Elamites
One of the more interesting "Biblical" era armies (IMO), the Elamites
ruled a large kingdom (or possibly two kingdoms) to the east of
Babylon. They were enemies of each of the major Mesopotamian
empires until they were decisively defeated by the Assyrians and later
absorbed into the Achaemenid Persian empire.
Obviously this obscure army is not produced (yet?) by any plastic
figure company. The army I created for DBA required 2-3 LCh, 1
HCh, 10 Bw, 1 LH, and 1 Ps.
LCH (Light Chariots) : the
kallipani. This is the most distinctive element of the
later or "Neo-Elamite" army. These were sort of stripped-down
chariots with no sides, rather like a Bronze Age flatbed truck.
Several archers would ride on them and use them as firing platforms,
although the main point seems to have been as transports for troops, so
they may dismount as Bows in DBA. Keith Finn
posted an excellent Kallipani made from a Zvedza Persian chariot body
on HaT's web site. For my models, I used some IMEX civil war
artillery sets to provide horses and wheels, and scratch-built the rest
from matte board and florist wire. The drivers are ESCI
barbarians given wire whips and the crew are HaT Macedonian Light
Infantry and IMEX Souix. One of the HaT figures was a javelin-man
slightly modified to represent an archer. Here are two views of
my Kallipani:
HCh (Heavy Chariot): The
general's element may be another kallipani, a dismounted Bow, or a
HCh. I decided to make a heavier kallipani for him, with
four horses, so that it could be passed off as either a LCh or HCh,
much as I did with the Assyrians. The only difference is the
crew, which are HaT Roman Auxilliaries.
LH (Light Horse): The amry
also needs one element of skirmishing cavalry. From what I could
gather the Elamite horsemen used bows and spears. So, my element
has one of each. The archer is an IMEX Souix; the lancer is a HaT
Cossack.
PS (Psioli): There is also a
single element of skirmishing infantry, who I've armed with bows.
These are more HaT Macedonians. The conversion into archers is
slightly different from what did with the Mittanni
infantry -- the arms were moved by using a hot Xacto knife to melt a
notch in their armpits and then fuse the arm into a lower position.
Bw (Bows): The vast bulk of the
army is archers, of course, at least 7 elements but up to 10 if the
kallipanni all dismount. These were made using Macedonians
(actual archers as well as converted javelinmen) and Airfix Merry
Men. The Merry Men had thier longbows trimmed down and hoods
removed. All the Elamites without helmets have had headbands
added with paint, of course. Here are a few views. I'm
particularly happy with the Airfix figures.
