Contents of Xyston Later Achaemenid Persian Mystery

JerryA92656 · Post by **JerryA92656** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:54 am

I picked up a box of the Xyston Later Achaemenid Persians and I was sorting through it to see what I had and what I needed and I came across a bag of 8 figures that I can't find on the Xyston web-site.

If you look at the cover of the box it is the troops with spears on the left side that have the big shields that look like cow-hide. The shields are painted brown and white. Who/what are they?

Thanks
Jerry

ars_belli · Post by **ars_belli** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:53 pm

In looking at an image of the box cover from the web ( http://www.xyston.com/acatalog/info_ANC_30014.html ), the shields appear to be of the type most commonly associated with Egyptian spearmen, so that would have been my first guess. However, it looks like the figures are depicted as wearing Persian-style headdresses. If so, and if some of them are also wearing body armor, they are probably the "Persian Guards/Kardakes Spearmen" listed on the Xyston web site. If wearing long robes, they are instead the "Persian Levies in Persian Dress." If they are depicted as wearing tunics and trousers, then they are the "Persian Levies in Median Dress."

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Scott

JerryA92656 · Post by **JerryA92656** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:31 pm

I think we have a winner. They appear to be most like Egyptian Spearman. They have a mail/linen? hood and shirt and a long robe from the waist down. The shields are unknown.

Thanks

ars_belli · Post by **ars_belli** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:40 pm

You are very welcome.

And just to confirm, here is an online image of the Xyston "Egyptian Spearmen" http://www.brookhursthobbies.com/images ... /18279.jpg

Cheers,
Scott

j2klbs · Post by **j2klbs** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:54 pm

I was also trying to figure out something about that picture. Can anyone please tell me what the two units of yellow-capped infantry are? One unit has the round shields with circles and the other unit has the crescent shaped shields.

On a related note, I like the looks of the Xyston "Persian Levies in Persian Dress" (#20056). What would their FoG designation be? I'm presuming they would count as "Massed Levies". Would it be historically inaccurate to slap crescent shields on them and call them "Persian Crescent Shield Spearmen"? Also, I was thinking of painting them with dark (black?) robes - but does anyone know what the historically accurate color of their clothes and shields would be?

~Jason

nikgaukroger · Post by **nikgaukroger** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:26 pm

j2klbs wrote:
I was also trying to figure out something about that picture. Can anyone please tell me what the two units of yellow-capped infantry are? One unit has the round shields with circles and the other unit has the crescent shaped shields.

The guard infantry I would think for the round shield guys and Persian crescent shield spearmen for the crescent shaped shields oddly enough.

j2klbs · Post by **j2klbs** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:39 pm

Hi Nik - You misunderstand. I'm curious if anyone knows which Xyston models those are. For instance, is it ...

round shields - #20059 - "Persian Guards/Kardakes Spearmen" (my best guess but I don't think so b/c those models look heavier armored than what appears on the box picture)

crescent shield - #20033 - "Paphlagonian Infantry" (a complete guess)

Thanks!
Jason

will05 · Post by **will05** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 11:00 am

The round (hoplite ) shield fella's are the Kardakes. They are painted as the Kadaka from the Osprey and are supposedly a regular unit that were possibly not ethnic Persians, but were allowed to wear the yellow hood. They were present at Issus in numbers of between 600,000 and 60,000 (i think) depending which source you agree with. I believe they were also used in the in egypt in around 390 bc.

The cresent sheilds are the takabara. They should only have yellow hoods if the are ethnic persians, which I would personaly depict as uniformed and part of the 70,000 Persian foot in the 100,000 strong royal army. The satraps also had satraple armies available and these may have contained large amounts of Takabara. These I would depict with different colour clothes and hoods, but not yellow. I would also tend to go with mostly earthier colours for these.

The richer and regular Persian and Satraple troops I have painted in bright colours, lots of purple and yellow. It can be a nice looking army. I wouldn't go with black.

All my info comes from the Nick Sekunda osprey book and as the sources on Persia are quite scant (thanks in part to Alexander burning their records) I would say that you could arguably go with what you want, but this is what I've done and why.

One other thing, the Xyston Takabara I foud to be quite the same, so I mixed them with the the Persian levies in median dress and the Kardaka. It gives more variation to both kardaka and takabara, although I believe that the levies come with 4 crescent & 4small round sheilds.

I have a wiki at http://littlearmies.pbwiki.com/FrontPage and one of the pages has pics of my persians .

Hope this helps
Will