15mm Seleucid Impetus!

Ancient war gaming is not an area I normally dabble in. It's a period that I know very little about and one that has never really appealed to me. Recently however I have been introduced to a very enjoyable set of rules from Italy called Impetus. A friend at my local club was good enough to host several games all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. This was enough for me to decide to take the plunge and paint up an army.

When I say take the plunge I mean dip my toes really. Impetus is similar to the DBx series of games in having a relatively low requirement in terms of number of figures. This means it fulfils one of my key criteria for war gaming projects: a realistic chance of completion.

After taking the decision to invest in an army I then faced the dilemma of which one to choose. As already mentioned I know very little about ancient history and the classical world. Some online research (aah Wikipedia - where would we be with out you?) soon revealed it to be a fascinating period of history.

During my research I came across several interesting articles on the Seleucid Empire. This was one of the Hellenistic successor states that developed after the death of Alexander the Great. The Seleucids turned out to be the ideal choice for two main reasons. Firstly their incredibly interesting history meant that at some point they had come into conflict with most of the other powers of the day. Secondly the varied nature of their forces means you have a lot of choice when it comes to army composition. My mind was made up. Seleucids it was.

My next step was to have a look what 15mm figures were available. More online research quickly showed that the Seleucids are well catered for by several figure manufacturers. I ordered a small sample from Essex Miniatures and was pleased with what I received. This was sufficient to convince me to order one of their DBA army packs.  

Below are a few photos of the Phalangites I received as part of my sample order from Essex Miniatures.  They are 90% complete and are nearly ready to leave the workbench. As you can see I'm no expert figure painter. As with my 1/300 models I try to go for a look that appears OK when used en masse. I've left the shields blank for now but I may go back and try my hand at painting on some designs. I'll post more when I get more figures painted up.