So, one batch of possible armies sorted and I am holding the Nubians and the B edouin Arabs as possible armies for DeBAKLe 2013. I found another box of DBA Armies – yes, I have a few laying around in the lead pile 🙂
This lot are from DBA army lists book 2 and 3. There are other armies here as well but they were all prepared for DBA v 1.1 (see how old some of my lead pile is?).
So, the next four contenders are:
![]() Slave Revolt (Spartacus) (74-71 BCE)These figures are from Essex Miniatures and are list II/45c. This represents the slave army following Spartacus after he had walloped a few Roman Armies and had therefore acquired some Roman equipment and, along with the addition of some deserters, had trained some troops up in the Roman manner. It is not a powerful army although it rates 242 on the rating scale. It could be 5 blade elements, 5 warband elements and two psiloi or one cavalry, 4 blade elements, 5 warband elements and two psiloi. The warband can be effective and at the same time fragile. Running this with a cavalry general is an option. swapping the cavalry general for a blade general when facing non-horse armies is an option as well. I like the idea of this one. The only thing missing is the Parthian! |
![]() Sui (581-623 CE) These are really nice Essex figures and have a strike force of cataphract knights. They are backed up with some very ordinary foot troops however. Their rating is 208 so not a powerful force by any means. Having said that, there will be a lot of figures on the table as this army can have 2 x 8Bw (16 bowmen on two bases) and must have 4 x 7Hd (4 bases of 7 infantry each). They are list II/20a. These are tempting because of badness but will mean a butt-load of painting for DBA. Doug’s AAR from using the DBMM version of the Sui makes for interesting reading and whilst DBA is not DBMM, I think the problems with these two armies are the same. |
![]() T’ang (618-755 CE) List II/20b are the T’ang. These were both contemporary to the Sui and the successors of the Sui. These are Essex Miniatures as well and also a lovely collection of figures. They rate higher, 250-274, than the Sui so are not so much rubbish. Like the Sui there is a lot of painting in this army. It also is possible to field the T’ang as an all mounted army (the barbarians to the north were getting restless at this time) as well as a mix of cavalry and infantry. |
![]() Qara-Khitan (1124-1211 CE) A book four army, IV/15 and an interesting one at that. These are also Essex Miniatures and like the T’ang, the army can be entirely mounted at 3 Knight elements, 3 Cavalry elements and 6 Light Horse elements. This rates at 294 and is quite powerful for a competition army unless facing elephants. Two of the Light Horse elements can be replaced but only with a Horde and a Psiloi reducing their rating to 273. |
So, here are another four possibles for the DeBAKLe 2013 army. From this lot, I would be leaning towards Slave Revolt (who can resist “I am Spartacus!”) and the Sui (really crappy army but pretty, although a lot of painting).
Considerations continue! Hunting for more figures in the lead pile under Mama’s house.