Tissophanes at Coronea (394 BC)

[MengJiao]

  So, having won an astounding victory at Nemea (we revert to real events here), the Spartan Army went back to Sparta.  Now (meanwhile shift to alternative possibilities), suppose, one year earlier after the Persian SNAFU at Sardis (which had only two definite features -- Persian-style Spartan Cavalry defeated Persian Cavalry and Tissophanes was executed) things had gone differently -- maybe Tisso suggested to the King-of-Kings that he not take his mom's advice and murder his favorite wife (or something).  Persia ends up (as it did at Cunaxa 7 years earlier) split between an angry Rebel Babylonian Mother (who always liked Sparta and Cyrus best) and the King-of-Kings and his current Allies (in this case Tisso and most of Greece).  Which brings us to Coronea and a second face-off between Agesilaus King-of-Sparta and victor of whatever happened at Sardis and Tisso, Satrapic Agent of the King-of-Kings.
   PLUS the revised battle can feature every red-blooded wargamers' favorite cry "Saved by Rebel Cavalry!"  (In this case Mom's Babylonian Rebel Cavalry).
   For me, i will cool my rebel blood and hope to see the double-depth Thebans do some serious damage against the (less than 10,000) survivors of the Anabasis.
   Yes, that's right Coronea featured double-depth Thebans versus the Spartans and the 10,000 (still in their rag-tag butternut rebel brown).  In reality (as at Nemea), the Thebans lost, but we will add Persians (Mom's Babylonians and Tisso's Bactrians) to the mix and see what happens.

[MengJiao]

  So, having won an astounding victory at Nemea (we revert to real events here), the Spartan Army went back to Sparta.  Now (meanwhile shift to alternative possibilities), suppose, one year earlier after the Persian SNAFU at Sardis (which had only two definite features -- Persian-style Spartan Cavalry defeated Persian Cavalry and Tissophanes was executed) things had gone differently -- maybe Tisso suggested to the King-of-Kings that he not take his mom's advice and murder his favorite wife (or something).  Persia ends up (as it did at Cunaxa 7 years earlier) split between an angry Rebel Babylonian Mother (who always liked Sparta and Cyrus best) and the King-of-Kings and his current Allies (in this case Tisso and most of Greece).  Which brings us to Coronea and a second face-off between Agesilaus King-of-Sparta and victor of whatever happened at Sardis and Tisso, Satrapic Agent of the King-of-Kings.
   PLUS the revised battle can feature every red-blooded wargamers' favorite cry "Saved by Rebel Cavalry!"  (In this case Mom's Babylonian Rebel Cavalry).
   For me, i will cool my rebel blood and hope to see the double-depth Thebans do some serious damage against the (less than 10,000) survivors of the Anabasis.
   Yes, that's right Coronea featured double-depth Thebans versus the Spartans and the 10,000 (still in their rag-tag butternut rebel brown).  In reality (as at Nemea), the Thebans lost, but we will add Persians (Mom's Babylonians and Tisso's Bactrians) to the mix and see what happens.

   And Deploying.  This is from Tisso's point of view.  Some of you arm-chair Satraps may be saying...hmmmm how is that supposed to work and where is Agesilaus? Clearly clever politics is at work.  Agesilaus has decided to play the "disguise self as miraculoously returned Cyrus, brother of the usurping King-of-kings and favorite of the rebel Babylonian Mother" ...er..card.  This gives the Spartans Cyrus as an Overall commander for a total of 7 commands and "Rebel Momentum" as potential chip pulls against the six commands and "Athenian Momentum" of the other side.
   From a more Tisso-centric point of view how is this supposed to work?  Well, first of all Tisso is working for the King-of-kings and at the moment that is anti-spartan and anti-rebel-mom.  Second, while the Spartans and Rebels have 7 hoplite formations with fully-trained "Spartan" special qualities, the Anti-spartans have double-depth Thebans and a lot of horse archers and heavy cavalry -- which prevailed at Cunaxa and should do so again.

