Every so often, I receive an inquiry into how to go about putting together a wargaming army from one of our army lists. Since I've recently done this myself with my new Graeco-Indians, I thought I'd let you know how I go about doing it.

First of all, I read about my 'new' army. Not only does this allow me to get into the spirit of the times, it also gives me information on the generals, size and proportions of actual forces (sometimes!), tactics used (rarely) and valuable insight into the historical situations and military names of different troops. The local university resource center, augmented by the internet and my own library, usually yields enough source material to get me going.

I then take notes. Memory is a fragile thing of late, so everything of importance I write down. Later, when I am building the army for play, I can go back to these notes for hints at variations in units, generalship, arms and armor.

Next, I choose my generals. I want to have historical personages, as this gives a feeling to the army of authenticity and actual history. In the case of the Graeco-Indians, I chose Menander, the most famous of the invading historical personages as my commander in chief. Fortunately, my sources also gave me the names of his top commanders. His second in command is Appolodotus and my third general is Demetrius. The army list has all of these generals as being veteran (elite in the case of Menander) heavy cavalry (HC), trained with lances--the typical Alexandrian 'Companion' cavalryman.

Your next decision is whether to build your army as primarily a cavalry/mounted force, an infantry army, or a combination of the two. As my army is to be used in tournament play, I opted for the mixed force. There is a temptation to go with a virtually all mounted army, Menander did, in fact often conduct his early campaigns with mostly mounted troops. The mobility and firepower of the mounted army is quite good. But I decided to play a later period army, one where the Indian elements had been amalgamated into the Graeco-Bactrian forces.

Liking the exotic feel of this army, I chose a unit of three elephants (that's all the elephants I actually have, practicality often limits our decisions). These would be Bactrian elephants with howdahs, archers and javelinmen for crew (again, these are what I had). I also thought about buying two Bactrian 4-horse heavy chariots (HCh). These would have javelinmen for crew. They are slower than cavalry, but are tough to destroy and have a certain psychological effect on opponents who sometimes don't know how to deal with them. Their expense, however, precluded their use in a 525 point army.

Okay, so I had the elephants, what about the rest of the mounted force? I had a choice of wedging companion cavalry as well as Bactrian cavalry with lance and bow. I felt that from my reading, the Bactrian cavalry were more prevalent in Menander's army, besides that they had bows, though could not wedge. In the end, I opted for three stands of companion cavalry and four stands of Bactrians. One of my generals would have a stand of companion cavalry, allowing him to fight effectively in wedge, if necessary, while Menander and the other general would remain as single stands…and out of trouble. I'm hesitant to involve generals in close combat, they lose their order giving ability and if killed, cause devastating morale checks. The Bactrians were half uparmored to Armored Cavalry (AC) to give them some added protection.

Skirmish cavalry were a noted part of the armies of the time. I chose eight stands of Bactrian horse archers. They would operate in two units and allow me to pin a portion of the enemy army as well as provide close support missile fire to the heavier horse.

The infantry were a bit more difficult to decide on. There are required peltasts and phalangites. I like the peltasts. They are loose order trained, so fight at a strength of four and still can move and fight in delaying terrain. They are also double armed with long spear and javelins, so can shoot as well as melee. The drawback if that they are unarmored (UI). Nonetheless, I chose two units of four stands each. The phalangites, lightly armored with pike and shield, only had four stands one unit.

The Graeco-Bactrians also used hypaspists, so I took a unit of three stands with long spear and shield, upgraded to veteran heavy infantry (HI). These also are trained in loose order so can go into delaying terrain and fight as well.

So far, the firepower was not so great. This is where the Indian longbowmen come in. I picked sixteen stands of these close order unarmored infantry , armed with longbow and axe (two-handed sword). One unit would have to be downgraded to Poor quality in order for me to also 'buy' two units of skirmisher foot, four stands each with longbow and axe, poor quality as well. When purchasing Indians, you are also required to get four stands of UI close order foot with javelins, axe and shield. I opted to use these in the front ranks of two of the Indian longbow units to give them some shielded protection and melee capability. The Indians often fought in mixed formations like this, so I would as well.

Finally, I needed some supply units for my many missile troops. I bought two, one for the cavalry wing and one for the center. These can provide supply and restocking up to 16" in 25mm, so I felt that two would be sufficient for my army. Oh, and let's not forget the Priest. With my die rolls, he is a necessity.

That would do it, a nicely balanced, combined arms force to take to Fall In.