Han Chinese army

[Augustus_Gaius]

I have the motivation now to make a Han Chinese army to face off with my Romans in a hypothetical "what if" situation (obviously only once I've finished my roman army though) my question is though where would i be able to buy the miniatures from? I see that the Han Chinese are in the HC army list book so that will be the basis of my army when i eventually get the book. the only place I've found is "newline design" and they only sell them in 20mm, has anybody bought from them? if so how small are the compared to warlord miniatures, as i'd like them to measure up for obvious reasons.
If anybody has any advice at all feel free to chip in (literally anything, possible paint schemes for instance)

[Stuart]

Hi A.G.

Northstarfigures sell ancient chinese (just type chinese in their search bar), they are 25mm though so may still be a bit on the small side, but they are all reduce to about half price.

Stuart

[Augustus_Gaius]

Thanks very much will check these out now

[Stuart]

Forgot to say, good idea for a "what if ", what if they'd both ventured a bit further in each others direction, what if the Parthians weren't in the way. Be interesting to see how it pans out.

[Augustus_Gaius]

well i got the Idea in a A level classics class, when we discussing Rome's foreign policy which involved talking how they got silk from the Chinese, but really had no idea how they made it just showed how ignorant they where :L and of course what if the Romans had conquered Parthia, they would have most certainly of at least met the Chinese then. I don't know if you've heard that theory about the roman legionaries who where captured at Carrhae being sent to the east of Parthia and inhabiting a town or something there? interesting stuff to say the least

(i am of course talking about the early imperial era here :p)

[Stuart]

I hadn't heard that theory, but then I'm just getting into the Roman period and currently painting Romans like there's no tomorrow, plenty of books on the Xmas list though so should be up to speed in the new year (ish)

[Augustus_Gaius]

here something copy and pasted from Wikipedia :p (it's too late for me to be getting original sources :L)

"The battle is also believed to have eventually led to the first Sino-Roman relations. According to Pliny, in 53 BC, after losing at the battle of Carrhae, 10,000 Roman prisoners were sent by the Parthians to Margiana to help guard the eastern frontier of the Parthian Empire. The Han Chinese later captured this area and the Roman prisoners were likely among the first Europeans to meet the Chinese directly. According to Homer H. Dubs, eventually part of these troops were recruited as mercenaries by the Xiongnu. They battled with the Chinese during the Battle of Zhizhi, where they were captured by the Chinese and moved to Liqian village, Yongchang County."

[Augustus_Gaius]

Right did some research on the Han Chinese army (not much as of present) and from what i have deciphered they made mass use of crossbowmen and used very heavy infantry and cavalry quite frequently, so i think my army will consist of mostly C bow men probably 50/75% of the army overall and then fill up the rest with cavalry and infantry, of course if anyone has any counter evidence or any other pointers then don't be shy (although it is a rather obscure army to most)

Also, i had another idea (probably getting way ahead of my self) to make some hypothetical scenarios in a war against the Romans and Chinese, of course using the HC format

[nikgaukroger]

For the Han army you can do a lot worse than the Osprey by Chris Peers that covers the period - "Imperial Chinese Armies: 200 BC - 589 AD".

If you have time you could trawl through the Chine History Forum - http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/ - which does have a lot of useful information, but it is a discussion forum so you do have to take time to search

[Augustus_Gaius]

Thank you very much, i am sure both of these sources will be of help