What would Tigranes' Army look like?

[Bellerophon93]

Hello all, I'm considering doing a game based on Tigranocerta. Was wondering what, in particular the infantry and archers in Tigranes forces would look like.

[stevenneate]

My Armenians are in plain tunic and trousers, round caps and a few helmets. There are a few cloak-wearing figures as well because it's a cold region in those hills, so trouser-up! I use a fair number of later Persian figures, most especially for the archers, but it's a real hotch-potch mixture. Armenian javelin infantry feature a lot of hillmen types with a mix of round and thureos shields, almost nothing in the way of armour. There are also Black Sea Greek thureophoroi amongst them. There is no uniformity unless 'looking drab together' was a dress code?!

My Iberian infantry are mostly converted Celts, all with white shields. Their shield uniformity makes them stand out amongst the infantry dross so they "shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark"!

For the pikemen use Seleucids and similarly for the imitation legionaries, but trousers are the go because real men die with their pants on. I again converted Celts for imitation legionaries, rather than paint up Marian Roman figures, because they had the trousers, thureos and right helmets.

I think there were some articles in Slingshot back in the late 90s (when I was made a Judge in the Land!) looking at the Albanian and Iberian subjects of Tigranes. My 50-years-of-Slingshot disc seems to have hidden itself in my recent house move!

Hope this helps.

[Jim Webster]

I must admit that there's a lot that can be done, especially in 15mm, with infantry with trousers, tunic, round or  thureos shields and a bare head or simple round helmet 

[stevenneate]

Did it in 15mm and 25mm. The 6mm are also recently finished but the trousers are less obvious!

[dwkay57]

Possibly not what my 6mm Armenian army looks like

Most of them are the typical barbarian look infantry, but I've mixed up the sources to give a bit of uniqueness to the different subject allies (Hiberians, Gordyenes, Albanians and Adiabene). I also threw in a few phalangites and Republican Romans for the trained infantry Tigranes acquired.

For the cavalry I went a bit wider with different figures ranging from Parthian and Sarmatian armoured lancers to (I think) some Dacian cavalry and a few Assyrian and Persian types, backed up by a mass of Parthian horse archers and Achrosian light cavalry.

As Steve advises, you can get away with a good dab of paint at 6mm which you may not be able with larger figures.

PS. There are some photographs of the army on my website if you are really bored or struggling to get to sleep....