Variations on an Irregular Theme
Or, How to Stop Your Irregular Army Looking Like Any Other
By Jonathan Lim
This is an idea that I have been considering for a while - it hatched out
while looking at someone's Ancient German army during MOAB. This army had
been garishly painted in random colours - blue, green, red, yellow, &c.,
&c., - each of which covered a random piece of clothing, eg., cloaks,
tunics, trousers. The army looked plain wrong. There is no culture on Earth
that would adopt random primary colours as its generic dress - clearly a
different technique is needed.
The main problem, in my humble opinion, is that of a confusion between
the terms "non-uniform" and "random". That an army is non-uniform does not
mean that it wore random colours! Look at any TV doco of Afghanistan, to
take a random example. The people are not forced to wear uniform, as such,
and yet, due to culture, their clothes have certain motifs that keep
reappearing. You could not mistake a modern Afghanistani for an Ancient
German, for instance.
In ancient times cultural differences of this nature would be even more
pronounced. The effect of globalism means that some people in East Timor
might have similar clothes to people in Manhattan, to some extent. In
ancient East Timor, however, there could be no hope of knowing what the
ancient Manhattans were wearing - and hence cultural divides would be more
pronounced.
The issue here is colour and pattern motifs. Certain colours and patterns
grow out of tradition, necessity or prestige in certain areas. The ancient
Celts are known to have liked checkers and stripes for instance. They also
had more blue clothing than Greeks or Romans, as they had the woad-plant
for blue dyes, and possibly due to cultural preference too.
In Oriental lands - such as Achaemenid Persia, to take a random example -
other patterns predominate. An Achaemenid in checkers, or a preference for
blue, is certainly possible - but we know they preferred other patterns and
colours. Floral patterns, repeating squares or funny curly bits would be
more likely patterns, and pale green, beige, pastel pink and light yellow
would be more likely colours.
A good source for these regional patterns and colours may be found in
modern TV programs and pictures. Look especially for the more "primitive"
areas, as these haven't been struck by Globalised clothing. Although
colours used primitve dyes, these primitive dyes could be bright and
colourful.
Another way to make a non-uniform army look good is with invented motifs.
This is encouraged in Warhammer painting guides. Basically, you can paint
your army so that red predominates - say, in Polybian Romans. Paint the
majority of tunics bright red, then for all the other colours, dull the
colour down. These would be the people who would be too poor to afford
"proper" red tunics, so they would wear dull blue, dull white, dull brown -
whatever. As the Games Workshop "Collecting Wargames Armies" says, it will
make your force look like a coherent army on the tabletop. Related to this
is the very important concept of uniform basing. If your army hasn't got
absolutley uniform basing, it will simply look incoherent. Find an
attractive way to base elements and stick with it. Don't get bored and
simplify things later. This is even more important for irregular armies, as
visual coherence is naturally harder to achieve.
Another way to make a non-uniform army look good is to avoid painting
boringly just because there's no evidence. Inevitably, our imaginations get
lazy when there's insufficient information to paint something - say,
horse's reins. But use your imagination! This is a German noble - why would
he have brown reins? Why do the reins _have_ to be brown? Why not pale
green, just for fun? Why should all the soldiers' belts be brown? Some
might be coloured cloth, some might be dyed red, or black! Why should all
your troops have brown chariots? You get the idea. The important thing here is, of course, to avoid overdoing it. Keep any "flights of fancy" to small minorities in the army. Otherwise you're back in the ugly world of fantasy.
What evidence we have from written sources is usually very brief and not
comprehensive. For example, one source states that Alexander's Persian
phalanx was uniformed in "scarlet, royal blue and yellow". How to turn this
into a uniform?
The Alexander Sarcophagus depicts Alexander's heavy troops usually
wearing blue helmets, and cuirasses of various colours, usually with a
broad yellow stripe. Therefore I concluded that the "blue" part of the
unform included the helmet, and the "yellow" part referred to the yellow
stripe.
The Alexander sarcophagus depicts the cuirasses with red edging and red
tunics underneath. Therefore I concluded that the "red" part of the uniform
referred to this part of the uniform.
The only colour left is the base colour of the cuirass. I could have
left it white, but the evidence clearly says "red, blue and yellow". I
postulated that blue was the base colour of the cuirass, as this colour did
not conflict with the stripe or the tunic, and thus looked good.
Minor details: sword baldrics on infantry are always depicted as blue,
so I added blue swordbelts. A common Persian symbol was Ahura Mazda, so I
put that blazon on the shields.
It is very easy to come up with a colour scheme from even the most tenuous
evidence, as you can see. The result looks good, agrees with evidence, and
thus is justifiable. ( And yes, I know this is departing a bit from the
Irregular theme, but it's a good example.)
Why do we do it? Well, unlike fantasy players, we have to pull colour
schemes out of somewhere. Irregular armies require a lot more imagination
than regular armies, but the result of putting a little more effort into
making your army more distinct from the rest is worth it.
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Last Updated: Jan. 30, 2000
Comments, questions and additions welcome. Send them to Chris Brantley at IamFanaticus@gmail.com.