Taxanes Stream.479BC

The Greek and Persian Wars have always fascinated me,and whenever we "dust off" our Greek and Persian armies,the games we have are exciting and evenly matched-last night's game,against Paul was no exception!.

The top photo shows the scenario,whilst the bottom photo shows the table before any moves-Paul commanded the Greeks,with the Theban contingent,in column of march,in the background,the Athenians and Corinthians on the right of the stream,and the "dreaded" Spartans in the immediate foreground-a formidable host!!

The first phase of my battle plan got off to a fairly good start-with a combination of cavalry,horse archers and "wild and woolly" axemen I intended to "swamp" the Thebans-well the intention was good,but Paul fought back,and although outnumbered,put up a desperate fight,and held me for about 4 moves of melee.After one bout of fighting,he was forced into sending his commander into the fray,to stem a retreat and to bolster the Thebans morale and fighting points,however I managed to kill him,which led to the collapse of the whole army-hurrah!!

The second phase of my "what could possibly go wrong battle plan" started disastrously!!
I launched my two scythed chariot units against the Spartans,to be followed up with my Immortals.All was going well,as you can see in the top photo,but the Spartans stood fast against the chariots and they were forced to veer off,without so much as causing a scratch to the impressive Spartan line!!

This shows the moment that my Immortals clashed with the Spartan line-because I had a shorter spear,and inferior shield,I fought at a -1 from my dice,this proved to be a "killer blow" to my best troops,and they were forced back,and eventually they broke,leaving poor old Xerxes to make an ignominious retreat back to his Cardaces infantry,who were following in the footsteps of the IMMORTALS!!

The third phase starts to take shape in this photo,both lines are beginning to advance towards each other-Paul's line overlaps mine,but I have a unit of horse archers "hovering" on his far right flank-these were to prove decisive!!

Look at those lines!! does Paul look worried? The Athenians have crossed the stream,and after initial skirmishing,look set to charge my fragile-looking Persians!!!

The first troops into action were my Cardaces against Paul's Corinthians-again I was at a slight dis-advantage due to short spear and inferior shield,but I did okay,and my line held-hurrah!!

This shot shows the whole Athenian line "running away"-why?? well it is called the "dominoe effect"-my horse archers peppered Paul's right flank Hoplite unit and caused it to take morale,their morale broke,and,despite the commander being put into the unit,it fled the field,causing the next,and then the next etc.etc. to take morale-and they all fled-double, or even treble hurrah!!!

Paul's Corinthians and of course his immovable Spartans,remained on the field,but their cause was lost and the Persians were declared the winners!!

Last shot of the Spartans defying my cavalry to come near them!!
Another great game under our belts.Dave came along to watch the game for an hour or so,and has promised he will come along next week to actually play!
On Saturday the 25th we are going along to Charlie Wesencraft's annual "big bash" at Seaton Sluice-this is going to be a large game(6 a side) of Roman Civil War period,about 69AD-we are all looking forward to that(Brian,Paul and I)
Well,I must go now,it's only 8 months until Xmas Eve,so I'll have to get the Xmas tree out of the loft and test the lights!!