The Alans

The Alans were a nomadic Iranian people from the Eurasian steppe, originating north of the Caucasus Mountains. As descendants of the Sarmatians, they emerged around the 1st century CE and quickly gained a reputation as fearsome warriors. Their way of life centered around horse breeding, herding, and warfare — a combination that shaped their identity as elite cavalrymen.

In battle, the Alans were best known for their heavy cavalry, often armoured in scale or lamellar armour and wielding long lances, composite bows, and swords. In this way the Alans carried forward and adapted the heavy cavalry traditions seen in earlier Parthian and Seleucid cataphracts. Their tactics emphasized speed, shock, and mobility, allowing them to outmaneuver heavier infantry forces. Alanic cavalry were prized as mercenaries in both the Roman and Sassanid Persian armies.

The Alans frequently raided and fought against their neighbors: Goths, Huns, Romans, and other steppe tribes. When the Huns invaded the steppe in the 4th century, many Alans were either destroyed, absorbed, or forced to migrate westward. Some joined the Vandals and Suebi in their march across Gaul and into Hispania, later helping to establish the Vandal-Alan kingdom in North Africa. Despite fragmentation, their martial legacy endured, particularly among the Ossetians, their cultural heirs.

The Alans 10mm STL files

The army list here is intended to represent the Alans from ca. 50 – 600CE

Where possible I have sculpted models to be self supporting. I add supports during my sculpting process rather than afterward. The integration of supports into design allows me to reduce the number of supports needed, and to position them more favourably. My supports need to be removed with clippers or a scalpel. All models requiring supports are also supplied in an unsupported format in case you would prefer to have full control over support placement.

Map credits:
Basemap and geographic features from Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com). Map built in QGIS.
Historical overlays digitised by the author from historical sources for educational and illustrative use.