Editing Spartans (section)

==Legacy in Fiction==
The Spartan trope in fiction refers to any army or military force that relies heavily (or completely) on brutally trained soldiers to do their work, rather than having a balance of rank-and-file troops and special forces. So they have a small band of elite soldiers that're more than a match for any soldier, but have very limited numbers, in comparison to other armies in the setting. 

It should be noted, however, that most fictional examples are of an elite force supplementing a greater army of mooks, rather than composing one's entire military force of a small number of elite soldiers that take a long time to train. [[Derp|Which is exactly what Sparta did]].

Examples of such training programs include...
*Sardaukar from [[Dune]]
*[[Space Marines|Spess Merhens]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]]
**Especially the [[Minotaurs]]
**Goes double for the [[Grey Knights]]
*[[The Clans]] from [[Battletech]]
*The child soldier program in Metal Gear universe. Raiden is one of the notable example. Grey Fox is from a different but similar program than Raiden. 
**There are other variations created by the patriots, like the Genome Soldiers. It is a lot similar to the star wars stormtroopers down below (only Boba Fett is replaced by Big Boss for gene cloning). The well known Les Enfants Terribles project utilizing the super baby method. Using both Eva's womb and big boss's gene that gave birth to badasses like Solid snake and Liquid snake.
** Later on they just said fuck it and started using VR training and nanomachines to program soldiers. Later on in Metal Gear Rising, children of other poor third war country were kidnapped and their brain were put into some sort of simulator where they play [[Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine]] in actual experience(with pain and all that). The children's brain were then put into a cyborg body as a "graduation present."
*Spartans (not even trying to be subtle) from Halo. <strike> Though it should be noted that the program was impractical </strike> the Spartan II program was effective it just took eight years and as much money as an entire unsc fleet. The later Spartan IV program did away with child soldier aspect and is much more cost effective (yah spartan IIs and IIIs rip through IVs). (why dose no one remember the IIIs they actually outperformed the IIs and IVs while costing a lot less) (I'd question that, the IIIs were meant to be disposable ones & most don't even have energy shielded armor. Their advantages are numbers, ease of production & generally a "More but weaker" mentality. Of course, they're also the least publicized IRL as IIs have virtually all of Halo & the IVs have Halo 4 onward. What do IIIs have in comparison, Reach? Even that was a highly exceptional team with equipment equaling the IIs including one II in the team. The average Noble Team member is leaps beyond the average III.)
* Even subtler, the Spartan Federation from [[Alpha Centauri]] - the faction has a Morale bonus and an Industry penalty, therefore all its units are superior in combat but take longer to produce, tending to result in a relatively small army of elite soldiers. It also enjoys a Police bonus, which helps to keep the revolting <strike>Helot</strike> drone scum in line.
* [[Star Wars]] Stormtroopers, really. Only the cloned ones, though, especially the ones that learned directly from their Mandolarian fore-bearers. The academies that produce officers for the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy also produce Stormtrooper Corps privates (and some, such as Carida, specialize in that).

This does ''not'' mean that you won't end up with several hundred extremely capable, elite warriors. You'll get your fighters, most certainly, but you'll also have the corpses of many more who have taken up valuable resources that could have been more normal warriors. Additionally, a force this small will be highly vulnerable to an enemy that relies on attrition tactics (I.E: Wearing down the enemy with prolonged warfare), as the spartan-type army simply will not be able to keep up the fight against an enemy who can easily replace their losses in quick succession.

Overall; Having elites in any army is good strategy, basing your entire army on elites alone isn't.

[[category:history]]
[[Category:Greek Mythology]]