Early Acheamenid Persians

[immortal]

Does anyone know how the sparabara type infantry will work. I.e, 1/2 spear in front rank, bow in second rank or all bow and spear?

[rbodleyscott]

Does anyone know how the sparabara type infantry will work. I.e, 1/2 spear in front rank, bow in second rank or all bow and spear?

Immortals are all MF, Superior, Armoured (or Protected), Drilled, Light Spear, Bow.

Other sparabara are MF, Average, Protected, Undrilled, 1/2 Light Spear, Bow, 1/2 Bow. (Not that the rear rank not having light spear actually makes any difference).

The important thing is that both ranks count as bowmen, that they get light spear capability in the impact phase, but no combat capability in the melee phase.

(We know that they also had sagaris, but giving them swordsmen capability would have rendered them over-effective overall compared with their historical performance. The present classification leaves them needing to win the impact phase and reflects their poor historical performance in a prolonged melee against enemy close combat troops.).

[immortal]

That sounds pretty good.
I allready have the main rule book and the first 2 supplements. This seems a breath of fresh air into the ancient world!
Will Immortal Fire also cover the period of Cyrus the Great?
Will the Later Acheamenid list contain the guard infantry. And if so, will they be similar to the Immortals?
Thanks for your quick reply.

[rbodleyscott]

That sounds pretty good.
I allready have the main rule book and the first 2 supplements. This seems a breath of fresh air into the ancient world!
Will Immortal Fire also cover the period of Cyrus the Great?

Yes

Will the Later Acheamenid list contain the guard infantry.

Yes

And if so, will they be similar to the Immortals?

No, because, according to the evidence, they weren't. They are 1/2 HF offensive spearmen 1/2 MF archers and there aren't very many of them (4 bases). OTOH you can field them as Elite if you want - though I am not sure how much use they will be. About as much as they were at Gaugamela, I suspect.

[scottyboy]

Excellent, thanks for the info on the Immortals and other infantry.

I pine for the good old days when all Immortals, Medes etc carried Spear,bow and shield...ah well.

[madaxeman]

so I need "change" for my DBEs then... oh well, more figures to buy!!

[shall]

Yep me too although I am planning to split only one base per BG

Si

[pezhetairoi]

Could anyone give me a hint about Late Achaemenid Persian cavalry types? Saka?
I'm very interested in this force. I have quite a few cavalry figures and I'd like to know what to do with them.
Thanks!

[hammy]

A Saka army will be made up of some armoured cavalry who depending on date will be either bow sword, lance sword or cataphracts supported by as many unprotected light horse or cavalry bow sword as you want and some foot archers if you want.

It's in Immortal fire as an army in its own right so you don't have too long to wait.

[caliban66]

Could anyone give me a hint about Late Achaemenid Persian cavalry types? Saka?
I'm very interested in this force. I have quite a few cavalry figures and I'd like to know what to do with them.
Thanks!

I actually command and EAP, and since half of the bases still fit (cavalry, hoplites and some LF archers), I´m painting actually the rest of a LAP. I love its cavalry, man. LAP cavalry is now light spear/swordmen. The main advantage is its lower cost and its POA in impact phase (not the best, but still useful). But you can still field some armoured cavalry with bow. Not the biggest part, though. And you can choose its quality, which gives you more flexibility. I will use the same figs, anyway. Also, you can have a lot LH: arachosian, parthian, saka (also as Cv unprotected) and bactrian. You can easily have more than 24 bases.