Syro-Cannanite & Mitanni Armies

The Mitanni, who are obscure enough that archeologists have not yet even identified their main cities which were roughly around present day northern Syria, were the first people to establish a 'chariot' empire in the region. The DBA army list gives them a stonking 6 chariot elements (out of 12 elements), the most awarded to any chariot army by the army lists-making them the chariot period equivalent of a blitzkreig 'panzer' army. The DBM army book notes that around half of these would be the chariots with armoured warriors (the elite of the 'Maryannu'), the rest unarmoured chariots including Syro-Canaanite vassals.

The various Syro-Canaanite city states were a fractious lot, often under the influence of a larger empire (Mitanni, Hittite and Egyptian) and frequently appealing to their overlords to help them in their squabbles and petty wars. Under Mitanni influence they acquired chariots. At the battle of Meggiddo (aka 'Armageddon') in which an alliance of Canaanite states, with Mitanni allies, took on the might of the Egyptian empire, Egyptian records of booty taken indicate that probably about half the charioteers were armoured. The DBA army list gives these armies 4 chariot elements.

Close-up of a 'Mitanni' chariot

So for these armies, I've produced three types of chariots, shown in the first two shots. One is the Caesar Miniatures 'Mitanni Maryannu' chariot with armoured crew, which can be used in just about any army. The set has more crew than chariots so it can be used to equip Atlantic Egyptian Chariots (which come six rather than two to a box, so are the most economical way to buy chariots) for added numbers. The second type of chariot is one with unarmoured crew, again Atlantic chariots, with good old Airfix 'Robin Hood' figures, which actually do a good job of impersonating the look of Foundry's unarmoured charioteers. The third is a set of crew drawn from Hat's Roman Auxiliary set, using 'Eastern archers' in scale mail, who I think make passable armoured 'Maryannu', again in Atlantic chariots. In fact, I might not need to use as many of these as anticipated as the 'Mitanni' set gives me plenty.

With several boxes of Caesar Mitanni painted up, and several boxes of Atlantic Chariots, and numerous crews, all that remains is to assemble them, something I've put off just because I'd also like to base them, but based up chariots take up a lot of storage space, and I've run out of storage boxes.

Here's a close up of an unarmoured charioteer. I might add reins made out of thin plasticard:

The other main troop type in a Canaanite army is the Canaanite militia, classified as auxiliaries in DBA. Having closely studied various sources, including Foundry's interpretation of them, I've come up with the following force.

Its made up of a motley collection drawn from some figures in Caesar's Sea People set, plus some of Caesar's Bedouins and various figures from Atlantic's Egyptian infantry set given a 'paint conversion', generally more colourful kilts, and painted on wrap around tunics which are roughly based on some Egyptian images of nomads who drifted into the delta region.

The figures are largely painted and in that awkward stage that you get with painting 'irregulars' of needing to add a bit more colour/detail but not wanting to do too much and spoil the 'look' of the unit.

In addition to these I've got some more Atlantic Egyptians that I 'paint converted', with a view to fielding a Hyksos army, themselves a wave or waves of invaders into Egypt from the Canaanite area in an earlier period, which can easily 'bulk up' this force.

I had originally come up with a small force based again on that good old 20mm standby the 'Robin Hood' set, with pins added for spears, cardboard shields and headbands painted on. I actually quite like the figures, which I modelled on several pictures I'd found of Elamites, and I'm sure could well have been a common dress, but decided fairly arbitarily to just these as 'Syrian' spearmen for the northern states and the Mitanni.

These are similarly 'Robin Hood' figures painted as auxiliary archers, again in the 'Elamite' style which quite frankly could be used in plenty of middle-eastern armies.

Finally, these are some archers taken from Hat's 'Assyrian Auxiliaries'. They are again likely to be typical of troops from the general Syrian area over a wide time period, and useable with lots of armies, although I'll probably use them with the Mitanni. I've also got various other skirmishers and light troops from the Midianite Arab army and some figures in the Caesar Sea People set believed to be Shashu Bedouin based as skirmishers.

