Victory Results:
 49 %
Record a victory for BOTTOM ARMY  51 %
Total plays 61 - Last reported by NicolasLL on 2024-02-19 10:48:35

Historical Background
King Xerxes desired to punish the Athenians for his father’s defeat at Marathon and their support for Ionian revolts. He planned a second invasion of Greece in 480 BC and amassed a huge army to extend the Persian Empire into Europe. Several Greek citystates gathered around Athens and Sparta, and decided to slow the Persian advance at the narrow pass of Thermopylae. The Oracle at Delphi had announced that Sparta would either be destroyed or lose a King. Leonidas, one of the two Kings, chose the latter, leading 300 Spartans and other Greeks to one of History’s most famous last stands. Xerxes waited four days for the small Greek force to leave. Then, for two and a half days he unleashed his army, wave after wave, against the Greek Hoplites who stood firm. The Persians did not prevail until Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing a goat path that led behind their lines. Dismissing the rest of the army, Leonidas fought to the death with his Spartans. Their epitaph reads: “Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie”. While a tactical victory, the heavy losses and the delay, inflicted by just a few hundred Greeks, was a significant blow to the Persian morale. In September, the Greeks defeated the Persians at the naval battle of Salamis and Xerxes, fearful of being trapped in Europe, returned to Asia with part of his army.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?

    Light Bow Auxilia Medium Infantry     Warriors   Light Cavalry     Medium Cavalry Heavy Cavalry     Heavy Chariot   Leader  
    4 6 5     1   2     2 1     1   3  
  Light Sling   Auxilia   Medium Hoplite Infantry Medium Hoplite Infantry                       Leader  
  2   2   4 4                       2  

War Council

Persian Army
(Use Persian light tan blocks)
• Leader: Xerxes 1st of Persia
• 4 Command Cards     
• Move First

Greek Army
(Use Spartan orange and
bronze Hoplite blocks)
• Leader: Leonidas
• 6 Command Cards 

Victory
10 Banners

Special Rules
• When a Persian unit occupies the Greek camp hex or rampart hex at the start of his turn, remove the hex and gain 1 Victory Banner.

• The four Persian Immortal units are special units. Place a special unit block in the same hex as these units to distinguish them. The Immortals are armed with bows and will also follow Ranged Combat rules

• The Hoplite Infantry rule is in effect.

• Four Spartan units are special five bronze block MH units.

• All hill hexes are impassable. Passage through the Hills—When a Leadership card is played, Persian units and leaders on broken ground base line hexes may be ordered and moved to any Greek broken ground base line hexes (remove the units and leaders from the Persian broken ground baseline hexes and place them on vacant Greek broken ground baseline hexes). Ordered units may only battle (the passage through the hills counts as the movement for the turn), and if eligible may momentum advance and bonus close combat.

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Riclev replied the topic:
4 months 3 weeks ago
Two more games, and two close victories for the Persians (10-8). In both, the Spartans advanced and quickly eliminated the Persian front line auxilia, but they recovered to sweep the Spartan sea flank before them and had mounted units occupy several rampart hexes. In neither game did the outflanking force play a significant part. It's a better scenario than I gave it credit for 10 weeks ago.
Riclev replied the topic:
7 months 2 weeks ago
As noted 11 years ago, this is an odd scenario. Why on earth would the Persians attack the Spartan position? Their auxilia would probably get cremated by the hoplites defending the ramparts. Better to stand off and shoot until the Greek defenders are sufficiently weakened to make a frontal attack worthwhile.

Having said this, 2 x Line Command and 1 x Darken the Sky for 60 die rolls early in the game caused a massive four Spartan hoplite block casualties. Deciding that such appalling luck could not continue the Spartans did advance, and after a protracted battle and having only a dozen blocks remaining at the end they won 10-8. We can't work out why the stats above suggest the scenario is relatively balanced. Although we only played the one time the die rolls and the card draws went against the Persians - among other things, the infiltrating troops remained rooted to the baseline through lack of a leadership card. Given anything approaching average luck the Persians would have won comfortably. While this all make for a gripping encounter, a recreation of the historical Thermopylae it wasn't.
SimSportPlyr replied the topic:
1 year 2 months ago
"I just want to clarify that the Passage through the Hills rule is triggered by playing any Leadership card and not just the Leadership in Any Section or Right Section cards?"

I realize that I am replying a decade later (!), but I'm curious as to whether you decided how to interpret the rule. Thanks in advance.
Lastall replied the topic:
3 years 5 months ago
We ran this twice like each of the ones before. The Greek army won both times and dominated both times. It was interesting and I want to play it again and see if we can get the Persians to win. Not a bad map.
mk20336 replied the topic:
6 years 2 months ago
I had similar problem with some of the scenarios - arrows does not seem to work...
Stanislav27 replied the topic:
6 years 2 months ago
How come I am no table to log any results at present?

I wanted to add two victories for Persia.
Achtung Panzer replied the topic:
6 years 11 months ago
Just to clarify, can any Leader card be played by the Persians to trigger the flank marching special rule or only Inspired Right Leadership on the / Any Section?
bartok replied the topic:
11 years 11 months ago
what happen if 2 or 3 greek units occupies the broken ground base line hexes, for example the A and LS, or Demophilus.

\"\"and place them on vacant Greek broken ground baseline hexes\"\"

Only Hydarnes can go through the hills.
Imagine is a path of NO RETURN for the persians.
Imagine greeks units cant use the path.
Achtung Panzer replied the topic:
12 years 1 week ago
I've been reading a report on this scenario on BGG - www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/776112/ther...e-middle-gate-480-bc

I just want to clarify that the Passage through the Hills rule is triggered by playing any Leadership card and not just the Leadership in Any Section or Right Section cards?

I guess the reasoning is to ensure a high chance that the Persians will be able to outflank the Spartan positions during the game.
Achtung Panzer replied the topic:
12 years 1 month ago
As does the film 300! ;)
The-Admiral replied the topic:
12 years 1 month ago
Accounts of the battle do describe the Spartans attacking forward from the wall.
HawkmoonVonKoln replied the topic:
12 years 1 month ago
We've been playing yesterday :
The score :
10 - 6
10 - 9
The Persians won the 2 games.
Greeks have to leave the wall to smash the Persians.
If they stand and wait, the Persians only have to shoot with their light troops to weak the hoplites.
A line of hoplites advancing with a mounted charge will cause great damages against persian auxilia troops...
broadsword replied the topic:
12 years 1 month ago
Better yet, if Sparta gets \"mounted charge\", play it and wipe out the front rank of Persian auxilia! With the right cards, the Spartans can juggernaut across the map and destroy the Persians in an open fight. They don't need the wall!
Achtung Panzer replied the topic:
12 years 1 month ago
Strange scenario this one. Why would the Spartans leave the defensive wall? The Persians simply fire their (relatively) ineffective range combat troops at them and the game is a bit boring. Both sides seem to simply wait for the flanking attack to get the battle started.

Hang on, isn't that what actually happened?

Perhaps a time limit should be applied to encourage the Persian infantry forward?