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Friday, November 6, 2015

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! :-)


14 comments:

  1. Peter, excellent grab! Exactly what is needed to pass the long, dark days of winter. When spring arrives, so can your Macedonian army.

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    1. Thanks, Jon. I have lots more British Napoleonic Cavalry and Artillery and also some Spanish Infantry in the pipeline as well, but I think at least a few units of Phalangites will enter the queue for this winter as well!

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  2. I love A&A and Crusader - looks like a great deal.

    Enjoy the LBMS transfers :)

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    1. Good to hear; looks like they will go well with existing troops as well! I also note that both companies make Numidian LC, something I need a few more of!

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  3. Most impressive, looks fantastic...courage!

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    1. Yep, sounds like I'll need a trip to buy more floral wire for all those pikes!

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  4. Wow - awesome amount of figures to work on! Old Glory and Crusader (and others) minis look great to paint up during the winter months, all the best with your up coming projects!

    cheers,

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    1. Thanks, Phil. Good luck with your own Austrians, too!

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  5. Well, we know what you'll be busy with for awhile! ;-)

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    Replies
    1. Painting in general, but I do hope to put at least a couple of units of phalangites in to the querue. They should be pretty quick to paint up, actually. .

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  6. Brilliant, will keep an eye out for these guys! I have them all in 18mm xyston to do to with little big man transfers.

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    1. Probably won't appear until January... but you never know!

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