Grab your SPEAR And SHIELD
SLAP ON YOUR Corinthian Helmet
Great Battles of History is Back!!
Warfare in the Persian-Hellenistic Age
4th-5th Century BCE
Great Battles of History Volume XV
The Battles of Cunaxa, Delium, Ephesus, Leuctra, Mantinea, Marathon, Mycale, Plataea, Nemea, Coronea, and Tanagra
A Richard Berg - Mark Herman design
Hoplite, the 15th volume in the Great Battles of History series of games, allows players to recreate classic battles from the pre-Alexandrian Persian-Hellenistic Age, the heyday of the Hoplite (heavy infantry fighting in packed formation). This period is often considered to feature the birth of Western Warfare, as opposed to the Persian/Eastern style, which relied on archery , light cavalry, and mobility.
Exactly how hoplite warfare was fought – what really happened when “the bell rang” – is highly disputed by ancient military historians, even today. Hoplite allows you to test out your theories (well, our theories, using your dice) with eleven of the great battles of this era, from the Battle of Leuctra, featuring the huge 60-man deep phalanx of Beotarch Epaminondas …
… to the classic confrontations with the Persian missile-armed troops against the classic Greek hoplite phalanxes.
Hoplite uses detailed mechanics meant to convey all the possibilities of this style of warfare, from The Hellenic Law of Inertia, to Drift to the Right, to the special capabilities of the Persian Light Cavalry (Harassment and Dispersal) to three different levels of Hoplite advance to Combat (the Run Don’t Walk rules) and a whole lot more. We even still have some good old chariots!
And you get to fight what was the biggest land battle in European history up until Napoleonic times, the immense Battle of Plataea (truly the deciding engagement of the Greco-Persian Wars): two maps and about 250 combat counters covering The Greek Contingents from 26 City-States under Pausanias, Spartan Regent and General, vs. The Persians, Medes, Asians (Bactrians, Scythians, Indians and a whole lot of others) and seven Medized Greek city-states, under Mardonius, Persian Commander and son-in-law of The Great King, Darius I.
TIME SCALE Variable minutes per turn
MAP SCALE 100 yards per hex
PLAYING TIME 1 to 8 hours
NUMBER OF PLAYERS 1-4
COMPONENTS:
4 full-colour countersheets
3 backprinted 22"x34" mapsheets
2 Player Aid Cards
Rules booklet
Scenario booklet
Simple GBoH Player Aid
Rout Point Tracking Aid
One 10-sided die
PUBLISHED 2014
ORIGINAL GAME SYSTEM DESIGNER Mark Herman
HOPLITE DESIGNER Richard Berg
DEVELOPER Alan J. Ray
ART DIRECTOR Rodger B. MacGowan
MAP ART Charles Kibler
COUNTER ART Mike Lemick, Charles Kibler, and Rodger B. MacGowan
PACKAGE DESIGN Rodger B. MacGowan
PRODUCERS Gene Billingsley, Tony Curtis, Andy Lewis, Rodger MacGowan, Mark Simonitch
Note on 2nd Printing: This will be identical to the 1st printing, except that any known errata will be corrected.
It may not be possible to ship very heavy items outside of the Mainland UK.
Released: 30 April 2025
