"Need 'accurate' 28mm Middle-Kingdom Assyrians" Topic

So, hopefully the title says it?

What figures are out there in 28mm for "accurate" Late Bronze Age "Middle-Kingdom" Assyrians? All the figures I can find, e.g. Wargames Foundry, or Newline Design, are obviously _Iron Age_ Assyrians. That is, good for ca. 800 to 600 BC, and NOT for 1400 to 1100BC? Warlord PURPORTS to have figures in their "Bronze Age" sub-range for "Hail Caesar!", but frankly I am very suspect! For example, their "command" blister, with 2x Leaders, a Standard Bearer, and a Musician, is advertised as suitable:

"…for the armies of Middle Kingdom Assyria, Kassite Babylonia, Mitanni, the Syrian and Canaanite City-States and Middle period Elam." Those are just TOO widely-dispersed geographically, and culturally, to give me confidence…

So, where to find "accurate" Late Bronze Age "Middle-Kingdom" Assyrians? In 28mm??

Unfortunately, there aren't any Middle Assyrian figures out there. Cutting Edge/Warlord has some figures that might do but I am not convinced either (plus I don't like the style).

First of all, what rules are you planning to use? Do you have a list? How many figures are you thinking of painting up?

I ended up painting up about 250 Foundry figures for Impetus. For Levy infantry I used ASS014 Auxiliary Archers 4 and ASS039 Babylonian Infantry. For the Ashasharittu is used ASS010 Auxiliary Infantry 2 and modified the head gear using green stuff (using the head gear in figure 91 of Armies of the Ancient Near East (WRG) as my template). For chariots I used the Mitanni models from the Foundry line. Took a lot of time but the figures look good. My collection is at our local club and I while take some good pictures when I get a chance but for the moment here is the layout of my army from a distance. Why not email me at mark.w.rutledgeatgmail.com and we can chat further about your building a Assyrian army of 1200 BC.

‌20140622_195603 by Eusebeia2002, on Flickr

Well Warlord purchased Immortal Miniatures and is the distributor for Cutting Edge miniatures. You might check out the Cutting Edge website.

link

The trickiest part is going to be the chariots. Bronze age Assyrian chariots are pretty distinctive, especially the 3 horse ones. I have a vague memory that Eureka used to make them, but I don't know if they still do.

I am not convinced that the 3 horse chariot ever existed but if it did I have never seen evidence for it as far back as 1200 BC. There is no reason to think that the Assyrian chariots were any different in the 1300 to 1100 BC period than the Mitanni.

So… I am new to "Hail Caesar!" but am familiar with the older "WH Anc. Battles" rules (having played it a few times about ten years ago on a very small scale). I also game "Bolt Action" (tho' I don't know if there is any real commonality?). A very, VERY long time ago I used to game (in 15mm) with Scotty Bowdon's "Ancient Empires: A Simulation of the Wars of Antiquity" (pub. 1991).

As I say, I am trying to use HC, so, am aiming to use the "Early Assyrian" list on page 18 of the "Biblical/ Classical" supplement.

I don't have a lot of spare cash to lay out on this. I went in, "in a big way," with Foundry, Black Tree, Newline, and even some Warlord figures, for the Trojan War(s). Probably have nearly 300 figures to game that war (those wars). SO… my intent here was to form no more than perhaps one "division," or I guess two including a "chariot division," of Assyrians, and then use other elements to "stand in" for "levies" or "allies;" and for an insufficiency of chariots!!!

Don't the HC rules discuss how one could incorporate an "allied continent" in an army? E.G., I have enough Newline Hittites to make one "division," plus a couple chariot units, and was planning on that element rounding out my Trojans (interpreting a few lines from _The Iliad_). I figure i can reverse the process, and use Trojan "allies" with the Hittites, letting the Hittites oppose any Assyrian army I can build.

As to building an Assyrian force, I was actually in fact thinking of mixing some packs of ASS039 and ASS040 as basic infantry, but including, not just as "levies." To these I thought I would add a few packs of ASS016 to give the flavor of "command," and break up the monotony. I had not thought about using any of the helmeted "Auxiliaries," ASS009 and ASS010, as "Ashasharittu." I guess I could -- tho' I don't really have the modelling skill to alter their helmets (and in any case, isn't figure 91 from _Armies of the Ancient Near East_ (WRG) a chariot warrior, not an infantryman?)… For levy archers, I was thinking of ASS012, since they look like the archer-equivalents of ASS039 and ASS040?? Finally, I too was thinking of using chariots from the Mitanni models from the Foundry lineup.

I won't be doing 200-plus figures, that is certain. Probably about 60 or so infantry, and half a dozen chariots or so. That is assuming I am reading the rules correctly, and have calculated what a "division" of infantry, and a "one in five units" of chariots should look like!!!!

Your ideas are fine. I don't consider myself a modelling expert but I found clipping of the risers on the Assyrian helmets and using green stuff to get a more archaic shape was not difficult at all. The Ashasharittu are elite troops so I presumed that modeling them like charioteers would be appropriate. Conjecture of course but since our information on this period is limited why not. The Assyrian helmets in the Foundry line are really too late to look right. It really does make a huge difference. I will make sure to take a few photos when I game next Friday.

Eureka make a 2 horses
version.I got mine with three hprses

So, I finally got one of the Eureka 2-horse Assyrian chariots. I also got a scrum-load of their "flat," so-called "Assyrian Auxiliary" shields. Am thinking to swap those out for the Wargames Foundry "dished" Assyrian shields. This is as I'm thinking that they will give the Assyrian troops a more "archaic" look, befitting the Middle Assyrian Empire for the Late Bronze Age.

The confusion arises because list makers and figure manufactures have consistently and incorrectly lumped the middle Assyrian period of the late Bronze Age from c.1500 – c.1000 BC with the early neo-Assyrian period hundreds of years later. The terms you cite are not appropriate for the middle Assyrian period and the uniforms and organisation of the middle Assyrian army would of been akin to Mitanni or Kassite and middle Babylonian armies. Even the WRG book makes this clear if people would care to read the print and not just look at the pictures. For example, the chariots and infantry shown in the WRG book are of the early neo-Assyrian period of the 9th century and not the middle period, hundreds of years before. There are no pictures of the middle Assyrian army but the script says they would have appeared similar to Mitanni or Middle Babylonians. I blame the list writers and product manufacturers for being lazy and not researching the lists and uniforms. They have just followed the same from the 1970s.
See 28mm Cutting Edge Miniatures for accurate figures

Thanks "Battle Master!!" But… afraid it's too late now -- the Foundry figures are bought, and have arrived. Guess I will have to settle for my little army being "wrong," and do as much as I can then to "archaize" them as much as possible into the Bronze Age with little things, like those "flat" Eureka shields, and some "artful" painting…

If you bought the Mitanni Foundry figures then you are ok for the Middle Assyrian period