This is my latest version of the Early Achaemenid Persians for DBA. I can only imagine it will be my final go at them.
The army for DBA list I/60a:
I’ve painted a few early Persian armies over the years, in both 25mm and 15mm. This one is mainly new figures with a number of venerable figures that have been repainted.
The army for DBA list I/60c:
This is the army that has fascinated me for around 50 years! If you would like to read about my long history with the early Persians, head here: Old Fart Reminisces.
The King of Kings in his chariot:
I'm doing a separate post for the DBA I/60b Cyropaedia list.
The chariot is from Essex Miniatures, the King from Mikes Models and the driver is from Gladiator:
The parasol holder is from Xyston:
The three elements of cavalry for the DBA I/60c list arrayed:
This is the alternate option for the army CinC. The figures are from Xyston:
The flag is based on this:
Which in turn comes from this tile:
These guys represent a royal guard troop dressed in semi-uniform using expensive purple and yellow dyes from the King's store:
Xyston Miniatures:
More Xyston miniatures for some regular Persian cavalry.
And here are the both the cavalry elements for the DBA I/60b list
The mighty Scythian light horse. Museum Miniatures:
The Immortal flanks by the Sparabara:
The Immortals. I mainly used yellows and purples for these guys:
The rear rank are Irregular Miniatures except the Standard bearer, he's from Essex:
The front rank are all Irregular Miniatures:
I've designated these sparabara as being Persians from the II Corps of Xerxes' invasion forces, as listed by Herodotus:
The rear rank is a mixture of Museum, Xyston and Essex Miniatures:
The front rank are all Irregular Miniatures:
These represent the Medes from the III Corps:
Over the years and various iterations of this army, I've tried all sorts of styles of painting the Spara shields.
This time I wanted this central part of the army to really hang together, so I painted the same pattern of each shield but varied the colours to differentiate each Corps:
The Kashites from the IV Corps:
These represent the Hyrkanians
from the V Corps:
Here are the 3Bw archers:
List I/60a list uses two of them and I/60c has all three.
I chose not to paint up any 4Bw elements
These represent the Arians from the IX Corps. Xyston Miniatures:
These Essex Minis represent the Pactyans from Corps X
These are the Caspian archers from Corps VIII. Minifigs figs.
I had fun with painting the capes
These Essex figures are the Paphlagonians (3Ax) from Corps XX
These are the two skirmishing (Ps) elements from list I/60a. Together they form XIII Corps.
These are Ethiopians. They are described by Herodotus as being painted half vermillion and half white.
Museum Miniatures
These Arab Miniatures are from Essex
List I/60c adds a third element of psiloi
These represent the Utians from XVI Corps
They are from Minifigs
List I/60a includes two horde elements
These are east Iranian Sarangae infantry from XIV Corps
They're Xyston minis 
The Assyrians and Chaldaens (Babylonians) from VI Corps
I really enjoy painting this unit for some reason. Very happy with how they turned out
The figures for this element are from Xyston
List I/60c adds a third horde element.
These are Indians and East Ethiopians from Corp XIII
The front rank Indians are from the old range of Museum Miniatures
The rear rank of East Ethiopians are from Minifigs
The final element rounds out List I/60c. These are the Medising hoplites.
Medising Greeks fought for the Persians in the battle of Plataea. They were northern Greeks, especially from Thebes.
So I've given a nod these city states with their shield designs. The urn and club of Heracles are Theban, the bull's head is from Phonics and the horse is from Thessaly.
So, there we have it. The mighty Early Achaemenid Persians - surely the greatest army of ancient times! *
*This is the author's opinion and may not represent any objective form of reality
You can see the baggage camps for my Persians here:
Pasargadae Paradiso
Pasargadae Paradiso
And here:
Sacred Chariot Camp
Sacred Chariot Camp
Feel free to leave a comment.
Featherstone Factor 31 - The Persians? Best look elsewhere…
Donald says the the Achaemenid Persians had to whip their levies into battle, were tactically inept panic-merchants, and importantly, weren’t Greek hoplites. At least they were great bowman.
What’s this all about? Find out here:
