Whilst trying to avoid decorating duties (it is a bank holiday weekend in the UK when such activities seem to take on some importance) I was pondering whether my Athenian cavalry are properly organised to reflect their historical structure as I've tried to do with their hoplite comrades and within my other 6mm armies to varying levels of authenticity.
At present the Athenian hipparchoi has an escort of 300 elite quality troopers with a main unit of 450 militia quality troopers and 300 supporting light horse (no horse archers though) to bring them close to the 1,000 theoretical muster for Athens. But this bulking up may not reflect how they were tactically structured on the battlefield.
Richard Nelson's book (Armies of the Greek and Persian Wars) indicates that each tribe was required to produce 100 cavalry to form a phylae under the command of a phylarch. There is no mention of any larger tactical unit.
Duncan's book (Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars) confirms the tribal structure of 100 troopers commanded by a phylarchos but he also refers to a reference recommending that the phylai should drill in two groups of five and also mentions that there were two hipparchoi (but these two aspects may not be related).
Remembering that I'm playing at an abstraction level of 1:50, I'm wondering what is the best way of representing them on the table top battlefield to keep them in line with the tactical structures of other troop types.
QuoteBut now, let us suppose it is the occasion of the march-past, (10) in the grounds of the Lyceum, before the javelin-throwing. The scene would gain in beauty if the tribal squadrons were to ride in line of columns (11) as if for battle, in two divisions, five squadrons in the one and five in the other, with the hipparch and the phylarchs at their head, in such formation as to allow the whole breadth of the racecourse to be filled.
From Xenophon's
Cavalry Commander, available at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1172/1172-h/1172-h.htm and elsewhere.
There's no administrative or distinction between ordinary cavalry and "light horse" except for (a) the horse-archers, and (b) the
prodromoi who replaced them in the first half of the 4th century, and who may have been very few in number. See here (https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/148421.pdf)for the best discussion of the
prodromoi that I know of online.
Ideally, then, you want two regiments of 500 cavalry each, led by the two hipparchs; plus 200 horse-archers in the 5th century or 50-200
prodromoi in the 4th. Except that the Athenian cavalry were often under strength, as Xenophon complains.
Thanks for the feedback.
Two under strength "regiments" does seem to be the reasonable and probably most appropriate way to go and will keep them more consistent with the cavalry arms of my other 6mm armies.
Whether I get round to it may well depend upon how many of the old (no longer produced) Baccus Greek cavalry figures I have left and whether I also consider re-organising the cavalry contingents from my Theban and Thessalian armies.
I checked my lead pile and I don't have any of the old Baccus Greek cavalry figures left. I do however have some of the new ones for which I have no definite purpose (that I can recall at the moment). Whether these go to the Athenians or to Thebes and then the Theban figures to Athens, I haven't concluded yet but I probably do need to re-balance the split between the Theban-Boiotian cavalry groupings and also reduce the size of the escort for the hipparchoi in both armies.
I decided that the "new" figures will go to Athenians and have started to paint them. This will allow the "old" figures to go to the Thebans at some point in the future to enable some re-structuring there.
I was going to split the Athenian cavalry into two equal halves each of: hipparchoi and small escort; main cavalry unit; and a base of spear armed light horse. I was also going to down-grade the main units from Militia quality to Raw quality but the "new" figures look too good for that.
But as they are never likely to be split on the battlefield and I've just belatedly learnt that the Athenians were really horse archers, I feel the need to squeeze a base in and get rid of the 2nd hipparchoi's escort. Less historically accurate I know, but as long as nobody tells the guy on the other side of the battlefield....
Not sure about the 'raw'. As a group they'd have at least as much experience as their Hoplites.
Quote from: dwkay57 on Oct 20, 2025, 07:09 PMLess historically accurate I know, but as long as nobody tells the guy on the other side of the battlefield....
Yes, you have to watch that shifty character. He always seems to know what you're going to do next. Surprise him with a mounted hoplite cavalry charge - he will never see that one coming!
Something I like with 6mm is the ability to model formations on even slightly larger 60mm bases.
Young Jim is probably right (as always) so they will stay as Regular Militia. Being in two smaller units plus less of an escort for the hipparchoi may reduce their combat effectiveness anyway.
Do you apply any principles when modelling the formations Steve? And do they have any impact on fighting or melee?
You must have very long evenings "down there" if you can turn out a whole legion in one.
In 6mm and the scaling of a legion on two 60mm square bases, easy work.
The formation of the figures on the base does not have an impact per se in the Strength & Honour rules. The strength and maneuvrability of the legion as a unit is based on their historical performance at that battle and worked into their game stats.
The fighting ability (in Strength and Honour rules primarily) is in their fighting strength factor(s), which of course is rated from their ability as a fighting legion. Veterans are better than average which are better than raw troops.
The formations depicted on the base just looks good and visually helps to tell the units apart, which is useful in 6mm scale.
A similar principle works amongst my 6mm Napoleonic figures as well, with numbers and orderliness of the figures visually helping to show the difference between Guards, Regulars & Militia, trained/untrained, big skirmisher screens (eg French) against those who did not do this (eg Spanish), various strength cavalry brigades etc etc. It provides for a consistant pattern of recognition.
Yes, at 6mm the ability to recognise figures easily is greater than the need to be historically accurate (in painting terms). All my barbarian armies are now in team colours which does reduce the number of times I have to pick up a base to check the label underneath.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that George Custer (him of Little Big Horn fame) tried to ensure that all the horses within a troop of the 7th Cavalry were the same shade or tone so he could identify at a distance which troop was which. Fat lot of good it did him you might add, but does highlight the issue of visibility on the battlefield.
Quote from: dwkay57 on Nov 02, 2025, 08:13 AMI seem to recall reading somewhere that George Custer (him of Little Big Horn fame) tried to ensure that all the horses within a troop of the 7th Cavalry were the same shade or tone so he could identify at a distance which troop was which. Fat lot of good it did him you might add, but does highlight the issue of visibility on the battlefield.
Although the colour coding of horses seems to have been true, it seems to have derived from earlier US cavalry practice e.g. early in the Civil War. The system apparently broke down quite quickly in that conflict. Whether it had anything to do with battlefield recognition rather than the parade ground is moot. Colour charts of the seventh's company colours suggest that several companies had the same colour horse, which you might expect, there being a limited number of solid colour schemes.
In their book "The Roman Cavalry" Dixon and Southern discuss the likely replacement of mounts during campaigns, based largely on documentation from much later periods but I guess the general principles are the same. As time goes on, any horse with four working legs will do, although the prestige regiments / troops are likely to get the first choices.
But at 6mm where the same model gets used in multiple armies having the rider in team colours and the horses in national colours does help with recognition and speeds up play a bit in that you are less likely to have taken casualties off the wrong unit.