Battle of Carrhae

[Ben90]

I think your conversions really pay out. Looks great!

[MABO]

A lot of action in these last pictures! Like it!

I second that. And for me it is as well a result of the conversions you have made.

[dombom]

I found out that the Seleucid cathapracts partly used shields and it is believed that the Parthian cathapracts were quite similar to the Seleucid ones.
Therefore, I started doing a few shields for them, finished the last Parthian Zvezda figures and added two more roman ones.
I will do some more changes the coming days and then start with landscaping.
The biggest challange I think, will be to figure out how to place all these guys. The infantry might need some additional altering. Not sure yet how I will do it.







I will give a proper update soon I guess.

[k.b.]

Absolutely terrific work on these Cataphracts. I am trembling in my boots, trying to imagine how terrifying it must have been to face these lads in battle.
Can’t wait to see more……

[dombom]

Glad you like it. Wait for the final results
I'm still trying to sort some things out.

[dombom]

I got a community question about the roman formation.
Actually I'm not very pleased with the options you got by the Italeri Republic roman set.
I know that this set isn't very popular for some good reasons, unfortuntely it is what I got.
So I added some variety by mixing up with a few new line design figures and I got a nice idea to make the scenery much better. It will require some figure redesign though, cuz some of the new line figures are definetely dated to the early republic period, while the battle of carrhae was in the late period, where the featherd helmets were already replaced by the horse hair helmets.

Previous chaotic formation:


Probably the new formation?:


It requires some rework (helemts, painting, shield rotation):


Full scale it would make a much more impressive sight:






I won't get a full centurio formation (8 soldiers deep) though, but that will be mitigated by the diorama base.

[Ben90]

Looks already impressive! Both formations are reasonable, especially for this battle, where the Romans had to deal with archers and (heavy) cavalry.

And do not be worried about the number of men. First it is only a small-scale depiction af a huge battle, and second the Roman centuries mostly never reached their possible man-power in the field. There were always some ill soldiers, some died in previous battles and some were sent elsewhere on other missions. So there is no need to have 80 men per century.

[dombom]

That's of course true
I did the step and started changing the figures to get the new formation done.





It actually does look better in real than on the photos haha.

[Minuteman]

You are creating a most impressive Roman shield wall/semi-Testudo there, dombom. Keep up the good work!

[sansovino]

Very impressive, your shield-wall and how the rider is attacking it. Will you add still some more attackers or will it be only one?

[dombom]

This formation is called "Fulcrum" and a defensive formation against cavalry:



From my understanding, the Fulcrum however, had a disadvantage during the battle of Carrhae.
The tight formation allowed the longer speers of the cathapracts to be a devastating weapon.
It penetraded the shields easily due to the force of the impact with these very heavy horses and killed 2 or 3 leagioniers at once. Later on the romans tried to adapt to heavy shock cavalry and implemented them by there own, but for the battle of Carrhae it was too late.

[dombom]

Oh, there will be way more than one attacker. This is single guy is just for reference

[Peter]

Looks like you did your homework on this subject! And it looks good so far!

[Iceman1964]

Very interesting and useful information on the Fulcrum.
I'm really curious to see the diorama development !

[MABO]

A lot of interesting informations. Thanks for sharing. And your figures are really an eyecatcher.

[Rich W]

I really like the updates and think the figures massed together will be a visual treat once put together.

[Santi Pérez]

I'm following this project with great interest, dombom, and enjoy every new progress on it.

Santi.

[dombom]

Slow progress due to a busy time at work, but I finished the re-modeling of the first line and painted them finally.





Next will be a few more romans and then I have to put them in proper positions and define the diorama base. Putting the figures on the base will be hell of a work

[MABO]

Supercool, when painted, congratz!

[Rich W]

Looking good.