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Friday, March 30, 2012

Impetus-based Pontic project!

During my Mid Roman Republic project, I kept stumbling across the fascinating story of King Mithridates of Pontus.  The kingdom of Pontus was situated in what is now northern Turkey.  The map below shows the Pontic kingdom before the first  Mithridatic campaign (in purple) and Pontic kingdom after the early conquests (in pink). A reading of all the provinces and city-states in pink illustrates why the Pontic army was such a cornucopia of exotic troops and fighting styles

As King of Pontus,  Mithridates styled himself after Alexander the Great and even acquired a cloak reportedly worn by Alexander.  His expansionist policies put him on a collision course with Rome.  The little bit I learned about the man left me wanting more so I went hunting for books on this subject. Oddly, there are only 2 current books on Mithridates but the lack of quantity is made up for by the quality of the reads below.


The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithridates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy.  This is a quick and thoroughly enjoyable read on the life and campaigns of Mithridates. You don't have to be a military history buff to enjoy the story of Mithridates.  The author supplements what is known about the man with historical research and archaeological discoveries to reconstruct what his life was probably like.  I had no problem with the use of  reasoned speculation to fill in the gaps of history.  On the contrary, this kind of writing helped put me in the period and the author clearly flags her speculation.  Frankly, this would not be much of a book without it as there isn't much known of Mithridates outside of Roman accounts.  In this book you'll learn that:
  • Mithridates led three campaigns against Rome.
  • In his first campaign, he seized much of what is now modern-day Turkey and Greece.
  • He orchestrated the massacre of 80,000 Roman citizens throughout Asia minor in a single day.  
  • The wealth of his kingdom was so well known in Rome that the Republic was split asunder when Marius and Sulla each vied for the opportunity to lead legions to conquer and plunder Pontus.
  • Mithridates dosed himself with small amounts of poison throughout his life to build up his tolerance. He also invented a complex universal antidote which the Romans reportedly copied after his death called Mithridadicum.  
  • Spoiler Alert!  While Mithridates ultimately failed, it wasn't for a lack of effort or imagination.  In his first campaign, he reintroduced scythed chariots to the battlefield, something not seen for a generation or two.  In his second campaign, he employed  Roman ex-pats to reform and retrain his army to fight in the Romans style. He also started leading from the front.  In his third campaign, he utilized asymmetrical hit and run guerrilla warfare.  
  • For a man who was repeatedly a thorn in the side of Rome, he managed to live long enough to die old.  


Mithridates the Great: Rome's Indomitable Enemy.  While described as a biography, this book is more of a military history and account of the campaigns.  If you want to learn about the man, the era, the customs and his empire, The Poison King is a better read. If you want battle maps and accounts of the troops, tactics and styles of fighting, this book adds the military detail that's lacking from The Poison King.  Together, these books make a great pair.

With the hook firmly set, I turned to the Impetus website and pulled the Pontic army list.
It's a broad and varied list that gives you the building blocks for other ancient armies. With a little work, my Pontic army can become a Pyrrhic army.  A little  more painting and its a Gallic army. A few units here and there and I have a Macedonian or Seleucid army. Portability? Check. Varied troop types for playing and painting?  Check and check. The Pontic project is a go!

Because the Pontic army was a blending of East and West, you have many options for modeling it.   I'll emphasize the "Hellenistic" side.  For example, I'll use Xystophoroi Cavalry to represent the heavy cavalry that Mithridates rode with in this list.  You could easily choose Persian heavy cavalry though. One of the benefits of painting and gaming ancients is that you get to choose your own path in painting and modelling your armies within the limits of what's known.  Try pulling THAT with Napoleonics!

I'm utilizing Xyston  figures for most of this army, which is a huge plus because I love their figures.  Also, I'm utilizing 3D basing for the first time to vary the level of the base/terrain. Props to Der Figurenschiber and his tutorial for basing in 3D! I should also mention he has the finest  15mm Thracian army I've ever seen as well.

Before I call it a post, here's a preview of my first crack at 3D basing with Balearic Slingers. Not too shabby!

17 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing your progress with these guys!

    Cheers,
    Aaron

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  2. Great post - really enjoyed reading that.

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  3. Hi Monty.

    Very nice historical background and good looking slingers!

    It will be very interesting to follow the development of your Pontic project.

    Best regards dalauppror

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  4. Thanks for linking and i am glad that you like my Thracians!
    Regards
    derFigurenschieber

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  5. Really looking forward to seeing this come together. It's one of those morph projects I've always associated with Successors, but without the obligatory scads of pike.

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  6. "One of the benefits of painting and gaming ancients is that you get to choose your own path in painting and modelling your armies within the limits of what's known. Try pulling THAT with Napoleonics!" I agree entirely. I got a lot of stress about the colour of Roman tunics (I like red ones9 that I moved into medievals...there, as long as I don´t say "lord bubble of plops" troops or whatever I can do whatever i want...the freedom!!!!! :-D
    3D basing ? ...never heard of that one
    Cheers
    paul

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  7. I'll be following this with some interest as I've been mulling over whether to do a Pontic or Pyrrhic list. Not sure what scale either as I find both Aventines 28mm and Xyston 15mm very appealing.

    Christopher

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  8. Thanks guys! I haven't been this excited about a project or army since my last project. Hmmm, that sounds familiar.

    Fire: you shared your Phyrric list with me, which helped start me down this path, so thank you.
    Paul: by 3D, I'm trying to incorporate some elevation, which I've never done in my basing before.
    Chris: scale is always an issue, isn't it? At our club, everyone runs 15mm so I'm HOPING they give Impetus a try and we can run our armies head to head regardless of FoG or Impetus basing.
    Pru: Blogstop seems to have deleted your comment on its own. Damn AI!

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  9. Yes good post, I'm half way through re basing all my 15mm Medievals for Impetus........Swiss at the moment, I see Alps.....maybe stretching it ? you think ? hahahahaha. Nice basing Monty and great fun army under Impetus.

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  10. Great and timely post - Axebreaker seems to be reading my mind on the campaign and miniature choices!

    The new basing style looks good also - good luck!

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  11. Like the basing Monty, lots of character......good stuff.

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  12. Nice post, and a good start. The basing is very interesting, looking forward!

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  13. looking forward to your project Monty, been working on Pontics myself for the last two years......still more work to do!!!!

    cheers
    Matt

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  14. Great presentation of your project. I am looking forward to seeing it come to fruition.

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  15. Wow! Thanks guys for for all of your comments and feedback. Based on the sheer volume of it, I may never leave the Pontic project!

    Brent, you'll get first crack at running them!

    And Bluewillow, how do you manage to maintain 6 blogs simultaneously??? I can barely handle one!

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  16. How is this Pontic project going Monty ?.......no pressure :)......just wondering it you've done anything more. Reason I'm asking is I've had a few thoughts about doing something myself. Very interesting period I think.

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    Replies
    1. Sadly, my Impetus amries in 15mm projects are all DOA. It's a long story. Tarty, could you shoot me an email? My email is in my profile

      m_luhmann@ y a h o o.com without the spaces of course!

      It is a fascinating period! I'm not a fan of FB but I joined for the gaming group and in FB, I found a fellow who posts as Mithridates, and also the author of my fav. book on the man. More later.

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