Fumbling my way around the world of Ancients

In recent times I have seen lots of people using broom bristles for spears and the like.  So off I went to the local hardware store to find something that would fit the bill.

Scouring the isles for what felt like ages and manhandling more bristles then I dare to admit I ended up empty handed.  Lots of natural product bristles but none that were thick enough and long enough for what I was after.

Having done some Darkest Africa models in the past I knew I had some 28mm steel Javelins spare.  You know the sort, the ones that are terrifying to most armchair generals on account of them being incredibly sharp and pointy.

Using a small pin vice I drilled holes for all the metal spears I would use to represent Sarissa.   I opted for 50mm length weapons.   I know they should probably be a little bit longer but 50mm was the length I had and it also saved me having to cut down the 100mm thin spears.

These things seem pretty hard to find these days.  I think the ones I have came from North Star Miniatures but they now seem to be unavailable.

If anyone knows where I can get my hands on any more please let me know.

Once the Sarissa were glued in place I used blu-tac to attach the figures to popsicle sticks.  Initially I used hot glue but the figures didn’t stay on to well.

Using the pop sticks it would allow me to handle the figures easier whilst painting.

Having  settled on multi-basing my models I then had to make a decision on what size and shape bases to use.

Looking through the internet it did seem like rectangular bases were more popular than square bases when it came to 15mm figures.

I settled on a standard size of 20mm x 40mm for my infantry figures with the idea being to mount 4 models on each base.

Basing this way did somewhat make Hail Caesar the preferred rules system as it relies more on the footprint of the unit rather than number of bases.

To play using Warhammer Ancients I would ideally need units between 5 and 8 bases wide.  Although doable it could mean my armies start to look a bit like thin lines unless I increase the ranks of bases too.  Of course also doable, but it would require quite a lot of figures per unit.

I had initially thought that 4 bases would be a good size, but I soon realised that it would lose a lot of grandeur.  I really want to give the impression that these battles involved a cast of thousands, not just a few hundred men.

16 man units just seemed small.  So I have decided to go with 8 men per base, or at least for tightly packed close order infantry.  I will probably do different figure counts to represent more open order troops.

Next I started to look at the shape of the footprint.  I noticed that many people portrayed the Macedonian Phalanx formation in a rectangle on the tabletop but looking in history books the formation was more square.

With each Phalanx consisting of 16 ranks of 16 men for a total of 256 men.

Looking at the Hail Caesar rules it pretty much confirmed what I needed to do.  Phalanx formations in the rules are supposed to be 4 ranks deep.

If I make each phalanx unit 2 bases wide and 4 bases deep not only would I make the footprint square I would also comply with the 4 ranks rule from the rules I plan to use.  This in turn meant that my units would be 8 men wide and 8 men deep for a total of 64 men.   A massive increase from what my initial thought had been.

I was hoping to have at least 6 phalanxes in my Macedonian force, but after working all this out I would have nowhere near enough men.

So another order was placed to bolster the ranks.

For quite some time now I have been contemplating building and painting an Ancients army but have always stopped short of actually doing anything.  That was until I decided to back a Kickstarter campaign by Forged in Battle for some of their beautiful 15mm figures.

It was actually the Dark-Ages kickstarter that I backed in the end, due to my procrastination, but I used my credits to buy figures from their Ancients range.

After some time a rather heavy box landed on the doorstep and without hesitation I eagerly opened it, and then left it tucked away under a table to gather dust.

Fast forward to now and I once again feel the itch to do something with Ancients.

So what did I get in this box of delights?

With so many options to choose from, and this being my first venture into Ancients I decided to go for something that I hoped would be relatively easy to research.  Who better to choose then Alexander the Great.

But what to choose for him to fight against?

I looked through the images of the Forged in Battle website and decided it really came down to either Persians or Classical Indian.

In the end it was the ability to have both chariots and elephants in large numbers that swayed me towards the forces of India.

Having no prior experience in this field it just felt that the forces of India with all its archers, chariots and elephants would be the complete opposite of the massed Macedonian Phalanx and Companion Cavalry.

So many options.

Looking at my shelves of books that I had collected when I first thought of dipping my toe into this I pulled out a few likely candidates.

My first thought was Warhammer Ancients.  I know they were popular some time ago and I am reasonably familiar with the basics of Warhammer Fantasy, or at least I was.  Sure the rules are really designed for larger figures but I could get around this by multi-basing them.  Maybe 4 models to a square base?

I know I want the armies to look suitably large on the table and multiple models on each base could help with that, especially with casualty removal.  Basically each base of figures would be the equivalent of a single figure in 28mm scale.

My second thought was Hail Caesar.   I love that there is no individual model removal, as that can be a bit of a pain sometimes and would allow larger armies to be used and still have the games played in a reasonable timeframe.

I also have Clash of Empires which at first glance looks similar to Warhammer Ancients but I have not really read into that rules set much.

I’d be interested to hear other peoples thoughts and ideas.  Any suggestions at the moment would be very much appreciated.