Uh oh, Galatians calling!

The Galatians were a Celtic people who settled south of the Pontic kingdom on an upland plateau.  They forced their way into the region, fighting a series of campaigns against the armies of the local states who all stubbornly refused to be driven from their lands. As a result, the Galatians were forced to settle on a poor stretch of land where none of their neighbors considered it worthwhile to force them off.  The difficulty of their situation meant the Galatians were eager to work as mercenaries.  Philip Mastyszak's "Mithridates the Great" describes the Galatians as follows:

 "A special class of mercenaries were the Galatians. Thanks to their warrior culture, they were usually happy to fight against anyone and between themselves when no one else was available. The wealth of Pontus meant that the Galatians could combine business with pleasure and large numbers of them were usually available to fight under the Mithridatic standard. Though skilled metalworkers, all but tribal leaders generally fought naked. The Gauls made excellent shock troops, and it took experienced opponents to stand firm against a headlong charge by hundreds of large sword wielding warriors who wore nothing but spiky lime hairstyles and ferocious expressions. The bad news was that the Galatians had only a rudimentary grasp of military discipline and tended to regard setbacks as an invitation to go home."

The other bad news is I didn't find this nugget regarding the Galatians fighting naked until I'd already bought and painted this crew from Xyston. Don't cry for me, historical purists, as I have a batch of naked Gauls on the painting table to address my error!

I enjoyed painting these figures well enough that I put in an order with Brookhurst for 150 more Xyston Gallic figures.  Roman versus Gaul is a great matchup in Impetus so I'll be replacing the Gallic army I sold with an Impetus based army.

For our final Galatian tidbit, The Dying Gaul is an ancient Roman copy of a lost Hellenistic sculpture originally commissioned by Attalus I of Pergamon to celebrate his victory over the Galatians in Anatolia. Poor lad!

Bastarnae

Who were the Bastarnae?  For me, that was a good question as I hadn't seen them at our club and I didn't recognize this troop type on the Pontic army list.   I did a little reading to figure it out for myself.  Understand that while some of you have been reading ancient history for 10, 20 or more years, I'm relatively new to this field on account of spending my life reading up on the American Civil War, Napoleonics and WW II, especially the East Front.  

The Greek historian Appian thought the Bastarnae were a Thracian tribe but the current line of thinking is  they were a Germanic people.  A little more reading taught me that they were one of the tribes that made up the Dacians, who themselves were a part of the Thracians.   Appian described the Bastarnae as the bravest of Mithridates allies.  He makes a brief mention of them regarding a sortie but after that, I can't find a specific account of them in the Pontic campaigns.  Because the Bastarnae didn't utilize the written word, what we know of them is limited to other historians and the gaps in our knowledge are filled via speculation and argumentation.  There is a line of thought which says they fought in skullcap, loose pants and no shirt.  A second line of thought says this is all wrong! They appear to have been renown falxmen but another line of thought is that they weren't falxmen at all or that only nobles had falxs due to the difficulty of smithing such a large curved blade.  

Into this gap springs the ancient hobbyist's imagination. Xyston makes beautiful rhomphaia armed figures so I used them as Bastarnae.  I chose to kit them in colorful clothes in the Gallic tradition.  In Impetus, these fellows are Impetuous and get 5 extra Impetus dice in melee, basically doubling their effectiveness when they go in fresh.  

Lastly is a relief from the Tropaeum Traiani that gives a nice visual of the Roman vs. Faxlman showdown.  This one shows an imbecilic falxman who allowed a legionnaire to walk up and stick him in the ribs.  I'm hoping my Bastarnae do just a bit better against the Romans!

Pontic Phalangites in the battle of Chaeronea

White Shields:  Phalangites were the backbone of the Pontic army during the First Mithridatic war.  Plutarch reports that at the Battle of Chaeronea, Archelaus employed 15,000 freed Roman slaves in  phalanx.  The Romans jeered with rage when they realized they were facing former slaves and quickly waded in to get at the "real" soldiers on the battlefield. It was no easy task. The former slaves were boiling with hatred for the Romans and fought with tremendous courage.  The slaves knew they faced victory or crucifixion and they fought hard, forcing Sulla to reinforce Murena's position.  The Romans managed to get slingers and javelinmen into the rear of the phalangites.  They showered them with missile fire until they broke and ran.

