Classical Indian

Navigation - HomePage - The Rise of Rome - Storm of Arrows - Immortal Fire - Legions Triumphant - Swords and Scimitars - Eternal Empire - Decline and Fall - Wolves from The Sea - Swifter Than Eagles

Historical Overview Section

King Porus fought the Battle of the Hydaspes River with Alexander in 326 BC. After fierce fighting and very heavy casualties on both sides, he was defeated by Alexander in a Pyrrhic victory. The battle is often considered to be Alexander's hardest fought battle, so hard that it caused his army to mutiny against him afterwards. In a famous meeting with Porus - who had suffered many arrow wounds in the battle and had lost his sons, who all chose death in battle rather than surrender - Alexander reportedly asked him, "How would you like to be treated?" Porus replied, "As befits a king." Alexander was so impressed by the brave and powerful response of King Porus that he released him back to his Kingdom and gave him the captured land of a neighbouring Kingdom whose ruler had fled. King Porus is reported to have participated in Alexander's conquests further east in India. During the attack and destruction of Sagala, Porus rallied Alexander and supplied elephants as well as 5,000 troops.

Using the army in FoG

Classical Indian is one of the few armies that can cover the table at 800 points in 15mm in FoG. They are however not an easy army to use well, and they are going to struggle against a medieval army.

The consensus seems to be that the option to take the bowmen as Drilled is far better, as this allows you to concentrate the fire of the bowmen more effectively (by wheeling when close to the enemy) and also to allow them to get away from anything that gets too close and is likley to beat them in combat - which is most things you will encounter on table to be frank!

The list is hampered by only 2 sub-generals being allowed, making a difficult decision on taking an ally if you wish to take a 4th. However as any enemy is probably only going to be taking on 1/2 of your army anyway, having 3 generals who can command the entire army may prove better than having a 4th who has his own limited number of elements he can influence - and which none of his colleagues can help with. Also, with the extreme vulnerabiilty of the bowmen once the enemy get in contact, generals are unlikley to have the opportunity to bolster units in melee - and raising their morale will be of little use either. For the same logic, use the bowmen as unprotected and average - and no swords. Shoot, then die, don't try to fight! Also make sure to take the cavalry as unprotected 4s to support archer blocks - both the cheapest option and best use for them.

If you do want to play this as an Elephant army you should take them in quantity (ideally 12!!) so the enemy can't escape their effect. These could be in 3 brigades of 2 BGs each or two of such Brigades and 2 solitary Elephant BGs. Elephants have been often called glass cannons, so the rest of the army focuses on the crucial role of supporting the Elephants to protect them from taking unnecessary cohesion tests and especially from risky death rolls.

If you've got enough figures, one possibility is to use lots of poor archers at 3 points each. That gives you more points to spend on elephants and superior chariots.

Try to get as much terrain down as you can. If you can get your archers sitting on a rough hill, they are going to be a much tougher proposition than in the open.

Allied Contingents

• Indian, Classical : Date restrictions None Book: Immortal Fire Page: 32 - Mandatory almost, due to the 2 Sub Generals restriction in the main list. Use the cavalry to support your foot if its cheaper!

UK Tourney Results

7 / 14 Classical Indian Roll Call 2008 25mm (open)
9 / 22 Classical Indian Oxford Doubles 2008 (IF)

Useful Links

User-contributed links about this army:

• Classical Indian DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Classical Indian DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Classical Indians DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Classical Indians (6mm) DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Classical Indians DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Indian Military History on Wikipedia
• TMP Thread on Indian Chariot painting styles
• All Empires Indian warfare page
• Alexander vs Porus short version of the battle scene from the Oliver Stone film
• Mountain Indian DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Mountain Indians DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• put the link text readers will see in here write some more detail about the link here

Allies

Put information on allied contingents here - including recommendations on which to use, and why

15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army

You can see some of the figures in the Ancients Photo Gallery also on this site

• Essex Miniatures - 17 Indian figure codes
• Donnington Indian elephant in the Greek range
• Museum Miniatures Useful Indian range, with tee-shirted archers as seen on this site, with the best war wagon
• Gladiator Miniatures by Fighting 15's (Previously Black Hat) 18 Indians including various elephants and crew combo's here you can find figure to make your heavy weapon (swordmen)
• Old Glory 15's,
• Magister Militum 13 Indians - also sell VVV transfers for Indian Elephants
• Minifigs
• Khurasan new Kushan and Indian range just released.
• Irregular Miniatures 12 Indians sold singly
• Tin Soldier Fun Indian range - some of their chunky elephants appear in the Photo Gallery on this site
• Xyston very nice Indian range
• Hall of Ancient Warriors 8-strong range of Classical Indians
• Battle Line Miniatures 15 Indians in their range
• East Riding Miniatures the former TTG range - the same as those from Battle Line, here you can find your armoured cavalry (gupta)
• Outpost Tamil & Hindu Indian ranges, so slightly later than this period from 500-1500 AD
• MY Miniatures Indians in their Macedonian range - may also be former TTG models?
• Two Dragons Do a Moghul range but with many fairly generic blokes with sticks who could work for this era

Core Troops

Which troops are absolutely needed for this army, and what are your thoughts on how to organise, paint and buy them.

Army Lists

Sample army lists for this army

Name of Army / Date

• Using asterisks inthe edit mode creates a bulleted list in the actual site
• This is a lot easier to do than easier than setting up tables
• For FoG I suggest listing your army in order or march
• with troop desctiptions on each line, for example
• 4 HF Armoured Average Drilled Impact Foot Swordsmen
• 8 LG Undrilled Unarmoured Poor Bowen
• Dont forget to include your Generals !!!

Include any notes you want here, including comments on how to use - or play against - the army.

Remember to leave a line before you copy the above section as a template for your own list

eBay Listings

UK Bookstore