"Mycenaean Swords" Topic

I'm working on my Field of Glory Bronze Age Later Mycenaeans. It is a colourful & interesting force. However, I really can't make the army totally in line with the Army Book list because it simply isn't historical.
It does not allow for Swords units when swords are a frequent find in archaeology & the Linear B lists record hundreds in storage at various palaces. Swords are best issued & wielded by professional retinues who seem to be the core of Mycenaean & Minoan armies.
IMO it is not a Mycenaean army without Swords.
So, as well as Offensive & Defensive Spears BGs (the core infantry units in the 'lists'), I will include 2 BGs of Swords.
Certainly more speculative will be the "illegal" Light Horse unit I'm adding: (4 bases: called "The Trojan Horse"!). There is enough evidence of this for me to defend the addition.

Any comment on this?
And to broaden the discussion, have you altered lists before? Clearly I'm not a tournament player, but I generally feel a rules/lists package has been assembled for a reason & I'm not totally comfortable with my planned "surgery.

From what I've read, which I'll admit is 10+ years ago although I looked into it a lot then, I don't think there is much justification for giving a unit a swords classification. Probably there were a lot of swords, as side arms, used by spearmen.

So you'd be better off upgrading a spear unit to an elite spear unit (or two) rather than making them swords.

Obviously, warriors would carry an array of weapons but wargames' rules need to simplify in order to allow something to be playable.

Sword-armed warriors weren't unheard of in the period. The Egyptians depicted the Sea Peoples as such:

Mycenaeans armed similarly don't seem such a stretch.

Why not? As long as your opponents don't mind go for it

Your best argument for that is going to be the Pylos frescoes that show Mycenaean warriors (armored in linen and helmeted but without shields) running down fleeing barbarians. In wargame parlance, my take would be that warriors could fight as HI with spears in the shield wall, or drop the cumbersome gear and fight as MI in rough terrain, or where speed was more important.

Cheers,

Christopher

The philosophy the FOG rules takes is simply how a given troop type was likely to fight in their opinion. So, although a lot of troops have swords they are considered secondary and only those who used them as a primary weapon count as swordsmen. Roman Legionaries being the classic example.
Likewise a lot of mounted troops had a bow but under FOG don't shoot if charging with a lance is seen as their primary purpose.

I have a Later Mycenaean FOG army and am quite happy with the classifications. Spears are mentioned more often than swords in the Iliad and Connolly reckons the Mycenaean warrior was a spearman who only fell back on his sword if the spear was lost or broken.

At the end of the day though its your game so go with what you are happy with.