Surenas

This command base has heavily remodelled Warrior Miniatures figures, by Derek at the Phoenix Club. I have a few of his other figures from the range, specifically cataphracts and horse archers, to which I added some of my own as well.

Derek is a fine modeller and painter, and these figures have seen substantial work. He remodelled the cloaks, helmets and horse trappings.
He also does a lot of work on the base stands, making the pieces into individual works. The standard is also made by him.
At one point I'll post some of the basic figures that I painted so that you can see the difference Derek's work has made to them.

Officers

More Gripping Beast figures, this time a couple of command bases:
I used one of the glorious Sassanid flags from Little Big Men Studios for the commanding general's standard bearer.

The lance pennant is a smaller flag from the same range. It's more visible in the next photo:

The rule set of choice in our corner of the Phoenix Club is Tactica II, which requires command markers in addition to the c-in-c:

This guy is a surplus heavy archer I had left over, so I based him on his own. I use round bases so that these marking figures stand out on the tabletop.

A standard force is 2,000 points, which can mean large numbers of figures, so it's important that commanders are visually distinctive.

The c-in-c has various functions, but command markers are simply used to denote a radius of effect.

Cataphracts

This lot is comprised of cataphract figures. Wargames rules usually classify the main heavy cavalry arm as mostly clibanarii. In the earlier period they are joined by cataphracts, replaced later on by superior clibanarii. I've seen these later aristocrats described in Persian terms as "Savaran" or "Asvaran".

I'm going to stick with Gripping Beast for the cataphracts and clibanarii. I already have Essex Islamic Persians that will do for the Asvaran; all I need to do is rescue them from their current state of dilapidation...

The Gripping Beast cataphracts work well for the earlier period. I don't know if you can tell from these photos, but they don't have stirrups - hence the overarm lance positions. I've mixed in one or two men with bows to make up the numbers. I must admit that I'm not entirely convinced by the wargames classifications of the various kinds of Persian heavies and how they functioned on the battlefield; I just like painting the figures. They do, however, take a great deal of effort.