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After Philip II’s victory over the Greek City-states at Chaeronea he was confident in his hegemony of Greece. It is said that he sent heralds to the Ephors of Sparta and demanded their capitulation.

“If I invade Laconia you will be destroyed, never to rise again.”

Supposedly, the Sparta Ephors responded thus:

“If”

Today’s battle is represent this hypothetical battle between the Macedonians and the Spartans. A true “What If” scenario! See what I just did there.

Forces
The Macedonian army will be the well-oiled machine that crushed Thebes and Athens at the Battle of Chaeronea and end the freedom of the Greek City-States north of the Peloponnese. We will use the same army list as the Men of Bronze rulebook has for that historical battle. At Chaeronea it is said that Philip’s son Alexander led the cavalry. Today, I will put the overall Commander as Philip and have him lead his own Companions. Alexander will be elsewhere.

Philip II of Macedon
2 Macedonian Phalanx
1 Light Hoplites (Hypaspists)
1 Heavy Cavalry- Led by Philip (Companions)
1 Psiloi

The Spartans are no longer the military force they once were. The Theban general Epamonidas had seen to that at such famous battles as Luectra. The Helot slave state of Messina had been liberated by the Theban and the traditional Spartan caste system had been destroyed. In fact, Sparta had few actual true Spartiates left at this stage due to land issues and military losses. Their army was not what it once was, and relied more on mercenaries, Perikoi, and other allies.

Spartans
1 Elite Hoplite- Spartiates and General
1 Drilled Hoplite- Perikoi
1 Militia Hoplite- Allies
2 Psiloi- Allies, mercenaries and helots
1 Peltast- Mercenaries

The Macedonians would generate 6 Arete Points to the Spartan 7 at the start of the battle.

Scenario
This will be a standard Decisive Battle scenario as the Macedonians try to force the strait into the Peloponnese. The battle will take place on a 72 BW by 48 BW board, with the standard BW being 1 inch. The battle will be 8 turns or until a Collapse of one side or the other.

Set-up
We go by the book on terrain placement, with alternating terrain placement via random roll. This included some ruins, farm lands, a grove and rocky terrain. Sounds like Greece to me! The grove and a field flanked the Macedonian deployment zone, and it was split by a ruin. The Spartans had the rocks on the left, a field splitting their deployment zone, and a field on the far flank. The center was relatively open for a clash.




The Macedonian battle line from their right to left was: Light Hoplites, Macedonian Phalanx, Macedonian Phalanx, Psiloi (in the ruins) and the Cavalry on the far left.



The Spartan battle line from their right to left was: Peltasts in a field across from the Macedonian cavalry, the Milita Hoplites in a different field in loose formation, the Perikoi in phalanx, the Spartiates in phalanx both facing the fearsome Macedonian phalanx units, and the 2 Psiloi units in the rocks on the flank. The Spartans apparently learned from the lessons of losing several battles to Thebes and placed their best units across from the Macedonians best infantry.

You can read the results here: https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2020/03/men-of-bronze-battle-report-if.html