Mortal Gods Game - Athens v Sparta

First game of Mortal Gods, two giants face up, Athens v Sparta. The Athenians form up into a phalanx while the Spartans contemptuously flood the flanks with their lights and hold the center with hard nut companion base of hoplites (see below, a bunch of Athenian hoplites run into a bunch Spartan mixed hoplites - helots - peltasts [the 'low point' scenario meant that a full three bases of Spartan hoplites was simply "too expensive" so the Spartan experimented with his force by mixing in some lights]): 

A lesson in hubris is dished out to the Spartans as the Athenian phalanx gives them a solid bloody nose and holds strong in the center (see below, one empty slot on the Spartan companion base of hoplites tells the story): 

The Spartan left flank attack on the Athenians is stopped cold by the intervention of the Athenian Hero (see below, he bounces the base of helots then tangles with the Spartan Logos): 

The Spartan Hero and Logos rage hard at the Athenian phalanx but the combined shield wall minimises the effect (see below, one Athenian hoplite falls but the "phalanx Mortal Gods special rule" saves several others from suffering the same inglorious fate): 

Having survived the Spartan central surge, the Athenian Logs decimated the Spartan peltasts on his right and then despatched the Spartan hoplites in the center, by a succession of individual Athenian hoplite activations, which serve to exhaust, damage and break the Spartan hoplite base):  

The Athenians take the central victory trophy of the battlefield. This is too much for the remaining Spartans who shamefully scattered and departed the battlefield under the dark cloud of Thanatos. 

Max Hastings: 1914 Catastrophe .. and a couple of other "Good Reads"

If I were going to recommend reading material for military officers currently serving in the Armed Forces of Great Britain, the United Kingdom or any of her Commonwealth and NATO partners, then it would have to be a collection like this (see below, Max Hastings - "Catastrophe Europe Goes to War 1914", just to remember how things can unexpectedly start!): 

Followed by a haunting tale of lost peace and complacency at all levels of government and the military (see below, Dan Dannatt's "Victory into Defeat"): 

Which turned an "Unhappy Ending" of one world war into a new nightmare of another, with opening rounds going to the vanquished. This is a "first love" book of mine (see below, Alistair Horne - "To Lose a Battle France 1940", I discovered it in teh early 1990's and it has been on my self ever since): 

Finally, while wild emotions are running around their heads, let them stop and read about Norway (mostly ignored apart from the First and Second Naval Battles of Narvik) - but look at the other Narvik, and the strange possibilities of this forgotten success in an otherwise bleak campaign .. which hailed the first successful allied amphibious operation of the war in 1940 (see below, Henrik Lunde's Hitler's Pre-Emptive War"): 

Thought provoking and a tale of swinging fortunes. Best remember from history the lessons of "things lost and things gained," as the best made plans of mice and men play out upon the stage not under their control.