Let’s continue exploring the Hoplite scenarios, the next one is Delium. An army of Athens against one of Thebes, with the beginning of their experimentation with a deeper phalanx.
For the first time, following a tip on bgg, I replace the box cohesion counter with some “number beads”. It helps a lot for the visibility. I also use some bingo chips for some status effects.
After a false start with to many errors (momentum and rally restrictions forgotten for leaderless army and march through the hill made too easy) the game is ready to be started again. I will play with the optional rules that make the Thebans start in “walk” order and roll on the table once they have an enemy Hoplite in LOS. Without it, it seems believing some who already played it, the Thebans take too much cohesion hit through the hills and got picked up easily by Athens when they reach the other side.
Round 1 : The Theban phalanx start their advance through the hill. On the Athenian left flank the Theban skirmishers start to confront the Athens ones. On the right however they advance too much seeing the cavalry already activated, but a lucky momentum row for Athens and two of them get picked up by the cavalry.
Round 2 : On the left flank, the skirmished majority pays of and one of the 2 Athenians flee. On the right one, the Thebes cavalry with a some good lock on there side, manage to get rid of the Athenian cavalry.
Round 3: An uneventful round. But the deep Theban phalanx comes to line of sight.
Round 4 : The Theban deep phalanx obliterates the last Athens skirmisher. The Thebes skirmishers throw javelins and stones at the Athens hoplites. 4 of the 6 last Thebes phalanx come in line of sight and will be able to charge next round.
Round 5 : Athens get a free initiative and tries to flank the over advance Theban massive Hoplite. But it goes horribly wrong when they hold and then charge them on their own flank. One less phalanx for Athens, the rest holds
Round 6 : The double Theban Phalanx wins its engagement, and charge and rout another one. The center holds. On the right, Thebes crumbles.
It is a weird scenario. Feels like the standard Hoplite charge with extra steps. It is too long for what it is at the end. The scenario I liked the least for now. I feel like it should start on round 4 with the Theban charges through the hill. The rest feels unnecessary and slow to start.
At the end the result of the game is the expected one. Strong left side of the Theban holds. Right flank Athenian majority wins.