Go Tell the Spartans to Hire More Mercenaries

[MengJiao]

  I don't know what's going to happen here.  Some counters didn't make it off the slab (singles cut as doubles!).  I substituted some archaic Hoplites.
Should be a disaster.  The system is the Phalanx expansion of the Great Battles of Alex using the Hoplite rules as much as possible.

[MengJiao]

  I don't know what's going to happen here.  Some counters didn't make it off the slab (singles cut as doubles!).  I substituted some archaic Hoplites.
Should be a disaster.  The system is the Phalanx expansion of the Great Battles of Alex using the Hoplite rules as much as possible.

Revised deployment:

[MengJiao]

  I don't know what's going to happen here.  Some counters didn't make it off the slab (singles cut as doubles!).  I substituted some archaic Hoplites.
Should be a disaster.  The system is the Phalanx expansion of the Great Battles of Alex using the Hoplite rules as much as possible.

Revised deployment:

More detail on the scenario.  Historically, Antigonas (the successor in control of Macedon) has arrived to quell a Spartan-led disturbance.  The Spartans have hired mercenaries and put up a ditch and a wall of stakes to keep out the Macedonians.  Historically this did not work; the Macedonians doubled up their formations (Hoplite style) and crushed the Spartans despite their ditch and stakes while the mercenaries for each side did some fancy foot-work on the Spartan left.  Interestingly (maybe, sort of) the old Alex system has a lot of trouble representing the fairly common double or quintupular (or more) formations used by hoplites and other phalanx-type troops while the Hoplite version of the same system manages such things more easily -- in which case the Macedonians should crush the Spartans pretty handily in a classic hoplite-style engagement.

[bayonetbrant]

did they use the wrong die to cut the counter sheets?

[MengJiao]

did they use the wrong die to cut the counter sheets?

So it would seem.  Most of the rather slim selection of counters (this is the smallest -- but possibly best -- expansion for Alex I've seen) are okay.  Since I'm interested in hoplite-izing this scenario anyway, I just substituted some archaic Spartans for six mercenaries and some Syrian cavalry.
I suppose if I got out my x-acto knife I could fix things up, but -- when playing solitaire -- anything sufficiently weird is indistinguishable from fate.

[MengJiao]

did they use the wrong die to cut the counter sheets?

So it would seem.  Most of the rather slim selection of counters (this is the smallest -- but possibly best -- expansion for Alex I've seen) are okay.  Since I'm interested in hoplite-izing this scenario anyway, I just substituted some archaic Spartans for six mercenaries and some Syrian cavalry.
I suppose if I got out my x-acto knife I could fix things up, but -- when playing solitaire -- anything sufficiently weird is indistinguishable from fate.

Fatefully, the Macedonians attack:

[MengJiao]

Fatefully, the Macedonians attack:

But on the Spartan left, the Spartans are doing well after about half an hour of fighting:

[MengJiao]

Fatefully, the Macedonians attack:

But on the Spartan left, the Spartans are doing well after about half an hour of fighting:

Start of turn 3, about 40 minutes into the battle:

[MengJiao]

Start of turn 3, about 40 minutes into the battle:

Start of turn 4:

[MengJiao]

Start of turn 3, about 40 minutes into the battle:

Start of turn 4:

End of turn 4 -- the most complete shattering victory I've seen in this system -- the Spartans totally rout the Macedonians: