The Greeks won a critical initiative roll in turn 3 and were able to get spears into the Persian sparabara before the Persians could fire their bows. Then it became a race against time - could the hoplites break the Persian infantry before the Persian cavalry came to rescue them.
The Persian Sparabara and Javelinmen waiver and fall back under the Greek assault.
The Persian cavalry arrive on turn 4!
The Persians put up a final stiff resistance but despite the arrival of the cavalry their Sparabara collapse and the Persian camp is sacked by the Greek general himself, causing a route of the Persian army. It was too little too late for the cavalry to be able to save the day.
Final Comments: As the Persian commander I enjoyed the battle though I made some mistakes with my initial cavalry unit and the placement of my skirmishers. The Greeks also rolled impeccably well on their discipline tests and got across the table pretty quickly, kudos the Greek player for being aggressive.
In terms of scenario design, I’m not sure if I should’ve had the cavalry arrive sooner, if it was poor tactics on my part or good rolling for the Greeks that caused the one-sided route. It’s probably a combination of all three. If I ran it again I would allow the Persians to roll for their cavalry too arrive one turn earlier and would probably add a few units to the Persian side to make it even on points prior to the cavalry arrival.
At least the battle was a pretty good representation of the actual battle. Next up Thermopylae.
Looks good. AAR easy to follow. Good points and some thoughts on the game. May try your battle set up with COE next year and see if the result match up to history.
ReplyDeleteMichael aka WR