"Mithridates" Topic

Being new to ancient armies and warfare, please help me with the following enquiry. Which companies manufacture 28 mm Mithridatic figures? I would like a mixed army of mounted and foot figures. Thanks, Dennis

AFAIK he used a lot mercenaries as well as "Successor State style" troops, so you'll get a long way using Hellenic hoplites and various Anatolian cavalry and infantry. Again, going by memory, I recall that there were Anatolian Celts fighting on both sides as well, due to various political schemes.
Later on there'd be Roman style infantry as well, a combination of deserters, mercenaries and "imitation" troops trained locally. The large dependancy on mercenaries means that you can get away with quite a lot, and there was Scythians, Thracians and Galatians and other kinds of hired troops present.

E: as for minis, I'd look at Victrix to get an initial bulk of units through cheap plastics, but some people prefer metals. After all, if you get cheap infantry, you can spend some of the savings on nice metal cavalry. So I'd pick up a few boxes of hoplite infantry, some Republican legions, and some peltasts.

But I'm not an expert on the period, so you can certainly get better advice I hope.

Dennis

Lot of ink spilled on this subject over many years – suggest you do a search on TMP for "Pontic' Armies". You will get a lot of very useful hints. Setsuko's advice is spot on.

For a start Aventine, A&A, Crusader, Gripping Beast, Foundry, Relic, Sgt Major in metal. Victrix and Agema (sold by Gripping Beast) in plastic. Warlord have both metal and plastic available.

Cavalry – 'Greek' looking heavies, Sarmatians and even Armenian cataphracts. Lighter horse both javelin and bow armed. Scythed chariots of course!

Victrix make excellent 28mm plastic pikemen – with trousers as an option. Also lighter peltasts and skirmishers. Relic and Gripping Beast have impressive metal scythed chariots. In plastic Warlord Caesarian legionaries are ideal as imitation legionaries. Gripping Beast (Polemarch range) and Aventine make metal imitation legionaries.

Given the range of troops used historically the list is almost endless! I have given examples only.

Try the TMP search and also ask Mr Google. I have done both over the years and found the information a great source of inspiration.

Garry

I am building a Mithridaitic army for BBDBA & LADG to fight my Marian Roman army. As Setsuko says, you have lots of choices. I just finished painting 1st Corps Skythian nobles for the Bodyguard & their Theurophori as Ax. I've also painted Old Glory Sarmatians, Skythian LH, Thracians, & Galatians. I have Victrix Macedonian & Successor pikemen to do. I'm looking at Victrix Greek peltasts as the javelinmen, since they have LBM shield transfers like the pikemen do. I also have Aventine Imitation legionaries, which are nice figures. I picked the figures I liked.

From my experience investigating it for 15mm, there are no "Mithradatic" figure ranges. This also applies to "Pontic" armies, the name some army lists use to describe the army.

You end up building your armies selecting troops from other army lists.

The figures in my Mithradatic/Pontic armies would be equally appropriate to the following WRG/DBx/FOG/ALDG army lists:
Seleucid (pikemen, javelinmen, scythed chariot)
Hellenistic Greek (cavalry and thureophoroi)
Skythian (horse archers)
Sarmatian (lancers and Black Sea colonists)
Dacian (Bastarnae, archers, slingers)
Late Republican Roman (imitation legionaries)
Ancient British/Gallic (Galatians)

My figures come from the following manufacturers, most of whom supply 25mm ranges for the above army lists: Essex, Donnington, Old Glory 15s, Minifigs, Museum Miniatures, Irregular

I would say it is true that any Mithradatic/Pontic army will give you a mix of mounted and foot figures. As the WRG 6th and 7th edition army list says: "The strength of a Mithradatic army lies in it having ample good cavalry of a wide range of types, a strong assualt force of scythed chariots, some good close formation infantry, and plenty of useful foot for rough terrain work. Its weakness is that half the army is useless in dense terrain and the other half too vulnerable in the open."

Thank you for all the useful information. What a lot of great knowlage in one web site. Thanks again, Dennis

My armies here

link