15mm Achaemenid Persians DBA++ (BBDBA)Army Review

Started way back in the day when I was but first reading about Marathon, Greeks in Peril, Salamis and Plataea (circa 1997) I realised with uncanny foresight that I needed to paint Persians as well as Greeks .. to my horror I also chose the largest DBA army project in the sense of number of figures (with all the options) to paint, Early Achaemenid Persians - maybe I should have started with Libyans (as in they are mostly 2Ps). The figures I sourced at shows seemed to come from all manner of manufacturers which seemed fitting of the Persian army (see below, the old school Xth Legion Spara Bara (middle row), supported by a front line of Xth Legion Taka Bara (front row), with the newer Xyston miniatures (back row) along with a unit from Chariot Miniatures): 

The respect opponents give the Persians is not from their infantry though, it is their cavalry arm that is feared, excluding the novelty Scythed Chariots (as I have never seen them work on a tabletop). Cavalry is one thing but Cavalry (3Cv) with Light Horse (2LH) is a horrible proposition for spears (4Sp) to face (see below, a Xyston Scuthed Chariot (front row), Xth Legion Cavalry (middle row) and Xth Legion Scythian Light Horse (back row)): 

I am quite proud of my Xyston paint jobs, 28mm detail on 15mm figures, beautiful figures which deserve a good paint job (see below, Xyston (2Ps) slingers (front row), Xyston (3Cv) Cavalry (middle row) and Xyston (2LH) Scythian light Horse (rear row)):   

Next to my Xyston Darius III and his Apple Bearers the (4Sp) Xyston spear who are tasked to guard his life with their own. To be honest my heresy is that I make little distinction between Early and Later Achaemenid Persian (it is just that I do not have many, as in one DBA Army of Macedonians to field against them for now), the only fact being that there is not much call for (8Bw) Spara Bara in later times (see below, going left to right (all Xystn) Light Chariot, Apple Bearer Spears and the start of a Hoard - shield designs all hand painted): 

Chariot Miniatures still hold their own as shown by this rear block of (3Cv) Cavalry to the rear left and the small (but perfectly formed) Spear (4Sp) on the "other side" of Darius (see below, the Persians sure bulked up the body count in their armies):   

Xyston Taka Bara (3Ax) looking much more fierce than their Xth Legion counterparts (see below, note that Xth Legion were passed onto Gladiator Games, who in turn passed the molds onto Magister Militum as per my last recollection): 

Not quite the DBM mass of an order of battle but filling out a BBDBA game, aka three sets of DBA Achaemenid Armies .. left, middle and right (see below, still more "silver legions" to fill out the ranks, particularly overdue are some Xyston Thracians and Egyptian Spearmen to join the ranks of the Persians): 

But of course now there is also now a War Tower to add! But I still need to paint my unit of "Combat Camels". These boys need a little TLC to be expanded in 2021 and who knows Alexander may too be reinforced so that they can "rumble" together.