"Battle of Cunaxa Set 2 Review" Topic

"When Darius II, King of Kings of the Persian Empire, died in 404 BCE, he was succeeded by his eldest son Arsames, who was crowned as Artaxerxes II. However another son, Cyrus (‘the Younger') also had designs on the throne, and he immediately began building an army to usurp his brother. As Satrap of Lydia, he ruled a province of the empire that was close to Greece, and he hired about 13,000 mercenaries from all over Greece to bolster his forces, particularly with heavy infantry. Without telling his mercenaries or local levies what he was intending, he set off for Babylon, and met his fore-warned brother in battle at Cunaxa in 401 BCE, where he was killed. This left his army, and particularly the many Greeks, with no purpose, and while initially they set off to return home peacefully, soon they were attacked by Persian forces, and so began the famous retreat of the ‘Ten Thousand'. Under the leadership of Xenophon and others, they made their way north through Armenia until they reached the coast of the Black Sea, then west along the coast, arriving back in friendly territory in 399 BCE after much suffering, and having lost perhaps half their number…"

Full Review here
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Armand

The review somewhat slates then for being historically inaccurate – but those are also some really nice and characterful sculpts.

And I'm thinking "if they ain't right for history then they're spot on for Fantasy….."

Very cool poses for dioramas and camp scenes. They look very cleanly molded too.

I find the claim that they are unhistorical to be a bit nit picky. The pilos helmet is the expected most common type but there is no reason to believe that all older gear was no longer used especially with mercenaries. Would it be better with Thracian style helmets? Maybe.

Battle of Cunaxa Set 3 (Persian Cavalry)

See here

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Armand