The Road to Revolution

My son is an interesting fellow.  He composes music most nights as it's his passion and what he hopes to do for a living one day. The other night, he had a friend over to work on his US History high school project.  He took a simple extra credit assignment on the American Revolution and blew it out until he'd written an original score, lyrics and recorded it with his friend. In short, it's a 4 minute musical about the Revolution, Broadway style!

After hearing the practice session, I knew I HAD to convince my son to let me share his performance.  His song is a sparkling number with witty lyrics, historical shout outs and a big Broadway finish. If you need something to put a smile on your face, look no further.  One listen and you'll be humming the tune "Represent!" Without further ado, I present the debut of "Represent." 

On a related note, my friend Brent told me he got his copy of the 18th century warfare rules,  Maurice. I put in an order for Maurice myself based on the reviews and AARs I'd read. I asked Brent what troops he was going to use and it turns out he has both sides of the American War of Independence in 28mm. Brent's copy of Maurice and his AWI armies, me ordering Maurice, my son's Road to Revolution show tune all in a single week. Coincidence?  I think not. My dear Watson, clearly what we're looking at is an example of synchronicity. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to powder my wig. 

Thureophoroi, now with more vowels!

Ok, that was a fib but I do like how the word just rolls off of the tongue...Thur-Re-o-Pho-Ronii. I'm pretty sure whenever I speak it out loud, I add, drop or mangle a vowel.  Luckily, I think I've gotten away with it.

Thureophoroi were an all-purpose troop armed with a long thrusting spear, javelins and a sword.  They could form up in loose or close formation and thus, operate in rough terrain.  According to Plutarch, they could fight as skirmishers and then fall back, assume spears and tighten the ranks.

In Impetus, their javelin missile fire is key as is their ability to go into rough terrain.  When pressed, they'll stand and fight in melee as well.  Is there anything these fellows cannot do?

You gotta love the the panache of soldiers who took to the battlefield and fought in capes. Were they the inspiration for a modern Superhero? You be the judge!  

At this point, you're probably asking yourself, when oh when will the Pontic Project end?  Or maybe I'm just projecting.  Well, I've finished the army but I'm taking my sweet time posting the last bits to my blog.  I've got Javelinmen, Roxolani and Xystophoroi queued up and ready to bring it home.  Then it's on to my Gallic army, V 2.0.  

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!