History Channel's Vikings vs Frank Miller's Spartans

[Wavemaninawe]

I never saw anything but rocks in either the comic or the movie, but just for the sake of the scenario, lets say that Spartan lands are highly fertile. Ragnar who has had his fill of England and finds Paris too hard to chew, wants to expand and settle in proto Greece.

The same as when Xerxes tried to roll him, Leonidas finds himself stepping to the plate without initial support from the other states.


Ragnar is joined by;
Rollo
Björn Ironside
Floke
Lagertha / Earl Ingstad
300 assorted vikings raiders


Leonidas gets his 299 'bodyguards' and decides to take a stroll by the cliffs after recieving word of the approaching long boats.



A) they face off straight away

B) 1 week of mutual prep

[AstroWolfboy]

I think the Spartans win this because , lets face it the Vikings didn't have Sun Tzu type tactics . The classic Spartan Defense should be able to fend off 300 Vikings, they certainly do a good job holding up fending off endless waves of Persians before they were bombarded and lost.

[Wavemaninawe]

The Vikings sense of strategy clrearly leave some things to be desired. But compared to the Spartans they are freakin geniuses.The mere fact that they bring archers to a fight puts their game a fair share of steps ahead of the Spartans.

They have used fortifications, religious dogma, traps and psychological warfare to their advantage, they sabotage supplies and pull nightly sneak attacks. They use archery in close quarters, covered by their shield wall. At one point they push a larger enemy force into a dead end and had them picked off by sniping archers. At one point Ragnar even fakes his own death to get close enough to attack an emperor.

There is a lot of artistic license involved in that show, but at least they are shown using their heads in a fight.


The Spartans go on and on about how invincible their shield wall is only to abandon it shortly into the first battle and favor fighting individually. The only real tactic they ever showed was to build a wall of corpses and use it for one ambush.



That being said, the Spartans are mythological heroes with physical stats comparable to those of the Phantom. While the Vikings on the other hand are fairly realistic in their abilities. So they NEEED to fight smarter because barring Rollo, the individual Viking is bound to get squashed by the individual Spartan.


I dont see this being a stomp in either direction.

[Wavemaninawe]

Cripes... I've been out of the game too long. Didnt specify if its supposed to be graphic novel Spartans or movie Spartans.

Apologies.


Source material is deafult unless specified. So that means graphic novel.