Battle of Platea

[FierceKitty]

Persians have just smashed the Greeks a second time. How DOES one guard the flanks of a heavy infantry army against a cavalry horde?

[petercooman]

Persians have just smashed the Greeks a second time. How DOES one guard the flanks of a heavy infantry army against a cavalry horde?

Well,broken ground is best for that.

[FierceKitty]

Would have been useful. Alas, they got an almost featureless plain today.

[FierceKitty]

(From a tombstone on the battlefield)

    If thou'rt at Lacedaemon, pause and say
   Forgetful of their laws, we ran away.

[Ithoriel]

Poetry? From Spartans? Shouldn't it be something pithy like the message sent after Cyzicus:

"Ships gone. Mindarus dead. Men starving. What next?"

[petercooman]

Would have been useful. Alas, they got an almost featureless plain today.

Hug the table edge and reinforce your open flank?

[FierceKitty]

The rules involve some weighty penalties to discourage using the edges as terrain.
I was parodying a Spartan verse which actually IS on a tombstone at Thermopylae. The Spartans weren't really what Athenian historians try to make them.

[Ithoriel]

The rules involve some weighty penalties to discourage using the edges as terrain.
I was parodying a Spartan verse which actually IS on a tombstone at Thermopylae. The Spartans weren't really what Athenian historians try to make them.

I recognised the parody of Simonides, my point was that Simonides was not a Spartan and Lacadaemonian communications were noted for being more .... laconic

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Least you are getting the morally correct result.

IanS

[petercooman]

The rules involve some weighty penalties to discourage using the edges as terrain.

Make your battle line less wide and keep some units in reserve to flank charge the flanking cavalry?

[d_Guy]

Persians have just smashed the Greeks a second time. How DOES one guard the flanks of a heavy infantry army against a cavalry horde?

Throw rocks? Worked for Montrose at Tippermuir. Sorry just wandered in from the 17th century.

[toxicpixie]

Form in echelon with a unit stepped back on the flank? Or circle the wagons and form square?!

[FierceKitty]

Tried the echelon bit. I think part of the problem is that the hoplite phalanx had less of a charge intimidation effect against the weaker Asian troops than it should have. A new rule has been put in place which may solve that.
I'll see how the Macedonians fare at Gaugemela today.