[MengJiao]

   And Deploying.  This is from Tisso's point of view.  Some of you arm-chair Satraps may be saying...hmmmm how is that supposed to work and where is Agesilaus? Clearly clever politics is at work.  Agesilaus has decided to play the "disguise self as miraculoously returned Cyrus, brother of the usurping King-of-kings and favorite of the rebel Babylonian Mother" ...er..card.  This gives the Spartans Cyrus as an Overall commander for a total of 7 commands and "Rebel Momentum" as potential chip pulls against the six commands and "Athenian Momentum" of the other side.
   From a more Tisso-centric point of view how is this supposed to work?  Well, first of all Tisso is working for the King-of-kings and at the moment that is anti-spartan and anti-rebel-mom.  Second, while the Spartans and Rebels have 7 hoplite formations with fully-trained "Spartan" special qualities, the Anti-spartans have double-depth Thebans and a lot of horse archers and heavy cavalry -- which prevailed at Cunaxa and should do so again.

  a litte ways into Turn 1 and some odd things are already happening.  The Allied centre has charged and one formation is at a run.  Rarely a good thing.  The Rebel Spartan center has skillfully trotted through its own archers and light infantry and has lost some cohension.  Might be a problem, maybe.

[MengJiao]

  a litte ways into Turn 1 and some odd things are already happening.  The Allied centre has charged and one formation is at a run.  Rarely a good thing.  The Rebel Spartan center has skillfully trotted through its own archers and light infantry and has lost some cohension.  Might be a problem, maybe.

   End of 1, start of 2: some interesting things: lots of probably unfortunate running by the Allies, and on the Rebel Spartan side, the poorest troops have accidently done fairly well and walked up behind their light infantry.  The well-trained Spartans and mercenaries of the 10,000 school are trotting properly, but a somewhat eleborate scheme for coordinating with light troops has been pretty disruptive.

[MengJiao]

   End of 1, start of 2: some interesting things: lots of probably unfortunate running by the Allies, and on the Rebel Spartan side, the poorest troops have accidently done fairly well and walked up behind their light infantry.  The well-trained Spartans and mercenaries of the 10,000 school are trotting properly, but a somewhat eleborate scheme for coordinating with light troops has been pretty disruptive.

   End of 2, start of 3: the Rebel/Spartan light troops take a beating (both sides rout at 100 which is say 80% of their Hoplite points), but that's still only about equal to routing one Hoplite formation.  Meanwhile Tisso gets his Bactrians in line while the Allied center does okay and the Thebans are held up and not doing all that well.

[MengJiao]

   End of 2, start of 3: the Rebel/Spartan light troops take a beating (both sides rout at 100 which is say 80% of their Hoplite points), but that's still only about equal to routing one Hoplite formation.  Meanwhile Tisso gets his Bactrians in line while the Allied center does okay and the Thebans are held up and not doing all that well.

   
   Almost the end of 3: Almost everything has gone brutally wrong for the Rebel/Spartans.  The most disturbing events befell the Mercenary survivors of the 10,000.  The deranged charge of the Corinthian center coupled with the cautious approach of the troops on either side (the less well-trained miraculously walked up and the well trained paused to reorganize leaving the mercenaries to somehow get smashed by the Corinthian amateurs facing them.  Rebel momentum evened things up a bit but with little to go in this turn, the Rebel/Spartans are 80% routed and their foes are 25% routed.

[MengJiao]

   End of 2, start of 3: the Rebel/Spartan light troops take a beating (both sides rout at 100 which is say 80% of their Hoplite points), but that's still only about equal to routing one Hoplite formation.  Meanwhile Tisso gets his Bactrians in line while the Allied center does okay and the Thebans are held up and not doing all that well.

   
   Almost the end of 3: Almost everything has gone brutally wrong for the Rebel/Spartans.  The most disturbing events befell the Mercenary survivors of the 10,000.  The deranged charge of the Corinthian center coupled with the cautious approach of the troops on either side (the less well-trained miraculously walked up and the well trained paused to reorganize leaving the mercenaries to somehow get smashed by the Corinthian amateurs facing them.  Rebel momentum evened things up a bit but with little to go in this turn, the Rebel/Spartans are 80% routed and their foes are 25% routed.

   Early in turn 4, the Rebel/Spartans crossed the rout line when one cavalry commander was killed by Persian horse archers, the chariots were overwhelmed and the mercenaries routed.  All that despite nearly annihilating the Athenians and the fact that Tisso never brought in his Bactrians.  The deciding factors turned out to be that the 4 Corinthian formations engaged 2 mercenary formations while the Thebans routed everything on the Rebel/Spartan left.  The deranged running by the Thebans and Corinthians probably pushed this routing of the left in some ways.  At the end the Rebel/Spartans hit 100 rout points while the Allies were still at less than 50.