Theban citizen hoplites

With the preparations for the Society of Ancients Cunaxa Battle Day I have been in a bit of a Greco-Persian mood. With all the units we need for Cunaxa painted and ready, I still have some unpainted Greeks in my lead pile and so decide to get to work on them.

I have painted them as Thebans or other Boetians — identifiable as such by the distinctive club of Hercules shield design. At Mantinea some Thebans were also distinguished by white painted helmets.

I am planning to try out a Plataea game in June to again set Greeks against Persians. In this battle the Boetians were Persian allies and so this unit will be fighting other Greeks, facing the Athenians.

They will support my scantily clad Sacred Band which I painted last year. The new unit deliberately does not look quite as well drilled as the Sacred Band but the men are wearing more clothes and also most in the front rank have body armour. The figures are all 20mm Newline Designs.

Now with two Theban units I can also represent the famous deeper Theban phalanx.

When painting we tend to look mostly at the front of our figures. These men’s white shields with club motif clearly set them apart from other units. Yet when we deploy our figures on the game’s table we see them from the rear. Many of my other hoplites have a predominance of red tunics so with this unit I painted them with white predominating with some blue and yellow to add a variety. I deliberately avoided red so that they stand out from others when viewed from behind. I did give a couple of red plumes to blend them in with the red-plumed Sacred Band.