Was it the single most important battle in Western Civilization?
Creasy wrote: "On the result of the Greek general's deliberations to fight or not depended not merely the fate of two armies, but the whole future progress of human civilization." John Stuart Mill said Marathon "Was more important than the Battle of Hastings, even as an event in English history."
The Battle of Marathon took place at a small fishing village northeast of Athens where, oddly enough, two armies confronted each other for FIVE days with almost no fighting, and Athenian democracy was put to the test as the Greek forces debated (and voted) whether or not to attack the Persians. (Spoiler alert: They did).
As to the battle itself, numbers are uncertain but we know the Greeks were heavily outnumbered. We know also that the two armies' fighting style and equipment were near opposites, with Greeks depending on shields, armor, and close-quarter fighting and Persians depending on missile weapons and skirmishing. It seems pretty clear that the Greek army ran (or advanced at speed) as soon as they got within bow range, to reduce the time they would endure arrows without being able to retaliate. And it seems pretty clear that, once the Greek army closed with the Persians (who had no room to withdraw and maintain a firing distance) that the battle would be a slaughter.
At under two hours of play time, you can make your own explorations into this battle without scheduling "marathon game sessions" in order to play. With a mounted, full color 11" x 17" map and just over 175 unit counters, you'll be able to try various strategies and see what differences you can make on the outcome. Units activate by chit-pull per formations and combat includes both melee and ranged fire. Leadership and morale matter (in several ways) and combat results use step reduction and several levels of unit deterioration.
The Battle of Marathon game offers a historical set-up scenario plus variants for both set up and reinforcements. With the variants, it's possible that the Spartans may finally show up to the battle!
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