The Dice of the King:
The Achaemenid Persians in Ancient Warfare

The End 338-329BC

By Paul S. Dobbins


The final installment of the Achaemenid lists re-establishes the national army for the ultimate defense of the empire. Native Persian/Median infantry has nearly disappeared from the sources. There is some controversy in that at least one expert, Nick Secunda, has expressed the view that the Amrtaka was active until the end of the empire. That view, although I am inclined to agree, is not carried over into the following list. Rather, the Persian infantry element has largely been replaced by Greek and Asian (Kardaka) mercenaries.

The themes running through this list include qualitative and quantitative improvements in the cavalry - especially the shock cavalry - and a precipitous decline in the quality of Persian infantry. The latter is more than compensated for by the large scale employment of quality Greek mercenaries.

Army List

200 Stands/100,000

  • *Minimums apply if any of that nationality are used.
  • Persian and Massagetian AC, and all Saka cavalry, may wedge.

    Notes:

    The Persian, Median and Lydian cavalry have been rolled into the Persian baivarabam. Massagetian, Armenian and Kappadokian “cataphracts” are armoured cavalry, AC, not type CAT. No more than 40 total stands of Greeks may be used, divided in any manner (subject to the list constraints) between peltasts and hoplites.

    Kardaka have taken on many forms in this list, see “A Persian Primer “ above. Three divisions of Kardaka are allowed, split between (5) close order infantry and takabara, the close order variant is allowable only after the Battle of the Granikos in 334. Thus, no more than 60 total stands of kardaka are allowed.

    The levy is included here to provide gamers with the great hordes of the unwashed that may have been deployed by Darius III at Gaugamela. The levy is not included in the scale or target number of stands calculations.

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