15mm Achaemenid Persian Camp

[Texus Maximus]

This 15mm camp is for an Achaemenid Persian army. Each stand of troops represents the many nations that contributed troops to the Greek and Persian wars from 499 B.C. to 449 B.C. According to Richard Nelson, “the subject races of the empire were simply employed in national units, with each unit retaining its own dress, equipment, and tactics”.



I read that the bulk of the large Persian army was made of these subject people, but they did little in the battle except stand about in the rear of the battle line as a reserve. This inspired me to represent them as a big camp with Xerxes in the center.

The camp is a little too large for the Triumph! rules but could easily be made compliant by removing two stands.

"Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars" (WRG, 1975) was one of my first wargame books and I am glad I finally got to put all these figures (clearly based on the illustrations) onto the table.











Notes on the Figures

The paint jobs are simple because I focused on speed and the impression they would make en masse. The figures are almost all old Minifigs, which are still in production. The single-pose packs and the process of painting them quickly reminded me of making one of those big "WRG Ancients" armies long ago.

I usually replace cast spears with brass ones and convert figures with Greenstuff, but I painted these just as they came out of the bag in order to speed up production. These older sculpts have lots of smooth surfaces so I relied on a few details and highlights here and there and a coat of Minwax Polyshades Satin Tudor to finish them up. The Great King is the only conversion; he was a Minifigs Persian infantry officer that was in "leaned back" pose that reminded me of Darius in the Alexander Mosaic. The horses are from Irregular.





















Reference:
Armies of the Greek and Persian War, Richard Nelson, WRG 1975

[Gregorius]

That's very innovative of you Paul.

Cheers

[Texus Maximus]

Thanks Greg; I suppose there are other armies where this kind of camp might be suitable, but I don't think I will try it again! It was expensive to buy the figures from England. Painting only took about an hour per stand.

I wanted to field troops like this since reading that WRG book in 1975 and finally got around to it in 2023. So 48 years from having idea to execution, is that some kind of world record?

Now I need to get an army to go with the camp!