The Sucessors Armies

[JP Vieira]

After Alexander the Great’s death, his immense empire was divided among his Generals.
The armies those successors fielded owe much to the Macedonian army tradition mixed with local characteristics.
The Phalanx was the cornerstone of those armies.
Next we can see a Ptolemaic Phalangite.




A local innovation was the introduction of war elephants http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/jp_vieiras_portfolio/picture31921.aspx such was the case of Seleucids.
Mercenaries were also used in some numbers and Celts were among the people used on this task.http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpos...ture43376.aspx

[LordShiva]

That's a big-ass spear

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by LordShiva
That's a big-ass spear

Seems I remember reading about or maybe watching on History Channel about the long spears being a keey to the Phalanx success

The thing I remember most was how it could reach out and touch someone while in a tight battle formation

Gramps

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Grandpa Troll

Seems I remember reading about or maybe watching on History Channel about the long spears being a keey to the Phalanx success

The thing I remember most was how it could reach out and touch someone while in a tight battle formation

Gramps

Right. The Macedonians kicked ass because their spears were longer than everyone else's (and IIRC, they had three lines of spearmen, as compared to the usual two).

Also, the phalanx was an offensive formation, not a defensive one as used in Civ. Just imagine if three lines of spearmen came charging at you. It'd suddenly seem like a spendid time to head for Albuquerque.

[Ecthy]

Vieira, those are nice images

Are you now the successor to that-guy-famous-for-military-history-drawings who just died recently...

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Vieira, those are nice images

Are you now the successor to that-guy-famous-for-military-history-drawings who just died recently...

Being??

Ps: For an infantryman, his body armour is a bit light. His linen armour would reach down a lot lower. At least more than is shown on the picture.

That's just me the amateur archaeologist talking. Maybe this is an interesting topic to involve the professionals in!

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Right. The Macedonians kicked ass because their spears were longer than everyone else's (and IIRC, they had three lines of spearmen, as compared to the usual two).

Also, the phalanx was an offensive formation, not a defensive one as used in Civ. Just imagine if three lines of spearmen came charging at you. It'd suddenly seem like a spendid time to head for Albuquerque.

They didn't "charge". If they would, they would lose their formation and their whole strength. Instead they kept together and didn't make hasty attempts at defeating the enemy. That was its great skill as it was impossible to demoralize them as long as they stayed together. In effect they were quite impossible to vanquish in that formation. All what was needed is a disruption in their formation, be it elephant terror, a tactical and quick, and evasive action in enemy territory etc.

(From my personal experience, it doesn't look very good, furthermore the way it is handled doesn't add much to the confidence. I hope thing's'll work out. I'll pass out some more tips to the cons so they might think twice about doing this or that. I really hope they follow up this advice; after all it's their ticket out of here!!

[Traianvs]

Of course that last post should've been in the past tense
excuse meh the drunkinees

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Traianvs


They didn't "charge". If they would, they would lose their formation and their whole strength. Instead they kept together and didn't make hasty attempts at defeating the enemy. That was its great skill as it was impossible to demoralize them as long as they stayed together. In effect they were quite impossible to vanquish in that formation. All what was needed is a disruption in their formation, be it elephant terror, a tactical and quick, and evasive action in enemy territory etc.

...

Which made the Phalanxes less effective during the fights in italy.

Phalanxes are best used on flat terrain, in hilly terrain, like in italy, they have to be careful not to loose their formation

[JP Vieira]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Traianvs



Being??

I believe Echty is talking about the great Angus McBride; more than a sucessor I am a big fan of his work; I wope to improve my work as much as possible and work toward that goal every day.
Thanks for the comments

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Traianvs
From my personal experience, it doesn't look very good, furthermore the way it is handled doesn't add much to the confidence. I hope thing's'll work out. I'll pass out some more tips to the cons so they might think twice about doing this or that. I really hope they follow up this advice; after all it's their ticket out of here!!

Umm... WTF?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST


Which made the Phalanxes less effective during the fights in italy.

Phalanxes are best used on flat terrain, in hilly terrain, like in italy, they have to be careful not to loose their formation

Greece isn't hilly? Battles were often fought on what plains could be found, or quite often one of the armies would chose a hill to defend.

The flaw in the idea of the long spear is that if the opponent canpush it up over or down under his shield the spearman becomes weaponless. The Romans used their huge shields for this purpose. The spears of the greek phalanx had no where to go but up or down, then the Romans closed with their short swords and got biblical on their buttocks.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Umm... WTF?

I know, I was mad drunk when I wrote that. I have no idea why I wrote that drivel

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Right. The Macedonians kicked ass because their spears were longer than everyone else's (and IIRC, they had three lines of spearmen, as compared to the usual two).

Also, the phalanx was an offensive formation, not a defensive one as used in Civ. Just imagine if three lines of spearmen came charging at you. It'd suddenly seem like a spendid time to head for Albuquerque.

Well, hoplites usually had spears, not just the first three lines in a phalanx. Though in a Macedonian phalanx (and in those of the Diadochi, Alex' successors) the first lines had this long pike-style thing as seen in the pic, called sarissa.

As for the phalanx being offensive or defensive - well, it could be used for both. Which was quite useful when two phalanges met, for example in battles between Greek poleis. Imagine both side were just fighting defensively.

[Proteus_MST]

If I remember corectly the Anabasis of Xenophon includes a nice account about the impression that an advancing phalanx leaves on those not accustomed to it