During the sixth century BC, the people of Phocis pulled off a significant raid against their Thessalian enemy which outnumbered them many times over. The Phocians not only survived but defeated the enemy totally.
We do not have an accurate date. Herodotus just states: “not many years before the King's expedition, the Thessalians and their allies had invaded Phocis with their whole army …” This puts it sometime before Marathon in 490 BC.
Herodotus states further:
The Phocians had taken refuge on Mount Parnassus. Their diviner Tellias of Elis devised a clever stratagem for them. He had six hundred of the bravest Phocians completely cover themselves with chalk, along with their weapons and armour, and led them to attack the Thessalians by night, telling them to slay anyone they should see who was not similarly whitened like they were.
The Thessalian sentries were the first to see these men and to flee for fear, supposing falsely that it was something supernatural, and after the camp guards the whole of the enemy army saw them and fled as well.
Given the numbers, this need not be a simple skirmish, it sits within the space of larger scaled games. Although the attackers were hoplites, they are operating at night in loose irregular formations. If we consider rules which allow individual casualties, such as those of Warhammer Ancients, or its offspring including War and Conquest, Clash of Empires, or possibly Swordpoint, then these can be handled by their light infantry rules. Representing the Thessalians is a challenge. Even at 1:10 ratio, a lot of figures with bed-rolls, campfires, and tents will be required; perhaps consider recreating only a section of the Thessalian camp, with the main objective to represent the centre of the camp. This makes playing skirmish level games such as Mortal Gods, or even Gangs of Rome more plausible, by representing only a small element of the camp raid.
Forces involved
Phocians: 600 Phocians, probably armoured hoplites. The Phocian forces were led by Tellias of Elis, a seer.
Thessalians: 4000 and likely significantly more troops, as confirmed by those left for dead with their shields. The famous cavalry did not use any shields at this time and were probably able to flee the field the quickest. Thessalian troops were likely to be unarmoured hoplites (who sleeps in their armour?), light troops and camp followers.
The Thessalian camp
Archaeological evidence suggests the ancient Greeks formed fortified camps when conducting sieges. With the disarity between the two forces it is unlikely that the Thessalians saw this as a long-term siege, but for the purpose of this scenario you may want to allow the defenders to have a crude ditch and palisade around their camp.
Deployment
Initially the Thessalians have limited troops available, these being the camp guards around the perimeter. Once the alarm is raised the Thessalian player may attempt to rouse the sleeping troops. The chance of this happening increases the closer the tents are to the alarm. Thessalians who are woken will be unarmoured but should be considered to have access to their hand weapons and probably their shields.
The majority of the Thessalian troops will be bivouacked around their tribal campfires. Whether they had their horses within the stockade is not mentioned, but wild stampeding horses running amuck in the camp at night would certainly add a dramatic frisson to the whole chaotic battle.
The Phocians should be deployed outside the camp in loose formations. They will be approaching in the dark. Set them at charge distance from the Thessalian camp guards.
We know this takes place during the night, so there will be limited missile fire. Units may only shoot missiles against troops carrying light torches, or those near to campfires by each tent. Any intervening terrain or troops will confuse the situation and obscure potential targets. It is likely that only the Thessalians would have torches initially, given the desire for the Phocians to surprise their enemy.
With the battle effectively being fought over an army camp at night, units will need to operate as loosely formed, light infantry. Should the player allow them to spread out into a skirmish formation, then the units cannot be reformed for the remainder of the game.
Phocian terror – The Phocians are fully ‘chalked-up” and have the appearance of a Hellenic nightmare to any Thessalian who happens to cross their path. The first time a Thessalian comes across any Phocians they must take a terror test. Should they fail, then they will flee in panic. Any test should have negative modifiers to reflect the primordial terror of the situation, as well as any contributing effects such as screaming horses or burning tents nearby. Any horses encountered by the Phocian raiders will immediately be spooked and flee directly away through any sleeping troops.
Fire – if the rules allow for it, then the Phocians should have the opportunity to cause even more mayhem by setting light to sleeping areas and tents.
This is a shifting balance scenario for Mortal Gods where the attackers will initially outnumber the defenders, but this situation will change as more defenders wake up and join the battle. There are six campsites with fires evenly dispersed within the camp as represented by the tents on the scenario map. The Phocian objective is to set light to four or more of these before the game ends. The Thessalians win by ensuring that four or more of the campsites remain ‘unburnt’. The game finishes at the end of the fifth turn.
Deployment map
The Thessalians initially deploy two of their guards on the palisades, roughly halfway along each side. The remainder of their forces will be deployed within the camp as they emerge from their tents. The Phocian raiders then set up in the dark outside the camp, outside the palisade. Line of Sight can only be drawn to troops within the campsite. Tents will block line of sight.
Scenario Special Rules
Phocian terror: The whitened Phocians appear as apparitions from Hades. Thessalian troops must take a courage test in the following situations:
If they fail the test, they will immediately take one full move directly away from the Phocian figure. Any troops which fail and have not been activated already will be marked as activated.
Thessalian restful slumber: Apart from the three guards, all Thessalians are asleep at the start of the battle. At the start of second round, and each subsequent round, D3 additional units wake up and can be activated. These figures will arrive behind any tent not currently in flames, to a maximum of one, three-figure base per campsite, in any given turn. The last figures to arrive are any heroes. An action marker is added to the bag for each new unit arriving.
Nighttime: to account for the darkness the following rules are applied:
Chaos in the campsite: No Phalanx may be formed within the camp or palisades.
Phocians
Thessalians
Sample Phocian list 251 points
NO. |
UNIT |
FIGURE BASE |
POINTS PER BASE |
TOTAL |
| 1 | Lochagos | 1 | 65 | 65 |
| 1 | Mantis | 1 | 30 | 30 |
| 2 | Peltastai | 3 | 38 | 76 |
| 2 | Hoplites (heavy) | 3 | 40 | 80 |
Sample Thessalian list 500 points
|
NO. |
UNIT |
FIGURE BASE |
POINTS PER BASE |
TOTAL |
| 1 | Lochagos | 1 | 55 | 5 |
| 2 | Peltastai | 3 | 38 | 76 |
| 3 | Guards - Hoplite (Heavy) | 1 | 25 | 75 |
| 3 | Peripoloi | 3 | 35 | 105 |
| 7 | Peripoloi | 3 | 27 | 189 |
This article was featured in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy Magazine 127. Discover this issue, and others, in our webshop:
