28mm Ancient Spartan Greek Army - The Peloponnesian Wars.

I've started to finish the hoplites for my 28mm Spartan Lacedaemonian Army. The Spartans forming the backbone of the Lacedaemonian alliance with their officer corps the Spartiates providing the elite fighting units. Reputedly dressed in red on the battlefield. Sparta was made up of the Dorian race slow to go to war but an implacable enemy.

(Lacedaemonian possibly pronounced as: Lass-ee-day-mo-nee-on).

I've chosen these Spartans to represent the army of the Peloponnesian War 431-404BC era for a future campaign. The Lacedaemonians with the help of many allies and Persian money  finally crushed the Athenian empire thus ending the war.

The Spartiates.

The bulk of the levy hoplites are mainly Wargames Foundry figures with the veteran armoured heavies or Spartiates made up from Gorgon miniatures figures wearing classic hand-me-down bits of armour from older wars. I haven't painted the shields for the Levy hoplites (in the background) yet. That'll be a major job as I don't use transfers myself, all my shields are hand painted.

Spartan general Brasidas and chums. The Lacedeamonian command base isn't quite finished. These are 'Gorgon Miniatures' Spartans which are a perfect compatibility match for 'Wargames Foundry' figures

I had to paint the gorgon's head on the shield and paint eyes on each of the characters.

Spartan Light Troops.

Helot slingers.

I've only acquired a small unit of 8x helot slingers at the moment, I'll probably use Gorgon miniatures mostly for the archers, light javelinmen and the remaining slingers mixed in with a few Wargames Foundry figures. Then comes the cavalry, mainly light horse maybe with a few heavier mercenaries....to be continued.

Spartan Light Cavalry

Spartan Light horse seems to have been mainly composed of Helots and the lowest classes,  unlike the Athenians who considered their horse to be of the highest social rank.

9x light horse will act as the eyes and ears of the Spartan army spying out the land and running down any retreating enemy troops. Lacking proper armour I have given them leather helmets rather than the more expensive bronze, these are not shock troops but have roll harassing the enemy.

Spartan archers.

So I managed to pick up all my Spartan archers on ebay recently, these are Gorgon miniatures (their Spartans used to be part of the Artizan Designs range) these will represent a mix of Cretan mercenaries and lower class troops armed with bows.

After accidentally dropping my Spartan command base on the floor and watching it bounce woefully to a grinding halt, I fixed a new shrub/tree to its base, I think it could be an improvement on the original version?