Massive Macedonian Miniatures Madness!

Alexander the Great at the Battle of Granicus, 334 BC

   As readers of the blog might recall, I have been rumbling about perhaps adding to my Macedonian army the past year. A week or so ago, fellow HAHGS member Edgar posted a message to our local group about a desire to unload a substantial number of  Macedonian/Thracian 25/28mm miniatures at an attractive price. The majority of the Macedonians were from a Manufacturer that I had never heard of before, A&A Miniatures. Some others were from from Crusader (a manufacturer I knew of but had never purchased figures from) and the Thracians were Old Glory. A few email exchanges, a Paypal funds transfer, and some swift packing and mailing on Edgar's part, and the figures were on their way to me pronto!

As a last minute bonus, he even threw in some Little Big Man Macedonian shield transfers. 

Such a deal!  :-)

The large, very heavy (12 pounds!) box arrived 2 days later - indeed, one of the heaviest wargames figure packages I can ever recall!

On top were Crusader figures - Thracian Cavalry with command, 12 in all.

HUGE BAG #1  of unlabeled figures. 

On unpacking and sorting, contents as seen above - mostly A&A phalangites and some A&A Macedonian Companions. 

Next uncovered were a ton more extra shields, and 3 "heroic 28mm" Gorgon Studios Hoplites (yet another manufacturer I'd never heard of) - these will likely become "heroes" for "To the Strongest!"

HUGE BAG #2 of figures...

and its' contents - large portion are Old Glory Thracian Peltasts and Greek  Peltasts, and some OG ? Thracian cavalry. 

4 smaller bags, unpacked showed contents as above - more OG Thracians, more phalangites, etc.

Once all of this was then re-sorted and reorganized, the total contents of this Macedonian Multitude worked out to be (more or less)

A&A

26 Phalangites with Bronze "muscled" Cuirass (4 with pikes leveld)

18 Phalangites with Linothorax armor

41 Phalangites, unarmotred

4 trumpeters, 4 Standard bearers, 8 officers (2 variants)

9 Macedonian Companions

4 MacedonianCommand

13 Horses

TOTAL: 101 Infantry, 13 Mounted

Crusader (? uncertain about all but the Thracian Cavalry)

12 Thracian Cavalry w/ Command

38 Unarmored phalangites

5 officers

2 Trumpeters

2 standards

4 Hoplites/Heroes

8 Thracian Archers

TOTAL: 57 Infantry, 12 cavalry

Old Glory

49 Thracian Peltasts

27 Greek Peltatsts

23 cavalry (? Thracians plus command/Generals)

TOTAL: 76 Infantry, 23 mounted

Gorgon

3 Hoplites

? Mfr

1 ? Persian cataphract rider and 1 mounted rider wearing Turban (these may become generals/heroes for other armies)

Little Big Men Studios

12 sheets of 24 shield transfers each

GRAND TOTAL: 237 Infantry, 48 Mounted!

So, what to do with this veritable mountain of lead?!

It looks like a Phalanx in TTS the way I'd organize it will have 6 stands of 4 figures each = 24 men each.  That would would work out to 4 A&A and 2 Crusader units.

A unit each of 12 Companion and Thracian Heavy/Medium Cavalry

2 units of 12 Old Glory Greek Peltasts

plus some heroes, generals, etc

The Old Glory Thracians could easily make a  small Thracian army of their own:

4 units of 12 Thracian Peltasts

1 unit of 8 Archers

1 unit each of 12 MC and 8 LC, plus Leaders. 

With my existing Thracians (18 peltasts, 8 LC, all Minifigs), they could ally with or fight the Macedonians. 

Regardless, it could take me a while to paint my way through all of these. Thanks, Edgar... I think! :-)