"Wargames Factory Persians Based For DBA" Topic

There was some discussion about how Wargames Factory persian infantry would rank up on 60mm bases for DBA in my topic here TMP link So I fast-tracked the painting on my Immortal pavise bearers to demonstrate how they look on the bases:

The first concern was if there was enough room for all four figures and the shields to fit the width. As can be seen, it is a perfect fit.

Another concern was whether there would be enough room for a rear rank of archers… as can be seen, the back portion of the base has a LOT of extra room.

Finally, there was a question of whether the basic infantry could pass off as Immortals… really, the answer is no. The Immortals had external chest armor and robes over their pants. And I found out after I had gotten well into these guys that they preferred the violin-shaped shield over the pavise. I may ho back and change that later. But mostly I am identifying the Immortals by paint job, they are ALL purple with the same detail colors (as opposed to the rest of the army, which every figure is painted individually.)

Great info, thanks for showing. Figures are looking good. Not a problem for the immortals, the ones in your army have been on campaign and chucked the dress uniform :)

Colourful looking unit!

Finally, there was a question of whether the basic infantry could pass off as Immortals… really, the answer is no. The Immortals had external chest armor and robes over their pants.

No, on campaign they adopted Median dress, except for the very early period.

I found out after I had gotten well into these guys that they preferred the violin-shaped shield over the pavise.

Yes, they had the Dipylon shield.
Someone here was selling resin cast 28mm Dipylon shields about a year or two ago.

I thought that the Dippy shields and fancy armour shown on the sculptures was their parade/guard duty style and in the field they looked like other Spara equiped troops. I may be mistaken though.

If you actually get the Persian Box set they come with Dyplon shields as well. I put some on a group of Anachronistic Kapadocians.

Three differing opinions from three different people who are all much better educated in the uniforms and equipment of the troops in question :-) You guys are awesome! I still have four of the dyplon shields from the infantry box (I ordered it before I knew about the Sprue Bundle Deal) so I *might* swap them out later (then again, I might not.)

@punkrabbitt returns,
I like your paint jobs and bases. At the end of the day, it's your army.

Thank you, Cyrus. What is "Median dress?"

It is the dress of the Medes. The Persians wore the loose tunic with flowing sleeves and a long skirt all of which was highly decorated. It was deemed, at some time, to be impractical for campaigning and the dress of the Medes was adopted.
Median dress consisted of a tunic with narrow sleeves that went to the knees. Fairly tight trousers were worn underneath the tunic, Both were in bright colors and highly decorated. A side note about the armor, it was probably worn underneath the tunic.
Persian dress:

Median dress (What the Persians and Medes wore on campaign):


Persian Immortals in parade dress:

Thank you, Cyrus. Those are some of the same pictures I found for painting references!

All Iranian infantry (including the Immortals) would wear Median dress. The front rank would be armed with spara & spear and rear ranks with bow – although it is possible that in some cases individual units might have used different shields (for more offensive tactics).

I speculate that perhaps the 1000 (or 2000) elite Immortals and some other Persian foot may have been armed differently. The archer/shield combination is primarily a defensive formation. Over the last 100 years the Persians had conquered an empire. Like the Assyrians before them, the Persians may have maintained small units of "shock" infantry trained to co-operate with the archers. Clearly, if they existed, they were no match for hoplites (or their numbers were too small to make a difference).