On The Painting Desk- Persian Chariots

 

I have a pretty large Achaemenid Persian army all ready.  I painted it up to play the Ionian Revolt for Men of Bronze.  It has heavy and light cavalry forces, skirmishers, archers, Immortals, and Sparabara to make up the ranks.  However, one thing that I always wanted to add was some Persian Chariots.  Chariots had been a staple in Persian armies from the earliest periods all the way to the infamous scythed chariots used in the final battles against Alexander.  It felt odd not having more chariots in my force.  I had been bugging a few manufacturers to make a Persian chariot in plastic for a while now.  

Wargames Atlantic heard my cries.  However, instead of just making a Persian chariot, they were much smarter than me.  They made a "generic" chariot kit that could be used with all manner of  chariot based armies!  They purposely left crew out of the kit, and gave you the space to put on any crew you wished from Persians, to Minoans, to Gauls, to Egyptians, etc.  Pretty clever really.  As soon as they were up for pre-order, I picked up a set, and I got a box of Persians to crew them. 

Most of my existing Persian force was from Victrix.  However, I had been happy with my Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish, so decided to give their Persians a shot too.  I could use extra soldiers to bulk out me large Persian force anyway.  I was contemplating putting on a Battle of Cunaxa from Xenophon's Anabasis.  As that was a civil war, the bulk of the troops would need to look like they came from the Persian army.       

I eagerly broke open the boxes to take a look at what I had gotten myself into.  First, I had been assembling a lot of Victrix and GW models in the last few years.  Therefore, I was a bit surprised when the boxes had no directions.  I gulped, hoping I would be able to figure it all out.  However, upon closer inspection, nothing looked to complicated.  

Chariot Sprues

 

Persian Infantry Sprues

Persian Chariots seemed to be a two-man variety, with two crew and four horses.  I based this take on the Gold Chariot model from the Oxus Treasure vault.  There is some speculation, that the Persians were the first to yoke four horses to a chariot.  Obviously, this set would only have two horses.  In addition, there were no parts for Scythes in this kit.  A few upgrades I think Wargame Atlantic could add to their 3D Printing Tribes options would be parts to make a four-horse and/or scythed chariot.   

I am going to go out on a big limb, and say that Scythed Chariots may not have actually been a thing.  What?  Impossible you say!  Xenophon talks about them, Alexander's biographers talk about them, and so do Romans!  How can you say they may not have been a thing?  Well, all of those sources are from a Western perspective.  There is not really any surviving details from an Eastern perspective.  It is possible, that Scythed Chariot is just a regurgitated trope about "exotic foreign armies" where the truth was something different.  

There is no doubt that Chariots played a role in warfare in the East.  We know that prior to selective breeding of horses to carry riders, they were the fastest way to get around.  In addition, not all areas were suitable for raising horses as strong, big, and skeletally sound enough to carry people.  Therefore, the Chariot as a weapon platform has a long history across the world.  However, Scythed Chariots?  Not so much data about them.  For example, the Oxus Treasure chariot model is NOT a scythed chariot.  In fact, I could not find any Persian references to them at all, but I am not an expert. 

However, whenever Western sources talked about facing off against Eastern and other "exotic foreign" armies the scythed chariot seemed to have been a trope.  The writers loved to talk about the vicious wounds that these weapons could inflict.  They also delighted in talking about how ineffective they were against the stars of western warfare "Heavy Infantry".  Therefore, I am not sure how much of the story of Scythed Chariots is propaganda, intended to entertain, or just a common trope of East meets West narratives.  Classic Historians were as interested in entertaining and story-tellers as much as they were interested in educating.  

Anyway, so that leaves the question how did the Persians actually use a chariot?  There are a few ways they could be used: 

1. Shock platforms - Here is the "classic" example of the Scythed Chariot used in a charge to disrupt enemy formations through their speed, momentum, and power.  This is the de facto use in wargames for Scythed Chariots.   
2. Missile Boats - Here is a more traditional Egyptian style of scooting around and firing arrows at the enemy.  In this model, they act more like a disruption and skirmish force, using speed to maneuver, get into firing position, and then get away before the enemy can retaliate.   
3. Battle Taxi- In this style, the Chariots just move heavily armored soldiers around and drop them off in the thickest fighting.  This is the Homeric style.   
4. Skirmishers - This is a similar approach as traditional cavalry, where they go out and attack stragglers, small groups, or chase down broken foes.    

