Those Pesky Persians and Carthaginians

The Early Achaemenid Persians: 

Even though DBA armies are "small" in figure footprint, Early Achaemenid Persian army is one that 'wants' more than most with 4 x 8Bw and 1 x 7Hd included in its army list (see below). You have to paint a chariot and plenty of cavalry too. It spans a goodly distance with its 'twelve bases' not doubling up in hoplite rear rank supporting fashion. The eye to its success is the its of its cavalry arm and choosing suitable defensive (aka protect in 'rough') ground for its 'archers'. It's quite a challenge for the Persian player (Xerxes) as you feel the natural 'Greek' tendency would be to 'stop your internal squabbling' and to gang up on him. At least he will start the campaign holding the 'strategic' central province of the DBA campaign map (to be included in a future post), in this case a sea area of Central Mediterranean Islands and also has a safe 'edge of the world' position. I still feel they will need some campaign special rules to help 'up' the size of the army and/or cause disarray in the Greek forces. The collection below are from Xyston Miniatures, beautifully detailed and being Persian gave me the opportunity to use a 'full' paint palette of bright colours.   

Early Carthaginian:

A lesser known player in the Greek-Pesian Wars, but (probably) a pro-Persian ally to the Achaemenid cause (courtesy of the common links to the sea-faring Phoenicians). It's main input was too make war with Syracuse and the rest of the Sicilians under Gelon (see previous post), while Xerxes stole into Central Greece. Hence no Greek reinforcements from the Western Mediterranean. The Carthaginians did not have any elephants, but they did have an interesting mix of mounted, including Heavy Chariots/Numidian Lights/Cavary, and foot including spears (from African Spearmen to Citizen Militia, take your pick) and lights/auxillia in support (see below, bottom of the picture). Not to be underestimated. Their weakness is the fact in campaign terms they have to cross a lot of water before they can get involved and sea crossings in ancient times were risky undertakings. My Carthaginians all come from Museum Miniatures.

Persian reinforcements standing off table for those 'what/if or campaign special rules' (see below). All I seem to be missing for another two Early Achaemenid DBA armies is a bunch of 8Bws, about eight stands in fact. Given my current painting rate they could be a long time coming!

The prototype Persian camp (see below). All I need do now is select and paint a stand of camp followers to fit inside it.

The core six DBA 'Greeks in Peril' campaign armies are shown all together in a long camera shot (see below):

Next: Formulating the pros and cons of the Greeks in Peril campaign.