Slitherine

Where's Ephialtes when you need him.

What were the settings?
King Leonidas would have liked this.

eddieballgame wrote: ↑Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:08 pm What were the settings?
King Leonidas would have liked this.

Pot luck map with late Abbasid vs early 10th century Byzantines. So probably Middle East Mountains.

Interesting & thank you.

Looks pretty realistic to me.

rbodleyscott wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 7:45 am Looks pretty realistic to me.

Wouldn't fighting at locations like this typically be vanguard/rearguard actions, not pitched battles?

There were several battles at the pass of Thermopylae, not just the famous 480 BC one, and they all involved sizeable forces (as far as we know). There was Antiochus v Romans in 191 BC, Celts against Greeks in 279 BC, and a few more in the late Roman empire too.

Thermopylae might be exceptional though. Off the top of my head I can't think of any similar cases.

The Bulgars held Basil II off for a long time by occupying passes. Sometimes the Byzantines unsuccessfully assaulted them.

A win is still possible. Use concentrated missile fire, some charges at an appropriate time and when the unit breaks then all you need is some chain cohesion test failures and you have a chance, especially since routed units are likely to disperse, so no rallies!

Take it as an interesting challenge

Morbio wrote: ↑Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:04 pm A win is still possible. Use concentrated missile fire, some charges at an appropriate time and when the unit breaks then all you need is some chain cohesion test failures and you have a chance, especially since routed units are likely to disperse, so no rallies!

Take it as an interesting challenge

Actually the odds were badly stacked against my opponent. I had mass archers, naptha bombs, and ghilmans. My opponent had the older style of Skoutatoi without the 50% archers, so he had to attack. The battle was decided when I won the race to the mouth of the path.

I was going to suggest looking for the goat track, but it seems you didn't need it

rbodleyscott wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 2:29 pm The Bulgars held Basil II off for a long time by occupying passes. Sometimes the Byzantines unsuccessfully assaulted them.

Yes, you are right, and that reminds me that there were also several ambush type battles in mountain passes. Myriokephalon and Roncesvalles to name two notable ones.