Xenophon talks about them as both option 1 and option 4.  However, I find it very likely that Persian chariots probably made use of bow-armed troops.  After all, Persian armies focused on speed and firepower for their success.  Cavalry and lightly armored troops with missile weapons were the norm.  Therefore, I find option 2 to be a very compelling use case for a chariot in Persian armies.  

After putting together the models, I find it hard to believe that chariots could ever be used as a Shock platform, they are delicate little things.  I also have a hard time believing people fired arrows from the back with any accuracy.  You would feel every bump!  They must have raced to an area, stopped and fired, and then got going again.  

It is important to note that we never hear about Chariots being a decisive force in either Persian or Greco-Roman sources.  They are treated as just another form of cavalry.  In fact, Sources seem to indicate that they may not have been deployed in their own units, but were probably spread across the frontage of infantry units to act as Skirmishers themselves.  Again, these seems to lean towards Options 2 and 4 as compelling ways for the Persians to have used them.  It is unlikely they would have been operating in large swarms of Chariots!

Granted, the most common Persian enemy was Steppe peoples.  This was a mix of horse mounted troops and foot infantry but most likely lacking the heavy infantry we see in Western armies.  Against such light foot-based foes, the Scythed Chariot may have been very successful!  Sadly, we know very little about the Persia campaigns away from fighting Westerners.  The Persians themselves left us few records on the topic.    

All of this to decide a simple question, how many men in the chariot and how to equip them?  Looking at the model, I think I can only fit 2 in each car.  Therefore, I will try to have 1 soldier/driver and 1 archer.  This fits my conception of how the Persians would use chariots as another form of mounted skirmisher rather than a shock unit on its own.  I am sure others will feel strongly a different way, and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.  

All crewed up.  I decided to give this guys all armored bodies.  An investment in a chariot must have been pretty steep.  You would probably try to make is survivable with some skilled soldiers in it.  I also kept the horses, cars, and riders all separate for ease of painting.  

With that done, it was time to go onto painting.  The first step was undercoating.  My original Persians I brush under coated with cheap white acrylic paint.  I did not want these guys to look noticeably different, so I figured I better do the same with them. 

This proved to be a big mistake.  I had trouble getting my Armypainter paints to adhere very well to the models.  In the future, before assembling Wargames Atlantic miniatures I think I will want to give them a bath in warm, soapy water to make sure any manufacturing chemicals are cleaned off.  These can make paint adherence and issue.  In addition, you may want to consider using a plastic spray primer instead of brush priming with a white acrylic.  I think the smoother application of a spray would help resolve this issue.  

I also went back to take a look at my Persian Cavalry, and tried to paint my Chariots in a way that will "fit in" with my existing units.  That meant lots of "natural" colors in yellow and brown, with some accents using orange, light blue, and purple.  I wanted my charioteers to be colorful.  

Once I had the basic colors blocked in, it was time for washing and touch-ups.  This is the technique I have traditionally used for my ancients and my other Persians.  These guys would need to fit in.  For wash, I used an Armypainter Soft Tone which is primarily a brown based wash.  

The wash always helps a model look finished!  The last step was to decide how I wanted to base these models.  I was unsure how to approach it.  For my gladiator chariots, I based them on 1 large base.  I dug around, and did not find anything similar I could use on these models.  I also had plenty of 60mm x 60mm bases I could use.  Ultimately, I decided to not base the models together.  Instead, I kept all three parts separate.  The charioteers can be removed from the chariot, the chariot can be disconnected from the horses.  That way I could swap out crew and steeds with other models if I wished.  

The horses and the Charioteers had puddle bases built onto the model.  Therefore, I decided to paint the Chariot crew bases Oak Brown.  That was the same color as the interior of the Chariot car.  The horses, I based using my traditional method of Territorial Beige cheap acrylic painted base with scatter sprinkled onto it.  

Here is the final result....

The last thing was to put them in with my existing Persian Cavalry and see how they looked.....

Overall, I am happy to add these chariots to my forces!  The Men of Bronze core rulebook has a Battle of Cunaxa scenario.  I think it it time to dig that out and see what I need to make that happen on the tabletop! 

It also got me thinking about the Carthaginians in Sicily again.  The first war against the Greeks on the island featured Carthaginian Chariot forces!  

Until next time.

 

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