Elephants, chariots and scythes, oh my!

As a lead up to the Ancients DBA campaign, I'm rapidly getting through the necessary forces required for the battles (if any) that occur.  As at least two empires will have access to the grey juggernauts and at least one will have access to heavy chariots, I finally got around to finishing off the unpainted units that have sat in a box for at least 2 years!

So here they are.  The bases are yet to be completed and I need to finish off the drivers, mahouts and javelinmen / archers for the elephants but you get the idea.






I decided to do each in a different colour - to add variety to the field and prevent confusion in DBA as to who owns what.

As they're done, I also thought I'd have a quick look at the FOG army lists to see how these bad boys stack up on the field (to see if they're worth using in my FOG Macedonian / Seleucid / Successor etc. armies.

Macedonian elephants are Average, Undrilled and come 2 bases to a BG.  They cost a whopping 25 points per base so a BG weighs in at 50 points. For the same currency, you can have 8 bases of Average, Protected Drilled pike (8 bases x 6 points) so the equivalent of a pike BG.  But throw in that they get + POA against virtually everything, are great for scaring off cavalry and non-spear foot then they're certainly worth a try.  Given that I only have 3 so far I may have to invest in another set of 3 from Magister Militum to

Scythed chariots are Average, Undrilled and come in at 15 points a base (so 60 points for a standard BG).  They are tempting as they are literally a 'fire and forget' weapon.  Line them up, point them at the opponents battle line and let 'em go!  They are expected to be lost so don't count against you in terms of Victory Points.    They get a + POA at impact AND melee against most units (except Steady spear / pike) so they can be used against against warbands, hastati and opposing cavalry etc. with impunity - but only in open terrain.  So if you're facing scythed chariots then making the use of any terrain to block their progress into your main troops would be advised.  They're certainly worth a trial but would probably prefer a block of pike or hoplites (or cavalry) for the points value.