WAB Numidian Army

Here is just a showcase of my 2200 or so points Numidian army in battle formation. I can't take decent ARMY photos with my cheap digital camera or it can be my almost non existent photography skills. Therefore I asked my friend Alan to take photos with his much better camera and skills.

My Warhammer Ancients Numidian army composed of lots of cavalry, of course. Because of light cavalry nature of units I had to figure out the way to easily distinguish different units in clouds of skirmishing horsemen. I also didn't want to paint my units in uniform as it would be un-historical. So, I decided to just give my cavalry units uniform shields and one unit even has red dyed hair. All the models from Old Glory. Only few high command figures are from Crusader.

I have 2 distinct types of infantry: native levies and Roman trained regulars. Native levies can form up in large warbands or skirmish units. Infantry with large red shields are suppose to be imitation legionarii, small minority of infantry. Please note that I gave levies tribal looking standard and Roman trained unit has Roman looking standard. All the models are Old Glory.

Elephants are toy store beasts. During the creation of this army no manufacturer made Numidian elephant with trunk up and I had to improvise. Crew came from Rafm and RalPartha, howdahs were hand made from various materials.

BattleStandard Persian Cavalry

Finally, had an opportunity to paint something for myself. I decided to add one more unit to my ancient Persian army after watching clip of battle of Gaugamela from "Alexander" on YouTube. One of the few phrases that Persian king has is "Envelop khim, Bessus". So, Bessus' heavy cavalry it was.

Battlestandard miniatures has a very nice range of 28mm Achaemedian Persians http://www.battlestandardminiatures.com/. I only have their super heavy elite cavalry. Spear hands had to be drilled, sword and other hands were casted like that. Spears are also from Battlestandard. Riders fit on horses very well. Riders poses are a bit flat and all have the same type of Greek style armor with slightly different Greek/Assyrian style helmets. Figures are chunky with fairly large heads and well raised details. Horses have eastern style front armor and riders have scaled skirts, very popular heavy armor for eastern type shock cavalry of the period.

Battlestandard miniatures are BIG. I already have my Persian army composed of miniatures from other companies. As you can see Battlestandard figures are bigger. This, however, is not a problem. Persian elite cavalry of this type was described as having unusually large horses for the period. I do not mind having one unit like that. Below are comparison between Battlestandard, 1st Corps Persian cavalry, Eureka Amazon Scythian and A&A Parthian horse archers. All recruited in to my polyglot Persian army.

16th century Western European cavalry

I had an opportunity to paint some Old Glory 16th century religious wars cavalry and Eureka conquistador cavalry, 25 or 28mm. Figures can be mixed together in one army as they belong to the same period. I'd say 1550 to 1625, give or take.

Eureka mounted arquebusiers from their Conquistadors range. I was asked not to base the figures. There are 2 poses. I wouldn't be much off if I said that those are some of the best miniatures I ever painted. Horses and general sculpting is very similar to Perry miniatures style. Details are thick enough and raised enough to make it easy to paint. Body proportions are nice, not too small, not too large. Riders fit very well on horses.

Old Glory figures are very nice, not as nice as Eureka though. Sculpting is more basic, for riders and horses. Nevertheless Old Glory mounted arquebusiers or petronel men came out very well when painted and were easy to paint. Horses and riders fit well. Weapon hands are separate and it's advisable to drill arm hole deeper rather than cutting hand sprue shorter.

Below are comparison between Eureka and Old Glory. In my opinion they can easily be mixed together in the same army if not in the same unit.