Classical Indian Elephants

I have been looking forward to painting these for a long time. The massed elephants of Poros' army is such an evocative image, I couldn't resist buying this army. Everything I have painted up to now has effectively been painted to justify painting these beasts of war.

The Elephant could perform a number of useful military functions (clearing obstacles, fording rivers and battering down the walls of strongpoints) but it was its prowess and the phycological impact of these massive animals that saw them favoured as beasts of war. In Ancient India the army was divided into four types; Infantry, Cavalry, Chariots and Elephants. As I mentioned in my post about the Chariots these had once been the prestige weapon of war but had started to be replaced by the Elephant as the dominant wing of most armies. Magadha (mid-4th century BCE - 321 BCE) had about 3,000 elephants while the Mauryan and Gupta empires with figures of anything up to 9,000 animals in its command. King Poros, at the Battle of Hydaspes (326 BCE) faced Alexander with a mere 200 Elephants but this still sounds like a terrifying sight. It's possible that facing these animals, and knowing that larger armies lay ahead, was partly responsible for the army eventually refusing to continue with Alexanders invasion of India.

The Arthashastra of Kautilya (c. 4th century BCE), gives a lot of information on different kinds of elephants, their training, and their conduct in war. Their main use in battle was their ability to crush enemy foot soldiers, scare away horses, and trample chariots. The psychological impact of these creatures cannot be underestimated, however, their practical success has been hotly debated for centuries. Wounded or dying elephants could as easily trample their own troops as enemies. And an elephant running amok is as uncontrollable as it is unpredictable. Royal elephants were specially trained and prized for control but if the beast decided to run away it's riders - including any commanders - would be carried away with them, come what may. Despite these risks, the Elephant was still a prized weapon of war and at the Hydaspes, King Poros fought bravely from the back of his mount, even after the defeat of his army was inevitable.

Elephants could be provided with armour but by the 4th Century BC they were often covered in massive rugs called hatthatthara which would provide quite effective protection from arrows. As Poros would find, these were less effective against 18 foot Sarisa pikes and well-disciplined troops. From about this period the Mauryan kingdoms used three riders, all archers, with two shooting.

With the Elephants finished I have completed everything I had planned for this army, so I guess a picture of the whole lot is in order? Here's my Army of Poros at the Hydaspes. They don't currently have anyone to fight as I haven't started collecting the figures I need for the corresponding Macedonian army... maybe something to consider for Challenge XI ?!?

It seems a shame to put these away in a drawer so I think I'll buy myself a small display case and get these fella's out where I can enjoy them. 

Classical Indian Heavy Chariots

There is evidence that Chariots had been in use in India for centuries before the arrival of Alexanders Greeks. Epic stories tell of the great hero's going into battle in chariots and for a long period, it was the elite arm of Indian armies. However, by the fourth century BC, they were being superseded by the Elephant and by the time of the Battle of the Hydaspes leaders such as King Poros went into battle astride these massive beasts of war. The Chariot was still an important and prestigious arm of the military but its heyday was over.

Much of the visual information I have gathered suggests that Indian War Chariots were highly painted vehicles, many with umbrellas or canopies over the occupants (probably removed during battle). Chariots came in a wide variety of sizes, from single man vehicles through to massive constructions supposedly capable of carrying six occupants. I have chosen the four-man variety and all are painted in bright colours.

Constructed to be light but strong they were mostly leather over a timber framework. They are recorded as being highly decorated with bells, animal skins and flags. The wheels were usually fairly small with up to sixteen spokes and had a metal (probably iron) tyre. The chariots, even the larger ones, had a single pole and usually, only the inner pair of horses were yoked. The outer horses were connected by side traces but these would have been needed to carry six crew and all their fighting equipment. One description of Poros' chariots says they had six crew but this may be a miscounting, including escorting infantry with a typical crew of four. These models have two crew armed with bows while the 'drivers' have Javelins. 

I have been looking forward to painting these for a while but decided early on that I would treat these and the Elephants that are coming next as my reward for getting through the 'drudgery' on the infantry and cavalry. I use that word advisedly because once I get past the initial inertia at the start of a project, I enjoy painting all of it, including the less glamorous units! These chariots, however, could never be described as unglamorous. 

There are six units here which include 12 Chariots, 48 crew and 48 horses which should earn me 60 points. I've also done a couple of command chariots, based individually which should net a further ten points. With the Chariots complete its now time for me to focus on the Elephants and I expect these to be just as spectacular and an even greater riot of colour. 

Classical Indian Cavalry

After several terrain entries, I decided it was time for me to stop procrastinating and make some progress with my 6mm Classical Indian army. I have already submitted some archers and javelinmen which make up the bulk of my infantry and now it was time to get started on some of the more colourful units in the army. First off the production line are the Cavalry. From what I have read Indian Cavalry were fairly low-status troops and certainly didn't represent the wealthy elite as in many European armies of the time. However, that doesn't mean they weren't colourful and I have really enjoyed painting these (once I got started!). Once again I have referred back to the work of Duncan Head but I have also been hunting down lots of visual reference material from the inter-web and my much more modest book collection.

