At the Pass of Oion

Laurie has begun a campaign at the Night Owls for those of us with Greek Hoplites, that turns out to be a few of us.  The overall theme of the campaign, from what I can understand to be run in a narrative linear fashion, being the Pelopennesian War.

The picking of sides was to be random by draw of lots - shards of pottery, a nice touch - but before the campaign I had insisted that my Spartan army could only fight for Sparta; and so I was handed my own shard and awaited to see who I would have as an ally.

As it was, it was to be me and Laurie against the triumphrate of Mark, Stuart and Andy.  Their objective was to get at least two heavy and two light units through the either of the passes we were guarding.  Ours simply was to stop them.  To add to the period feel, each commander was to draw from the auguries, to see how the fates would treat us.  Hence units had cards attached to them that affected their performance.  In the case of Andy, his commander was so busy consulting the gods, that he wouldn't arrive until turn five; which gave myself and Laurie an opportunity.

Laurie found Stuarts Athenians seriously lacking in backbone, and was able to keep them at bay initially with little more than a handful of arrows fired.  Mark made a slow advance towards Laurie, hoping his peltasts could stop my troops from taking his flank.  Fortunately for him my troops moved no faster initially than any of the Athenians, who moved at only the slowest trudge towards their targets.

Mark made his move against Laurie, and came off badly, with a unit destroyed in moments, Stuart's Hoplites were still unwilling to commit, and so Laurie went on the offensive.

Finally Andy's pious Hoplites arrived, blocking my own force and leaving Laurie to his own devices.  I was able to eliminate some of their light troops in short order, but the nefarious forces of Mark's command were using the diversion to outflank me and make a break for the pass.

 Andy's fresh Hoplites were able to smash through my ranks, whilst his allies escaped to victory.  Laurie found himself out of touch with Stuart's troops, who made a successful run for the exit, and so turned to attack the Rear of Mark and Andy's men.

But by this stage it was too late.

Although in terms of raw losses the Athenians had come off worse, losing Three units each of Hoplites and Peltasts to our two respectively; they had achieved their goal, and a small army of them was now setting off for the Spartan hinterland.

Thus ended the first game of the campaign, its result would impact the nature of the next game, to be played in March.  Hopefully this time the Spartans will have the Gods on their side, against the ignoble and treacherous Athenians.