The main question with these armies is just how many elements to make up. I have the chariots to assemble, the militia to finish, more 'robin hood' figures to convert, and I've started on another batch of 'Assyrian Ally' archers. Do you want to fight a little campaign based on Canaanite city state struggle? In which case you want several armies, and Philistines and Hebrews could be added to the mix. If so are standard 12 element DBA armies enough? Twelve chariot elements could equip three different city state armies, but if you wanted the Mitanni involved that rises to 18, and if Hittite/Egyptian armies got involved they might need allied light chariots too. If you want larger armies, how large do you want them and how many do you want? For 'Double-based DBA', I only need twice the number of chariots than in a standard DBA armies-so 8 for a Syro-Canaanite and 12 for a Mitanni, but could need three times that for a triple command DBA army (ie, 12 and 16). At Meddigo, the Canaanites relied on Mitanni allies, so for a 'Big Battle DBA' fight I'd want two commands of Canaanites, and one of Mitanni, probably with more armoured charioteers in it -ie, 14 in total. If I fight Mitanni versus Hittites, I could bulk up the Mitanni with Canaanite allies, but what if I want to fight Mitanni against Canaanite on a big scale? That would be 20 chariots in total for double based and 38 if triple command 'Big Battle'. What about 'Impetus' where the army lists appear more 'chariot heavy' but require fewer infantry....

...all told the 'Chariot stash' or 'pool' consists of 36 chariots all painted (although it seems you can always keep adding detail to chariots!) with another six unpainted in reserve, with lots crews painted up - Mitanni from the Caesar set, unarmoured robin hood figs, armoured Eastern Archers, Egyptians armoured (Caesar) and unarmoured (Atlantic), Hittites and some Myceanean Greeks/Trojans waiting to be painted. Eight I've earmarked for the Myceanean greeks/Trojans, four provisionally for unarmoured Egyptians. The rest are all waiting on a decision on who gets what, and some bases to be cut and terrained...

Pic of the 'Chariot Stash'

All these decisions partly rely on the input of future wargaming partners...and having enough storage for all those chariots when based up...

Hittite Army

My wife who pours little but scorn on my hobby, generally asks me just one question when I return from the wargames club, "How did the Hittites get on?'. In fact, the Hittites have never made it onto the tabletop in anger, but 'Hittites' is such a good name, who can resist it?

It is also one of those obscure peoples and empires that few people out there could actually tell you much about. In fact, there empire was possibly as powerful and significant as the ancient Egyptians who everyone knows about, but there climate was not as dry as the Egypt so their have not been such spectacular archeological survivals. They were based in Anatolia (modern eastern Turkey) but exercised hegemony over much of the Middle East, as far west as Troy and the Aegean, as far south as the Canaanite states, over much of modern day Syria, and at various times conquered the Babylonian states in Iraq. They were much more 'feudal' than the Egyptians in organisation, and many of the later practices of 'feudal society' might originate with them.

The distinctive arm of the Hittite army were their heavy chariots, although they used lighter chariots in the earlier period, and their armies included vassals and allies, who also rode lighter two-man chariots. Heavy Chariots are popular with DBA wargamers, because the function like 'Knights', which are something of a 'killer' element.

The Hittite Old and Middle Kingdom army list for 1680-1380BC is as follows:

1 x Light Chariot (General), 1 x Light Chariot, 1 x3Blade or 3Spear, 6 x 3Spear, 2 x 2Psiloi, 1 x 7 Horde or 2 x 2 Psiloi.

For the Hittite Empire, contemporaneous with the New Kingdom in Egypt, there are two period variations:

1380-1275 BC 1 x Light Chariot (General), 3 x Light Chariots, 6 x 3 Spear, 1x 2Psiloi, 1 x 7 Horde or 1 x 2 Psiloi

1274-1180 BC 1 x Heavy Chariot (General), 2 x Heavy Chariot, 2 x Light Chariot, 6 x 3 Spear, 1x 2Psiloi, 1 x 7 Horde or 1 x 2 Psiloi

This is the shot of the Heavy Chariot force in my collection.

