Zvezda Persian Scans

Just picked up a box of the Zved/Ital Persian inf. Cast in hard plastic I think they are the best figures I have ever seen.

Detail is excellent. No flash at all and the poses are all good except for the two crouching maniacs that seem to creep into all boxes. In the main the figures are taken from Duncan Head's book on the Persian army. The pavaises are superb in their own right with detail that will be a joy to paint.

If I have a gripe its that the majority of the figures wear armour which may be (depends on your view) a little unrealistic. However 1 box provides enough troops for all the infantry in the DBA list (I/60 a+c).

In brief...

• 14 Pavaise spear armed front rank (including 4 'immortals' in metal armour)
• 10 Archers using their bow (including 4 shielded Archers from the later period)
•  3 Archers with swords and shields
•  2 Command figures (beautiful they are too)
• 11 Javelin/Axe armed Ax/Ps
•  2 Crouching swordsmen

Some of the Sword armed figures have the standard bow case and light Gherron shield which makes them ideal for use as either Bw or Ax.

I think the Persian army should have a bit of variety so I'll be using the peltasts from the Zved. Greeks which are just right for the early army.

This will quite easily give...

• 4x8Bw (if you use the command figures and the odd other figure) 1x3Ax and 2x2Ps

or
• 2x8Bw, 1x3Bw, 3x3Ax 2x2Ps

These Persians are going to be nice to paint but the level of detail may mean that simple block painting may not be the best. I am going to try and use some ink washes like I do on my metal 15mm.

Just got to build the 1x7Hd. Now where are my HAT Macedonian Light infantry?

Not bad for £3.00 UK!

Ken

Thanks Ken. Very informative. The DBA [2.0] lists for the Early Achaemenid Persians are as follows...

1/60. Ear1y Achaemenid Persian. 550BC-420BC.
	Ref: APA. (a) 550-466BC: 1x1Ch or 3Cv (Gen), 1x3Cv, 1x2LH, 4x8Bw, 1x3Bw, 1x3Ax, 1x2Ps or 4Sp, 1x2Ps, 1x7Hd. (b) 546BC: 1x3Cv (Gen), 1x3Cv, 1xSCh, 1xWWg (towers), 1x3Cm, 5x8Bw, 1x3Ax, 1x2Ps. (c) 465-420BC: 1x1Ch or 3Cv (Gen), 1x3Cv, 1x21H, 2x8Bw, 2x4Bw or 3/4Ax, 1x3Bw, 1x3Ax, 2x2Ps, 1x7Hd.

Actually, Stan Walker has pointed out to me that according to DBA 2.0 8Bw = DBM Bw(X) [Double Based]. In the DBM rule book (Troop Definitions), and I quote,...

BOWMEN, representing foot who fight in formed bodies by shooting collectively with missiles shot at longer range than psiloi, often in volleys at command, and who rely on dense shooting, hand-to-hand weapons, personally prepared obstacles or accompanying pavise bearers for survival at close quarters instead of skirmishing or evasion, or who are packed too tightly to skirmish effectively. They can be regular or irregular.

Exception (X):

Foot trained to fight in a formation having a front rank or ranks with pike or with spear and a large shield or pavise, but with the majority of ranks armed with bow or crossbow, and tactically emphasizing shooting rather than close combat, such as Achaemenid Persian sparabara infantry, Alexander's experimental phalanx, Italian civic infantry or Burgundian pike and longbow infantry. They must either be mounted on a double depth base together with an element of (0) or (S) bowmen behind them, or on a normal base as a single element alternating pike or spear armed figures with shooting figures. [emphasis added]

So, if DBA 8Bw = DBM Bw(X), it is perhaps not unresonable to base them on a single base, using alternating spearmen (with the pavasies) and bowmen. Ok, so it won't look as good, but it would use a heap less bowmen.

On reading DBA2.0, I had been puzzled as to why this is not shown as 6-8Bw. Based on what I have read of the DBM army list and rules, I had assumed that Irregular Sparabara would be 6 figures on a double base and Regular Immortals would be 8 figures.

Obviously, it would be nice to use 6 figures instead of 8 as we will get more Bow elements out of each box!

Graham

(DBM has your Regular Bowmen at 4 to a base, Irregulars at 3).

This got me thinking...and I quote from the DBM Early Achaemenid Persian List...

The current view is that the Immortals and other Persian line infantry at the time of the invasions of Greece were organised with a single rank of men armed with spear and pavis (sparabara), followed by nine ranks armed with bow and side-arms.

So, if you really wanted to get carried away, you could plonk 4 spearmen at the front of the base, and then you could try for either two ranks of Reg Bw (4Bw for your Immortals - min 6, max 12 in the DBM list - say, one or two DBA elements) or a couple ranks of Irr Bw (3Bw, your other Sparabara foot - 14-20 in the DBM list, say two or three for the early DBA list).

'Cause, lets face it, as Stan has pointed out, a 60mm by 60mm base (that's the prescribed size for a DBA 8Bw element) is pretty big for DBA - well, for 20mm figures anyway!

Or, as an extension of the whole 'size of the element' argument, you could just have two ranks (Sp and Bw) on a 40mm deep element to keep them more in line with the scaling of DBA (as opposed to DBM).

If you did use any of these different basing ideas but wanted to take them into an official DBA competition (we don't have any of those here in New Zealand! All the competition types play DBM...) you could just put your differently based elements atop an offically sized one. I find that using balsa bases allows you to do this simply with a strip of double sided tape.

Anyway, just a thought or two...

Many thanks to Jonathan, Stan, Ken and Graham.