Sea Peoples - Introduction

 

I've departed from the usual format for the blog and decided to show a picture of the whole Sea Peoples army that I've just finished basing rather than progress as it was painted. As I've finished this army it seemed to make sense to write an introduction to the Sea Peoples. Future posts will show different parts of the army. 

The precise origins of the Sea Peoples appear to be lost in time, though it is acknowledged that they were a confederation rather than a single group and more than likely came from a number of possible origins ranging from Sicily, Anatolia, the Aegean, Balkans and Mediterranean islands. Details of what they looked like are taken from the Tomb of Rameses III at Medinet Habu which depicts a defeat of the Sea Peoples in a naval battle, land battle and shows captives being taken. One thing we can be certain about is that they did not respect the established powers of the day, they attacked the Hittites, Phoenicians, Greece, Cyprus, Canaan and Egypt. They even formed an alliance with the Libyans to attack Egypt. It would be fair to call them the Vikings or pirates of the Bronze Age. From a wargaming perspective they make an interesting choice as they are mostly a foot army, with not many chariots as opposed to their Bronze Age opponents. They are also a good choice to have in the collection as they can serve as mercenaries in other armies of the period. If you're not too fussy they can even be fielded as Philistines’ (at least those in headdresses). 

The army has been assembled to allow me to play a variety of different rules sets. These include DBA, Hail Caesar, Impetus (Basic and Advanced), ADLG, Sword and Spear and To the Strongest. Included are figures that represent the various tribes that made up the Sea Peoples, these being the Sheklesh, Sherden, Tjekker, Peleset, Denven, Ekwesh, Weshwesh and Lukka. I haven't included any figures to represent the Teresh, these may be added at a later date if I feel I need them. There are going to be four armies in my Bronze Age collection and the other three are historical opponents for the Sea Peoples. The armies planned are Sea Peoples, Mycenaen, New Kingdom Egyptian and Hittite. One down.... three to go!