At the top of the page is a close up of a Hittite king by New Line Designs. It has a special place in my heart as it was made especially for me. I was discussing stocking New Line Products in my on-line shop, and the owner said, you know I've been meaning to sculpt a king for the Hittites, and he did, and he sent it to me! I'm not sure if its ever gone on general release, but it's nice to know that I play a small part in its creation! Below is a close up of one of the regular heavy chariots. Like all the rest of the Heavy Chariots its made by Caesar Miniatures.

I've not included pics of the light chariots in this force as they are just drawn from other armies, Mitanni/Canaanite for now, possibly also Trojan when I've done them. I have a few unarmoured Hittite figures held back to pop into a stack of Atlantic Egyptian chariots that I have painted. I haven't done it yet because various armies have 'claims' on these chariots, and I keep changing my mind which to go for. But the problem will be easily resolved if I painted up another box I have, and one of the other things holding up the whole operation is running out of storage boxes-chariots when based take up a lot of room.

Next up is a unit of Hittite Royal Guard Heavy Infantry. In DBA 1.0 there was just one Hittite Army list, with these boys in it (classified as blades) but in the much expanded DBA 2.0 army lists, there are three Hittite army lists (all with period variations), and they only make it on to the earlier list, which does not extend to the 'Hittite Empire'.

Next up are the bulk of the Hittite infantry, Hittite spearmen. I've based them four to a base. I personally think the DBA army lists have made a right 'horlicks' of classifying Hittite infantry. In DBA 1.0 they started out as 'Auxiliaries', presumably on the assumption that these were a 'mountain' or at least 'highland' people. At the time most Egyptian infantry were classified as 'Spear', so outclassed them. But the images of Hittites at the battle of Kadesh on Rameses the Great's monuments show them as closely packed phalanxes of spearmen. So when they came to write the DBM army lists (which preceeded the DBA 2.0) lists, they clearly took this on board and compromised making them Aux(X), which is DBM speak for auxiliary light troops with long spears, who clumped together to resist cavalry, like Japanese Ashiguru. Because, DBA doesn't have Aux(X), in 2.0 they get classified as Sp (in fact 3Sp which is just a recommendation to base them 3 to a base - which supposes they are a loose formation), which would be fine if Egyptian infantry had not now been upgraded to 'Blades', which again outclasses them. This would all be fine if there was good evidence that they were inferior to Egyptian infantry. Except there isn't. In fact, Egyptian sources speak very highly of Hittite infantry, saying they are a tough opponent!

So you pays your money and takes your choice...

The Caesar infantry set has some infantry armed with spear, and some with sickle sword and axes. Those with sickle sword I've based three to a base, but under DBA rules they are Sp as well. The Hittite Empire was taken down by a variety of opponents include tribes called the Kaskans or Gasgans, who lived in the mountainous areas of North-Eastern Turkey, and in fact, troubled the Hittite Empire all through its history. Although we don't know much about the Kaskans, they appear to have dressed like the Hittites, but their forces - or at least 5 elements of it- are classified as 'Warband' in DBA, so there is ever call to put together a Kaskan army, these boys are ready to join it!

They infantry is the main thing holding up the completion of this army. I wasn't happy with my original paint job and have been tinkering with it, and as a result not varnished or terrained the bases. Also my various calculation of being able to field different armies with different periods variations in different combinations including Big Battle DBA and 'Double-based' DBA led me to conclude that I needed more figures than I had originally bought and painted up, particularly for the 'Horde' elements (7 figure elements) an option in the DBA 2.0 Hittite Empire army list. I've bought, undercoated and based these, but need to do the fiddly job of attaching weapons before painting.

