An episode in the Long War

Long time no see! This a small scenario that I used to introduce a new player to the rules. It is a hypothetical clash that could be set at any moment during the Long War between the Persian Empire and some Greek poleis.

We used the terrain and deployment rules of a type 3 scenario from the rulebook, a meeting engagement. We placed a couple of small islands along the side edge. The side with the islands was friendly to the Greeks, while the opposite side, towards the open sea, was neutral.

We assumed that two small fleet were acting as the vanguard of larger formations on the eve of a massive clash such as Lade or Artemision. Both fleets are composed of four squadrons. The Greek fleet has two well-trained and fast Athenian squadrons and two minor allied squadrons, one poorly motivated and one green. The Persian fleet has one poorly motivated Ionian Greek squadron, one Lydian green squadron, and two determined Phoenicians.

This is how it played out for us. I played the Persians. I am telling in case you detect some minor loss of objectivity in the following report, which is otherwise extremely balanced.

The vanguard of the Great King, the King of Kings, the Achaemenid, encountered the hairy and smelly Greek barbarians.

Our heroes quickly gained the advantage of the open sea, so as to avoid being pushed towards the hostile shore controlled by the rebels, and the shaggy enemies were forced to follow.

The fleets closed in. Unfortunately, the squadron of the Ionian Menelaos immediately wavers (traitor!)… on the left, the hairy stinkers seemed to be getting the upper hand.

On the right, however, admiral Azurbaal inflicted upon the Hellenes the just punishment for their arrogance, and also a second squadron of the proud Athenians is broken by the brave Phoenicians! The Great King smiles upon his slaves!

However on the left side of the battle the Greeks won, remaining with two severely maimed squadrons against only one Phoenician unit - which was however in  better shape. We decided to call it a day as both sides would have had enough. What happened next does not matter… history will remember this as a great victory of Ahura Mazda.