Half of Plataea 479 BC

Started by MengJiao, March 13, 2017, 04:57:23 PM

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MengJiao


  Plataea is the biggest scenario in the whole GBH system.  I'm going to play the Western half of it (with a lot of modifications) and see what happens.

The scene is that most of the Greek city-states have assembled an army (in the aftermath of the Persian naval defeat and the Persian obliteration of the city of Athens -- tho not of the Athenians who were on an island becoming more and more irate), to face the Persian army but have attempted a night withdrawal.  The withdrawal has not gone as planned and there is a hoplite-jam at Plataea of Corinthians and so on.  To the east, the Spartans and their allies have begun belatedly to withdraw at sunrise only to find the Persians have gone over to the attack to exploit the very obvious disarray and confusion of the Greeks.  The Athenians are to be the rear-guard, but the Persian attack in the morning finds them still in their positions.
On the Persian side, the Athenians face the Macedonians and their allies and the Medes.  Historically, both the Medes and the Macedonians attacked later than the main Persian force and left the battle relatively undamaged.
So all of the forces here did engage (and the Corinthians and so on probably suffered the heaviest loses on the Greek side when the Thessalian cavalry caught them marching up) and the Persian-allied Medes and Macedonians might have defeated the Athenians and their allies.

MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on March 13, 2017, 04:57:23 PM

  Plataea is the biggest scenario in the whole GBH system.  I'm going to play the Western half of it (with a lot of modifications) and see what happens.

The scene is that most of the Greek city-states have assembled an army (in the aftermath of the Persian naval defeat and the Persian obliteration of the city of Athens -- tho not of the Athenians who were on an island becoming more and more irate), to face the Persian army but have attempted a night withdrawal.  The withdrawal has not gone as planned and there is a hoplite-jam at Plataea of Corinthians and so on.  To the east, the Spartans and their allies have begun belatedly to withdraw at sunrise only to find the Persians have gone over to the attack to exploit the very obvious disarray and confusion of the Greeks.  The Athenians are to be the rear-guard, but the Persian attack in the morning finds them still in their positions.
On the Persian side, the Athenians face the Macedonians and their allies and the Medes.  Historically, both the Medes and the Macedonians attacked later than the main Persian force and left the battle relatively undamaged.
So all of the forces here did engage (and the Corinthians and so on probably suffered the heaviest loses on the Greek side when the Thessalian cavalry caught them marching up) and the Persian-allied Medes and Macedonians might have defeated the Athenians and their allies.

Halfway through turn 3:


MengJiao

#2
Quote from: MengJiao on March 14, 2017, 07:21:18 PM
Hmmmm

Turn 4:  It's a crazy-quilt of disaster: Most of the Athenian Archers are routed, yet the Macedonians may get rolled up from their right.  The Medes and company (AKA the Persians, tho none are on this part of the battlefield) are 120 points away from total rout.  The Anti-Medean Greeks are 100 points from total rout.  If the Athenians get completely routed, that's it for the Anti-Medeans and similarly for the Medes and company -- if the Macedonians get completely routed that's game over.
  Historically the Medes and Macedonians marched away and left the Persians to be slaughtered -- leaving a fantastic booty that it took a lot of work (and many paragraphs in Herodotus) to distribute.  The melted down Persian bronze weapons and gear can still be seen in the serpent column in Istambul ( the Emperor Constantine moved it from Delphi to Constantinople)...the women, horses and camels (in that order in Herodotus) were carefully distributed or in some cases sent home to Asia Minor.
Historically also, the Corinthians got chopped up marching up, but that hasn't happened here, possibly due to an under representation of the Theban-Boeotian cavalry in this version of things.
Anyway...here is a look at the end of Turn 4: