Run down like dogs

I had the my first battle with the Seleucids and it wasn't pretty! It was 1500 points but built like a frontier force so mostly cavalry and light units. The scenario was I had to take and hold a Arab caravan in the center of the table. The armies came on in a marching order (1D6 units per turn) entering the table from a 12" section in the middle of the table side.

I had the Old Man, Army Battle Standard, 1 Phalanx, 2 Thureophoroi, 2 Euzonoi (skirmishers), 1 unit of slingers, 1 Politikoi Cav (med cav), 1 Tarentine Cav (oh so nice light cav), and 1 Skythian cav unit. Jeff had a similar army to mine except I had a bit lighter but more maneuverable cav.

Here's the objective and end of first turn. We both got 5 units on the board. Seleucids on the left, Ptolemaic army on the right.


This is the end of Turn 2.



By the 2nd and 3rd turn, I shot the Thracian light cav on the right enough to cause them to break and run off. My Tarentines were charged by the Ptolemaic heavy cav, caught after they fire and fleed (rolled a 5 for distance ugg), were beaten and ran from combat only to get run down again (rolled a 3 this time). So there went my left flank guard.


My 2nd Thureophoroi unit finally came on and I had to send it over to my left flank to try to hold up the Ptolemaic cav. The middle infantry units marched closer and some Galation Nobles cavalry that marched on earlier failed their Warband roll and moved up into charge range of my Politikoi cavalry. I ended up charging them, they fled and rolled high enough to exit the table.

After this it all went downhill.

The Ptolemaic heavy cav turned around to go save their flank and a unit of Cretan archers shot a few cavalry models. When it was my turn to go I thought my cavalry could run down the Cretans without much trouble but I couldn't hit the buggers and ended up fleeing before them. My Phalanx charged the Ptolemaic phalanx but lost and failed both their rout checks only to get run down. The Old Man thought behind the Phalanx would be save ran away, only the ASB stuck around bewildered to see a Phalanx charge into him. My Thureophoroi did do my proud though. They stuck around two turns fighting a enemy Thureophoroi and Thorakitai unit. But finally it was too much and they too got run down.



It all ended with my last Thureophoroi breaking the beat up Ptolemaic Thureophoroi unit that slammed into it from running my other unit down. The Politikoi rallied but can't do anything against a Phalanx blocking it's path. My last Thureophoroi hit the Thorakitai, cried because their lord didn't care enough to give them any armor and ran off the field. So the Ptolemaic army kept the caravan in the end.

It was a good battle. It could of went either way.

Thureophoroi & General

I won some Thureophoroi off Ebay and wanted to use them for the first campaign game, so I quickly painted up a command for them. The troopers are from Old Glory. The command is Gripping Beast. I need to do a bit of touch up on the troopers. It looks like they painted using the Army Painter dip and it dirtied up the white and yellows a bit. I use Minwax polyshades Ancient Walnut on my figures, but I end up highlighting and painting over quite a bit of the model after I brush on the dip. Here is a picture of the Thureophoroi.


I got 30 of these guys so two groups of 15 troops plus 3 command I'll paint up myself will be two nice units of 18. I need to remember to deepen their ranks a bit when playing WAB 1.5 (which I forgot to do my first battle with them and the Phalanx!).

Next is some Javelinmen I painted up. They are from Gripping Beast too. It's not that great of a picture. I think they look better in person. I'll probably paint the next group of ten in more of a uniform with some sort of shield device.


Before the game coming up I got my 1st Corp order in. So I quickly painted up a general from their Mounted Generals pack. He's the old man that'll lead my armies until the King shows up with the rest of the Argyraspides, Heraitoi and the levies from the eastern part of the empire. For an Army Standard Bearer I think I'll take one of the generals that's holding a sword and give him a standard instead.


Finally here is one of the Phalanx with the basing done.


So what's next? I got the Navigator order in and I got 12 Arab archers all prepped up. I got the Crusader order in too, so the Hellanistic Thracians with Rhomphaia will be after that.

Another Phalanx done

It took two weeks but I got another Phalanx done. Boy these take a long time. I'm used to painting 15 mm guys. Here's a couple pictures of the new unit.


I still need to do the basing but I'm not positive how I want to do it yet. I'll probably wait until I get a few more units done first then go on a basing spree. I was a bit concerned after I put on all the shields with the upside down anchor and painted one on the banner when I saw 1st Corp sample had their anchor right side up. After a bit of checking around I think I got it right.

I got 10 Javelinmen in the works to get painted up now. These shouldn't take too long compared to the pikemen. I've been looking around to see if there is any info on shields for the Seleucid skirmishers. I haven't found much so far. I'll probably paint them up leather color with no symbols on them unless I find something that looks good.

Seleucids Start Up

So I decided to start up a new WAB army. At first I was thinking of doing a Picts army from Age of Arthur but I already have a light infantry army with my Bulgars. I wanted something heavy infantry based. It was between a Roman army using Jeff Jonas' Late Republican Romans army list or a Successor army. After seeing Gripping Beast's new Polemarch range and 1st Corp's Seleucid cataphracts I went with a Seleucid army.

I bugged Jeff J. a bit and got some information about the new Seleucid list. So with that I starting planning. Here's what I'm going to start out painting.

Hyparchos as a General
Army Standard Bearer
28 figure Phalanx unit
28 figure Phalanx unit
18 figure Thureophoroi unit
18 figure Thracian unit
12 figure Javelinmen unit
12 figure Arab archer unit
12 figure Politikoi Cavalry unit
9 figure Thracian or Arab cavalry unit

The Phalanx, Thureophoroi and Javelinmen are Gripping Beast figures. The Thracian foot and cavalry are Crusader. Politikoi and Arabs are Navigator from Magistor Militum. I also order some Amazon Miniatures to add to the Arabs archers and Politikoi. Hopefully they will fit together. The first Phalanx is done and the second should be done this week. Next up is the Javelinmen and Thureophoroi.

After the above units get painted, I'll work on getting more of the archetypal Seleucid units done. I got 2 Argyraspides Phalanx units from Gripping Beast; a Herairoi, Agema Cataphract and normal Cataphract unit from 1st Corp all ordered. I'll have to get some elephants sometime but I'm not big into them.

Here's two quick pictures of the Phalanx.