Reinforcements awaiting the arrival of a paint brush!

Of course, if I wanted just a straight DBA army there'd be no problem getting it ready pretty quickly.

To finish off here are a couple of 'horde' elements and the skirmishers (psiloi in DBA-speak), of which I have plenty for any sort of army- including a Kaskan army which needs 6 elements of skirmishers.

The 'Basic Impetus' army is as follows. It consists of 9 units in total, 5 of them chariots, making it much 'chariot heavier' than the DBA army. Unlike the DBA army the majority are light chariots, which might be more historically accurate. There is also a larger skirmish element, but the list is kinder to the Heavy Foot at least. Taking an 'Impetus' unit to be the equivalent to one of my 'double-based DBA' units, to field this army you need 4 Heavy Chariot Models, 6 Light Chariots, 16 'heavy' infantry figures, 16 'light' and 16 skirmishers.

HITTITE EMPIRE (VDT=20/10)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
2	CGP(*)	8	6	4	3	various
3	CGL	10	5	1	3	various
1	FP	5	4	2	2
1	FL	8	3	1	1	javelin
2	S	8	2	0	1	short bow B or sling or javelin

CGP= Heavy Chariots; CGL= Light Chariots; CF= Schyted Chariots; CP= Heavy Cavalry; CM= Medium Cavalry; CL= Light Cavalry; FP= Heavy Infantry; FL= Light Infantry; S= Skirmishers; T= Missile Troops, EL= Elephants ; ART= Artillery

M= Movement; VBU= Basic Unit Value; I= Impetus Bonus, VD= Demoralization Value; VDT= Total Demoralization Value

(*) Unit that can include general

New Kingdom Egyptian Army

The New Kingdom Egyptian army covers the period 1543-1069BC, kicking off with the explusion of the Hyksos and covering the great warrior pharaohs, including Rameses II. There is a period variation in the DBA 2.0 army lists to cover the last 140 years or so when a Libyan dynasty took over, which essentially substitutes a Libyan warband element for one of the bow elements.

The main DBA list is as follows:

1543-1200 1x Light Chariot (Gen), 3x Light Chariots, 3x3/4 Blades, 4x 4Bow, 1x 2 Psiloi

Here's a close-up of the general model, which is metal by New Line Designs:

The standard 12 element DBA army has 4 chariot elements, and this is what they look like, with the New Line general accompanied by Caesar Egyptian Chariots. This is not the whole chariot force available for the Egyptians. There is another Caesar one painted up (not shown because one of the horses needs gluing back on). The Caesar set gives plenty of spare figures which I've completely painted and can be stuck into the more economic Atlantic chariot set (six to a box rather than just two in the Casear sets) of which I have a 'stash' all painted and plenty of unarmoured Egyptian charioteers from the Atlantic sets, several completely made up . The Egyptians (for example at Kadesh) also had Canaanite allies, so a few chariots from the Canaanite army can be added too. So fielding a 'Double-based' army or a triple command DBA army is not a problem. Its simple a question of how many Egyptian chariots do I want to make up ahead of time, when there are several other armies with a 'call option' on them.

Four chariots with armoured charioteers (Caesar miniatures)

Some unarmoured charioteers (Atlantic figures)

The Egyptian army has also a strong heavy infantry core, three elements in the standard DBA list. I have a dozen or so elements painted up and finished, so all combinations of larger armies are pretty much covered. They are from two different Caesar Miniatures sets. There first set was perhaps better, and came with shields and weapons to attach but had hardly any archers. The second had many more archers, and a bunch of heavy infantry moulded in one piece. Both are nice painted up.

The main New Kingdom army list has 4 Bow elements. Here are two 'Double-based' units. The one in front are thought to be Syrian archers, so could see service in their native land (the Syro-Canaanite army list has the option of one unit of bow). They are basically painted. I haven't varnished them and terrained the bases because I am still pondering if to paint a bit more detail on them.

