Today, a “marathon” is a long race—possibly of 26 miles or so but often different. Or it may be a long session of doing something—nearly anything. There are “movie marathons” and “shopping marathons” and many other kinds, all picking off a word that means “long distance” or “long term.”

But originally the word was the name of a small Greek village and applied to the plain nearby—a plain noteworthy for being a good place where hundreds of Persian ships could offload thousands of Persian troops and let them get organized, before proceeding the distance to Athens and burning the city in revenge for the Athenians supporting a rebellion against Darius I. It was a place 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, finally reaching the affirmative only after seeing most of the Persian cavalry reloaded onto ships for use…somewhere probably unpleasant for Athens.

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. It was.

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. You’ll be able to quickly try various strategies and see what differences you can make on the outcome. Units active 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 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!