DBA painting

Well this has certainly been a long delay in postings.

Here's my latest painting project, consisting of a collection of generally unrelated DBA armies.

First up, the
Commagene (III/44)

The entire army in array

 Commagene broke off from the Seleucid Empire in 163 BC, holding territory in modern eastern Turkey. At times paying tribute to the Parthians, the Armenians, the Pontic Empire, and Rome, they remained independent through a combination of diplomacy and an isolated location. It was a generally Hellenized society, but with a strongly Parthian/Persian background.

I chose to paint up this army because it provides a nice link between my Successor armies and my Marian Romans, and because it was on sale from Wargames, who have been selling off all their Essex lead.

Persian-influence slingers

Hellenistic slingers

Actually, there are only supposed to be two stands of psiloi in the army, but Essex provided both Persian and Greek style slingers, so I based them both. Another Hellenistic influence - mercenary peltasts:

Peltasts

Pike

The pike are really the remnants of the Seleucid pike. Being bored with the Macedonian sun symbols I've painted on most of my Successor pike, I chose to go with some Zoroastrian symbols on these, notably the Faravahar on the captain, and the flames on the rest of the pike. This has absolutely no basis in history, but it looks cool.

Tarantine light horse

Similarly, the Tarantine light horse carry shields with Sol Invictus on it, which may have some connection to eastern religions. Again, no historical reason for this, but it looks nice.

Cataphracts

The cataphracts and commander are basically variants of the later Seleucid cavalry.

Archers

Finally, the majority of the infantry is made up of hillmen archers. In DBA, this is not a bad pike and bow army, though in DBMM, all of the pike and bow are inferior, making it a rather poor match against Roman blades!

Next: A DBA army with a belated Christmas theme!