Time for a BIG Optio game

[Justin Swanton]

A typical Optio game of 30-ish stands per side usually takes 2 hours or less to play. But what about a much bigger game, e.g. 68 stands vs 44? I decided to find out.

Battle report here.

[Imperial Dave]

Hooge

[Erpingham]

A bit of Chris Hahn style upscaling?

[Justin Swanton]

A bit of Chris Hahn style upscaling?

I wanted to try a biggie. What surprised me is that the big game took no longer to play than a game half its size. I suspect that's because combat resolution is so quick.

[Erpingham]

Probably helped that both players were familiar with the system.  Good result from the test point of view, though.  Obviously, the system isn't overloaded if played on a bigger scale.

[Imperial Dave]

very good point actually. some rulesets suffer from a magnitude effect

[dwkay57]

Always good to see a big battle!

Did you as a result consider any command and control or structural changes (as per some of the rule discussion threads) for bigger battles? For instance should the Greeks have been organised into Polis based contingents each with their own strategos (commander)?

[Justin Swanton]

Always good to see a big battle!

Did you as a result consider any command and control or structural changes (as per some of the rule discussion threads) for bigger battles? For instance should the Greeks have been organised into Polis based contingents each with their own strategos (commander)?

Armies were fairly simply organised whatever their size. Greek hoplites formed up in a single phalanx whether they were 1000 or 30,000 strong. The phalanx might have several contingents but they pretty much acted as a single unit.

Having 3 - 5 commands in an army regardless of its size seems to work. Not forgetting that uncommanded units or groups of units can still move, just very slowly.

[Imperial Dave]

another plus for the rules

[Chris]

Oh dear . . . I have a "style"?     

[Imperial Dave]

 

[Justin Swanton]

Oh dear . . . I have a "style"?     

Don't worry - you are a stylish guy.

[dwkay57]

Not sure about the Greeks forming a single phalanx, Justin. Most of the information I've read always stresses which polis or state forms up where suggesting they were separate commands. The battles of Nemea (394BCE) and Plataea (479BCE) being particular examples where the troops from individual states seemed to operate with a degree of independence.

Perhaps something for another thread?

[Justin Swanton]

Not sure about the Greeks forming a single phalanx, Justin. Most of the information I've read always stresses which polis or state forms up where suggesting they were separate commands. The battles of Nemea (394BCE) and Plataea (479BCE) being particular examples where the troops from individual states seemed to operate with a degree of independence.

Perhaps something for another thread?

Placing was important, sure, but that meant placing in the phalanx. Greeks as far as I know didn't deploy in multiple phalanxes. The big phalanx was meant to advance on the enemy as one unit, which it did, more or less. There was that problem of Spartan allies charging the enemy at a run, reaching them before the more sedate Spartans, but that didn't seem to change the basic idea of one phalanx fighting another.

[Duncan Head]

Not sure about the Greeks forming a single phalanx, Justin. Most of the information I've read always stresses which polis or state forms up where suggesting they were separate commands. The battles of Nemea (394BCE) and Plataea (479BCE) being particular examples where the troops from individual states seemed to operate with a degree of independence.

Plataea is an exception, probably because of the unprecedented size of the Greek army which led to the contingents being separated during the night march before the battle. They certainly ended up with the Spartans and the Athenians in separate phalanxes some distance apart, but that was never the plan.

At Nemea both sides seem initially to have formed up in one coherent phalanx, and it's only the fact that each army's right defeated the other's left that separated the contingents and left some acting independently.