WAB Thermopylae Scenario in Wargaming Soldiers and Strategy

WSS is a magazine I can only get intermittently as they only seem to sell it at the larger branches of WH Smith. I picked up the September issue today and it has a WAB scenario for Thermopylae in it.

The good news is that you only need 1000 points of Spartans: which totals Leonidas, 20 Spartan bodyguard, 21 Thespian hoplites and 9 peltasts. Hooray only 51 figures! I've already got 15 of them done! Actually these proportions are rather puzzling. If you take the figures in the accompanying article of 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 900 Pereoeci then I would make up the 1000 points as follows.

Leonidas 185 points

12 Spartan Hoplites with light armour 293 points
24 Thesbian Hoplites with light armour 293 points

33 light infantry 231 points

That makes the proportions better but pushes the number of figures up to 70. But because I painted so many light infantry for Cynoscephalea I would then have 39 figures of the force painted. Perhaps a 12 man unit (even of Spartans) would just not hold. You would also not get the full rank bonus. Some experimentation would be needed. No wonder Thermopylae is considered so hard to game satisfactorily! Anyway, it has encouraged me to finish my unit of Spartans so I can test them out against a larger force made up of peltasts (standing in for Persians) to see what happens.

Then the bad news: 2000 points of Persians. That's 221 figures! Unlike Greek light infantry Persians had all those ornate tunics so they will take ages to paint. There is a "hordes" option where you only need 1000 points and keep recycling broken units. 110 figures seems a bit more achievable. At least Persians can be used for other conflicts, such as against Macedonians.

I don't know if Steve Saleh is planning to do any Persians for Artizan (there have been comments to that effect). Otherwise, I bought some Vendel figures and they seem pretty compatible. Perhaps I will paint one or two to see how they come out.