A more historical Leuctra with Optio using VASSAL

[Justin Swanton]

Here is a replay of Leuctra after I'd read the sources and done some google earthing of the battlefield. It seems likely that the Spartans chose a battlefield where the terrain covered their flanks, securing them against the superior Theban cavalry. This would explain why they deployed their cavalry in front of their infantry as there wasn't anywhere else to put them.




The replay gave an approximately historical result, with some rules bungling on my part. I think that my biggest mistake was not to deploy the Spartan psiloi and peltasts on their wings to impede any attempt by Theban cavalry to get around to their rear. The forested slopes are perfect for light troops and something must have kept the Theban horse from squeezing through the gap between Spartan hoplites and forest and causing trouble in the rear. I hope to play another game of this battle and see if the Spartans finally get the chance to extend their right flank as they did historically.

[dwkay57]

Interesting report Justin, could have done with a bit of annotation to help identify the unit groupings / melees you were referring to in the text.

Would have using a computer (as in the other discussion) helped to avoid the human errors?

[Justin Swanton]

Interesting report Justin, could have done with a bit of annotation to help identify the unit groupings / melees you were referring to in the text.

Would have using a computer (as in the other discussion) helped to avoid the human errors?

I take the point about annotation. I'll put some in the next report - that game is nearly finished BTW and much more in line with the historical event.

Using a game engine would certainly have reduced the errors - charge and melee combat resolved automatically (shooting resolved when the player decides to shoot), wrong moves automatically flagged, etc. There would still be some room for getting things wrong but not much. Fancy designing a PC game version for me?

[dwkay57]

Don't know about making it a PC game. at several points (e.g. turn 9) you talk about panic counters, yellow markers and red dots. I just wondered if some of these could be tracked on the computer to make life slightly easier. I know that trying to remember what that unit did 2 turns ago and whether it affects what they do now or whether that type of infantry get a plus in that circumstance is beyond me.

[Justin Swanton]

Don't know about making it a PC game. at several points (e.g. turn 9) you talk about panic counters, yellow markers and red dots. I just wondered if some of these could be tracked on the computer to make life slightly easier. I know that trying to remember what that unit did 2 turns ago and whether it affects what they do now or whether that type of infantry get a plus in that circumstance is beyond me.

Panic hits would be automatically calculated by the PC (no counters) with nearby units routing once the panic threshold had been reached. The yellow markers are the text boxes to the right, off the battlefield, that tell you how many panic hits will rout what grade of unit depending on the size of the army. The red dots are visual aids to indicate how many combat hits one unit has scored against another, making it easier for the player to work out who has lost how much morale. One can dispense with them in a tabletop game (the maths is really easy) and they wouldn't feature in a PC game as the engine calculates all that and just imposes the result - so much morale loss.

I would love to make it a PC game if I had the skills. 

[dwkay57]

My aim is still to continue fighting with the figures but using the computer to do all the grunt work and record keeping.
Our approach in terms of senior officers following orders and junior officers "acting in support" seems fairly similar.