Bronze Shields:  While the slave phalanx held up the Romans, Taxiles led his Chalkaspides or Bronze Shields against Sulla.  The Bronze Shields were the elite phalangites of the army but even they could not stem the Roman tide. Once the Pontic army started to rout, the Bronze Shields phalanx formation collapsed.  Spears and shields were discarded and once they turned their backs to run from the Romans, the slaughter began.  

After the First Mithridatic war, Mithridates recognized that his phalangites were outclassed by the Roman Legions and the Roman style of fighting.  He subsequently disbanded his phalangites and hired Roman officers and expats to train and rebuild his army to fight in the Roman style.  

These 48 Xyston figures painted up fairly well and quickly.  As much as I'd like to field a Pike army in Field of Glory Ancients, the thought of  painting 200+ of these fellows makes me weak in the knees.  I'll circle back and paint up another stand for each unit so I can deploy them as "Large Units" in Impetus.  

Paphlagonian Foot and Arachosian Horse

Paphlagonian Foot:  The kingdom of Paphlagonia was situated on the Black Sea coast between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east.  The weakness of the kingdom drew the attention of her two neighbors.  Mithridates of Pontus allied with Nicomedes of Bithynia and the two agreed to invade their mutual neighbor.  This drew the attention of Rome, who ordered a withdraw and planted the seeds of the Mithradic War.   Mithradates occupied Paphlagonia until the end of the first First Mithradatic War, when he was force to give up his claim to the territory.

In Impetus, these Light Foot are part of the many javelinmen units that make up the Pontic army.  I took the liberty of replacing their wicker shields with Hellenistic ones.  I don't think this was much of a stretch as it was reported that Mithridates used his enormous wealth to kit his army out very, very well.  The stories of his wealth trickled back to Rome and helped incite a rush to be the first to invade and sack Pontus.

I'm quite pleased with the vertical basing!   The process of creating these hills is incredibly messy due to the DAS air drying modelling material I used. It stains your hands and any surface it touches terra cotta.  And I have to soak it a bit to get it malleable.  At the art supply store, I found racks and racks of oven curing clay but almost no air drying clay.  Desperate, I picked DAS, which turned out to be a dog.  If you're going to try  vertical basing, find a good quality air drying clay and then let me know the brand so I can throw my DAS away!

For the tufts and white flowers,  I used Silfor Prairie Tufts 4/6mm Summer and Late Summer blossum tufts from Scenery  Express.  It was a bit pricey initially as I bought 8 packs of various colors and heights but these tufts go pretty far in 15mm.  

Arachosian Horse:  I needed javelin-armed Light Cavalry for the Pontic army and given the wide mix of troops employed, I grabbed these figures from Xyston.  You could just as well use Thracian or Greek javelin armed Light Cavalry.  Being an ancients gamer and painter is quite liberating and I played it to full effect here!

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Triarii

I put my Mid Republican Roman project on the back burner when I got my Pontic figures.  It's been  gnawing at  me that I have a MRR army without Triarii so when I put in another order of Xyston figs from Brookhurst Hobbies, I added these and got them painted in short order.

I've belatedly concluded that while I can run my MRR army without Triarii, their A discipline makes them essential by allowing them good odds for  double and triple moves. Like their historical counterparts, I plan to hold these boys in reserve until a crucial moment in the battle. With a little bit of luck, they'll move out in double or triple time to smash their opponent in the mouth or better yet, the flank.  At least that's the way I imagine it in my head. Reality is often different on the tabletop.

