Thermopylae POD

Swordman

Banned
Being in a classically-themed state of mind, I have to wonder at the effects of either of these PODs:

1) the Council of Sparta gives dispensation so that the Army can march during the festival of Karneia; the entire Spartan Army is at the Pass instead of just Leonidas and the 300.

2) Ephialtes doesn't betray the Spartans and their allies.

If either (or both) of these occur, how long can the Spartans and the rest of the Greek forces present at Thermopylae expect to hold out against the Persians?

Mike Garrity
 
Probably for as long as they want. The mobilization of the Spartan Army will probably mean that the Persian Army is completely broken at Thermopylae.
 
Thermopylae in this scenario just becomes a godawful disaster rather than a heroic last stand. First off, adding more Spartans only means more fresh reserves, given how only so many could be deployed at a time on such a narrow pass, which means that the kill count for the first couple days, while higher, probably won't be enough so to discourage Xerxes from trying again on a third day. More importantly, however, is the naval battle. The Greeks were going to lose, regardless of how many Greeks there were, because the Greeks weren't going to be able to hold Artemisium for enough time for them to win decisively on land. None of your PoDs change that (and, in fact, I can't think of one that can, as the Greeks got pretty lucky to last as long as they did at Artemisium), so we can safely assume that the Persians will win at Artemisium again here. With naval superiority, the Persians can land troops on the other side and surround the Spartans, and... at that point, it doesn't matter how many Spartans there are, they're all going to die. And with the Spartans completely obliterated, the Greeks give up, Athens is razed, and Xerxes conquers Greece.
 
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