Spring Clean Challenge Sassanids Revived
Start and Inspiration
Lurking in the back of a drawer for over a decade these Sassanids really need some attention. With the plastic infantry kits coming from both Victrix and Wargames Atlantic I need to get these long neglected minis onto the table. My gaming buddies are starting to get into Swordpoint so I thought I would add something different to the mix.
The idea of doing a Sassanid army came from my reintroduction to wargaming as a hobby. In 1986 I saw a magazine at the local newsagent:
MW33Inside this wonderful tome was a fantastic picture of Peter Gilder’s Sassanids against Late Romans:
Having decided that I’d happily have an army like that one day I subsequently collected almost anything but that, however the image (and the magazine) stayed with me. When Gripping Beast released their Sassanid range (2007/8??) I saw them at Salute and went home with a big bag full of cataphracts. They are at the front, 20 in total including leader and standard bearer figures.
Over the years I added the Elephant and crew (also Gripping Beast), the 12 Huns at the back (Wargames Foundry), one random amazon horse archer (Eureka), some banners (LBMS) and a party pack of 32 foot skirmishers (Black Tree Designs).
I know I’ll need more horse archers/LC and a block of infantry with sparabara and bows which get fielded as a combined formation in Swordpoint. I’m looking to get to a 1000 points in total.
Firstly off to raid my library for some reading material:
That magazine brought tears to my eyes. I remember the format but I can’t remember that particular issue. Good luck with the army. I certainly will be following. Do you have someone with an opposing army to play against. I have personally come to a point where I will not build an army I don’t have an opponent or two for. I am tired of always painting up two armies to try and engage gamers with. Sad story.
Nostalgia is a big pull isn’t it. This project has been stuck in my head since the 1980’s so time to let it out finally. Thanks for following. I hope you enjoy the updates, I’ve made some progress already so will be posting again soon. One of my mates has Late Romans and Arabs so we have enough between us to have a few options but I’ll probably build up enough minis to build 2,000 points that can be split into Sassanid, Palmyran and/or Parthian so I’ll have options to table both sides if needed.
Fascinating looking SCC and a very impressive bunch of library material. Looking forward to seeing the project as it goes