 more 2Psiloi base, which is easily remedied by bringing across the slingers from the Mycenaean army - one naked skirmisher is little different from another.
Early Libyans (1250BC to 660BC)
1 x LightChariot (General)
3 x 3Warband
3 x 3Bows
5 x 2Psiloi
I'll have to sacrifice my spare Sea Peoples chariot to provide the command base - which is alright, give that I have another chariot painted up. Although the chariot design is therefore a Sea Peoples one, the crossover is historically plausible, since the Libyans were closely allied with the Sea Peoples in the period I'm painting them in, and its likely that the Libyans could have used, or copied chariot designs from the Sea Peoples. According to the army list, the Libyans at this time were divided into the traditionalist Lubu (good old throwing spears and bows) and more 'advanced' Meshwesh tribes (new fangled swords and chariots) so I suppose I'll have an army consisting of Lubu luddites being led by a progressive Meshwesh chieftain. None of this makes any difference to the game, of course, but its always nice to know more about the armies you're painting, and it adds colour (verbal, rather than visual) to the game to be able to personalize your figures down to their tribes. Pictures will follow soon.
Comments
Post a Comment