Victory Results:
 49 %
Record a victory for BOTTOM ARMY  51 %
Total plays 124 - Last reported by Jerjinski on 2024-01-15 13:49:17

Historical Background
Thebes’ shocking victory at Leuctra in (371) had ended the Spartan hegemony over Greece. Epaminondas then organized the Arcadian League of cities in the Peloponnesus, in order to counter-balance Sparta and ensure Theban supremacy. A division in the Arcadian league led Mantinea to ally with Sparta. Sparta’s hereditary enemy, Athens, even joined in the alliance against Thebes. Epaminondas invaded in 362 to reassert Theban dominance. In a plain near Mantinea he encountered the enemy force of 20,000 foot and 2,000 horse with the Mantineans on the right, Spartans in the center, and Athenians on the left. Epaminondas’ force of 30,000 foot and 3,000 horse was deployed with massive depth on his left, the same tactic he had used successfully at Leuctra. The Thebans closed in on the Mantinean wing and then grounded arms as if not to battle this day. Once the Mantineans relaxed their guard, Epaminondas suddenly ordered the attack. The onslaught broke the Mantinean right flank, leading to the defeat of the entire Spartan army. Disastrously for Thebes, Epaminondas was killed in the closing moments of the battle. Sparta had been humbled again, but without her brilliant leader, Thebes was unable to maintain her hegemony over Greece. The ultimate result was a weakening of Greece that paved the way for the Macedonian conquest.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. The rest is history.

Light Infantry       Medium Infantry       Heavy Infantry       Medium Cavalry           Leader  
3       4       4       3           2  
Light Infantry       Medium Infantry       Heavy Infantry       Medium Cavalry           Leader  
2       4       3       2           3  

War Council

Theban Army (Use Greek blocks)
• Leader: Epaminondas
• 5 Command Cards      
• Move First

Spartan Army (Use Eastern Kingdom blocks)
• Leader: Agesilaus
• 5 Command Cards      

Victory
6 Banners

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TomKnight3 replied the topic:
2 years 2 months ago
We completed our 2021 CCA Tournament. In round 3, the Spartans won 6-3. On the second play (players switched sides), we had a very close and thrilling game.
Thebes got a 4-2 lead by using its heavies. The Spartan line was starting to fragment, but a Mounted charge added two VPs to tie the game. The Spartans also rolled four hits one turn later to take out a Theban Heavy. It was now 5-4 for Sparta. Thebes was able to kill a lone leader to tie the game again, but then Sparta pulled another Mounted Charge to win 6-5. A very good game.
TomKnight3 replied the topic:
2 years 6 months ago
We played two more games (CCA 2021 tournament round 2), this time I was up against a different player. Thebes easily won 6-2 in a crushing victory in the first game. In the second game it was tied 5-5 with a chance for Thebes to win again, but the Theban Cav. could not push the Spartan mediums off the board, the battle back destroyed the Cav for a Spartan victory 6-5. Next my two opponents play each other to see who is the overall leader.
TomKnight3 replied the topic:
2 years 6 months ago
We played two games back to back in our CCA 2021 tournament round 1. Thebes won 6-5, and then 6-4 (we switched sides). While Thebes I had some really good roles on leader checks killing two leaders, one on a double roll. While on the Spartan side I also killed a Theban leader on a double helmet roll. I guess it evened out. But, both games were really close. Both game the Thebans controlled the game from start to finish.
Valvorik replied the topic:
3 years 11 months ago
Epaminondas laurels are tarnished or did a doppleganger show up. Four games say Spartans win 6-2, 6-5, 6-4, 6-2

Both the middle games felt closer as both sides had weakened units offering banner potential. The Theban player insists fortune was against him of course - twice attacks sputtered and battle backs eliminated the attacker in one game, in another a mounted charge at the outset failed. Mostly it was fun exploration of the game as both sides did a fair bit of maneuvering to create lines, use up marginal cards getting armies shifted as preferred. Despite the lop-sided overall results fun time.
poppo replied the topic:
4 years 2 months ago
admittedly, there is no way how a proficient Theban player might ever lose this one: why is the scenario this balanced!? Thebans enjoy numbers, quality, territory
Andygor replied the topic:
5 years 1 month ago
A balanced scenario.
GF1954 replied the topic:
5 years 3 months ago
2 solitaire games with the Spartans winning both 6 -3, and 6 -0. While the first game was fairly even, the second was a complete rout. The Spartan right flank completely dominated. 2 rolls taking out 2 complete Theban units certainly played a big part in the game.
SimSportPlyr replied the topic:
8 years 1 month ago
Ale -
I much prefer the higher-quality image. Thank you so much!
I cannot say whether it is worth the effort to upload other, higher-res images, since it's not my effort.
Regards,
Ralph
alecrespi replied the topic:
8 years 1 month ago
Hi SimSportPlyr,
I'm sorry for the late reply.
I've just uploaded a bigger quality map picture.
What do you think about it?
Sadly all pictures have to be exported manually (1 by 1) to higher quality and then bulk updated on website.
If you guys think it's worth the pain... I'll plan this update for the months to come.
Let me know.
Regards
Ale
SimSportPlyr replied the topic:
8 years 4 months ago
When I do a browser Save Image As on the map, I get a 78KB file, which is low res.
Is there a way to get a higher res version of the map and/or a unit type list?
Thanks,
Ralph
MasterChief replied the topic:
13 years 8 months ago
This was a lot of fun. It was very interesting how the middle game was just positioning and recovering from the little opening gambits. I don't think any of my games so far have had such a long period of positioning.
Tuscan-Centurion replied the topic:
13 years 8 months ago
Played this last night with Master Chief. I was Theban and he was the Spartans. Here's an AAR on the game.
An interesting smaller scenario that produced an intriguing game. Theban started with "Mounted Charge" by the 3 medium cav that targeted the 2 Spartan Light infantry. Hoped to pick up 2 quick banners. The result was 2 eliminated blocks for the Spartan infantry and a one block loss for the Theban horse. A quick counter, "Order 4 Units Left" by the Spartans had 1 Theban medium cav eliminated (0-1). Second turn had the Thebans pressing their cav attack against the light inf which eliminated it and evened the score (1-1). Then a number of turns was spent by both sides pulling back forward units and manoeuvring their troops into lines for a big push. Each side made the odd Ranged attack or small CC that raised the score to 2-2. The Spartans pulled back their whole line and waited while the Thebans slowly edged forward. Then a 'Line Command' card advanced the whole Theban line that pitched it into CC with half of the Spartan line. It cost the Spartan a light and a medium unit along with a leader (double helmets on the ldr casualty DR) and it was 5-2 to the Thebans. The Spartan then thought for a while to play 'Counterattack' and advanced what was left of their phalanx (2 heavies each with a leader and 2 mediums) at the Theban line. Took out the 3 Theban heavies to even the score (5-5). The Theban ldr managed to survive all this and it finally came down to an 'Order 2 units Left' card from the Theban to try and take out the last block from a Spartan heavy unit that survived the previous carnage. The Light infantry missed with their spears so the one remaining Theban Med cav charged and rolled a red square (and a sword) to take the game by the narrowest of margins (6-5). Cannot ask for better than that.
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