Alexander Morph

Morphing, in miniatures gaming, is the art of using a group of figures to cover more than one army. Sometimes it is morally abhorrent -- I recall, more than 20 years ago, playing against an opponent who was using a stand of space dwarves to fill out his later Medieval French. But other times it is perfectly acceptable, even to those of us who are history geeks. For example, the Norman Knights who invaded England in 1066 looked essentially identical to the Western Frank army, to the start of the Feudal German army in 1106, to the Early Crusaders, and so on. Technology wasn't changing much at the time, there was no heraldry yet, and so on.

Same thing happens for the armies that surround Alexander The Great's life. Alex the Great (Big Al) took over the armies created by his father, Philip, who was assassinated when about to go on a mighty conquering spree. Then he took those armies on a mighty conquering spree. Then he died 13 years later, having conquered nearly everything he could, and his enormous empire fragmented, with every military or political figure of the time trying to get part of the pie (the Diadochi -- "successors"). Who then fought well-documented wars for 20 years or more. And all of these were with largely the same troops.

So if you, like me, want to be in the position of being able to fight battles with every one of the more than 650+ army lists that Triumph! represents, an Alexander Morph is a great thing.

The armies that you can field with a Big Al morph are the following:

Rise of Macedon
Alexander Macedonian
Alexander Imperial
Successors: some of these armies require another few stands that are unique to them, but the heart of the army is more or less the same
- Diadachoii in Macedon
- Alketas
- Antigonid
- Euemenes
- Lysimachid
- Early Seleucid
- Early Ptolomaic
Later Successors: these armies continue the trend of needing some more extra troop stands unique to them, but a significant part of the army can be fielded using your Big Al morph:
- Pyrrhic
- Antigonos Gonatas
- Seleucid
- Ptolomaic
- Early Greco-Bactrian
- Early Hellenistic Achaean
- Hellenistic Aitolian
- Hellenistic Boiotian
- Hellenistic Bosporan
- Hellenistic Minor States
- Hellenistic Spartan
- Later Macedonian

Figures used in this morph is a wide variety. Many of them are Xth Legion figures, which are (at the time of this writing) no longer available. Pity, they were great. Other sources are Xyston (very nice figures, sometimes a bit oversize), Essex, and Gladiator. Some of the leader figures are Freikorps, I believe.

Almost all the spears and pikes are made from dressmaker's pins.

Phalanx

I've painted these up in pairs of stands, with the front rank using figures advancing with pikes angled at 45 degrees, and the rear rank standing.

The front-rank shields on the left show Athena; the center show Hercules (supposed ancestor of Alexander the Great); the right show Alexander himself.

All shields painted by hand (including the rear-rank simpler ones).

These fellows will work for most of the first generation wars of the Diadochi, but within 10 years of Alexander's death you would see regional variation arise -- the phalanx of Seleucus would start to be wearing pants through Persian influence, for example.

Thessalian Cavalry

The cloaks are distinctive.

Xth Legion figures, I believe

Looking at the army lists, I notice that I really should rebase these as Javelin Cavalry. They should be 2 per base, not 3.

Greek Mercenary Cavalry

Bad Horse, in other words.

As mercenaries, these would appear in lots of armies in the period.

Shields didn't come into use for cavalry until the Pyrrhic wars, influenced by the Tarentines, I believe.

Prodomoi

Used in many of the Successor armies. Here shown having ridden down an infantryman from one of the Successor armies (shown by his shield blazon).

Arachosian or Median Light Cavalry

Javelin Cavalry from Persia's central provinces.

Bactrian Greek Cavalry

Iranian lancers (Knights) for the Bactrian Greeks. Gladiator figures, perhaps?

Seleucid Cataphracts

I'm moderately sure these are Xyston figures.

Bactrian or Persian Light Cavalry

Javelin Cavalry from further east in Persia.

Clothing and pant decorations show Skythian influence.

Essex figures.

Alexander's Companions

Knights, led by Big Al himself.

Successor Xystophoroi would start out basically identical to this.

Xth Legion figures, possibly with some Gladiator as well.

Indo-Greek Cavalry

The Indian cavalrymen are Essex.

Greek Light Cavalry

Maybe these guys are Xyston figures?

Early Elephant

Alexander started to employ elephants in his battle array soon after conquering Persia and getting access to them. The first of them would have looked much like this -- an Indian elephant with Indian mahout but a Macedonian soldier astride, and no fighting castle.

Later Elephant

This would be a typical war elephant of much of the Wars of the Successors after Alexander's death.

Seleucid War Elephant

The Seleucids had access to the larger war elephants from India, and sometimes equipped them in armor to increase their advantage. This is an example of one such, with a large fighting castle and armor.

I think the fallen infantryman has a mixed shield -- the center part is a VVV waterslide transfer, then supplemented by pen to add more detail (the half-circles surrounding the central pattern).

Bolt-shooter

Macedonian artillery. Essex figures, I believe.

Thureophoroi

As the Successor period merged into the Hellenistic, warfare evolved into battles centered around use of pikemen in phalanx and a new type of troop, Thureophoroi, with distinctive (usually white) shields.

These are Raiders in Triumph. I think the figures are Xth Legion.

Peltasts

Based as Raiders -- should be based as Light Foot. Hmmm.

Xth Legion figures.

Shield patterns by hand -- the VVV transfers didn't extend out far enough, I didn't like them. Too small.

Cretan Bowmen

Cretan archers were widely respected mercenary troops during this period. They fought as skirmishers, and wore distinctive black tunics.

More Skirmishers

The guys throwing rocks on the left maybe should be rated as Rabble (crappy skirmishers) instead.

The slingers are Xth Legion; not sure about the rock guys.

Macedonian Training Montage Camp

Paint up a Macedonian or Hellenistic army and you'll end up with lots of extra phalanx figures. What to do with them? A training montage! So here's a camp for any Big Al, Diadachoii, or Hellenistic army, with a foul-mouthed veteran giving some recruits crap about their formation maneuvers. And a Cretan mercenary bowman on guard in case of enemy incursion.

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