Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of Myths, Gods and Empires => Topic started by: DalyDR on May 04, 2022, 04:07:41 AM
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I have finally finished my Sassanian army!
This project started over 15 years ago (!) when I acquired the core of the current army to be used in fantasy games (men of Far Harad from LoTR) and gave them a lousy black-and-red paint scheme. I started playing WAB and fielded them at a nearby event using the Cataphract list from Armies of Antiquity. I later decided to repaint them as something slightly more based in reality, and took them to a couple of WAB events in 2009 with the Sassanian list after the BtGG supplement came out. After that they went back in their box, and sat there until last year when I got back into the painting thing after a long hiatus. I decided I’d double the army’s size, so now it stands at a solid 4k points as tallied using WAB 1.0/1.5.
So here’s some pictures, with others to follow as I have the time to post. All of the miniatures are from Gripping Beast.
First, my general, Shahanshah Peranis Gur, best known for not being known at all (I made him up).
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048196421_bf78ee5cb2_z.jpg)
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The battle standard bearer. The flag design is based on a piece of Sassanian metalwork featuring a simurgh, the bird-thingy from Persian myth. I like hand-painting my flags and shields, even though I’m not particularly skilled at it.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048241378_bf31e1434a_z.jpg)
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The royal clibanarii unit, all mounted on black Nisaean chargers. These are some of the most recent additions to the army that have the newer Gripping Beast barded horses, which I quite like. Their banner is also based on a piece of Sassanid artwork, and is the only one I sort of cheated on, having printed out the basic design and then painted over it.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048196471_a3a6de6c57_z.jpg)
A solo shot of one of the clibanarii with a shield that I thought turned out well.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048437524_c9b6fa51f0_z.jpg)
More to come later . . .
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Lovely stuff so far, always nice seeing free-hand painting :)
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Good work. And they're an earth-shaking army on the table.
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Nicely done,love the standards 8)
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great paint job, classy
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My biggest unit of spearmen, the city militia/levy of Ctesiphon. And yes, globe hats - this army has more globe-hatted fellows than you can shake a lancea at. I happen to like the hats, though they may no longer be in fashion, so to speak. I love the Gripping Beast spearmen miniatures, and the fact that there are something like 24 variants, none of which are in stupid poses like "vaulting over a fence", "tripping over a rock", or holding their weapons so far out to the side that ranking them up is a pain. I am also a fan of cast-on shields, they just make life easier.
This unit has 50 guys in it, and has performed admirably on the tabletop, most notably defeating the late, esteemed D. Macfarlane's vintage Hinchliffe royal clibanarii unit in a game at Historicon many years ago (his dice were unkind to him).
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048437464_123d4c50e1_z.jpg)
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Elephant #1. My elephants are gray, because I like the way it looks . . . I like how my attempt at a palm-tree shield design turned out, saw it in a Osprey Men-at-Arms on Sassanians, but I do think it looks a bit Afrika Korps-ish.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048241348_6474132d6c_z.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048437739_8eaf811f21_z.jpg)
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The foot archers. I used thumbtacks with the shafts removed to add shields to these guys. Shield straps were made out of paper. I enjoyed painting the shields, but attaching them was a real pain. Even ensuring bare metal-to-metal surfaces were used for gluing, they still fall off easily. Next time I do this I'm considering leaving the thumbtack shafts on, and drilling a hole in the minis' arms/backs/whatever to secure them in addition to gluing.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048437694_ef6d0b0474_z.jpg)
A few of the shields that came out nicely.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048699305_a419a689bf_z.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048241338_d47c020957_z.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048437714_88ab2ea157_z.jpg)
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I have a 28mm Sassanid army myself so I can appreciate a well painted one such as your own. My figures are almost exclusively Gripping Beast too, which are lovely figures.
One small niggle is having your commander the Shahanshah. I realize this is an affectation from the WAB books, which is the ruleset I also played. In fact, the Shahanshah would never lead an army. Too dangerous. Of course, he would have input as supreme commander of everything. The strategic commander in chief was the Eran Spahbed, while individual armies were commanded by the Spahbed. There were usually 4 Spahbeds, one for each geographic direction. That seems to suggest only four armies in the entire empire, which seems a bit low, but who knows.
Of course this makes no difference on the table top.
