Sparabara in Lion Rampant

[armchairgeneral]

I use Lion Rampant with fairly minimal adaptions for my hoplite battles and it works really well. For variety I fancied fielding some Persians but I can’t decide how to do sparabara units given they seem to be 3 - 4 ranks of archers behind a rank of spearmen with shields. With LR being limited to units of 12 I thought about them being two units, one behind the other?

Just wondered if anyone else has tackled this?

[guitarheroandy]

I haven't done this so this is just musing really, but doesn't LR allow mixed units of spear and bow? I know you won't get the 3 or 4 to 1 effect of archers vs spear that you ideally want, but then LR is about representation rather than simulation, so you could just deploy 4 spearmen and 8 bowmen in a mixed unit (I don't have the book to hand so can't remember how mixed units work...)

[warwell]

Just took a look at LR 2e. Light infantry has a Mixed Weapons upgrade that represents a mix of spears and bows.

[armchairgeneral]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

It is just with sparabara they just have  about 10% spear to bow but the spear have the all important big wicker shields at the front. I will give it further thought.

[SteveBurt]

Just make them archers with armour 3 from the front

[Dice Roller]

I'm not sure LR is meant to be played at the scale you are implying.
It's a skirmish game (albeit a big skirmish).
The sparabara tactic of lining up with spears and archers is a battle formation, and not going to be used at the level LR reflects.
The individual elements of the sparabara may be present, but probably in their constituent parts. So you could have a unit of spear (maybe heavy infantry to reflect the protection of that big shield) and two (or three) units of archers. The units operate individually in a skirmish, only coming together in their formation for a battle.
Maybe that's why you are struggling to portray the formation.

[jon_1066]

You could give them the pavise upgrade from crossbows.  So archers with pavise for 6 pts.  Get armour 4 vs shooting and armour 3 vs combat to reflect the big shields and line of spears.

[armchairgeneral]

I'm not sure LR is meant to be played at the scale you are implying.
It's a skirmish game (albeit a big skirmish).
The sparabara tactic of lining up with spears and archers is a battle formation, and not going to be used at the level LR reflects.
The individual elements of the sparabara may be present, but probably in their constituent parts. So you could have a unit of spear (maybe heavy infantry to reflect the protection of that big shield) and two (or three) units of archers. The units operate individually in a skirmish, only coming together in their formation for a battle.
Maybe that's why you are struggling to portray the formation.

I find it works well for large battles with a few simple house rules.

[armchairgeneral]

You could give them the pavise upgrade from crossbows.  So archers with pavise for 6 pts.  Get armour 4 vs shooting and armour 3 vs combat to reflect the big shields and line of spears.

Thanks I will probably do this.

I was more fixated with the aesthetics. Hoplites deployed about 8 ranks deep which I represent as 2 ranks/figures deep due to ground scale and man/figure ratios. Sparabara were about 10 ranks deep, so not much more. Come round to the idea of a front rank of spear and shield so it looks right with a front rank of shields and a back rank of archers but counting all as archers with pavise.

Thanks for all the help chaps. Think I see a way forward now.

[Rochejaquelein]

Thanks I will probably do this.

I was more fixated with the aesthetics.

I ran into a similar issue when I was thinking about Macedonian pike blocks. 12 models representing a syntagmata looks really weird on the table top IMO and I don't have a table big enough for large battles in 28mm. I haven't looked fully into it yet, but maybe you could borrow the large unit modifier from Mersey's other ruleset Rebels and Patriots. For one additional point you can field 18 man units instead of 12. That way you could have the initial rank be sparabara and the other two ranks of archers.

[Pattus Magnus]

I realize that you’re probably already committed to using 28mm figures, but I’ll throw this suggestion out for consideration- what about using groups of 10mm or 6mm figures on each base, then playing the rules as written?

Two or 3 strips of 6mm figures on a 20mm square base will give a suitable mass battle effect - around 120 to 180 individuals per 12 base unit. There’s nothing in the rules to stop you placing the bases side by side and a 6-wide, 2 deep formation of sparabara (or Macedonians), would look quite imposing. Fewer figures per base would be needed with 10mm models, but the visual effect would still be impressive.

I actually started a project along those lines using 6mm figures (different rule set) and liked the look. I got distracted before it was table-ready, though, so it’s all theoretical as far as how it would play.

[armchairgeneral]

I ran into a similar issue when I was thinking about Macedonian pike blocks. 12 models representing a syntagmata looks really weird on the table top IMO and I don't have a table big enough for large battles in 28mm. I haven't looked fully into it yet, but maybe you could borrow the large unit modifier from Mersey's other ruleset Rebels and Patriots. For one additional point you can field 18 man units instead of 12. That way you could have the initial rank be sparabara and the other two ranks of archers.

Thanks that’s another idea I was considering. Much to think about