Xenophon's Hellenica 4.5.1 and following, where Iphicrates and his peltasts manage to defeat a Spartan Moira. "And Callias formed his hoplites in line of battle not far from the city, while Iphicrates with his peltasts attacked the Lacedaemonian regiment. Now when the Lacedaemonians were being ...

I respect anyone who ready classical languages--I read Greek myself. I understand that there are many ways of interpreting the past. I guess that as a classicist who is also a former professional soldier, I don't agree with Lendon. On the one hand (Men, so to speak) there is an element of Tyche to a...

Hmmm.

Not sure I buy that.

Xenophon--Hellenico, 5.4.42 Note again that casualties are light. I think FoG does this fine... [43] Meanwhile Phoebidas pressed upon them boldly, having with him his peltasts and giving orders to the hoplites to follow in battle order. Indeed, he conceived the hope of putting the Thebans to rout; f...

Yes, that's what I read it to say... Of course, a deep gully or a defile is a terrain piece. But I don't see that the addition of cavalry guaranteed that the skirmishers were toast, at least at shooting ranges. There aren't a lot of examples this good in primary sources. Guys like Polybius had seen ...

I'd say that if you can't find a historical example to back a gaming theory, then it has no validity whatsoever. Now, I appreciate that it is possible that war games Psiloi are like 50 times more effective than their historical counterparts, who were so useless that they didn't even serve as a speed...

I'm no expert on Etruscans. (Is anyone?) but a quick look at Peter Conelly's "G+R at War" suggests that the main power of the Etruscan armies at their height was their phalanx of hoplites, backed by their 3-4th class troops (see the post above) who sound remarkably like peltasts... and a s...

Okay. Just for the sake of argument, list all the places where Psiloi (light foot, not routers of HF or MF, within historical context) are noted as "caught" by historical cavalry. Or even light horse. I ask this tongue in cheek, as using gamer definitions for historical troop types is the ...

I think that this explains why some games have gone on so long. Heh. I can't wait...

Whoa! I've payed a bunch of games and never caught that auto-break units ROUT before they vanish.

Yikes. The stuff I miss.

I have great respect for Hannibal, but lacking radio, no period general had any control of his lines at all once the dust started to fly. If you doubt this, go to a football match and look at 50,000 fans. Imagine them on a field. Imagine that your commands move at the speed of a rider... add politic...

A little out of period, at Flodden, we have a pretty fair idea that the first impact of the Scottish Pike pushed the English bills back almost fifty meters--some people say more. The bills then went on to at least draw the combat, if not win it (really, after James died, it's more one of those "...

If a general is in the front rank of a unit that vanishes due to auto-break in the JAP, what happens to him? In our game, we placed him with the nearest friendly withing 7MUs, but it was a stretch, and it "felt" odd. I'm sure someone will now point out the pertinent rule, but neither of us...

My comment sounded too critical. What I mean is that after a dozen games, I'm finding that lancers are not as effective as they are in other games... so I am now down to just one BG of them where once I took three... They are neither decisive at impact in period nor decisive in melee. Which is as it...

Well--thank heaven my lancers never had to evade!

Must say, though, that given the limited utility of Lancers so far, the fact that they can't evade has just tipped them into the liability category

The great thing about Bosporons as a LH platform is that they get lots of Sindii (Maeotae or whatever) archers--protected MF or unprotected MF--so if my opponent wants an archery contest...

Now that's a battle!

Good report, Bob. Although in Toronto, we make the winner do the writing...

This report is for all those who feel that LH w/Bow aren't so effective in this rules set. 800 points per side, 8x5 table 40mm MU 25mm figs. Italian Condotta (as I remember--he was 12 points over) under my friend Al. 2x6 Heavy Armoured Knights, Lance, swordsmen, Av. 1x12 HF Protected av. pikemen 1x4...

Sure there is a big difference. : ) Thank heavens! Perhaps I failed to make my point. All I meant to say was that LF DO have some options against Cav and LH in the so called real world--even given my limited and non-life-threatening experience, I can reason to a reality where LH and Cav would have t...

I'm sure I'll regret this. Okay, so first, as a player, I find that LF are just the right amount of disadvantaged by LH and by CAV. Maybe this is a 25mm thing, but at that scale, regardless of the MU distance, either the LF gets dusted off and I get to maneuver with my cav, or the LF gets pushed off...