This is a unit of bald-headed archers, who were apparently priests.

Finally there is a Nubian archer unit. They are from Caesar's Nubian set. The Medja were used as a kind of military police by the Egyptian army. All the Nubians archers in the Nubian army list are either 2Ps or 3Bw (ie. two or three figures to a base) and I have plenty more anyway.

I have a few more elements of archers, which if necessary will allow the Syrians to play in 'away strip'.

This is what the whole looks like. As mentioned more chariots can be added.

The 'Basic Impetus' rules give the army nine units as follows. As an 'Impetus' unit is basically the same as a 'double-based' DBA unit, in total it requires 8 chariot models, 32 Heavy foot figures, 32 Archers, and 8 skirmishing archers.

NEW KINGDOM EGYPTIANS (VDT=19/10)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
4	CGL(*)	10	5	1	3	various
2	FP	6	4	2	2
2	T	6	3	0	1	short bow A
1	S	8	2	0	1	short bow B

CGP= Heavy Chariots; CGL= Light Chariots; CF= Schyted Chariots; CP= Heavy Cavalry; CM= Medium Cavalry; CL= Light Cavalry; FP= Heavy Infantry; FL= Light Infantry; S= Skirmishers; T= Missile Troops, EL= Elephants ; ART= Artillery

M= Movement; VBU= Basic Unit Value; I= Impetus Bonus, VD= Demoralization Value; VDT= Total Demoralization Value

(*) Unit that can include general

Aliens! 28mm Sci-Fi

I've always loved Sci-Fi on TV and on the big screen, although never really got on with the novels, and for my money there are no more cracking Sci-Fi films that the 'Alien' movies. So over time I've put together this little set of figures and scenery. Alien models are from East Riding Miniatures, Colonial Marines are Denizen and some personality figures are from Hasslefree. Corridors etc. are cardstock from Worldworks (have bought PDF so can print off unlimited copies), and the resin models are by Megaminis but are OOP. I used to sell some of these in my online shop, and got a figure painter customer to paint up some of the minis for better photos. I've also got plastic Alien and Predator models I used to sell on 'clicker' bases, but they are in storage.

I've been toying with the idea for ages of printing off lots of corridor and sticking it to MDF to make it a bit more solid, and coming up with a skirmish/role-playing game where you explore the complex/spaceship or whatever, picking up cards which either indicate survivors, clues, distractions (cats etc.), acid holes in the floor or activate swarms of the bad guys! A few secret mission cards, like 'Try and bring an alien back alive', 'You are actually an android' for select players might keep the paranoia going....But never got around to putting it into action.

Here's some more shots. There's a bit of camera shake as a marine goes down in the first!

This one could be Ripley getting a shock just as she's about to go into hypersleep in the first 'Alien' film.

Here's a 'Get away from her you, bitch!' shot with the Alien Queen

Finally a few shots of the marines coming up against some face 'huggers' and metamorphosizing xenomorphs....

The little force that supplied the 'Colonial Marines' in these shots, are a great range of figures from a tiny operation down in Sussex called Denizen Miniatures.

Here's a couple of close ups:

Finally here's a shot of the whole force of 'Colonial marines', which is enough to make a little platoon. They wouldn't normally be deployed in such a cramped fashion, and make good 'mid-tech' troopers of the type who often fill the mercenary forces in Traveller games, with my force of Denzien's Ventaurans providing the 'Zhodanis', which they were in fact based on. I got a force of 28mm 'West Wind' Vietnam figures at a bargain price on eBay, partly with a view to giving them some lower tech planetary rebels to crush.

I've also got a set of GZG's 'Stargrunt' rules (which can be downloaded in PDF form for free). I thought these would be primarily for 15mm, but in fact were actually written with 25/28mm figures in mind. So this force could be matched up against any of the above mentioned or my em-4/Future wars figs.

There probably is no reason to expand the force beyond this size. Its fine for skirmishes, and as I've got 15mm Sci-Fi too, which are better for bigger actions.

