Tuesday 29 December 2015

Thematic Byzantine Army III/29

In the late seventh century, Byzantium lost large parts of its territory to the Sarascenes notably the wealthy provinces of Palestine, Egypt and Syria, thus reducing imperial income and defences dramatically. As a result, the Empire reorganised the governement of the threatened Anatolian provinces and the army by establishing a new division of territory into "Themes", each with it's own army commanded by a Strategos who presided the civil governement of the theme as well. This arrangement proved efficient enough to ensure the survival and eventual recovery of the Empire for centuries to come. The theme system desintegrated after the Seldjuks defeated the Byzantines in 1071 at Manzikert and overran most of Anatolia.

The thematic armies of Byzantium are represented in DBA as a cavalry-heavy force (mostly Cv, some LH) and a small core of heavy Infantry (Pikes & Bows). The Figures are from Alain Touller and Essex.
Thematic Byzantine DBA Army, all options.

The Startegos (3Cv)
The Strategos with a cavalry unit (3CvGen + 3Cv, Alain Touller)
Cavalry (4x3Cv, Alain Touller)
Two units of double based 6Cv (Alain Touller)
Three squadrons of Light Horse (Essex Huns)
The Infantry (1x4Bw and 1x2Ps, Alain Touller and Essex)
The Infantry (2x4Pk, 1x2Ps, 1x4Bw)

3 comments:

Millsy said...

Very nice indeed! Lovely brushwork, especially the shields.

best crossbow said...


nice information here.

Mike B said...

Amazing work, great post!




This blog is dedicated to ancient and medieval miniature wargaming. I'd like to share pictures of my painted armies and models, self made terrain-pieces and sketches of projects still residing in my head or on a piece of paper.
My main interest at the moment is creating armies and accessories, researching for historical or made-up scenarios and campaigns for the fast-play wargaming rules from "De bellis Antiquitatis" (DBA) with 25mm and 15mm figurines.
I use the blog-format rather unconventionaly. It is more like a scrapbook. And I update the older posts so keep checking. I recommend utilizing the labels to the left. So if your just interested in miniatures click the "Miniatures"-label and you will be presented with posts concerning painting, figurines etc. And don't forget to click on "older posts" at the bottom of the page for more. And many thanks for commenting!
Photographs showing painted toy soldiers, terrain pieces, scratch-built things and drawings © Menic Rüttimann 2.Nov.2006. Please notify me if you wish to use these.

Let your fancy flow...
Menic