Hoplite: Warfare in the Persian-Hellenistic Age 4th-5th Century BC

Hoplite, the 15th volume in the Great Battles of History series of games, allows players to recreate classic battles from the pre-Alexandrian Persian-Hellenistic Age, the heyday of the Hoplite (heavy infantry fighting in packed formation). This period is often considered to feature the birth of Western Warfare, as opposed to the Persian/Eastern style, which relied on archery, light cavalry, and mobility. Exactly how hoplite warfare was fought – what really happened when “the bell rang” – is highly disputed by ancient military historians, even today. Hoplite allows you to test out your theories with eleven of the great battles of this era, from the Battle of Leuctra, featuring the huge 60-man deep phalanx of Beotarch Epaminondas to the classic confrontations with the Persian missile-armed troops against the classic Greek hoplite phalanxes.

Hoplite uses detailed mechanics meant to convey all the possibilities of this style of warfare, from The Hellenic Law of Inertia, to Drift to the Right, to the special capabilities of the Persian Light Cavalry (Harassment and Dispersal) to three different levels of Hoplite advance to Combat. And you get to fight what was the biggest land battle in European history up until Napoleonic times, the immense Battle of Plataea.

Game scale: 100 yards per hex

Battles:

• Cunaxa - Persians vs. Rebels, 401 BCE
• Delium - Athenians vs. Boeotians, 424 BCE
• Ephesus - Ionians and Allies vs Persians, 498 BCE
• Leuctra - Boeotian League vs Sparta and Allies, 371 BCE
• Mantinea - Arcadian and Boeotian Leagues vs Sparta and Lacedaemonian Allies, 362 BCE
• Marathon - Persia vs. Athens and Plataea, 490 BCE
• Mycale - Greeks vs Persians, 479 BCE
• Plataea - Greeks vs Persians, 479 BCE
• Nemea - Spartans and Allies vs Thebans and Allies, 394 BCE
• Coronea - Spartans and Allies vs Thebans and Allies, 394 BCE
• Tanagra- Athenians vs Spartans, 457 BCE