Saturday 30 March 2019

The Battle for Stylos : Blood in the Sand

The desire for empire and wealth runs strong in the blood of the King of the Medes Cambyses, with his previous incursion into Lydia turned back at the Kizil Valley he immediately looked for other lands to bring under his dominion. The Island of Crete would be a powerful staging point for his future plans across the Aegean. A small exploratory invasion force has been dispatched to test the resilience of the inhabitants before a full scale effort is made. Unfortunately for the Medes, Crete lies close to the small but powerful military state of Lakonia, who on hearing of their trading partners need have despatched a small but powerful force of Lakonian warriors to supplement the local Cretian army. The two armies having manoeuvred for several days have now clashed on the coastal plains near Stylos.


The plains of Stylos
Mercenary Horse archers and hill tribesmen fighting on the side of the Medes
The core of the Median army archers and spearmen
The Lakonians holding the centre of their line
Both generals are looking for a decisive win so advance into combat
Arrows turn the sky black but still the Lakonians march forward 
You can hear the crash as the phalanx crash into each other
Median cavalry attempt to flank to combats
The better trained and more heavily armed Lakonian Hoplites are getting the advantage
You can almost smell the sweat and hear the crash of spears on shields
Gradually the Lakonians are getting the upper hand but the cavalry might just get a flank charge
Desperate hand to hand fighting at the other end of the field, the Medes are more used to long range fighting with bows
The ferocious hill tribesmen charge in against some of the weaker Cretan hoplites
Having brushed aside the Median spearmen the Lakonian Royal Guard brace for the charge
..and the Medes are forced to flee
The battle is over as the final Median infantry pulls back only to be surrounded on the high ground, history has not recorded what epic last stand was or wasn’t made here or how many of the Medes were captured into servitude, suffice to say the Lakonians have secured the western end of the island for themselves.

We played this battle back in January I think but it was a shame not to share the photos. 😀

16 comments:

  1. That looked great. Another fab battle from you

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    1. Thanks Martin looking forward to a full persian Greek battle later in the year 😀

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  2. Super looking game! It would have been a shame not to share such a handsome table.

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  3. Brilliant as ever, always look forward to your Blood in the Sand write ups. Nice Featherstonian shots too.

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    1. Thanks Phil.... need to think about the photos

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  4. Replies
    1. and many, many thanks to add me to blog roll ;-)

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  5. A spectacular and beautiful game, so many splendid units on the same table...great pictures as well...

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    1. Merci Phil....always nice to get lots of figures out on the battlefield 🙂

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  6. What an epic game Matt, fabulous stuff.

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    1. Thanks Michael Cecil B in colour 🙂

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  7. Always enjoy your Blood in the Sand bashes, full of interest and enthusiasm. Hope things are going well on the home front too.

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    1. Thanks David 🙂 at home we are soon moving to the next phase of treatment so we will see how that goes ?

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  8. Great looking game,love the period black and white shots!
    Best Iain

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