Monday Club Games - Ancients, SYW and FoW

 Battle of Delium 424BC

A rendition of the notable defeat of the Athenians by the Thebans (at that time allied with Sparta). The actual battle witnessed the first recorded episode of ‘friendly fire’ when The Athenians broke through the Theban allied lines in several points only to encounter and fight one another in the Theban rear - at this time there were few visual indicators of which side you were on! 

The battle also saw clever use by the Theban general - Pagondas - of light troops and a deeper phalanx, to break the Athenian left and swing round to defeat the rest of the Athenian army. The Thebans really were quite the innovators of ancient Hellenistic warfare....

In our refight, the Athenians completely failed to make any impact. They did break a block of Theban allied hoplites in the centre, but had their flanks stripped of light troops and their own elite phalanx was hit in the flank by some Boeotian peltasts and routed.

Seven Years War

Great to see the SYW make an appearance at the club with the French squaring off against the Prussians. Some clever conversions on display. Not sure which rules were played, but I'm sure we will see the SYW represented again in the coming weeks.

Flames of War

Some great tank-on-tank action with Achilles and Churchills squaring up against Panthers and Tigers. Wrong date on the establishment of the club though!

Boeotian War - Thebans Reproduce their Historical Tactics to Achieve Victory

In this hard fought action, the Thebans opted for their historical tactics of increasing the depth of the phalanx, putting their best troops on the left wing, as opposed to the traditional right, and placing their inferior hoplites and allies in echelon formation.

The Spartans had the best of the battle in the middle of the field, and the Spartiates kept fighting and passing morale checks - proving their elite status. Nevertheless, the Theban Sacred Band eventually broke the Spartaites and killed their commander in Chief. Also, the Theban cavalry and peltasts proved superior to their Spartan counterparts.

This was a good fun game. All figures are by Victrix, with a few Wargames Foundry mixed in.

Theban Hoplites Wargame

Boeotian War Wargame

Boeotian War 378-371 BC – Thebes vs Sparta

Sparta clashes with Thebes in this classic historical match-up. The game was another one of our online club games. This period has proved popular for online games as they are easy to set up and relatively straightforward for players to command their forces.

In this clash the Thebans made good use of marshy ground on their right flank to slow the Peloponnesian advance down and massed their superior cavalry on their left flank to sweep the Spartan cavalry from the field. The centre was hotly contested but a stubborn unit of allied Boeotian hoplites (despite being inferior and unreliable) held out long enough for the Sacred Band to land the knock-out blow to the Lacedemonians.

Player View

Cavalry Melee 

Peltasts

The Theban Phalanx including the Sacred Band

More Greek Madness - The Peloponnesian War

Another club game played online. This time a classic encounter between Athens and Sparta. 

In short, despite doing everything correctly - managing light troops effectively, using higher ground to deploy inferior hoplites, good use of superior cavalry etc. - The Athenians managed to lose the game in the last turn. The Spartan's quality shone through, although the key moment was when the Athenian C-in-C AND key ally generals were killed in melee, leading to a collapse in army morale and a bitter defeat to their historical enemies.

Player view

From behind Athenian lines

Spartiates

Spartan allies

Athenians

From behind the left flank of the Athenian line

The rival phalanx clash

Inferior hoplites fight for control of the high ground