The Battle at Flummoxia around 429 BC

 It was this time of the year that we needed a contrast programme to the cold outside, so we decides for: Ancient Greeks, Hail Caesar, 28mm, a simple flat out battle on a dry and dusty land!

Bart took, as tradition commands it, the feisty Spartans, even though he never won a battle with them. He also never lost one, as his Spartans were true to their cause, always dead before they would know the circumstance.

So I took the side of the Delian empire, the set up was quite traditional, one line of hoplite moras from the best on the left to the worst on the right, flanked by peltasts and a dash of horse (or men on horses). The Athenians had more light skirmishers (peltasts) as the Spartans, because the Spartans had the better hoplites ... the terrain was flat but flanked by difficult ground and a extremely difficult gnarly olive tree orchard.

I took the 1st turn as the Spartans were busy praying (which was a mistake, I should have burned frankincense and myrrh to good old Fortuna ... but read on!), and more or less advanced in good order to the middle and at least my flanks were able to actually keep in phalanx (house rule was that you could loose phalanx at the end of movement if one failed a check for it). my best troops smashed into his unarmored hoplites and mauled them. My skirmishers more or less picked his cavalry and helots one after another ... but my cavalry was beaten by his Spartan (the worst) cavalry ... what a shame!

On the other side a little miracle happened on its own - his Kings bodyguard was NOT able to break my unarmoured phalanx of hoplites! For a very long time! In the centre it was more 50-50, so it looked like I would sooner or later mob him off the table as our mora ration was more or less the same BUT I had plenty of slingers and peltasts to wither him down - victory was near!

But only so far, as my General and his elite troops rolled a blunder and were off the table. 

The gods intervention, a miracle for the Spartans, or maybe the Athenians just got bored and left the battlefield for home ... already the myth building is on its way:

 http://asienieboje.blogspot.com/2020/12/if-you-mess-with-gods-gods-will-mess.html ...

We will never know the truth, and for sure no one in Athen wants to.

Initial set up

The King and his bodyguard

The Athenians and allies

The Spartan cavalry (?)

The Athenian elite hoplites

The first advance

Lets pelt them with stones!

The general of the Athenians and his hoplites

Somehow the Athenian skirmisher advance

The lines are closing in

The Peloponnesian allies crash into the Delian ones

The battle lines veer to the oblique ...

The spartan weakest mora is doomed!

While the Spartan King decides to wait!

Charge! Attack the helots!

At last the King attacks - into a formed phalanx!

The Spartan allied gets thrashed and shaken!

Same on the other flank, but my phalanx still stands!

The Spartan horse and a shaken mora is all they have left!

One Spartan allied unit in the centre breaks!

The Spartan Horse is broken too!

And the shaken mora!

The Athenians are a bit in dissarray but overall ...

... my unarmored hoplites are still fighting!

But then the General and two! moras vanish off table!

All the Spartans see is, one mora in the distance that quickly leaves for good too!

Where did the General go? - we will never know!