Some Grant phalangites

One way and another I'm not getting much done on the wargaming side at the moment - mostly I'm chopping out hawthorns on a hedge and putting a boundary fence in!

The figures themselves are quite a neat conversion. Another four would have been nice to make up the unit - I'll probably add another element of an officer, standard bearer and two musicians to make the unit up.

The notes I got from Harry described them as '44 Phalangites converted from Greek musicians with wire pikes and soldered on shields.'  This is a bit inaccurate - the base figure is actually an artillery crewman.

They appear on page 97 of The Ancient Wargame though Grant had a few more than I got.

Almost but not quite Issos...

Having spent a lot of time on  Minifigs recently I thought it was about time to do something with Garrison.

I decided to go with an Alexandrian versus Persian battle and Issos seemed a good starting point.

Initial setup. General scenario, Alexander and a few friends forcing a river crossing against a force of Persian cavalry and Greek mercenaries.

The Persians. At Issos, the Persian army was 50:50 Persian cavalry and Greek mercenaries. However, the Greeks took no part in the battle until after the Persians were beaten and simply sat on a hill. Further, I didn't have a bigger hill. So seemed reasonable to just use enough Greeks to fill the hill. Those windows at the back make photography awkward.

Macedonian right flank - Companions, Hypaspists and start of the phalanx covered by a few light archers.

The Macedonian centre. 3 48 strong phalanx units covered by some light javelins.

Macedonian left - Greek cavalry covered by some slingers.

First move, Macedonians start advancing to the river and expanding their frontage. Persians start moving to cover the river but making sure to hold back the cavalry behind the scythed chariots.

Macedonian cavalry move a bit to the right as they approach the river while the archers start to cover the gap. If the Persian cavalry look a bit washed out... those windows behind them make photography a bit awkward...

View from behind the Macedonian army as the Companions reach the river.

View at the end of the first move just before the Companions have reached the river. The Macedonian left is in danger of being a bit outflanked. If the river at the bottom of the picture looks strange, could be because I ran out of narrower sections.

Successor Phalangites

So, being on a Seleucid thing, I've rebased a load of the Successor phalangites I got a couple of years ago. Being 40 man units, they don't really fit in with DBX units - 4x4 means multiples of 16 so they are being reduced to 32 figures.

 Having said that, 4 32 figure units still makes quite a good force.

The first two units make a useful combination of 'Bronze Shields' and 'Siver Shields'. 

I always quite like the use of Hollywood  black for  armour. Not very good shields, but I don't think I'll ever repaint them.

This unit aren't Minfigs phalangites, they're Garrison conversions. Nice figures, technically they're pirates of course as they have been home cast by someone. Still, they look good, so as far as I'm concerned this unit is now 'officially' Garrison...

 

OK, Where are they hiding?

Looking through the Grant figures thought I might as well do the phalangite conversion as well. Thing is, I can only find 26 of them in their box.

 

 I know I've got 44 of them:

 So where are the rest hiding?

Macedonian update

Armand put the Carthaginian army link on TMP and I mentioned the Macedonians, so thought it might be an idea to post this about them.

Still a long way to go, so this is just an update/work in progress. There are quite a few phalangites available for me to work on. Next ones to base will probably be more light infantry and cavalry (such as the Thracians) -  there are enough Alexandrian phalangites here for now, might leave the Successor phalangites a bit - they will need some work on the cavalry.

Later on I'll see if I can put together my own Macedonians/Successors  - quite a few of them but in a very disorganised state - old Minifigs, my own Garrison Conversions, Minifigs and Hinchliffe .

Pikes and Elephants

Time for some really old time figures from the distant past.

This lot date back to 1974. In those days I used to put figures  into painting competitions. These were part of the army that won the Ancients section in the National Wargames Championships in 1974. It probably spoils the effect that they were the only entry.

The next unit was painted a bit faster and, for some reason, I painted the sarissae and belts white. Perhaps more weirdly, I never corrected the mistake.

No army in those days could do without the Britain's elephant, these ones serving as Indian elephants with a Macedonian crewman. They need a bit of work to overcome years of neglect, but overall seem to have survived quite well.

Evolution of a phalangite

Firstly, a disclaimer. Alexander and the Macedonians might have thought of themselves as Greek - the Greeks didn't.

One thing I have noticed over the years is that Garrison didn't make any 20mm phalangites (SKT Seleucids don't count. They're bigger). One thing other people may have noticed is that I have a slight tendency to convert figures. Put the two together and suddenly Garrison sort of produce 20mm phalangites.

My first decision was choosing the figure to convert. I went for the G3 hoplite. Shield removed, helmet reshaped, new shield added - I admit it, I used the 28mm Seleucid one - arms bent and sarissa added. That gave me my basic Macedonian phalangite and I duly cast and painted two 16 figure test units.

Next, I decided to do one that could be used as a Successor phalangite. For that, I simply gave G16, the Boeotian hoplite, a slightly longer and thicker spear. The resulting sarissa was a bit too short - scales out at about 14 foot, just right for an Alexandrian sarissa. I then realised that the Alexandrian ones were longer. Nothing for it, I had to shorten the G3 conversions to match the Successors.

G16 and later G3 phalangites

Original G3 hoplite followed by first attempt and then second attempt at an Alexandrian phalangite.

Of course, I'm not the only one to change spears around. The pictures below show the original Minifig phalangites plus telegraph poles next to their later brethren