609 Olpae (426 BC)

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Something that came up was how to read in the ambush Special Rule
"Place the units adjacent to or on a vacant forest hex. "

Does it mean each unit is placed in/next to a forest hex, OR, all units are placed next to a single forest hex.
I have always read it as the former.

However, in reading it that way, it is possible that the Athenian ambush force can scatter, and not be a continuous string of units which is the condition of the Leadership card. Being a special rule, this may be irrelevant, but it does add weight to the latter reading.

In OT play, I think the 1st reading has been universally used. So play it that way for the OT.

2 solitaire games with the Athenians winning twice, 6 4, and 6 -5. Both contests very close.

Four games, three victories to the Athenians and one to Sparta. The determining factor in every outcome was whether or not the ambushing force appeared - without it the Athenians are simply overwhelmed by the Spartan hoplites.

Regarding where the ambushing force appears, we decided that all units must appear adjacent to each other and either in or next to a wood in the appropriate map section.

Are the ambushing units considered to have already moved or not? I.e. would Aux units using ranged fire get 1 or 2 dice?

Since the special rule says they may not move after placement, I'd tend towards "not moved".

Aside from the ambush springing, it isn't detailed how it was sprung.
en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Hist.../Book_3&oldid=370015

The army of the Peloponnesians was the largest and outflanked their opponents; and Demosthenes fearing that his right might be surrounded, placed in ambush in a hollow way overgrown with bushes some four hundred heavy infantry and light troops, who were to rise up at the moment of the onset behind the projecting left wing of the enemy, and to take them in the rear. When both sides were ready they joined battle; Demosthenes being on the right wing with the Messenians and a few Athenians, while the rest of the line was made up of the different divisions of the Acarnanians, and of the Amphilochian carters. The Peloponnesians and Ambraciots were drawn up pell-mell together, with the exception of the Mantineans, who were massed on the left, without however reaching to the extremity of the wing, where Eurylochus and his men confronted the Messenians and Demosthenes.

108 The Peloponnesians were now well engaged and with their outflanking wing were upon the point of turning their enemy's right; when the Acarnanians from the ambuscade set upon them from behind, and broke them at the first attack, without their staying to resist; while the panic into which they fell caused the flight of most of their army, terrified beyond measure at seeing the division of Eurylochus and their best troops cut to pieces. Most of the work was done by Demosthenes and his Messenians, who were posted in this part of the field.

Mark-McG wrote:

Since the special rule says they may not move after placement, I'd tend towards "not moved".

 

I was thinking that maybe they could not move because they are already considered to have done so in the act of moving out of whatever cover they had?

Not a big issue though either way.
I have played 4 solo games and they went as expected. The Athenian ambush was sprung on their first turn twice and their second turn once and they won all three games. The one game in which the ambush never occurred the Spartans won.