Cretan Archers & Balearic Slingers

Cretan Archers:  Cretan archers were held in high esteem in the ancient world as mercenaries and many Cretans made a good living by serving away from home.  Alexander the Great employed Cretan archers on account of their excellence with the bow.  Cretans carried a distinctive small bronze pelte or shield.  Purportedly, Cretans boys began training with the bow at seven although they wouldn't have the upper body strength to draw a composite bow at that age!    

These units will pull double duty in my Impetus armies.  The Pontic list does not include Cretan archers. In that army, the figures will represent ordinary archers who happen to have found and armed themselves with  small bronze shields.  The Middle Republican Roman list and many other armies of the period allow Cretan Archers so they'll appear as intended when I field those armies.  

Balearic Slingers:  These mercenaries from the Balearic Island were expert slingers.  They employed slings of three different lengths, depending on the range needed. Purportedly, they trained from infancy in order to earn their livelihood as mercenary slingers.  The Greek geographer Strabo wrote "And their training in the use of slings used to be such, from childhood up, that they would not so much as give bread to their children unless they first hit it with the sling."  While the story is likely fiction, the idea that Balearic parents pushed their sons to train so that they might earn a living abroad is probably factual.   Lack of resources and lack of opportunities at home likely motivated the men of Rhodes, Crete, Balearic  islands to train in the art of war and serve abroad.  

These Xyston figures will pull double duty as the Pontic list doesn't have Balearic Slingers but does call for slingers.  Also, these are my first troops to be based in verticle.  Up, up and away!

Pontic Scythed Chariots

For those of you who've been following this blog for awhile, you'll recall that I once had a habit of eating my dessert before dinner.  While my wife has broken me of this particular bad habit, I do still have a tendency to pick out my favorite figure(s) and paint them up at the start of a project rather than at the end as logic dictates.  And that's why the Scythed Chariot is up first!

Despite the fact that chariots had not dominated a battlefield since the 4th BC, Mithridates set about building and training a force of 130 scythed chariots in anticipation of his upcoming war with Rome.  These chariots were used in 3 battles during the first Mithradatic war against Rome.

Battle of Amnias: Scythed chariots were first put to use against the Roman ally King Nicomedes and his Bithynian army during the Roman Bithynian invasion of Pontus in 89 BC.   Nicomedes met the Pontics at  Amnias, where Appian relates that the Pontic scythed chariots were "driven at high speed into the the Bithynian ranks. Some men were sliced into two within an eyeblink, others were practically shredded. The army of Nicomedes saw men in two halves, yet still alive and breathing, others sliced to pieces, their mangled organs still hanging from the scythes.  They had by no means lost the battle, yet the sight was so hideous that they were overcome with confusion and fear disordered their ranks."  The Bithynian army broke and the subsequent rout and slaughter continued unabated until nightfall.  By then, half of their forces were dead and the survivors had surrendered.

Battle of Chaeronea:  Here the Pontic army faced the crack Roman commander Cornelius Sulla and his 5 veteran legions.  Sulla maneuvered the Pontics into crowded and uneven ground in a mountainous region.  Pro-Roman Greeks showed the Romans a hidden path that led to a position high above the Pontic  encampment. From there, Romans rained down stones on the encampment, forcing the Pontics out into the plains in disorder.  In the ensuing chaos, the Pontic commander launched 60 scythed chariots at the approaching legions, hoping to replay the shock charge that routed Nicomedes. The chariots trickled out in  disorder and failed to get up to speed in the confined, rocky spaces.  Plutarch reported that the Romans burst out  laughing and simply stepped aside, allowing the chariots to pass between them to no effect. After passing through the legions, the chariots were cut down by javelinmen that Sulla had placed in the rear. The legionaries howled with derision and mocked their enemy by demanding that the next set of chariot racers come out to the race.

Battle of Orchomenos: The Pontic commander gamely put his scythed  chariots on the field of battle one last time.  Frontius recorded that the Pontic attack was drawn up in three lines. The first consisted of the scythed chariots with the goal of disordering the legions.  Close behind them were the Phalangite phalanxes.  Behind them followed the freed Italian slaves armed as auxiliaries.

