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HELLENISTICS

The Hellenistic period begins with the rise of Macedon in 355 BCE and Alexander the Great's conquests. It covers the successor kingdoms established by Alexander's generals after his death, most notably the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt, and the Seleucid Dynasty in Asia. The period ends with the death of Cleopatra and Mark Antony in Egypt in 30 BCE, and the assimilation of Ptolemaic Egypt as a Roman province.

The figures here are mostly Essex with a few Frei Korp. All the pikes and spears have been replaced with 0.5mm wire for extra strength when gaming. I bought the first of these figures about 8 years ago and have been adding bits occasionally ever since. The different Hellenistic kingdoms all share a common core of troop types but have subtle variations between them. Not shown here are mercenaries such as horse archers, camelry, or galatian warbands, or the later cataphract cavalry used by the Seleucids and Bactrian kingdoms.

The photo above shows many of the Hellenistics I have painted up. I have more light horse, light infantry, cavalry and hoplites, but the elements pictured make up about a 400 point DBM army, so it was enough to photograph. Seleucid and Pyrrhic are the two WRG lists I use most regularly. At the front of the photo are some Lancers and a few Tarantine light horse. Behind them is the Pike phalanx and a couple of elephants. Behind the phalanx are some light infantry and hoplites, together with the baggage and a couple of bolt shooters.

Here are some of the Hellenistic Lancers, with some Tarantine light horse behind and to the left. The Commander in Chief is in the long cloak with the horned and plumed helmet.

Here are some Elephants with crew in towers. Archers are in front with javelinmen and slingers behind. In the bottom left of the photo some of the phalanx can be seen. The decoration on the elephant saddlecloths was done freehand with a fine detail brush, while the stars on the pikemens shields are veni-vedi-vici 'Macedonian Star' transfers. I like elephants, though they are difficult to use effectively, being expensive in terms of points, hard to manoeuvre, and prone to panic in stressful situations. The middle of a noisy battlefield, surrounded by highly evolved apes shouting and trying to kill each other, is an example of a stressful situation for an elephant.

Here are some mercenary hoplites. Tough and good value for the points, they help to extend the frontage of the battleline. Getting enough frontage is always a problem with Hellenistic armies, because the pike phalanx must fight in deep formations to be effective against enemy heavy infantry.

Here is a close-up of some of the hoplites. The shield patterns are a mix of veni-vidi-vici transfers and hand painted designs. The black bulls head and 'A' are just straight transfers. Using just the transfers, hoplites can look a bit plain so I always add a few of my own more colourful designs, like the Owl of Athena and the Lakedaimonian Lobster.* I use a mix of known and hypothetical designs.

Here are some baggage carts, mules, a bolt thrower, and an assortment of peltasts. To the front left are some Thracian peltasts with two handed rhomphaia, to their right are some greek peltasts. Behind the bolt thrower are some Thureophoroi. Thracians are another of my favourite troop types, hanging on like grim death in the impossible situations I placed them when I was learning DBM. According to Herodotus, IIRC, Thracians treated an individual's birth as a time of mourning because of all the suffering life involves, while a funeral was a time of rejoicing that all the suffering was finally over.

*The Lakedaimonian Lobster is of course a hypothetical design which seems to aggravate Spartanophile classicists in a pleasing manner. (Yes you John - and good luck in Texas BTW!)