Our next Campaign Pack for ROME II - Wrath of Sparta will feature new unit rosters for its four playable factions to reflect the warfare of the Peloponnesian War. To mark the occasion we thought it would be nice to tell you a bit more of some of the elite units at your disposal. To kick things off we have the Theban Hippeus of the Boiotian League. If we are victorious, the Peloponnesians, without the support of the Boiotian cavalry, will never invade our lands again. These were the words of the Athenian general Hippocrates to his men before the Battle of Delium against the Boiotian League. Led by the Thebans, the league was a confederation of city states, including Sparta, on the Greek mainland north west of Attica. Ironically it was the very cavalry that Hippocrates wanted to crush which brought about his defeat, in what was to be his last battle. The Theban General Pagondas had deployed his troops in an asymmetric line with heavy emphasis on his right flank where the Thebans faced off the Athenian forces. Pagondas’ hoplites were formed 25 rows deep as opposed to the usual eight. However, despite the advantage in numbers, the disciplined Athenian front line was holding. Meanwhile on Pagondas’ weaker left flank, the rest of the Boiotian allies were outmatched. But as the battle teetered on a knife-edge, the Theban general played his ace. He sent part of his cavalry around the hill behind the Boiotian army to support his left flank. When they seemingly appeared from nowhere and charged downhill to strike the enemy, the Athenian right was shocked into disarray and swiftly routed. The Theban Hippeis had effectively won the battle. Unsurprisingly, it was Thebes which produced Pelopidas, one of the first great Greek cavalry commanders, a few decades later, whose expertise inspired Phillip II and Alexander the Great himself.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 18:48:59 +0000
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