I agree the spara wall rule is completely off.
Most spara shields are depicted as being used by hand (even by the evil
Greeks who no doubt painted in wrong on purpose according to the
Iranophiles)
http://flavianomega.tripod.com/spartan/hoplitevsspara.jpg
This page shows the image from the vase showing the Persian spara fort
at the battle of Cape Mycale, with a rather flimsy stick holding up the
pavisse like spara.
http://tiny.cc/5i6cs
I agree with Allen. The spara formation allowed archers to operate in a
protected box from the enemy cavalry and chariots. It gave them a short
portable shieldwall to defend behind if it was to be set up as such and
not just carried by the front ranks. To make any kind of decent
overlapped wall I reckon the first two ranks would have to carry spara,
but it is certainly not necessary for all the ranks to do so-- as seems
to be depicted lately.
Herodotus states that after the barricade was knocked down the Persians
fought hard but were at a disadvantage "for they lacked shields ", so I
take this as a blunt truth that the Persians often had no shields past
the spara 'crust'.
Like all armor the spara wall probably is better to induce a
psychological advantage to the troops huddled behind. At long ranges
the impact of enemy archery could be diminished a bit, but at shorter
ranges the spara does nothing to protect from plunging fire, but still
protects allot from direct aimed fire. The key factor IMO is the spara
block gave a unit some protection from enemy cavalry charges- since
horses (then and throughout history) are difficult to aim at a wall and
actually collide with it.... despite all the manufactured bull-tripe of
those who say you can train horses to do this- it does not happen in
battle- whether it is a Persian noble covered in scale armor, a
cataphracts, or a Napoleonic Cuirassier-- blocks of huddled together
infantry more often than not dissuade cavalry attacks-- (unless they run
away- then of course they are not huddled together are they).
So in a Cavalry and Chariot charged environment, the spara wall makes a
lot of sense since it allows the mobs to feel they have a barricade
against the evil mobile horsemen. Against hoplites and other infantry
willing to close in to real hand to hand combat it was not effective.
It would have been nice if Xenophon could have observed what happened
when two Persian infantry units squared off against one another, but
alas at Cunaxa, only his Greeks and the Persian cavalry seemed to
matter..... we could have learned much about Spara tactics no doubt if
Cyrus and Artaxerxes' infantry had collided first!
Xenophon does allude to the abilities of the Persian infantry a bit in
the Cyropedia when he infers the infantry in the center could out shoot
the enemy chariots, which gives the Persian scythed chariots an edge on
the flanks, but it is vague.
Sadly there is no mention of a spara wall at Marathon, which just makes
me believe more that Marathon was a situation where the Persians gambled
on splitting their army and got caught with their pants down (ala
Chelmsford at Isandlwana).
I'd make a spara wall something cavalry don't want to deal with, maybe a
-1 to hit like phalanx or shieldwall for cavalry and chariots. Troops
behind the wall should gain the save of a large shield. In hand to hand,
that large shield save should be dropped after round one. No defended
obstacles, no messy rank bonus fussing... no muss. Cavalry will avoid
because of the ranks- like they always do, infantry can deal with the
wall.
Cost wise I would say it's a push, if a quarter of the models have paid
for large shields/pavisses/spara then the whole unit gets the benefit to
the front if stationary. The other issue is set-up of Spara- I'd say it
isn't movement to set it up- otherwise that cripples the Persian army a
bit.. or at least allow it set up at the start.
But I don't know what the official solution will be, I just hope that
the defended obstacle interpretation goes away.
JJ
>>> The Spara had a support (sort of like a bicycle kickstand) that was
used to hold it up to allow the front rankers to also shoot over it
without the need to hold it up by hand.
Source for this, please, visual or text.
>>> The front rankers would also have a speat to use in melee.
Personally I give my persian front two ranks spear and bow to reflect
this.
"...no artistic depiction, Greek or Persian, shows a single warrior
carrying bow, spear, and shield together." (Head, 22)
"Men illistrated with the spara often carry spears, but not bows.
Obviously, while holding up the spara to form a barricade, these
sparabara could not shoot." (Head, 24)
Head presents a ten-man deep formation: the first man in each file
carries a spara, resting on the ground to provide protection for the
spearmen behind; he also carries a spear. Behind him are eight archers
with bow only. At the rear is a file closer (pascadathapatis) with bow
and hypothetically a spear as well. (Head, 26)
We need a clear, unambiguous, and visually uncomplicated means of
depicting this ten-deep formation. WAB WYSIWYG does not work in this
case, as no-one is going to model it at 1:1. WAB 2.0's lesser reliance
on deep formations offers some help.
A single spear-armed front rank of real men should not translate into
effective spear fighters in WAB. A single line of wicker shields should
not translate into giving every figure in the formation a spara, as some
have suggested in the past, or form the tactical equivalent of a stone
wall. This really requires a well-thought-out special rule.
I would argue that the formation is essentially an archery formation.
The spara provides protection from close-range, low-trajectory archery.
The spara should hardly count as a defended obstacle, nor should the
formation have significant close-combat ability. One good thrust with
a doru, the sound of "Urrrk!" (or its Persian equivalent), and archers
are now on their own to defend themselves with swords.
Harsh, but accurate, I believe.
Allen
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