It has been a while since I did much solo gaming – I’ve been blessed with a lot of friends eager to play games, and my writing about D&D on my blog has taken up most of my remaining time. However, I’m hoping this year to play a bunch of the Great Battles of History scenarios, and I was able to get The Great Battles … Continue reading The Great Battles of Alexander: Chaeronea, 338 BC
This battle was the first major battle in which Alexander took a significant role, as the commander of the left wing of his father’s army. At this stage, Athens and Thebes had formed a coalition against the Macedonian threat, but they had a problem: Philip was a much better commander, and his new way of organising his troops was eclipsing the old hoplite battles of … Continue reading The Great Battles of Alexander: Chaeronea, 338 BC
In 355 BC, the Phocians were in conflict with Thebes, and losing. They managed to turn this around by seizing the treasures held by the temples in Delphi and using them to pay for a very large mercenary army. This wasn’t well received by the Thebans, and the conflict became known as the “Sacred War” as the Thebans sought to punish the Phocians for their … Continue reading Great Battles of Alexander: Battle of Crocus Fields, 352 BC
The Erigon Valley. Upper Macedonia. 358 BC. Philip had ascended the throne of Macedon the year before after his brother, Perdiccas III had been killed by King Bardylis of Illyria. Bardylis had been an ongoing thorn in the side of the Macedonians: he’d defeated Philip’s father as well and occupied most of Macedonia. The next year, Philip II of Macedon decided enough was enough and … Continue reading The Great Battles of Alexander: Erigon Valley 358 BC
Well, here we are. The second of Hoplite’s scenarios and it’s the most famous battle of Antiquity. Of course, the reason that it is so famous is because we still run a race named after the battle place, thanks to the inventions of the Greeks and Robert Browning. Ask anyone what actually happened at Marathon and you probably will get the answer “the Greeks won”, … Continue reading Hoplite: Marathon – Attica, Greece – September 490 BCE
The latest game in Richard Berg’s and Mark Herman’s Great Battles of History series – the fifteenth title, in fact – is Hoplite, which takes a look at battles in the era of the Greek city-states before the rise of Alexander the Great. As the title says, it was the era of the Hoplites – spear and shield-carrying soldiers, often arranged into great phalanxes, bristling … Continue reading Hoplite: Ephesus (Ionia, Asia Minor – 498 BC)
