The title sounds like something started by some Chaos Space Marines huh?

There is a group of four, sometimes five, regular Warhammer Ancient Battle players at the Tin Soldier in Centerville, OH. We game on the last Sunday of the month. We decided to try a short campaign to see if we could generate some interesting games, other than the one-off slugfests we'd been having. All of us have either a Greek or Macedonian army, so a campaign centered in Greece and the Aegean seemed perfect. I drew a very simple map of the campaign area, including each city-state and then a few neutral territories for us to fight over. Victory would go to the city-state that occupied the most territories when the campaign ended. Each of the neutral territories had some additional units, specific to that territory, that could be used as mercenaries or allies in that players battles.

In order to keep the campaign short and simple, there were only five neutral territories. In parenthesis are the additional units that a player can add to his unit when he controls that area.

• Thessaly (unit of 10 Cavalry)
• Thrace (unit of 15 peltasts and 8 light cavalry)
• Chalcidice (phalanx of 32 mercenary/allied hoplites)
• Ionia (phalanx of 32 mercenary/allied hoplites)
• Arcadia (15 peltasts)

These units would be in addition to the 2000 point army each player could Ôbuild'. Players were limited to only one of the allied units per battle.

We started out with five players: Athens Thebes Sparta Macedon Epirus (we had 2 Macedonian armies)

In addition to possible allies, each player received a random events card from the Oracle at Delphi. This could be something good, an additional unit for your army, or a disaster such as the plague which would reduce your army. Some had no value at all.

The first month saw Thebes and Sparta square off in two battles in which neither side could gain a clear victory. Athens picked up Ionia, Macedonia picked up Thrace and Epirus managed to grab both Chalcidice and Thessaly. The clash between Spartan and Thebes left Sparta in control of Arcadia. What we found that first month was that we were not generating the games we wanted. While Sparta and Thebes got to play two games, the other 3 spent the day grabbing up territories and basking in the sun. We would change the format and make sure games were generated for each player. In the second round of the campaign, we had players pair-off and fight a battle. The loser handed over a territory to the winner.

Below is the account of one of the battles -- a disaster for my Athenians -- this system generated:

Polemacus of Athens (me) vs.	The Theban Menace (Bud Hunter)
Athenian General	Theban General
1x23 Athenian Hoplites	1x27 Theban Hoplites
4x24 Athenian/Attic Hoplites	1x24 Sacred Band (never break)
2x8 Skirmishers w/javelins	1x40 Boeotian Hoplites (no armor)
1x12 Peltasts	1x32 Boeotian Hoplites (no armor)
1x10 Athenian Heavy Cavalry (no armor, javelins)	2x18 Peltasts
1x24 Ionian Ally Hoplites	1x11 Skirmishers w/javelins 1x6 Theban light cavalry 1x10 Allied Thessalian Heavy Cavalry

It had been a while since I had one of these great hoplite scrums and (as usual) WAB gave us a really good hoplite battle. Both forces were deployed across an open battlefield; A few trees on the Athenian right and a couple of hills on the Athenian left flank. The Thebans rolled 11 Oracles while the Athenians rolled 6. Oracles are a special WAB rule for Greek armies. The oracles (D6 per 1000 points) are used in lieu of army and unit standards, since Greek armies carried no such items.

Both armies marched forward on their first turn. The Thebans then advanced with their peltasts (in skirmish order) and skirmishers and threw javelins, taking down a number of the Athenian skirmishers. The Athenians then charged home all along the hoplite battle line. What ensued was the typical multi-turn hoplite scrum. Thebans and Athenians spending oracles to gain ties or slight losses in combat. Finally the Athenian left broke, while the Athenian right pushed forward defeating their opponents.

We then had a battle line that was tuned 90 degrees from their original starting positions, not unlike many of the hoplite battles recorded by the ancient historians. The Thebans continued to pressure the left of the Athenian line which finally broke (again) and was run down. When the dust cleared, the Thebans had won the game by 500+ points and Athens had to turn a territory (Ionia) over to the Thebans.

Polemacus of Athens was put on trial...again!

We will be completing our small campaign later in April. At that point, we plan to add two Thursdays to out monthly WAB schedule. We welcome any players to come and visit us at the Tin Soldier in Centerville. Bring your army, no matter how it is based and join in. We also have armies we can loan out, so you can try playing WAB. Call Mark at the Tim Soldier or e-mail me: mbsparta@aol.com if you are interested or need the dates and times.

(illustration courtesy of Dover Publications, Inc.)