Cryptic Valley-Greece 480BC

Last night saw Graham,Brian,Paul and I in ancient Greece,fighting a Hoplite army against a Persian army.

This is the scenario-to be fair,the Persians(Paul and Brian) were not given all the facts,ie the hidden stakes!!-oh how they laughed when they discovered them!!!(not)

This is the table before any movement-Graham was in charge of the Spartans and Corinthians,whilst I took charge of the Athenians on the Greek left.Paul was facing me,Brian was facing Graham on the Persian left(including a hill full of "Immortals")

Move number one,and Paul charged my heavy cavalry(who were "masking" the stakes) I retired them revealing a line of wooden stakes and a unit of Hoplites!!-the language was nothing short of disgusting!!!!!-however,the way we play,is to make a battle plan which must be adhered to,so Paul had no option but to do his best until a further order could be written,so in consequence he had to stand for 2 moves until the new orders reached him!!-this meant that my plan,to shoot his immobile cavalry with arrows,worked a treat-hurrah!!

On the other flank,Graham has begun his out-flanking march with the Corinthians against the "Immortal" hill,whilst his over-enthusiastic advance by his Spartans is leaving a huge gap between my Athenians and the Spartans-oh dear!!!

Brian's Persians and Graham's Spartans clash into each other-the Spartans have such a good Fighting ability that the Persians couldn't possibly win the ensuing melee(can anyone see where this is going?)

Meanwhile,on the other flank Paul has re-organised his cavalry and is shooting my Hoplites,behind the stakes,with his horse archers!-his infantry are strolling forward,taking their time-no rush!!

Brian is looking worried,but he needn't be,he is doing well against the Spartans,even though his hill is under  attack!!-My heavy cavalry is desperately trying to get onto Graham's left flank to help him out-will they get there in time????

Yeah!!!!!-with the centre stabilised,this just left the bloody hill and the left flank to deal with!!

Graham is just about to begin his magnificent assault on Brian's hill,but attacking uphill against the cream of the Persian army is not going to be easy!!

Mixed results!! a win and two losses,meant that the hill was still in Persian hands,however(much to Brain's chagrine,because he didn't realise that he was defending a hill and not a cliff!!) Graham is sending his cavalry into the fray-hurrah!!!

Meanwhile,as Brian was moaning and groaning about "Pegasus" cavalry climbing up the hill using ropes and tackle,Paul's Infantry have charged into my Hoplites-I did ok here,but you can see he has moved his cavalry into a good threatening position -where's my cavalry to counter this move??-oh yes,I selflessly sent it help Graham and his Spartans!!!!-fool!!

Look,that's them there,getting chewed up by the mercenary Hoplites in the Persian army!!
Graham is gaining ground against the Persian infantry,but things are not going well on the hill,even though the "flying cavalry",as Brian has called them,have done a bit of damage to the defenders!

Paul's clever use of his infantry and cavalry combined, have done for me!!-my flank is on the point of collapse-woe is me!!
With the hill still in the balance,but the Spartans facing fresh troops in the form of Greek mercenaries,we called it a day-who won?-who cares?-we had a good game,including quite a few laughs,all in all a good result for everyone!!-roll on Sunday,probably a Peninsular Napoleonic game.