Just off the coast of Greece in the Cyclades
group there is an island called Santorini. Actually, it’s part of a group of
islands. Used to be one island until the
whole lot blew up one day.
Strangely, people on Santorini don’t say
it’s Atlantis. It was an island, it was a very much a Naval/trading Power, bull
motifs abound, red/black/white stone, etc, - sounds like Atlantis to me, so
although quite happy to look on it as such in this case – other contenders can stand in line!
So, Atlantis makes a good potential
setting for a campaign that allows the use of a few armies that would otherwise
never meet. My own main armies are
Greek, Persian, Macedonian, Assyrian and Egyptian...
The Atlantis story was told in Classical
Greek times. On that basis, Classical Greek armies (or a version of) sorts
them. The volcano went off when Egypt
and Assyria were around, so I can use them.
Finally, Minoan and Mycenaean troops used pike, hence Macedonians…
The
Armies
Long ago I moved most of my armies over to
DBX and since then most of my (solo) battles have used variously modified
versions of DBA or HoTT – actually I find HoTT often works quite well for
historical battles and has the added advantage of allowing the use of fantasy
features.
Atlantis
Atlantis was an aggressive nation with a
large and powerful fleet. As the Greek states were able to raise and send a
large army to besiege Troy,
it is assumed that Atlantis has the capacity to project its power across the
Eastern Med, basically as implied by Plato.
As it was a central hub with contacts over the known world it would be
able to hire mercenaries and employ exotic units.
The core of my version of the army is
a cross between Classical Greek and Minoan. As an Empire it would have access
to subject races. I’ve gone for using my Macedonians. There are four parts to
my version. Firstly, noble cavalry as a bodyguard. The rich citizens are
hoplites on the Greek pattern. Next, the citizen levies form a pike phalanx.
Finally mercenaries include Cretan archers, Western barbarian warband (they
look like Gauls) and exotic elephants from Africa.
Incidentally, if I wanted to be really silly then the last few remaining
mammoths didn’t die out until about 1700BC so...
This gives an army consisting of 2 x 3Cv
(including general), 2 x 4Sp, 4x4Pi, 1x Ele, 1x 2Ps, 2x 3Wb.
In terms of shield blazons for a dedicated
army there are two obvious candidates. The classical Minoan symbol would be the
bull, so a bull’s head would work for Crete
(if treated as a separate entity) or dolphin – a frequent motif in art of the
era. I have an army of old figures I bought off the Internet that is being
designated for Atlantis alone, so I’ve used a bull’s head for the noble cavalry,
guard infantry and elephant, with the dolphin/fish on the levy pikes. The
elephant itself is by Garrison.
The
Greeks
The main protagonist of Atlantis was Athens. Greece being a hotch-potch of city
states it’s obvious that at least a couple of other states need to be
represented. In my case, the choice is Corinth
and Sparta, Corinth
being one of the earlier major states and Sparta
being – well, can’t imagine a Greek setup without them, especially in a more or
less fantasy setting. I suppose one of my states should really be Mycenae but I’m sticking
to the Classical rather than Archaic route. Using a Classical basis, the three states need
to be distinguished in some way.
I’ll start with the Corinthians. For these
I simply use 10 x 4Sp and 2 x 2Ps. Standard hoplite army.
For Sparta,
two things I wanted. Firstly, a king. Secondly, to use the Hippeis as actual
cavalry. So the General is a 3Cv element. Not wanting the rest to be all
hoplites, I’ve again gone for 2 x 2Ps, leaving 9 x 4Sp for the rest.
This leaves Athens. Classical Athens used Scythians as a police force and
at least once hired Thracian mercenaries. So, again fitting in my own version
of an army I use one each 2LH, 2Ps and 3Wb (prefer Wb to Ax for Thracians) to
represent these. That leaves 9 4Sp elements.
These would make a good basic campaign; Troy could be included – I
look on these as early Persians or Medes in this scenario. Others could be Lydia or Phrygia.
Assyria could exist inland but an Assyrian excursion to the coast could meet an
Atlantean expeditionary force to Asia Minor or Palestine. Egypt
offers the chance of both Atlantis and Egypt
fighting over Cyprus.
Options are only limited by imagination and available armies.
Again, it’s well worth pointing out that
most of the armies/countries here didn’t exist before about 800BC – my
‘Atlantis’ was long gone by then. One of the things that I find amusing is when
I see people arguing over things like correct uniform or army compositions for
mythical or completely made up armies, troops or races…
Fantasy
elements
If you use HoTT rather than DBA you have
the option of using elements of Greek and other mythologies. Some of these are quite easy – a Minoan or
Atlantean army could, for example, use Minotaurs as beast elements. A Phrygian
option could be looked on as Colchian – Hydras would make good Behemoths. There
are plenty of possible ‘monsters’ available, just pick the ones that suit.