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| Assyrian armoured archers from the chariot set. I made a point of putting these on a production mould because I anticipated needing a few for myself. |
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| Mounted them as LHI rather than HI because... well, just because. It's a figure I like and my guess is that I'll do more of them in the future, both as LHI and as HI.. |
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| Back in 2017 I posted an Assyrian Review of my then Assyrian army. It has increased since then but the main change from then is my start on a 25mm Garrison army. The ones here are 20mm Garrison, Minifigs 'S' Range and Lamming. |
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| This lot are the Minifigs 'S' Range, though some chariots are a Minifigs/Lamming mix. |
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| These are the Garrison figures. Chariot with card bodies, heavy infantry with HaT shields. At this time I experimented with a wash over the paint - didn't work very well so that an army I like was, in my view, ruined :( |
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| My Lamming force is slightly smaller but nice... |
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| Then their are things like these chariots - tin plate chariots I got from Harry repainted and given Minifigs crews and horses and Garrison chariot wheels. Archers are 'S' Range Carthagians that I feel are a lot more at home with the Assyrians! |
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| And then there's my 25mm Garrison army... still growing, long way to go, only 5 painted chariots so far, but lots in the pipeline. |
Thoughts on the current project? That Minifigs force includes 24 chariots. Some of these also appear in the Lamming army which also has 3 pure Lamming chariots.. Meanwhile, the 20mm Garrison army has 13 chariots. So these combined armies have 40 chariots. It's a target...
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| They look pretty good. I've put them on the base angled so they don't look as though they are shooting each other! |
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| Back row to the front. |
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| And a back view. It's taking longer to do these because of the patterns I'm putting on the outfits but it does look better than plain. |
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| This is how they fit into the current army. Still a lot more to do but at least it looks like an army now. |
So now on to doing those Amazon cavalry...
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| With paint pens, extra decorations are quite easy. Though I did have to take the wheels off first (only one side at a time!) |
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| Must admit the eagle's head on the Anzu looks more like a duck's head, but it'll do. |
The army is still building but it's grown large enough to justify a Review...
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| The King reviewing his forces. |
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| Here passing in front of the Scythian mercenaries. |
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| A quick look at the LMI unit acting as a flank guard. |
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| Driving down between the chariots and the line infantry |
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| Before finally passing in front of the line cavalry |
My definition of a force that warrants a review is that it is big enough for the king/general to need to pass between the ranks. Here, a light infantry front rank, chariot second rank and line infantry/cavalry rear rank.
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| Thought I'd do another test piece To try out the paint pens... |
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| The white paint didn't work so well as too much came out... |
HOWEVER...
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| I remembered that the Assyrians used Cimmerian and Scythian mercenaries and allies, so I've undercoated a load of Scythians to join the Assyrian army... |
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| Assyrian spearman A3 based with shields to the front. This figure carries an Egyptian shaped shield, really based on a misinterpretation of the large Assyrian curved, round topped body shield. |
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| The figures should probably been based with this view to the front... I just prefer showing the shield. |
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| And back view. I should probably have painted these wearing stockings and boots; again I went for the look I preferred. |
This is the second of the three armoured close order infantry units I've decided on - the third unit will be composed of the armoured archer from the chariot set.
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| Decided on thisunit as a test unit to see how useful the paint pens could be in a 'real life' situation. |
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| Personal opinion? Very useful. On the other hanhd my son Steven had a go and decided they didn't suit him... |
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| Really should have taken the photo before the gloss varnish... Anyway, base, green clothing, flesh, inside of shield and hair/beard all painted, rest used paint pens. |
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| Shield was painted bronze, everything else paint pens - lot quicker and more accurate - though, to be fair quite a low starting point. I was very happy with the way they coped with helmet crests. |
Final verdict? Very useful. Negatives include how long the nibs may last, limited useful colour range available for wargames purposes, can't cope with undercuts or tight spaces, not sure how available individual colours may be available - but sets are cheap so not really an issue.
