This Is Hamlinopolis!

Pete, Strategos of the forgotten Greek city state of Hamlinopolis marched his citizen hoplite army out to face the invading hordes of Persian barbarians. Actually, the Persians had quite an advanced culture, but the Greeks had a hell of a PR capability, so there you go.

Persian infantry in all their gaudy, barbaric spendor
 In any case, the hoplite phalanx, unbeatable to it's front, was deployed in close array with additional hoplites and skirmishers held back to cover its flanks. The main body of Persian infantry, massed bowmen, deployed opposite the phalanx. The Persian horse and light troops deployed on either flank. Western Civilization hung in the balance.

The citizen warriors of Greece deploy in phalanx formation
As the phalanx rolled forward, the Persian arrow storm was having an effect. Casualties were insignificant, but the solid Greek formation was breaking up here and there, slowing the advance. Meanwhile, the Persian horse and light troops moved on both flanks and were met by the hoplite reserves supported by skirmishers.

Why won't those Persians impale themselves on our spears like men?
Things started to go wrong for the Greeks on their right flank. While a solid line of hoplites is a difficult proposition for Persians, small formations of hoplites screening the flanks are subject to being swarmed by the fast moving barbarians, and so it was that casualties mounted on both sides in a series of small actions on the Greek right. In the end, the Persians won by the narrowest of margins and Hamlinopolis received its new Satrap while muttering salty comments about being betrayed by the gods.

The rules we used for this game were DBA. There were 18 elements per side. Elements were 6" wide and depth varied by troop type. The hoplites had 16 figures in 2 ranks per element and the Persian massed bow units had 18 archers fronted by 6 spearmen on a double depth base. Other troop types were scaled appropriately. We like our DBA like this. As long as the base widths are the same, the depth to width ratio the same as in the rules and distances kept in proportion to base widths, everything works and the visual effect is spectacular.