Throughout the next few months we will be launching our new Persian Army sets together with mercenary forces which, by definition, can either fight for or against them! .We currently have chosen to make them to compliment the Persian side to balance out the armies.

Following the failure of the Ionian Revolt (499 BC - 494 BC), Darius I , King of Persia was intent on subjugating the Greeks and punishing them for their part in the revolt. In 492 BC Darius dispatched an army under his son-in-law, Mardonius. In September 490 BC the heavily armored Greek army with it's long spears met the lightly armored army of Persia with its archers and short swords. The Greeks won a great victory.

It was the first time the Greeks had bested the Persians on land, and their victory endowed the Greeks with a faith in their destiny which was to endure for three centuries.

For the autumn of 2007 we are launching Persian Casualties, Persian Heavy Cavalry and also Parthian Light Horse Archers to add to this colorful and fascinating range. The Parthians are shown at the sculpting stage but we hope to have these available just in time for the September Chicago Show. The other figures should be available in August.


All details are below ...

Firstly some historical information on our new Persian Heavy Cavalry:

These Persian heavy horseman are members of Cyrus the Younger's bodyguard and their clothing shows several Greek influences:

The bronze helmet is decorated with a plume made of horsehair, and they are wearing a linen jackets reinforced with bronze plates. Just like the Greek cuirass. Their jackets have two rows of plates which were placed like roofing tiles, the so-called wings or pteruges. Their legs are also protected by bronze plates, which resemble the chaparajos of the cowboys from the "Wild West". The Greek cavalry of the same period interestingly did not have these protections for the legs. On their feet they wears leather moccasins.

The horses comes from the Medic plains and were very large and of course strong as they would need to be carrying all this heavy kit! Their chests was protected by a bronze plate as well as their heads. The bronze plate on the head was normally decorated and formed together with chains of small bronze rings as well as on the headstall of the horse.

One horsemen is holding two javelins in his right hand and most likely they would have had a Greek short sword or axe as secondary weapon. The Persian cavalry was mostly used for throwing projectiles at the enemy, and not so much for imparting in charges that the Macedonian cavalry were famous for. Altogether they were well protected, and formed the first of a new type of cavalry: the cataphract or the completely armoured Persian cavalry.

The Parthians were of Scythian origin and fought both for and against the Greeks. They conquered an empire from Armenia to Afghanistan and also clashed repeatedly with their Western neighbour Rome as Roman leaders sought new lands to conquer East.

The Parthian horse archers tried not be close contact troops. Their strategy was to charge the enemy face on, in this case the Greek phalanx, and from a distance of about 100 yards start launching arrows. They would then ride up to about 20 yards from the phalanx, turn the horse backwards, and then ride back to where they came from shooting arrows to the rear. They would then continue to repeat this move again and again, gradually wearing down the enemy.

These models shows the Parthians in the various manovers mentioned above. .