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!

At last ...and until the last ... the Greeks again

28mm, To the Strongest, me with some Romans and some against some Romans and Maccedonians ... the December Sunday game of the club. Well even though it wasn't entirely historic (Martian Romans, Spanish Romans, what not romans mixed with my Classical Greeks, you know!) game it was a fun game and my Spartan hoplites pressed onwards vs some Romans quite nicely just until my flank romans broke and them a little later the other flank and then the last part of the centre that just left me ... that was the whole battle. My force now never been defeated (directly) but somehow ending up on the loosing side! You could make a classical drama out of it...
As I forgot my camera, the more detailed rap under here:
http://asienieboje.blogspot.com/2019/12/big-sunday-ancient-to-strongest-wielkie.html

BUT
the last battle in this decade, was a battle with my wife. No - not what you think!
28mm, Classical Greeks, Hail Ceasar+, Spartans vs Athenians and my lovely, better half agreed to play the Spartans, while I was defending the Delian empire. In short, she took the rules, as well as my phalanx amends with strides and in no time, I was pushed in my flank from the unarmoured hoplite allies and lost a complete hoplite unit. That put me on the back foot.

Meanwhile, we had a little cavalry fight where ,I destroyed the spartan horse and some of our peltasts were going to hit the dust as well. That was before the Kings bodyguard (or shall I say Queens?) hit the stage ... nominally/unit wise it was a draw, but Isabella had me in a pincer attack and the bodyguard was just warming up ... I conceded defeat...

That was it from me everybody, a belated Happy X-mas and an wonderful Happy New Year!

The perfect scene set

The Spartans ready to defend her Queen

The Delian Peltasts

The first casualties, mine of cource

two turns into the game, the big clash

the skirmisher are fighting just in front of the backing phalanges

from the spartans point of view

and their General-King

My cavalry victorious but useless ever after ...

my left flank under Spartan pressure

And the Bodyguard (with red shields) gets counter attacked

still my left flank holds ... just on a thread

while my efforst of two holpites vs the bodyguard failes and get pushed back

the left flank is shaken

After my retreat, I sued for peace ... game over  - Spartan won!

426 BC The Battle of Olpae

It was the battle in the Peloponnesian Wars where the Athenian general Demosthenes beat the Spartan Eurylochos with a simple trick. So we decided to give it a go in 28mm using Hail Caesar (plus some new useful rules for the era) Bart played the Athenians while Alisdair played the Spartan king with the help of Mike who played the Ambracians and some Peloponnesian auxiliaries. The set up was almost historical as we decided to beef it up with a dash of greek cavalry for both sides (and I swapped the line build up form left to the right).

Now in history (in short) Demosthenes hid some of his peltasts and some lighter hoplites behind some hills and they sprung the trap after the main stay of the spartan army was way behind them, thus be able to roll up the line from the weakest point up.

Bart and the Delians got the 1st turn as the Spartans decided to "pray" a bit longer - but Bart failed to move his command. Then the Peloponnesians moved slowly forward while Bart still couldn't move his line. It seemed the gods didn't like the scheming way of Demosthenes. By the time the Spartan army triggered the hidden units of the Athenian allies to spring forward - these Amphylochians were on their own, because Barts army was still way behind ...

And thus it continued, while Alisdair as Spartan king and new found hero of the gods rolled and played very well, Barts rolls got worse. He was able to hold off the Spartan King‘s body guard for quite a remarkable while, but to no avail. Previously he lost his cavalry clash (yes, I know a first for Bart as well) and then his auxiliaries won over Mikes, but he could not really capitalise on this.

So in short the Athenian army was decaying slowly, along with Barts dice luck, in front of our very eyes. Still he fought bravely on until the very last phalanx, but in the end it was a sounding victory for Alisdair and Mike and the Peloponnes. I guess I can say we all had our fun or at the very least a new experience.

Next time we will do the battle of Amphipolis (422 BC, it will be Brasidas vs Cleon). But I guess we better will be all praying to the gods to give us their favour and more luck in rolling the dice than Bart had in his battle.

Barts Delian line

Alisdairs Spartan line

The changed set up

the original set up

the Delian stats

the Peloponnesian stats

the trap springs out of their hiding ground

But the Delian line is fragmented

The cavalry will clash

The Athenian slingers pepper the Kings bodyguard

But still the Athenian allies hardly move

first clash of hoplites

The Spartan king advances

More push of doris

a temporary set back for the Spartan allies

and another clash of phalanges

slowly the battle line entwines

but the Athenian centre is holding!

The Spartans are almost hesitant

still the Delians hold

The Athenians have now a free flank ... but cannot exploit it

soon all the lines are in fight

the Peloponnesian auxiliaries hesitate

The Delian elite city guard, the 500 schefel man, are getting enclosed by Sparta

soon  the Spartan Horse will attack their back

The Delians getting pushed back

The regular Spartans arrive

the Delian guard holds out

aaand holds out

but then has to have a break test ... you guessed it ... 

the last unit of the Delian centre must do a break test ... its over!