"Tagmata or Themata" Topic

Off and on, I've been working on a Byzantine army for Saga.
Byzantine units from roughly 750 to 1150 come in two varieties: thematic troops and tagmatic troops.
The Tagmata are full time regiments, stationed in Constantinople who are a sort of reserve that can be deployed in response to major enemy attacks or can be used as the basis for an offensive army. They probably have better, more uniform, equipment and probably have uniforms.
Themata are the local troops, part time farmers and part time soldiers, the guys who initially respond to an enemy attack and deal with small raids. They probably weren't so well equipped or armored and would have been lucky if everyone in the outfit had matching shields.
Now, I hadn't really thought about all this, I just assumed that a Saga army would be thematic troops and I've been painting them accordingly. Lately, it has dawned on me that other folks have painted up their Byzantines as tagmata, which look very handsome.
So, those of you who have mid-Byzantine armies, did you base them on the tagmata or the themata?

Grelber

Mine are all 15mm and not raised for the "Saga" rules, but I have both tagmatic an thematic units.

Jim

Tagmata looks nicer is the appeal….how many dark age armies had a somewhat uniformed appearance outside the tagmatic units of the Byzantine empire? However, for those desiring larger force for large battles than naturally only having tagmatic troops absent of the thematic units would be unrealistic.

I'm looking at getting a DBA3 Byzantine army in 15mm roughly covering the same period. Any suggestions as to which figures I should be looking at ? I've skimmed over some possibilities but not been particularly impressed with my findings.

The best looking figures seem to come in huge packs and I'd be unlikely to use even half of them, often needing to buy a pack of 24 to get just 1 or 2 bases of 4.

Gildas. Check out this guy's web site for some ideas. He does some amazing armies for DBA. Looks like he uses a mixture of figures. I see some Essex and Irregular miniatures for sure. Those can be purchased in small packets.
link

Thanks for the ideas Perris but this is an earlier Byzantine army than the one I'm wanting (and from an earlier version of DBA). It helps though as he is using some Irregular figures I was looking at (a bit late for his army) and I'll now make sure I have a proper look at those when I go to York next month.

GildasFacit, have a look at Essex Miniatures ( link ) . Nice figures and cover the Manzikert period. I used the earlier kataphractoi with round shields for my Thematic units, beside the Tagmatic figures with tear-drop shields for a bit of visual differentiation.

Gildas, here is a link to my blog with my Byzantine army pics. I used Touller, Essex, Gladiator, Old Glory 15's, Minifigs, and Irregular all mixed together. I hope it helps you on your quest!
link

I'm trying to get them from one manufacturer if possible but the ones I fancy only do large packs and others have only single pose packs – a dilemma.

I'm planning on dual use army to cover III/29 Thematic & III/65 Nikephorian but mostly the troop types that fought in Italy against Franks, Lombards & Normans and possibly Goths as well.

Old Glory 15mm figures look poorly cast on their website and packs of foot are too large for a DBA army that only has a few foot bases. Irregular look interesting but I'd need to see the figures in the 'flesh'. Essex are a possibility but I'm not a fan of their figures and not much variety either. Gladiator are too late. The Minifigs website has nothing but a few out of focus pictures of what look like terrible figures.

Yours look great but I'm not planning on that size of army so much less easy for me to get the variation I'd like. Great help though, thank muchly for that.

Tony of TTT

That is an issue with Essex- single poses per pack, except command packs. They are better done than some other Essex figures, but you still have to buy them in packs.