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| Well that one took a while to finish... |
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| Some of the paintwork was done using my new pens, for example the light blue in the white triangles on the chariot cab. |
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| Also some of the decorations on the rein dividers. These paints are going to prove very useful in the future! |
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| Contiuing with putting figures together, as well as making it possible to produce the spearman from the chariot set as a figure in it's own right. |
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| Same sort of thing with the missile troops, as well as enabling me to produce the chariot archer in numbers a lot easier. I also took the opportunity to include the scythes from the Seleucid scythed chariot, SES1. |
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| For the Egyptians, basiclly a need for decent production moulds in the first place - probably still need to do another one eventually. |
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| Painting these seems to be very slow work! Anyway, 15 strong unit with 2 command groups... |
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| The Shem HoTT army needs 5 cavalry elements so I painted an extra one. By making the extra one a command base I have the option to use them as 2 separate 2 element units in the Assyrian army. |
That means I now have a complete Shem HoTT army so everything else I do is pure Assyrian. I'm currently starting some 4 horse 3 man chariots simply by sicking an extra 2 horses on the figure base. Much as I would like to make them 4 man chariots, the cab is just too small!
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| Don't think I could get away with more chariots in the Shem army! |
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| Line chariots, so simplified paintwork compared to the generral. The etched pattern on the side barely shows in real life! |
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| I've kept them as 3 man chariots - probably should have made them 2 man, just preferred 3. However, rather than use the spear figure I've gone for 2 archers. |
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| Might (probably will) do a general and chariot unit as 4 horse 3 man chariots as well. 8 new Assyrian chariots should do for now. |
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| Assyrian chariot acting as the Shem general. I've done it as a 2 horse 3 crew chariot as per the standard Garrison 25mm Assyrian chariot but have replaced the spear armed figure with a standard bearer. The archer figure represents the general himself. |
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| I don't bother cluttering my chariots up with extra weapons/quivers etc but have at least put reins on. |
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| OK, don't need them for the Shem HoTT army but could I ever resist doing more chariots? For me, an initial three is very restrained! Suppose really I should get the cavalry finished off first but... |
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| Somewhere in my mind something is telling me that the Hyborian Campaign Shemite army was composed of Assyrians. HoTT says that Howard described them as 'swarthy, hook nosed and with curled black beards' - not going to check out the original reference but that, plus a vague memory, made me feel that the Assyrians would be the best option. |
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| I always try to base figures with shields facing front. It does mean I sometimes think I've wasted my time on things like the armour! |
The army will be Rider General, 5 Riders and 6 shooter elements. So these are the shooters. For cavalry, 4 elements will come from a 12 figure unit of 10 AC4, Armoured cavalry with shield and spear and bow in case, plus officer and standard bearer.
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| The final element could then be an Hykranian mercenary, either from this unit or a yet-to-do unit of SS67, Hykran cavalryman with spear (figures already cast!) |
The Rider general to complete the line up is currently on the paint desk - a 2 horse 3 crew Assyrian chariot with a crew of charioteer, standard bearer and general firing bow. Technically, probably a heavy chariot, but I'm happy using it as a Rider element.
Whether this army will get any bigger, don't know, see what happens.
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| The Egyptians are well on the way to destroying the Assyrian left. |
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| Between flank attacks and kind dice the Assyrians are starting to crumble. |
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| In fact, things are looking bad forAssyria. |
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| However, the king is coming... |
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| And takes out the opposition. |
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| I was seriously considering the game was over until that 6:1 happened... |
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| But although the chariots went, the Assyrians were still losing elements. |
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| A few good dice rolls and who knows.... |
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| But they didn't get them - game over. |
Fun game. Again, dice rolls had a major effect on the result and the game was in doubt for quite a while. On balance, I think the Assyrians were just a couple of units short. Or possibly the Egyptians had a couple too many.
