Saturday 30 July 2016

The Seleucid – the mounted elements.

Any reader contemplating collecting the Seleucid I would recommend having B. Bar-Kochva – The Seleucid Army – organization and tactics in the great campaigns in your library. The author gives an in depth analysis of the regular army from its changes during the early Successor period to the empire’s collapse.

My Seleucid collection will represent the armies that came into contact with Rome to the final campaign against the Maccabees and will cover both DBA lists II/19c and d. The only difference between the two lists are the introduction of imitation legionnaires (4Bd) and the addition of LH/Cv, the latter presumably to counter the Parthian threat. Other than the minor changes, the regular army still comprises of cataphract, phalanx, elephants and scythed chariot, thureophoroi or thorakites, archers and slingers. 


Painting.
The cavalry like the infantry are divided into three groups representing the Royal Guard, the Guard and the troops of the line (katoikoi).

All cataphract are fully armoured and therefore the only discernible difference between the three groups might be horse harness and lance colour; there is no mention of pennons or plumes in the references I read. To create some difference between the three commands, I used purple for the Royal Guard command and two shades of red for the other two. I also varied the amount of brass colour between the three commands.

The colour schemes for both the elephant and chariot are a standard pattern as these would more than likely be grouped together for larger battles.

Last step is the texturing of the base and adding some grass. 



Cheers, 

3 comments:

  1. lovely post on your Seleucid's Robert! I concur, B. Bar-Kochva – The Seleucid Army is a must have in anyone's wargaming/history book collection. I like your elephant corps and cavalry elements, very impressive!

    cheers,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Phil. I have two books of Dr. Grainger's Seleukid trilogy arriving this week which should full some campaign ideas.

    There are test games planned for both the Seleucid and Carthaginian against the consular army.

    I plan to use the "allied contingent" option for the Romans, either the Celtiberian or Numidian against the Carthaginian and the Pergamene against the Seleucid.

    ReplyDelete