Thursday 13 June 2013

First Mantinea: Army Deployments

Above is the deployment map for First Mantinea, which has just been added to my page for scenarios from 500-250 BCE.  All on Willie's famous sandtable, of course:
Now that is a proper hoplite battle - ten feet long and bristling with spears.  I'm not sure how interesting it will be as a battle, but there are quite a few contingents and some interesting variations on the hoplite theme.  The presence of some cavalry, albeit rather mediocre, should also complicate things a a little.  Anyway, Willie wanted to play a large hoplite game, especially because the Greeks look pretty en masse.
King Agis II of Sparta looks on impassively with his Lakedaemonians ready to roll.  The game itself should play relatively quickly; I'll post a full report later.

9 comments:

  1. Cor, my sort of battle! Looks fantastic. Were there many light troops there, though, or is that a guess?

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  2. Hi Simon, that was quick! We have deliberately reduced the numbers of light troops to just enough to cover the frontage of the armies. It's really just a scenario design decision - we didn't want to detract too much from the main event by having a large skirmish that takes up a lot of time but doesn't add much to the result overall. Besides, we'd need to paint huge numbers of psiloi...

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  3. Refought this as a demo at the Triples some years back Spartans 4 nil.had rules for the reluctant Athenians and the aggressive Argives.
    Great game.

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  4. Fantastic looking battle! I dream of my games being that large some day... :)

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  5. Looks great, one of my favourite hoplite clashes.

    Cheers, Ross

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  6. Fantastic looking game, just like a big hoplite battle should be!

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  7. ooooooh yeah that looks amazing, fabulous stuff !

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  8. Thanks- it looks terrific, Paul!

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  9. That's what an ancients game should look like - massive amounts of figures on fantastic terrain! Great game guys! I love the sand table.

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