As the chariots hurled towards the Roman line, the legionaries stepped sideways and backwards to reveal rows and rows of stakes driven into the ground at sharp angles to impale horses and drivers. After the lead chariots crashed to their doom, Roman javelinmen rushed up to harry the chariots which had avoided the stakes by turning around. In panic and disorder, these chariots crashed into the Pontic  phalanx in the 2nd line and further disaster ensued.  It must have been a hellish scene.

In Impetus, the Scythed Chariot is an Impetuous unit, meaning that once it's activated near the enemy, it goes out of control and starts moving towards the nearest enemy unit.  That rule plays history just right.  Also, it gets +5 Impetus dice in melee.  If the Scythed Chariot fails to eliminate the enemy after its first turn of melee, the Chariot is eliminated.

I considered putting 2 chariots on this base but as you can see, between the wicked scythed blades and the 4 horse team, there wasn't room for 2 chariots.  Great model by Xyston.

Impetus-based Pontic project!

During my Mid Roman Republic project, I kept stumbling across the fascinating story of King Mithridates of Pontus.  The kingdom of Pontus was situated in what is now northern Turkey.  The map below shows the Pontic kingdom before the first  Mithridatic campaign (in purple) and Pontic kingdom after the early conquests (in pink). A reading of all the provinces and city-states in pink illustrates why the Pontic army was such a cornucopia of exotic troops and fighting styles

As King of Pontus,  Mithridates styled himself after Alexander the Great and even acquired a cloak reportedly worn by Alexander.  His expansionist policies put him on a collision course with Rome.  The little bit I learned about the man left me wanting more so I went hunting for books on this subject. Oddly, there are only 2 current books on Mithridates but the lack of quantity is made up for by the quality of the reads below.

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithridates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy.  This is a quick and thoroughly enjoyable read on the life and campaigns of Mithridates. You don't have to be a military history buff to enjoy the story of Mithridates.  The author supplements what is known about the man with historical research and archaeological discoveries to reconstruct what his life was probably like.  I had no problem with the use of  reasoned speculation to fill in the gaps of history.  On the contrary, this kind of writing helped put me in the period and the author clearly flags her speculation.  Frankly, this would not be much of a book without it as there isn't much known of Mithridates outside of Roman accounts.  In this book you'll learn that:

• Mithridates led three campaigns against Rome.
• In his first campaign, he seized much of what is now modern-day Turkey and Greece.
• He orchestrated the massacre of 80,000 Roman citizens throughout Asia minor in a single day.  
• The wealth of his kingdom was so well known in Rome that the Republic was split asunder when Marius and Sulla each vied for the opportunity to lead legions to conquer and plunder Pontus.
• Mithridates dosed himself with small amounts of poison throughout his life to build up his tolerance. He also invented a complex universal antidote which the Romans reportedly copied after his death called Mithridadicum.  
• Spoiler Alert!  While Mithridates ultimately failed, it wasn't for a lack of effort or imagination.  In his first campaign, he reintroduced scythed chariots to the battlefield, something not seen for a generation or two.  In his second campaign, he employed  Roman ex-pats to reform and retrain his army to fight in the Romans style. He also started leading from the front.  In his third campaign, he utilized asymmetrical hit and run guerrilla warfare.  
• For a man who was repeatedly a thorn in the side of Rome, he managed to live long enough to die old.  

Mithridates the Great: Rome's Indomitable Enemy.  While described as a biography, this book is more of a military history and account of the campaigns.  If you want to learn about the man, the era, the customs and his empire, The Poison King is a better read. If you want battle maps and accounts of the troops, tactics and styles of fighting, this book adds the military detail that's lacking from The Poison King.  Together, these books make a great pair.

With the hook firmly set, I turned to the Impetus website and pulled the Pontic army list.

It's a broad and varied list that gives you the building blocks for other ancient armies. With a little work, my Pontic army can become a Pyrrhic army.  A little  more painting and its a Gallic army. A few units here and there and I have a Macedonian or Seleucid army. Portability? Check. Varied troop types for playing and painting?  Check and check. The Pontic project is a go!

