Sassanid Savaran Cavalry
Almost without realising I have done it, I have finished my 1,000 WAB point Sassanid force - yes, I have finished the unit of Savaran noble cavalry. As I said earlier, painting them hasn't been without its trials and tribulations. I am reasonably happy with them, and much more confident that when I do the next unit of the same troops, all will be relatively 'hitch-free'.
There are a couple of things I think I'd do differently next time. I went to great trouble to create patterns in some of the horse armour. It worked fine on the armour with bigger 'scales', but is very hard to see that I've done it at all on those horses on which it was hardest to achieve - the ones with tiny scales.
I was going to put some 'embroidery' on the men's clothing, and in the end I couldn't be bothered. I don't think it spoils the effect. Maybe next time - and if I do, I'll probably mix the models from the two batches up, so there are some with and some without in each unit.
There are a couple of photos of the Savaran in the Sassanid Photo Album. There's also a photo of the 'completed' 1,000 point force, which, as I alluded to in the title, more or less sneaked up on me unnoticed. I must be going very deaf, failing to hear all those horses! I think this army is going to end up looking fairly spectacular - if not very big - cavalry are effective troops, so you don't need many troops in a 'cavalry-heavy' army.
Heavily armed and armoured horsemen were nothing new to Persia - the Parthians had been using heavy cavalry for centuries. What set the Savaran apart from their predecessors was their emphasis on lance duelling, and their supposed adherence to a code of conduct resembling medieval chivalry, long before the advent of the knight.