Full Hebrew Army

UNDER Neil Thomas's rules in Ancient & Medieval Wargaming, an army always starts with eight units, each consisting of four bases.

I think this system works well for ancient battles, particularly for biblical-era ones where army strengths are usually a matter of speculation.

Having completed painting my latest batch of chariots from Old Glory, I now have enough troops to field the options from Thomas's Israelite Army (1220-940 BC) list.

For Post-Solomonic armies (740-587 BC) he suggests using his Canaanite/Philistine list as "later [Israelite] armies seem to have lost their cutting edge."

Thomas adds: "This can be accounted for by allowing for the increased prominence of the chariot arm, and decline in the quality of foot soldiers."

Note that there is a 200-year between the main list and the start of Post-Solomonic armies.

It is hard to tell whether this is a typo, or perhaps deliberate, allowing the player to gradually move from early Hebrew to later monarchy.*

Anyway, so far I have troops to cover the Hebrew invasion of the Promised Land and the start of the united monarchy, before the split under Solomon's son Rehoboam into the twin monarchies of Israel, aka Samaria, and Judah (the reason I prefer to use Hebrew over Israelite is that it avoids confusion as to what exactly is meant).

My Hebrew forces

Left to right are two units of Simeonites and Ephraimites (auxiliary infantry, light armour, elite), two units of Gadites and Issacharites (javelin-armed open-order infantry, light armour, average), two units of Benjaminites (sling-armed open-order infantry, light armour, average), four units of Other Seven Tribes (auxiliary infantry, light armour, average) and three squadrons of Light Chariots (bow-armed, elite).

The pre-Solomon list reads:

Simeonites & Ephraimites 1-2 units

Gadites & Issacharites 1-2 units

Benjaminites 1-2 units

Other Seven Tribes 2-4 units

This army has the Guerrilla Warfare rule, which allows the Hebrew general to place extra rocky terrain and set an ambush.

That rule is lost for King Solomon's army, but the general instead gets to choose from 1-3 chariot squadrons.

*A typo seems more likely, especially as on the previous page Issachar is spelt Issacher.