Angkor Empire Army - Medieval Khmer

 

A couple of years ago on a whim I decided I "needed" a south-east Asian army for my MeG collection. After a brief perusal of the army lists I decided on the Khmer army of the Angkor Empire. Here is the result ...

I'm not quite sure why I suddenly decided to get a south-east Asian army, but it may well have been something caused by the various Covid lockdowns and feeling I needed something to occupy my time.

I can't say I know much about the history of the region, my interests tend to stop at the southern border of China, and so the choice of which army to do was based pretty much on what caught my eye as possibly fun to play when reading the army lists (the MeG SE Asia lists can be found here for those interested).

However, having decided on the Angkor Empire - mainly Cambodia from the C9th onwards - I did find a useful book on their military based on the famous temple carvings at Angkor Wat. This book is "Armies of Angkor: Military Structure and Weaponry of the Khmers" - you can find it on Amazon here.

So having decided which army, and having drawn up a couple of lists to plan the figures I'd need it was onto the traditional next step of who has suitable figures. Two manufacturers, Outpost Wargames Services and Irregular Miniatures have Khmer ranges, the latter's is within their Dark Ages range. NB due to significant health issues Outpost figures are currently unavailable; best wishes to Jeff Bevan on a full recovery. Both ranges have their good points, but I decided to go with Outpost as Jeff has always given great service (not that Irregular are in anyway bad at this I should add).

So with the figures bought it was off to the painting table. The results are as follows.

As usual I will start with the general's bases. The generals are obviously sitting on elephants (where else for a SE Asian potentate?) and come with a parasol bearer. I think the figures were designed so that the latter is standing on the elephant, however, looking at the Angkor reliefs it seemed to me that they should be standing on the ground next to the elephant. In order for this to work I needed to replace the parasol pole so that it would be long enough for the parasol to provide shade for the general. I also decided to add a second parasol bearer using some spare figures and spare parasols I had from some other project. In addition the C-in-C also got 2 other flag bearers with quickly made paper flags.

This is the result which I think came out nicely.

Next up are more elephants. No great surprise that the army has these.

These are followed by ... more elephants. However, these are a tad different in that they are carrying light bolt shooting artillery. Might sound a bit odd, but they are straight from the Angkor reliefs. It has been suggested that they may just be being transported on the elephants, however, my take on looking at pictures is that they are indeed being shot. As small canons were used from atop elephants centuries later it is far from implausible. They are also quite effective in the MeG rules - but not overly so. Here is an enemy's eye view of them.

The next unit is also a bit different, and is the elite unit of foot in the army. The Angkor reliefs show a number of soldiers with a large, odd, axe-like weapon called a ph'kak. It is shaped a bit like a hockey stick with an axe blade on the back of the curved section. The army list allows a unit of ph'kak armed troops who are, as mentioned, the best infantry in the army - presumably on the basis that the guys armed with this weapon are something of an elite (certainly a minority). However, it has also been suggested that they may be officers.

As they are certainly a minority, I decided to depict the unit as mainly armed like the other regular troops, but have a single ph'kak armed man on each base. I think this has resulted in a nice looking unit and one that can easily be identified on the table as the elite troops.

Cavalry come next. Whilst SE Asia is probably more associated with elephants as the usual mounted arm, cavalry were also important in the Khmer army. I bought figures for 2 units of these. Compared to many other cavalry they are nothing special, however, in MeG they can skirmish a bit and fight a bit and so can be very useful; I'd always have at least 1 unit in an army.

Now back to infantry which form the main part of the army, although not its cutting edge which are the elephants and ph'kak infantry.

The following are 2 units of regular infantry - the Angkor Empire having a standing army. These are armed with javelins and spears. This means they can both shoot effectively (classed as Experienced shooters) and are OK, but nothing special, in hand to hand fighting. As they appear to have operated in close conjunction with archers the MeG list allows them Integral Shooters which gives them a bonus if they are charged. In this respect they are a very uncommon troops type, as troops with an actual missile capability do not usually also have the option of Integral Shooters.

There is one more unit of regular troops, a unit of archers. Again a touch unusual as in they have Pavises from which they shoot behind. These are rather useful as they are otherwise unarmoured and so can be vulnerable to being shot themselves - obviously the pavise mitigates this.

The pavises illustrated on the reliefs at Angkor Wat are quite unusual in shape. I had intended to make some out of card, but instead used some rather odd shaped shields I had lying around - I think from some Xyston Libyans. I may go back and redo them at some stage though.

The rest of the infantry are made up of conscripted and tribal troops raised to support the regular army.

These comprise of 2 units of lesser versions of the regular infantry above - poorer drill, lesser shooting ability (Unskilled) and no Integral Shooters. OK for holding ground for a short time, but unlikely to win you any games themselves. Also a unit of tribal archers - able to shoot OK, but not good at anything else - and some skirmishing archers to annoy the enemy and cause some attrition. There are enough of the latter for 2 small units.

Finally, as with all MeG armies we have the large base to represent the camp. This I made with spare figures and also made some large banners for some colour.

The sharp eyed will have noticed a bit of a theme with the shields (and banners) in this army - all have a similar flower like motif. This was achieved by using some of the Veni Vedi Vici waterslide transfers - some of their Japanese Mon symbol ones - with a blob of paint in the centre. I think it feels right for this army, but is based on nothing factual, and was very easy to do.

I have now used this army in a competition. The following is the list I used and I will blog about how that went in a few days time all being well. One spoiler - I thoroughly enjoyed using the army.