The Spartans, part 1 (01 Nov 2007)

When I`ll get some more free time, I`ll update the pack modifying the shields` design.
That is very good news!

Sandris, another thing you may want to consider when you update the pack, is to make a version of the two unarmoured Spartiates without civ-colouring. As far as I know, no Spartan would dare to wear any colour other than red. So it might be cool if you do a version with red tunics and no civ-colour at all, for people to use if they want to.

But if that's too much of a hassle, then by all means don't bother. I don't want to be a pain!
 
Well, Mithadan, my civilization of Sparta always has the red color, so my spartan units are always red in the game.;)

Though, I don`t exclude the possibility of making red non-civ colored spartans. :)
 
Sandris. The civ colouring on these units looks amazing. Very nice work.


I am especially fond of the early Spartan spearman. Beautiful simplicity, and the long hair is a nice touch.
 
As far as I know, no Spartan would dare to wear any colour other than red.

As that is the case, and as Sandris has already noted, you should not be assigning Sparta anything BUT red in mods and scenarios. Every other civ should be secondary for the red color (I actually prefer the burgundy color rather than the lighter red for Sparta). But I guess I can see where one might simply be needing a non-civ-colored unit.
 
The Spartans never would have worn their cloaks into battle anyways, so if you're letting one small historical slip go, why not another? :)
 
Their cloaks, no, but their standard tunics, yes (by the way, the tunics were also red, so they would definitely still be wearing red :p).

But then again, there was a time in Ancient Greece were they came to battle naked, typically with nothing but a helmet and weapon (all Greeks, not just Spartans). Imagine the poor guys that got spears rammed into their nakedly open crown jewels! :blush:
 
Even when the heavy hoplites were armoured there were lighter infantry naked in battle! And most cavalry fought nude too! And the thought of a stab in the goolies doesn't bear thinking :cringe:
 
Apparently fighting naked was handy for two reasons -- increased agility (yikes!) and a lower likelihood of getting your wounds infected from dirty cloth.
As that is the case, and as Sandris has already noted, you should not be assigning Sparta anything BUT red in mods and scenarios. Every other civ should be secondary for the red color (I actually prefer the burgundy color rather than the lighter red for Sparta). But I guess I can see where one might simply be needing a non-civ-colored unit.
Of course, but say in an epic game one might want to give Greece a civ-specific small wonder, say the Agoge, that spawns Spartiates every so many turns. And if the civ-colour for Greece is something other than red, it would still be nice to have red-tunic-wearing Spartans...
 
Where are you guys getting the information on Greeks fighting battles in the nude? They certainly exercised in the nude and wrestled in the nude...but I've never come across fighting battles in the nude in my studies.
 
You have to be careful with that sort of thing, they are often stylized and do not necessarily represent how they would have really fought. What time period are we talking about?
 
I, too, haven't seen anything which refers to any Greeks naked in battle, especially not the Spartans! Apart from one Spartan guy, when the city itself was under threat, by Thebes, I think...
 
If we're talking about the Classical Age (500-323), then the Spartans definitely would not have gone into battle naked. When fighting in a hoplite phalanx, being naked would just be suicide. Besides, I'd think Thucydides or Xenophon or any of the other classical writers would have mentioned it.
 
Fair enough, I mixed up "ditching the panoply" with "exposing one's genitalia" to get the erroneous result of "fighting in the nude." The Spartans did ditch the panoply (all but helmet & shield), but they apparently still wore their characteristic tunics, and I guess this caught on with other city states too for a while (haven't got my Osprey book on hand for sourcing, though, sorry). And even when folk did wear the rest of the panoply, that wouldn't necessarily imply that they covered up their gonads:

 
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