Oh ya, nothing says Sassanid flunky like the globe hats. I love them too.
I later switched to Hail Caesar as my ancient massed battle ruleset of choice. I played my buddy’s Late Roman army when we met up at an HMGS convention (he is from Virginia and I’m from Canada). I got trounced. My best Cataphracts would bounce off the front of his legions. Turns out I needed more light marauding archer cavalry. These troops can disorder the Romans without engaging them and then the heavy cavalry can do their magic.
At least that’s my plan the next time we meet.
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Small world.
I also played against Duncan MacFarlane’s old Sassanid army. I think he kept them in storage in the US somewhere and would pick them up when flying in from England. I could be wrong but I think Duncan got them from Peter Gilder, who was a sculptor for Hinchcliff among other things. Duncan was a joy to play against and an utter gentleman. RIP.
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lovely guys !
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In fact, the Shahanshah would never lead an army. Too dangerous.
Yeah, I was thinking of that poor chap Peroz though, who seems to have gone missing with his entire army vs. the Hephthalites. Based on my own past record in WAB, that seems like a likely end for my guys as well . . .
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More globe hats! This time it's the royal guard infantry. Just spearmen with some armor on, really. This is the only unit in the army that has all its members painted with the same color scheme.
I know, their standard came out super-cartoony, I'm not much of an artist. lol Maybe I'll go back and change it out to something more abstract and less laughable . . .
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048699185_834b3fd2e2_b.jpg)
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That royal banner is a work of art! :-* Under no circumstances must it be changed :D
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A couple of units of Iranian light cavalry. I might go back and do something else with the shields on these guys, they're kind of plain, just red.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048196481_b3e9fee20f_z.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52047148322_48ab830a14_z.jpg)
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A great looking army, a big fan of the Sassanids I built mine for the mid third century. I like the shield solution for the archers though, I think I will revisit my archers and do something similar. I used the Phil Hendry large shields for my guards along with aventine miniatures so they looked completely different from my city militia
I used a mix of A&A and Aventine for my army and still have two infantry units and one elephant to complete them, as a majority of my army is mounted around 60 figures.
cheers
Matt
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Great looking Sassanids. Love those globe hats! Makes me want to take my old Hinchliffes out of their doldrums - after years of inaction and storage they need some TLC. New spears/LBMS Banners, basing and touch up painting. Shame Hinchliffe elephants are dwarfed by Aventines but that's progress.
Also have some Gripping Beast mounted chaps. Mainly as Generals, though Aventine make some fine ones as well. I did like the block of 50 levy under WRG. Took a lot of beating. Will use Aventine's heavy infantry for the regular infantry and have some Essex Daylami to paint as well.
Look forward to more posts and I did like that Royal Banner.
Garry
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Yet more spearmen with globe-shaped chapeaux. A smaller unit this time, only 32, militia from some other city that was on the line of march and dragged out to swell the army's ranks, no doubt! I shamelessly copied the banner from the one in the old Gripping Beast advertisement (their old web catalog images were so much better than the current ones, I think), a simple design but I believe it's one of the better looking ones I've done.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048699125_72584574a6_z.jpg)
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Elephant #2. This is actually the older elephant of the two, and has been used in more than a few games. He hasn't done much for me though, and in fact lost a game in rather spectacular fashion when he lost a combat and proceeded to trample my general, whom I had unwisely placed just behind the panicked pachyderm.
I added shields to the archers in the howdah here as well, although this time they're not thumbtacks but rather some leftovers from another army project.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048699335_6a144c8f31_z.jpg)
I especially like the peacock head shield on one of the crew.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048196696_4ef6774b54_z.jpg)
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Great looking infantry and elephant!
Cheers
Matt
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I really love this army. I have wanted to collect a Sassanid army in 28mm ( I have a small 15mm force) but have held off in a effort to control my ever increasing mountain of shame.
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Yeah, I was thinking of that poor chap Peroz though………. Based on my own past record in WAB, that seems like a likely end for my guys as well . . .
Ahh, you just need to play me……..
Your Royal Guard look great. The Gripping Beast regular troops are truly lovely figures.
