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Assyrian Basing Question

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 2:48 pm
by Shem
Sorry if this topic is annoying, I know people often ask about how to base their miniatures for future armies, Assyrians amongst them, but I haven't yet found the info I was looking for here. So:

I ordered myself a bunch of Assyrians (late/neo) and would like to base them properly right from the beginning, even if the armybook will come out in 2009, earliest. Is this likely to be what they will be, or rather absurd:

Guard: 1/2 HF light spears with 1/2 MF bowmen in the 2nd rank

Normal army: 1/2 HF light spears (MF?) with 1/2 MF bowmen in the 2nd rank

Allies/Subjects: 1/2 MF light spears with 1/2 MF (LF?) bowmen in the 2nd rank

Slingers: LF?

Will the cavalry be mixed units of archers and spearmen, or seperate ones? If so, will the mounted archers be LH or cav?

It would be great if you could tell me if those basings would be correct. If you havent made up your mind about that future project, no problem, but any help is highly appreciated!

Re: Assyrian Basing Question

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 3:03 pm
by rbodleyscott
Assuming you mean the reigns of Esarhaddon/Ashurbanibal.
Shem wrote:Guard: 1/2 HF light spears with 1/2 MF bowmen in the 2nd rank
All HF Light spear, swordsmen with optional 3rd rank of LF Bow.
Normal army: 1/2 HF light spears (MF?) with 1/2 MF bowmen in the 2nd rank
1/2 HF/MF light spear, swordsmen, 1/2 MF bow

Front rank HF if tower shields, MF if smaller round shields. Mostly Protected, but some Armoured HF.
Allies/Subjects: 1/2 MF light spears with 1/2 MF (LF?) bowmen in the 2nd rank

Slingers: LF?
Tribal levies - LF with bows, slings or javelins

Reserve Foot - Poor MF 1/2 LSp,swordsmen 1/2 Bow
Will the cavalry be mixed units of archers and spearmen, or seperate ones? If so, will the mounted archers be LH or cav?
Mostly cavalry.

Either 1/2 light spear, swordsmen, 1/2 bow, swordsmen or all Bow*,light spear,swordsmen

A few LH

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:09 pm
by Shem
Thanks for the quick reply! Now I can base those bloodthirsty chaps without worrying.

Are the reserve bowmen LF or MF?

So guard units will be 6 bases big, right? I thought propably 4 like other elite units, but "3rd rank" implies 6 bases (or more...). Could you tell me why guard-bowmen are LF and Kissir-Sharuti MF? As an amateur and beginner on Assyrian military-history, that sounds strange to me.

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 10:15 pm
by SirGarnet
With the optional bows my guess is the Guards could be 4-9 bases in total.

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 10:16 pm
by rbodleyscott
Shem wrote:Are the reserve bowmen LF or MF?
MF
So guard units will be 6 bases big, right?
I am not allowed to give everything away.
Could you tell me why guard-bowmen are LF and Kissir-Sharuti MF?
Because according to the expert (Nigel Tallis, professional Assyriologist) they only had a few archers in the guard infantry.

Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:51 am
by Shem
Thanks alot!
I'm really looking forward to your early ancient or biblical companion books! Ordered some Ospreys on that topic today, just to keep me busy until then.
Have a great weekend!

Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 7:43 pm
by ethan
In period I think the Assyrians are pretty tough...out of period? How do they deal with anything armed with a lance? much less knights...

Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 5:44 am
by nikgaukroger
Fight them with the chariots?

Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 8:34 am
by rbodleyscott
ethan wrote:In period I think the Assyrians are pretty tough...out of period? How do they deal with anything armed with a lance? much less knights...
No reason why the HF tower shield guys should be too scared of lancers.

In the impact phase they are on equal POAs to the lancers. In addition they have 50% more dice (probably at a reduced chance to hit). This makes them almost as good as Offensive or Defensive Spearmen against the knights in terms of chance to win the impact combat. Moreover, they are more likely than OSp/DSp to inflict a base loss on the knights.

In the melee they may be in a bit of trouble due to armour disadvantage, but weight of numbers may tell.

Of course, they may get lucky and disrupt the lancers from shooting before they charge.

Assyrians - excellent news

Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 5:15 pm
by jrd
Thanks Richard for the helpful Assyrian info.

I look forward to digging out my Late Assyrians to play again, as I never liked them much under DBM.
Need to find a bunch more Bw, though at least I have a few months to sort them out before the list arrives :-)

John