It's important to keep the line together. To be tested again in ten minutes, if my opponent gets here in time.
...he's late, damn him....
(http://cheznectarine.c.h.pic.centerblog.net/o/f4086d8a.jpg)
Mmmm, got into trouble with too fast an attack in the centre, and one supporting unit got shot to bits, but otherwise the Greek army acquitted itself admirably, and a worthy defence saw a Spartan unit holding off attacks on three sides (three!) for two rounds until the Persian morale cracked up.
It's never going to be an easy army to win with, but it can.
Well done that man.
I tried a heavy Greek centre, with both flanks trailing in echelon. The idea was that for a few rounds a unit just engaged would have its flanks covered by the next ones coming up. The tactic isn't enough, of course; sooner or later the forces furthest out on the flanks will be exposed, but DV by then the enemy centre will be shattered (the provincial levies who make up 75% of the Persian army are likely to rout before contact).
Reasonable success; the Spartans turning on the Theban flank, with Egyptian and Paphlagonian blood still dripping off their spearpoints, while the Plateans hit them frontally. The Arabs in the background didn't wait to find out what a phalanx could do to them; likewise the Persian light foot on their right (see second picture).
The Athenians remembered their Marathon training and wrong-footed the Immortals by closing before the Persians could deploy. On the right flank, however, the situation was precarious, with too few troops to stop what might have been a decisive attack by Massagetae and Dahae heavy cavalry. I tried to contain this by sneaky deployment, always facing the foe and so preventing them from hitting the flanks, but a shower of arrows broke my Sicyonian hoplites; the one serious Greek loss of the day. If Persian morale had held up, this could have cost me the battle, but fortunately by this time the barbarians had lost so heavily in the centre that they sounded the retreat, much to the discomfiture of the King of Kings.
Next - can Greeks beat Macedonians?
Nope! ;)