Battle of Malene : The Ionian Revolt

Having painted a few extra troops for my Persian army I wanted to get them into battle against some hoplites. The Battle of Malene took place at the end of the Ionian revolt in 493BC (some sources seem to have it in 494?)

A contemporary picture of armoured Greek Hoplites attacking the more lightly armed Persians

The Greek force led by Histiaeas indicated by the purple arrow above had been on what was effectively a raiding campaign. Whilst raiding in Aeolia a Persian force led by a general Harpagus caught the Greeks out cutting them off from their boats. Only the Persian infantry had arrived so the Greeks felt they had parity in numbers so rather than flee chose to stand and fight. Historically everything went well when the two infantry forces locked each other in combat, but when the Persian cavalry arrived the Greeks were overwhelmed and beaten.

The set up for the battle, with numbers roughly equal. The objective of the Greeks is to break through the Persian line. The Persian cavalry would arrive at a designated time and at a random location.

The Persian infantry force, lightly armed but significant ranged weapons, solid sparabara units holding the centre, can they hold till the cavalry is due to arrive ?

Greek hoplite force, they have a small number of lighter troops representing the boat crews

The Greeks get the first turn and begin to advance across the flat ground, small groups of Persian slingers have been pushed forward

Of course this sort of battle is a classic challenge , can the Persian archers slow or disrupt the advancing Greeks before they crash into their line. The Greeks are more heavily armed and will likely win any combat if they have not been weakened

After a couple of turns the Greeks have closed the gap, a number of units have taken wounds and at least two have been slowed by failing morale checks.

But will it be enough ?

In the centre the leading Greek hoplites crash into the sparabara, the Persian general is looking anxiously for the arrival of the Persian cavalry !

On the Persian left flank the Greeks are taking a battering under a hail of arrows and sling shot

And after another successful shooting round

One of the hoplites units flees the field

But things are not going so well in the centre, 

All three sparabara units are holding but close to collapse

And as they break the cavalry arrives but, as to be expected the random arrival point brings them on in a very poor position not close enough to the combat

Unfortunately the Persian centre is collapsing rapidly

At least one shot of the cavalry galloping across the sand

It’s all over before the cavalry can make a significant impact, the Greeks have broken through

They do pick off the lighter troops on the left

But Harpagus has been killed on the battlefield and the Greeks have made it back to their boats reversing the historical outcome.

A nice battle and very enjoyable despite the outcome for the Persians. On reflection I made a specific error in setting up the scenario, the forces were roughly equal in strength but the key element was the arrival and location of the cavalry. Not wanting them to be too powerful I set the arrival point when the first Persian unit fled. In hindsight this was too late and didn’t give them time to impact the battle, a better plan would have been for them to arrive the turn after combat was joined. What I hadn’t anticipated was all the Persian infantry would collapse at the same time. Secondly it would have been better to ensure the cavalry arrived from a strong position. Anyway we live and learn when writing scenarios 😀

Next up my painting progress this week…

Picked up at a show another WW2 German bomber a Henschel 123. A fairly easy model which I had originally planned to make as a crashed plane but somehow that didn’t work out ?

Next something I have been planning for ages, I have collected a number of British infantry drinking tea, so wanted to make a suitable canteen wagon, I have converted the truck with spare plastic bits and modelling clay. Random transfers and the YMCA symbol printed off the internet. A bit of nonsense really when I should be painting more Napoleonics !

Finally on the painting front I had a few African warriors but wanted to expand the unit to something larger which could play in my Persian  army. So I painted up another dozen or so to give the larger unit above. Purists with a better knowledge of history may point out they are not the ‘right sort’ of African warriors, but I think they are make a nice addition. They will just play as lightly armed levy types when needed.

Finally I was in Edinburgh this week visiting my Father and we had a pleasant trip out to North Berwick, where I spotted this interesting memorial to our WW2 coastal defence forces.

That’s it for now still some more sorting out in the dungeon this afternoon 👍