Persians Painted - at last

Hello again all, if you are still out there.. once again a bit too much reality has been getting in the way of hobby time recently, so progress has been slow, But I have, finally, managed to finish what must be one of the slowest-painted Persian DBA armies ever! 

I finished varnishing and basing yesterday, and today they underwent a photo session in an admittedly not-very-Persian looking setting. So without further ado, here is the (small) Persian horde, 

 The force is made up of the following : 

Front left:    1 x 4Bw Light Archers

Rear Left:    1 x 3Kn Heavy Cavalry,   3 x 3Cv Medium Cavalry 

Centre:        2 x 4Sp Greek Mercenary Hoplites,  2 x 4Ax 'Kardakes'

Front Right:  2 x 2LH Light Cavalry

Rear right :   1x 4Bw 'Sparabara'           

 

**UPDATE** the above provoked some interesting discussion (see comments, many thanks to Neil and Rob) about 'Sparabara' and 'Kardakes' types. I should have said that the descriptions above are taken straight from the DBA 1st Edition rulebook, army list no.33 Later Achaemenid. From background reading the name  Sparabara seems to have meant 'shield bearers', and it appears they would have had a front rank equipped with Spara (a form of wicker shield) and spear, and other ranks armed with bows. DBA has obviously decided to treat them as mainly bow-armed, but gives them quite a shallow base, hence close-order formation. I am toying with the idea of giving them Spara, but I think it might look a bit awkward on the restricted base. I am told that later editions of DBA have them as double-depth bases with 8 figures, front rank with shields, which might look better - but of course that sort of  implies 50% carrying shields? Tricky.. 

Kardakes  are quite enigmatic - some say  the name means 'Foreign Mercenary', and it is suggested that they may have been Persian infantry equipped similarly to Greek Hoplites, which would make them 'Sp' class in DBA.  But others think they may have been more like the Greek Peltasts,  in which case the DBA class would be 'Ax'.  Clearly Phil Barker has plumped for the latter option in DBA 1st Edition, which does have the benefit of adding another variety of troops to the army, rather than just more 'Spears'.  

This is all a nice introduction to some of the uncertainty and debate which inevitably surrounds ancient armies, given the scarcity of source material for scholars. It also perhaps allows us quite a lot of 'artistic license' when forming our miniature armies! 

Having said all that, all in all it looks quite a handy force, it will be interesting to see how it does against Alexander's Phalanx and Companions.   My first attempt at a DBA game ( despite owning the 1st edition rules for about 30 years! )  will be coming up soon, and duly reported here. 

They were actually quite fun to paint, and interesting to read a bit and work out colour schemes - I think my favourites of the infantry were the Kardakes, the inspiration for which I found in the box art of the HaT  Achaemenid Persian Army set. I think I got away with painting the interesting patterns on the trousers as rather indistinct stripes - it will do fine at table distance!  But now I think about it, I suspect the HaT figures are leaning much more towards the 'Hoplite equivalent' than the 'pseudo-Peltast' theory.. 

 

Kardakes..

and Sparabara - without the 'Spara'

 

I should say, I have been rather loving seeing another and much larger Persian army being shown off by Rob Young on his Eastern Garrison blog - it really is a huge and impressive army, and I love the 'old school' style of both figures ( Garrison of course, and old Minifigs 'S' and 'PB' ranges ) and painting. I confess, I would rather like to have some of those..   

In the meantime, tonight I have the  honour to be first to represent King Emmanuele III of Piedmont-Sardinia in Jon Freitag's re-fight of  the battle of  Madonna dell' Olmo, 1744 .  It looks a daunting task, to be frank - attacking entrenched positions without superior numbers, and against wily and cunning opponents too!  Watch Jon's blog for the battle report, which should be interesting - I admit I am pretty nervous!    

I'd better get back to revising the QRS and battle breifing for that, then, so will leave it there. Hopefully some DBA action next time.. Until then keep well, everyone.