Around 425BC - Athen and Sparta at each other again ...

 ... and everybody likes it so much that we decided for me and Mike to come up with our own classical Greek collection (28mm), Hail Caesar plus some home rules adjustments for flavour of the time!!!

Campbell, Peter and Mike were feeling rather Spartan that day so Bart, Angus and Alisdair were defending the Delian Empire and its Athenian allies as per lesser die roll.

The rather spartan set up consisted of dry grass, in the middle of the table a dry road just flanked by some hellenic hills. In between a straight line of hoplites flanked by peltasts, slingers and errr ... men on horses. The trained hoplites had a somewhat like the"first fire" token of a 1d6" of an extra run (hoplidromos) OR a sweeping advance (if victorious in combat of course), which of course would even if unused be gone after the first combat. And additional to the phalanx rule, (extracurricular from the other command rolls), one had to roll for the unit to be able to keep the phalanx at the end of the movement.

Both parties moved and then inched towards each other. In the meantime they had various skirmishing fights with the smaller irregulars, inconclusive but bloody at the fringes, until Alisdair did the first heroic charge and lost almost his entire units of hoplites! But his Thessalian riders were murderous ... against Spartan riders!!

Then finally the hoplites seem to clash one by the other and it started to look grim for the Athenians. Campbell imagined himself already on the throne of Athens, as Bart finally overcame his command block/blunder and engaged Mike in a cluster fight. Now Hail Caesar can be very unforgiven if a unit breaks  - all its support does as well. That was happened in the last turn, when Barts Athenians destroyed Mikes Peloponnesian units - ouch!

The end of this massacre was so brutal that we lost count of the fallen and both sides limped back home leaving a trail of blood - so I had to declare it a draw. 

But be reassured that there will be another time when once again the war cry goes out and when once again I will ask everybody: Who wants to play Spartan?  ... and the crowd roars, me, me, me, me ...

The first moves

Its not easy to keep a line...

same goes for the Delians

and even Spartans ... ups?

While lesser cladded men fight on the mountain ranges

Greek cavalry clash

as it could take longer with the hoplites

the spartan king intervenes!

To attack Spartan hoplite phalanges is just brave!

Thessalians advance

View from the Spartan centre

More and more hoplite phalanges clash

The Spartan seem to get the upperhand

What are the Athenians waiting for?

There is where you have to attack!

Mikes wonderful minis

To be charged by Barts hoplites

Alisdairs left Athenian flank disintegrates

And the Spartan King rolls up the line

Even a phalanx has a rear ...

Then the centre clashed and it got too brutal to make photos!