The Indian Cavalry at the Battle of the Hydaspes were completely outmatched by the Macedonians facing them. For a start, they wore little or no armour protection apart from their shields. The Cavalry were also outnumbered, especially when Alexanders feint attack on the Indian flank drew off some of the Chariots that were positioned with the Cavalry. The soft ground of the battlefield, made worse by heavy rains, would have impeded both armies but the effectiveness of the Chariots would have been severely impaired by the mud and made the cavalry clash all the more significant to the eventual outcome of the battle. 

As with all my 6mm projects I start with a brown primer. I find that this works well because it fills the gaps between equipment and clothing while remaining light enough that the details of the figure can be seen when painting. Black undercoats at this scale just seem to suck up all the ambient light and it feels like your trying to paint detail on a shadow! I then work my way through all the elements of the figure and block paint as neatly as possible. I'll usually start with the face, arms and legs, them do the armour or cloths and then move on to weapons and lastly shields. The neater you do this stage the better the final unit will look. Once I have block painted the various elements of the figures I use a dark brown ink wash to add the required shading (I use a Winsor and Newton calligraphy ink called Peat Brown). Really that's all there is to it, 6mm really is that easy.

There are four units of Cavalry here, each with 18 figures per base (72 in total). The only question that remains is what to work on next? I'm tempted by the Elephants but I think I may leave these till last. If I'm honest, I'm painting this army purely because of the vast number of Elephants, so I think I'll use these as my reward for working through everything else. So that means my next project will be the Chariots. I have already been through the nightmare that was assembly (VERY fiddly when they are 6mm!!), so I can just focus on the fun of painting them. 

Pauravan Javalinmen

Last week I submitted eight bases of infantry/Bowmen for my 4th Century BCE Indian Army and today its the turn of the rest of the infantry, this time Javalinmen. I'm not really sure they can be described as Javelinmen though as these troops carried a weapon that was more akin to a spear than a throwing weapon. 4 Cubits long (about 6ft) with a cane or bamboo haft and a leaf-shaped metal head. These infantrymen also carried a long cane or hide shield, nearly as long as the wielder but not as broad providing a limited degree of protection. 

I've really struggled to find any pictorial sources for these troops online (or elsewhere for that matter) so the only description I have doesn't mention if their standards were coloured or not. I have decided to give each unit a different banner so they can be differentiated but if I find any better information at a later date I can easily repaint the standards. 

As with the bowmen, the 'uniform' of these troops consisted of a white cotton high waisted 'kilt' and sandles so these were pretty easy to paint.

With the infantry now completed its time for me to think about some of the more 'glamorous' units, namely Elephants and Chariots. I'm back to work now so I expect productivity to drop off a bit from now on but I'm comfortably on target with a bit to spare, so thus far my Challenge is going very well. 

Pauravan Indian Longbowmen

I'm fascinated by the story of Alexander the Great and have been since I was a kid. Over the years I have read plenty of books about this giant of history and have long been fascinated by the fact that these Greeks made it all the way to India in a time when the sub-continent was largely unknown outside of myth to most Europeans. I've been toying with the idea of building a Classical Indian Army for a long time but other projects have kept me busy. Now, at last, I'm ready to make it a reality. I'm not sure if I'll ever get to game with this army, but I'm looking forward to painting it none the less. The order of battle I have gone for broadly corresponds to that fielded by King Poros at the Battle of the Hydaspes and that means lots and lots of bowmen.

It's worth noting that most of the information I have gathered regarding this army has come from the WRG publication The Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars by Duncan Head. However, I have also tried to refer to original source materials such as the translated works of Arian wherever possible. The interweb has made this process much easier of course and I have been able to track down magazine articles and other sources as well. Few Indian sources survive and I have struggled to find the translated versions, although I will continue looking (and suggestions are welcome!). What we do know of Northern India in the 4th century BCE was that it was divided into many small tribal monarchies and that war between them was probably common.

Indian Infantry wore sandals and a simple high waisted kilt, usually made of white cotton. The longbow was probably as long as the later English Longbow but made of Bamboo; it's unclear how powerful they would have been in comparison. Arrian suggests they were very powerful but I have not been able to find more contemporary sources to corroborate this. The bow was strung with hemp or sinew and given the damp conditions prevalent in this region for much of the year its hard to say how effective these weapons would have been. The arrows were 4ft 6in long and made of cane or reed. The real strength of these units was probably not the weapon so much as the quantity of firepower that could be directed at an enemy that would normally be as lightly protected as those firing.

The core of the Army of King Poros at the Hydaspes was the Longbowmen and I have opted for eight units of these - a total of 288 infantry figures which should earn me 144 points in the Painting Challenge and get me firmly started towards my target figure.