Slitherine

Re-designed.

Crucial design techniques were not yet conceived to deal with the particularities of the battle at the time of the first design and subsequent update. This one will flow much better and once and for all deals with the ridiculous stock Marathon scenario.

again, same file name as previous version so needs to delete old version first.
65 moving BGs, 16 turns

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The Persian expeditionary force sent to punish the Athenians for their support for the ill-fated revolt of the Ionian Greeks island hopped all summer long before landing in Attica. The Athenians hastened to close off the passes out of the beachhead but, fearing the Persian cavalry, avoided battle. The stalemate was broken when parts of the Persian army, including the cavalry, reembarked. Miltiades, on his day of command, convinced the other nine archons and the polemarch Kallimachos to attack. And thus, pouring onto the plain from the hills, the hoplites of the ten tribes of Athens along with their Platean allies, charged the Persian line at a run. The date: September 490 BC. The place: Marathon.

Designer's note:

Athenian hoplites are given light spears (and not defensive spears as with our simulation of Mantinea) so they aren't penalized against light speared Persians on impact. Once melee starts though, the better armoured hoplites will inevitably grind down the Persian line.

The difficulty was to reproduce the Persian defensive system whereby a thin line of shield bearers protected a mass of vulnerable archers. Thus for each shield bearer unit (MF protected light spear, with rear rank archers) there are 2 archer units behind it.

The 2 events that define Marathon are:
1) Both wings of the Persians should collapse quickly while their centre stands strong.
2) Much fighting occurred at the Persian camp.
Players will readily realize that if the Persians stand and fight, it will be over quickly (although the Persian centre can really wreck havoc). Therefore there is an incentive for the Persian second line to turn and run back to the camp, and that will satisfy both 1) and 2).

Again, as with Cannae, the literature on the battle is plentiful. The most recent book length study is Peter Krentz's 'The Battle of Marathon' (Yale University Press, 2010)

Fogman

Have posted a review of this scenario on the FOG wiki site - http://fog-pc-wiki.wikispaces.com/User+ ... +Scenarios

Thanks for the scenario

thanks for finding the flaw. the persian general retreat was something i overlooked. I just played a hot-seat to test it out and actually the greeks were able to break into the persian camp at the end of the 18 turns but were 2 bgs away from routing and would probably lose the next turn.

the problem is not the archers' shooting retreat: being poor and undrilled they don't get all that many opportunities and when they do, the damage against armoured targets is minimum; nor it is the rough hills on the persian right: the greeks can just ignore the hills and move away toward the camp; the problem is the superior armoured 'immortals' getting back behind the ditch: they along with the armoured cavalry are the real killers.

this is how i'm solving it, keeping in mind that there must be fighting at both the battle line and at the camp for marathon to be marathon.

a) make the persian shield-bearers heavy foot, move the greeks line to 2 hex away but give the persian first turn: that way the archers can let out one volley before running like they did historically while the undrilled shield bearer will have to stand and fight.
b) enlarge the camp's frontage and/or make the ditch non continuous.
c) the big decision for the persian player is what to do with his centre. i do not believe it to be historical for the persian elite troops to just run. the only way to force them not to run is to make them, at least some of them, heavy foot. some should be able to retreat to stiffen the resistance at the camp.

that should do it.

Okay, I'll play test the revised scenario some time and update my review. Personally I'd prefer if you gave the Greek Hoplites an Offensive Spear rather than a light Spear. Left the Persians as MF, took away the camp ditch entirely, make the camp just baggage units that can't move, remove the rough hilly terrain in the Persian Rear. That way the Persians can run, but only back to their camp where they have to fight, to protect the weak baggage units.

But your mileage may vary.

updated

re-designed.