ACW Greeks – Battle 1

Having spent rather more words than I expected last time in setting the scene, this time I will hurry along to the first confrontation between the Athenians and Spartans in the magically transported-in-time and simplified American Civil war campaign. As I am sure you will recall, in this the Spartan central army has moved at speed on the Athenians, and the latter are now intent on defending their city, H.

The battlefield was rolled up using my usual system and evolved into a somewhat cluttered, but with plenty of room for maneuver, field. Fortuitously, the Athenians got a hill and built up area to defend, the latter of which I decided would be the edge of city H. Infelicitously, my camera batter decided to go flat at this point, so there are no rubbish photographs of the start of the battle. You will have to put up with rubbish photographs of the action itself.

The Spartans had a force of 8 hoplite bases, 5 light infantry, and 1 cavalry, while the Athenians had 5 hoplites, 2 peltasts, 3 light infantry, and 1 cavalry base. They lined up the hoplites mostly on the hill, with a base defending the city along with the peltasts, while the cavalry lurked on their left, hoping for an opportunity.

The Spartans advanced in two infantry columns (four deep hoplites headed by a light infantry base look rather imposing, I think) flanked by the cavalry base on their left and the rest of the light infantry to the right. The first action was when the Spartan cavalry moved swiftly across the battlefield and charged, and routed their Athenian counterparts. However, the cavalry commander lost control and they pursued to the table edge.

In the mean time, the Athenian peltasts has advanced from the city to try to deal with the Spartan lights, and the Athenian light infantry were skirmishing, moderately effectively, against the advancing Spartan columns.

I was having doubts as the commander of both sides, which seems to be a hallmark of a reasonably balanced wargame. As the Spartan commander, I was unsure as to whether I should deploy the hoplites to 2 deep to assault the hill, as the Athenians were only 1 deep. I decided that I would as otherwise the column would easily be flanked. Given the defensive bonus the city would give its defenders I stayed four deep for that column. As the Athenian, I was hoping that the Spartan cavalry was too far away to attack the vulnerable peltasts (as it turned out they were) while the latter dealt with the Spartan lights.

The Athenian peltasts did, indeed, see off the Spartan light infantry facing them in some style, routing one base instantly and another in the second round of fighting. The Spartan dice rolling, which had allowed them to control the battle thus far, deserted them, and the combat dice rolls from here on were awful.

The infantry columns fared little better. As the Athenian commander, I was really concerned about the assault on my rather thin line. As it was, the Athenian hoplites on the hill launched a rather splendid spoiling attack on their opponents which delayed them, while the garrison of the city gave their assaulting column a bloody nose. As I said, Spartan dice rolling had become awful, although the +2 the garrison got from being in a built-up area did help.

The Athenians peltasts had turned on and managed to destroy the final loose Spartan light infantry base, and the side of the Spartan hoplite column just repulsed from the city was looking a bit vulnerable. The Spartan position unraveled on the hill side, however, where the Athenians finally attacked downhill and, under the direct command of their general, routed the Spartan column nearest the camera, and caused the one on the far side to recoil.

The recoil of the farthest Spartan column, which was under the direct command of the general, caused a roll on the general at-risk table. It should have been routine but, with a certain inevitability, I rolled a six. Spartan dice rolling had returned, just when it was not wanted (to be fair, the Spartan general had already survived a couple of rolls). The general was lost and the Spartan position was now looking ropey.

The next thing to do was an army morale roll, of course. With the three light infantry bases routed by the Athenian peltasts, and another swept away by the rout of the two bases of centre hoplites, plus the loss of the general the initial morale to work from was zero. In a sudden revival of fortune, the Spartans managed to roll plus 5 on the morale dice. This at least spared them the ignominy of a rout but was still a fallback result, so they did just that.

The Spartans, of course, from this position, could have fought on, but in a campaign context, it turns out to be important to keep armies in being. The total rout of the Spartans would have left the road open to split Sparta in half, from top to bottom, and left the weak garrison of Sparta itself beyond help. Thus it was far better, in the wider view, to withdraw some sort of intact army. Even so, the losses are quite serious, with 6 bases and a general gone out of the original 14. It is also worth noting that the general was also the one with the most initiative. How much that matters is a question that only time will answer.

From the Athenian side, of course, this counts as a success. A weaker army has won a defensive success with relatively light casualties (1 cavalry base). They have also managed to weaken the opposing army significantly, such that a battle on more equal terms might see success. On the other hand, the Athenian army covering Athens is still the largest single force on the map, and, so far, has achieved nothing very much.

It is still all to play for, which good as I suspect a lot of campaigns, both historical and wargame, probably finish after a single battle.