Britsh Raj - Indian Mutiny

I've always fancied doing something in British India, not least because you get to 're-use' all your British armies, ie. 7 years war/AWI, Napoleonic and late Victorian/early 20th century etc., etc.. But without any dedicated figure ranges (and in fact a general shortage of books, prints, images of the native Indian forces themselves), it is not that easy, especially in 20mm.

I was looking through some prints of British troops at the time of the Indian Mutiny, and I noticed most British troops were wearing a kepi and neck cloth, and was looking at Esci's French Foreign Legion and a little light bulb lit up in my head. Having sat at the back of the cupboard for several years, I got some out at the end of last year, looked up some references including some painted minis on the 'Mutineer Miniatures' site and this is the result...

First up a unit in redcoats (closeup above, unit shot below):

Next a unit in khaki which was increasingly being adopted as a service dress by this time. I've nicknamed these my '17th King Prawn Jelfrezi's':

With a couple of closeups:

I've got a box of Italeri's Napoleonic Highlanders knocking around, which I bought out of curiosity and don't really need having plenty of Airfix Highlanders painted up. I've based them individually and will probably paint them up some time, using them both with my Napoleonic skirmish set, and for postings to the Raj, the highland uniform remaining in service right through to the Crimean war era. In fact the Sikhs were so impressed they even equipped their own highland regiments - complete with kilts, bagpipes- and of course turbans! It's that sort of stuff that makes gaming the Raj irrestible!

The Hat Colonial Sikhs I've just bought will serve for the Mutiny too, the Sikh troops stayed loyal, and can be painted khaki or red for the period.

The main thing that is lacking at the moment is mutineers (planning simple conversions of Hat Zouaves). These will also serve as sepoys for earlier and later wars, and with a rush of blood to the head and a future improvement in my wallet a few more boxes of Sikhs could be purchased to equip a Sikh army with regulars for the Anglo-Sikh wars.

I also saw on the Hat website an interesting simple conversion of Cossacks into Maratha cavalry, and have various turbanned Hat Marmaluke cavalry too use as the cavalry of some Marharaja.

Overall, this project is on 'slow burn', but might get there in the end.

To finish off, some figs I painted up for the NW Frontier, but could easily be employed as 'Badmashes', the rampaging mobs of the Indian cities who attacked the British during the mutiny, or other native troops. Figs are Esci (now re-issued by Italeri) Muslim Warriors. There are 'too many' rifles in the set (at least for 'Sword & the Flame' troop ratios) so some riflemen are scheduled to conversion to spear and shield men before painting, which should swell this force.

French Foreign Legion

A little unit under orders to 'March or Die'

In my infant years I used to have the Airfix FFL set and fort to go with it, so when I started collecting again I couldn't resist these Esci figures, although got around to painting them only this year. When I started to research them, I realised that apart from knowing they were also sent to Mexico by Napoleon III, my knowledge about them was pretty much based on a 'Carry On...' film and some Jean Paul VanDamme nonsense. I managed to get a copy of the Gary Cooper version of 'Beau Geste', but this left me still pretty ignorant of who, what, where and why they were fighting, other than it was in French North Africa-so I guess Algeria/Morocco.

So far I've not done much to expand that knowledge. I've got a fairly inadequate number of the Airfix/Hat Bedouin set to oppose them (and could draft in various Esci/Italeri Muslim warriors). Unfortunately the Hat set is now OOP and Airfix haven't re-issued it-and possibly won't. I've found a few sets on the internet still available, but ended up spending my cash elsewhere, partly because I want the set mainly for the horsemen, and you only get three in a box.

So these guys might not see action for a while, and when they do probably just in the occasional light hearted skirmish. I'm actually painting up two units, this one that's finished and another in the white fatigues they wore under their blue coats-possibly to use as a garrison & rescue expedition. Ran out of steam finishing the second set, and probably wait until when/if I get more arabs before doing so.