The Urartian army in DBA is sadly not one to strike terror into the hearts of many foes. The preponderance of Auxilia (9!) in its earliest (a) incarnation restrict it to fighting in the bad going of its "Hilly" home terrain, however with Aggression 3, it will too often find itself on the attack in the flat.

Even the later (b) army - Argishti and on - is not too inspiring. (I/39b) consists of 1x Heavy Chariot General, 3x Cavalry (1x light Chariot), 1x Psiloi, 1x Horde, 5x Auxilia and 1x Spear/Auxilia.

I built the army because I liked the idea of fielding something unusual, that few others would be daft enough to try, and because the concept of a "forgotten kingdom" successfully defying the "evil" Empire of Assyria for three centuries has just too much appeal for me to resist. To this point Iíve only had a limited opportunity to try the army out, and a mad rush down one flank has worked twice, and come to grief twice.

I would tend to always use the Spear (even though itís slow) as 5 Auxilia are probably enough for any task.

The Psiloi needs to (usually) be kept for rear support for three of the Auxilia.

The Cavalry are the most flexible troops, and give the army some ability if the terrain is open, although I find the Heavy Chariot General both slows them down and has to be protected from the risk of impetuously blasting through the enemy line and finding himself surrounded and alone.

So far the best job I can find for the Horde is camp guards (a job they were rather better at under 2.0!).

I'm gradually attempting to put together a case for reviewing this army list, as I believe aspects of it are incorrect.  The General as a Heavy Chariot "in imitation of Assyrian practice" has always puzzled me. Firstly, when we read of the Assyrians leaving chariots behind, or only taking one single (kings) vehicle, due to the ruggedness of the terrain, it's Urartu that they are invading.

Secondly, though I canít claim to have seen every image, each engraving extant of a Chariot that could be from Urartu (whether Urartian or Assyrian) shows a two horse, two man vehicle. Note the image above (clearly LCh) is credited as being from the kings (Sarduri II 760-) own helmet! (see also Ancient Armies of the Near East published by WRG).

I'm also uncertain of the provenance of the Horde element. I can find no evidence of an Urartian army fielding, levy, raw recruits, home guard etc. There is the distinct impression that they were added to the DBM list (from which the DBA list is clearly drawn) to give a little variety. In an army list where you can choose, that is fine, but without other evidence their required presence in the army seems unsupported.

Finally, more than one source (see again AANE) speculates that Cimmerian/Skythians may have appeared as mercenaries in this army.

Taking these together, I would propose the following list, which allows for all possibilities.

Alternative I/39(b), 1x Hch or Lch (Gen), 2 x 3 Cv, 1 x Lch or LH (Cimmerians), 1 x 4Ax or 4Sp, 5 x 3Ax, 1 x 2Ps, 1 x 7Hd or 2Ps

I would welcome any correspondence from fellow Fanatici who have evidence (or arguments) to support or refute these suggestions.

Enemies and Tactics