Because the Pontic army was a blending of East and West, you have many options for modeling it.   I'll emphasize the "Hellenistic" side.  For example, I'll use Xystophoroi Cavalry to represent the heavy cavalry that Mithridates rode with in this list.  You could easily choose Persian heavy cavalry though. One of the benefits of painting and gaming ancients is that you get to choose your own path in painting and modelling your armies within the limits of what's known.  Try pulling THAT with Napoleonics!

I'm utilizing Xyston  figures for most of this army, which is a huge plus because I love their figures.  Also, I'm utilizing 3D basing for the first time to vary the level of the base/terrain. Props to Der Figurenschiber and his tutorial for basing in 3D! I should also mention he has the finest  15mm Thracian army I've ever seen as well.

Before I call it a post, here's a preview of my first crack at 3D basing with Balearic Slingers. Not too shabby!

Roman camp

Baggage/camp for my Impetus Mid-Republican Romans.  It was fairly boring until I added the dogs.  It's true what you've heard...dogs make everything better, including camps!  Hopefully, they'll help keep the barbarian hordes away from the  Roman baggage.  Tents by Baueda, figures by Xyston.

Cretan Archers and Balearic Slingers are queued up for painting next.  As mercenaries, these units are very portable and appear on many of the Mediterranean  army lists during this period. The 5 legions I've painted for Impetus plus velites and cavalry put me across the line for a 300 point MRR army.  Before I build the Roman list out any further, I'm going to paint another 300 point army for Impetus. So for now, I pronounce the Roman project finito!

Visuals are an important aspect of tabletop gaming.  Part of what drew me to Impetus is the visual aspect.  I wanted to see what a 15mm Impetus based army looked like on the tabletop compared to my Field of Glory based armies.  I put these guys out against my Carthaginians and I have to say, I'm pleased with the results!  Velites in the 1st line, Hastati in the 2nd and Principes in the 3rd line.  All in all, I think this is a fair representation of what Legions drawn up for battle might have looked like during the Punic Wars.

Next week, I'll start posting on my 28mm Gladiator Project!

Roman Cavalry and Velites, Impetus style

Progress on my Impetus-based Mid-Republican Romans (MRR) came to a screeching halt when I discovered I didn't have enough bases for the figures I painted up. Trips to 2 local gaming stores failed to turn up what I needed so I turned to the net and put in an order with Litko Game Accessories.  And waited.  And waited.  I love their product but I hate the 3-4 week wait.

Roman Medium Cavalry:  During this era, Roman cavalry was generally "not the equal" of their opponents. I'm trying to mince words because I don't want to jinx my first and only Roman cavalry unit!  Essentially, these boys will be fodder on the battlefield.  

Velites:  If you know how to properly pronounce velites, congratulations!  You're the rare bird who's had the benefit of a classical education that includes Latin. As the skirmishing arm of the Roman legions, velites were composed of the youngest and poorest soldiers, armed with a short sword, javelins and a wooden shield.

For the photograph, I stacked all 5 units of Velites together.  In a game of Impetus, each base operates independently.  As a painter, I appreciate that 4 figures represents an entire skirmishing unit!

You've probably noticed that velites wear an animal's head or a bit of fur in lieu of a helmet.  I did tell you these guys were poor, right?  Before you comment on their fashion sensibilities, everyone on THIS side of the Atlantic should remember that American frontiersmen were also in the habit of wearing animal hats, bits and fur on their heads as well.  I propose that Davy Crockett was not just King of the Wild Frontier, he was also the penultimate velite!

Up next will be my Roman baggage.  In Impetus, armies are accompanied by a baggage train which is represented by a rectangular base on the battlefield.  On the base, you can create a small diorama of a camp.  Loss of the baggage costs you 3 points, which is a step towards your army breaking.  While somewhat predictable, I'm creating a fortified Roman camp to represent my Roman baggage.  After that, I basically have a playable MRR army!