The Battle of Baghdad

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by grumbler
I really wanted to see the boomers weigh in with conventional (inert) warheads on SLBMs. Imagine the kinetic energy of a 2-ton warhead at Mach 14! Kinda hard to imagine what would be worth targeting with a $65 million missile, though.

Ah, hell, just pick a spot in the desert. We just want to see what kind of hole it can make.

[grumbler]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
It was surprising only because people didn't know, at the time, how effective the Greek weapons and tactics were. They were new (or at least fairly new), and hence one wouldn't have known them to be so powerful, especially as they had never been tried against an enemy on the scale of Persia.

I don't think this is true, either. The "March to the Sea" proved that Greek tactics could beat eastern tactics, and the Persians were hiring every Greek merc they could. I think the surprise was that which Ned pointed out - the Greek way didn't involve cavalry, and the combination of shock cavalry with shock infantry was the key Macedonian advance.