Gamers View of the Battle of Marathon

I have long loved the simplicity of PRESTAGS: learn one - play them all - but have hated the way quality equates to stacking levels. it is so hard for a side to win when stacking levels are against them.

Marathon is an exception - while the Greeks have superior stacking, they cannot use it without being outflanked. History tells us they spread their centre and left their flank solid for fear of the Persian cavalry. However, the unexpected nature of their attack meant that the cavalry could not mount or deploy, so games tend not to show them.

The Field of Glory battle has a huge screen by comparison (and the problem of exciting computer games - sometimes you forget to move some pieces)

You can hover over the units to see what they all do

You can see how the the game is based on miniatures

Contact takes a few turns while the Persians decimate the ranks. (The Yellow 9 over the Greek line shows the damage.)

At contact, things look equal, with only a few units disrupted.

John Michael Young knows these hoplites will get quickly shot to pieces in  this game, so has a special rule that the archers cannot fire in the first turn. The results are telling - the Persians are 8 down on the panic level of 31 after the Greek charge.

After a few turns, the Greek centre routed off the field

However the wings are telling a the Persians crumble.

The flanks turn on the Persian centre and the Greeks just snatch victory by 60-49

 

The end

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The PRESTAGS game was much shorter. The centre just held, but the right wing destroyed the Persians in front of them and turned on the flank. The left wing of the Greeks was mauled as the map allowed the Persians to play some archers and follow up with a Barbarian Infantry charge. Small comfort and the battle was lost.

In the final analysis, both are games and want to give either side a chance. The computer game is beautiful to look at and has lots of special units for you to study. It was a near victory for Greece in the end. If the Persians had a human player, they perhaps would win. I don't see how the Persians could beat a mildly competent Greek played in PRESTAGS, but perhaps a thin veneer of militia at the front and the archers behind could do it.

Comments

[Paul]

Very nice photos of original PRESTAGS map and counters.