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A unit of regular clibanarii. The rear ranker on the far right has what appears to be a chicken emblem on his shield, which was not the original intent, but that's how it turned out . . . ::)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048699350_39ecf099c0_z.jpg)
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Every ancients player has had to get used to fierce Thracians with smiley faces on their peltas. What's a chicken or two?
Those are a wonderful lot of cavalry, and intimidating painting.
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What a superb looking collection of toy sowjers, well done that man, very impressive!
:-*
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Another unit of clibanarii. Their drummer lost a drumstick somewhere along the way, and I replaced it with a sword. That's about the extent of my ability to modify figures.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048196711_f89ecd5fe4_z.jpg)
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Two units of skirmishing archers. I might go back and add some shields to these guys as well, as that's how I tended to equip them from the army lists.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52048241118_cb9ab41542_z.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52047148277_3918598024_z.jpg)
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And another unit of clibanarii.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52045442952_93c8405eda_z.jpg)
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Lovely :-*
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And the last* unit! This was the last one painted, and I think maybe the best work I did on this project. I don't think the photo quite does it justice. Anyway, some skirmishing horse archers. They're on the newer horses GB now uses, and they're nice enough but I think perhaps a bit large for nomads' mounts, something a little more pony-ish might be more appropriate? I added thumbtack shields to these figures and tried to paint them in a natural hide type color, loosely based on the colors seen on Persian gazelles, as using black-and-white cowhide pattern seemed like it wasn't a likely thing for them . . . ?
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52047148427_0892d82939_z.jpg)
* I've got 10 or so of those veiled desert tribesmen from GB's discontinued "Desert Frontier" range that I might add, but I need to find some more of those rough hide type shields that some of them came with, as I don't want to use the more Sudanic (?) versions with which half came equipped.
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Lovely stuff. I am just prepping some A&A Sasanians now, and these are a healthy dose of inspiration. As you might guess from the username, I have something of an obsession with the Sasanians, but this will be the first 28mm version I have done - definitely no globe hats though... hope they turn out as nicely as yours.
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Chaps, I’ve followed this thread with interest. Great work. I too have a big GB Sassanid army, together with one of Aventine’s superb “command” elephants.
I am just about to buy an Aventine 6th/early 7th century Byzantine army so I can fight the wars of Belisarius and Heraclitus.
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And an overall (mediocre) army shot:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52071836868_a648c65dea_z.jpg)
Plus a few goofs:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52071832121_512758ff1a_z.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52071833873_2207b4dc6d_z.jpg)
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a huge inspiration, well done
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Fabulous loving the clibanarii. What a fantastic looking army.
cheers
Matt
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I think you are too hard on yourself. Everything looks great especially the banners. I am now totally inspired to get my GB Sassanids out and paint them.
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I think you are too hard on yourself. Everything looks great especially the banners. I am now totally inspired to get my GB Sassanids out and paint them.
Thanks so much for the kind comment. I actually think I do alright painting-wise, I'm generally quite happy with my results (I don't know about that one banner though . . .) There are so many super-talented painters here on LAF that it can be a bit daunting, to my mind, to go ahead and share my own efforts. If doing so encourages anyone else to forge ahead with their own project(s), that's an awfully good thing to have happen!
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Very nicely painted army, and who does not love cataphracts??!!
Also nicely done standards, the senmurv is a very fine touch of class. Of course we do not have a lot on Sasanian standards, in particular if they used large flag-like ones, so we have to somehow take some license, but I would suggest to have a look to Sasanian glyptics for possible designs. Amongst the subjects used on Sasanian seals, devices normally described as monograms are common, and they could be a nice source for motifs. Some are very elaborate, some contain letters, some are very simple, going back to things similar to the so-called frawahr symbol, which is found occasionally on several visual media, most importantly on the caparison of Ardashir’s horse in the relief celebrating his victory over Artabanus at Firuzabad. Similar devices are at times visible on the dignitaries’ headgear, too (at Naqsh-e Rajab, for example).
At any rate, a search on the internet for Sasanian seal monogram should already give an idea, and then one can move from there…
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A fantastic army, I especially like your work on the shields and banners.
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Congrats on finishing a project! Always a great feeling!
They look great!
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Nice work!
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Lovely army.
This has inspired me to finish re-basing my Sassanids!
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Nicely done!
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Thanks all. Now I've got to get started on all those Late Romans to give these guys an opponent.