RTokarczukApr 15, 2023

Trying to liven out my fascination with Ancient Greeks.

Map in progress for the battle of Pylos 425 BCE. This is the battle where 600 Athenians (90 heavy armed/ hoplites, about 540 light armed soldiers) defend themselves on the fortified hill. 17 inches by 24 ("half-map" in GBoH games).

Spartans had numerical superiority... but the land access to the hill was difficult [This is future location of so called Old Navarino Castle).

Spartans tried therefore to disembark on the rocky shore, south-east of hill. They had fleet of 60 galleys but not all of them could "beach" at the same time because of confined space. Athenians with 60 hoplites and some archers were able to repel the invaders.

Few days later, the more famous battle happened - Sphacteria, where Spartans isolated on the island of S. suffered their ignoble land defeat.

The map will be used with Great Battles of History system (War Galley/ Hoplite) in an attempt to commercialize Peloponnesian War battles.

#AncientsDoNotBoreMe #HexesUponRome #WIP

Show threadRTokarczukApr 16, 2023

The difficulty with this relatively 'simple' map is in varied and differing interpretations of sources (mostly Thucydides).

Issue #1: Lagoon to the west of the central hill exists now - but there are arguments that it was a land/ plain in the ancient times ('ignore blue to the right of the hill'). No channels, no streams.

Issue #2: Athenians fortified their position but the exact location of their walls is uncertain. Their positioning is going to be of utmost importance to 'less than 10 unit counters' that Athenians have.

The picture below shows the next phase of my map - but it will need to be corrected and polished. Away with Lagoon. The positioning of walls follow Kagan ('Archidamian War') description here...

but I've read recently
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1061&context=library_map_prize

and I'm swayed by the arguments there (they make Thucydides description of Spartan strategy sound reasonable :) ). The Athenian Walls, like Birnam Wood, will move :D

Please, don't ask me about positioning of wood hexes - they are completely arbitrary, just like Leader ratings :)

Hoplite/ War Galley adventure continues. Kyzikos map (410 BCE) for a different scenario has been printed and prepared for subsequent testing.

#WIP #mapmaking #HexesUponRome

Show threadRTokarczuk

Updated Walls positions. As one can see, the map has become more boring - I removed Woods and the lagoon.

It seems that there were three approaches to Athenian positions: two by land (north and south-eastern) and one by sea (south and south-western).

The access by sea from south-western direction is/ was protected by rocky "crags". Spartans seemed to went with main thrust coming from the sea, from the south (channel part of the coastline).

Eventually, as there was not enough space to disembark the numbers that Spartans had, Spartan captains directed their galleys against rocks, to outflank Athenian positions.

Trivia bit: Brasidas led the attack across the crags. In this actions he was wounded, lost his shield and ended up being evacuated.

I want to give potential players an opportunity to change the history. Either by killing off Brasidas (no Amphipolis later) or by eliminating Athenian leader, Demosthenes (no reinforcements for Sicilian Expedition under his leadership).

Still to be done - add more terrain features, decide the positioning of elevation lines...

Also - if You see the "steep slope" (a difference of two or more levels) - it is meant not to be crossed by anything but SK/LI troops. This means that HI or HO units can only go through areas covered by Walls or... land with Brasidas among the crags.

#WIP

edit: corrected the cardinal directions, uh.

Apr 16, 2023 at 3:17pmWeb
Show threadRTokarczukApr 17, 2023

...and the last part, I promise. The as-for-now-final map going to printer (and for testing).

I will be bringing Kyzikos and Pylos scenarios and components to GMT West next week for a "public outing".

One way or the other, I will pursue this project further. What will come out of this is hard to tell at this moment. Something interesting, I hope, and something that does some justice to Ancient Greek warfare.

#WIP #MyLittleHoplite #GBoH