300 BC but not for the purists !

Sometimes we allow ourselves to get stuck in little paradigms, so whilst I have continued to paint up ancient Greeks they haven't seen enough action on the battlefield as I seek out realistic rules and historical battles. However as we have been trying out Kings of War I thought we could try one of the fan based 'ancient' adaptions of the rules. These are from An Hour of Wolves and Shattered Shields and are their Hoplite rules.

This was a great chance to see if the rules work and to get pretty much all my ancient figures on the battlefield. This means we had to bend historical accuracy a little. One side is broadly Macedonian, with Pikemen, mixed Gauls and spearmen with mercenary hoplites, heavy cavalry and an elephant. The other side is spartan and Hoplite based with light infantry and cavalry but some persian chariots thrown in for fun.

Initial set up, note olive trees !

In our first scenario the "Macedonains" charged full pelt towards the enemy lines in an attempt to maximise the use of their heavy cavalry and the elephant which I hoped was going to be good on the charge.

Newly raised Macedonian Cavalry 

This is actually the first time I have had the olive trees on the table really pleased with how they look.

Massed Hoplites supported by Light Cavalry

In the distance one of hte enemy chariots crashed into the right flank.

Pikemen and Elephant charge forward !

Enemy light cavalry screen blocks of advancing hoplites.

Clash of Spears

At this point it became clear the onrush of the whole Macedonian line was too much and the enemy withdrew to fight another battle (some lucky/unlucky dice). So we decided to reset but play a capture scenario with objective across the battlefield, small red jewels if you see them in the photos.

Having learnt their lesson the Athenian/spartans were much more careful with a strong line of skirmish and missile troops to the front.

Clash at the Temple

The ranged attacks immediately made a difference and the elephant was forced to pull up short "shaken".

This was a much closer battle with the Athenians always slightly on top and in the end they held the greatest number of objectives.

So the rules seemed to work well and give a good game, as we have played other KoW battles the rules are really simple. A couple of bits probably needed to be tweeked. Phalanx need to be tougher, and Heavy Cavalry should have thunderous charge. Otherwise they are a good set of rules to get lots of figures on the table. Might well try the dark age version ? it also means I can buy some more ancient stuff and not worry about getting them on the table.