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Alexandrian Macedonian - DBA 36
(355-330 BC)
By Jonathan Lim
This army encompasses the Macedonian Kingdom of Phillip II from the birth of Alexander in 356 BC until he became king following the death of Phillip in 336 BC. It includes Alexander's assertion of authority over his unruly Illyrian and Greek subjects followed by the long planned invasion of Persia culminating in the flight of Darius and Alexander's capture of Persepolis in 330 BC.
Army Composition
The Macedonian army is comprised of 1 x Knight (Alexander's Companion Cavalry), 2 x Cavalry (Thessalonian), 1 x Light Horse (Thracian/Prodromoi), 4 x Pikes (Sarissa-armed Foot Companions Phalanx), 1 x Auxilia or Spear (Hypaspists), 1 x Psiloi (Cretan Archers), 1 x Psiloi (Agrianes javelinmen), and 1 Spear (Greek Hoplites), Auxilia or Artillery elements.
Enemies
The enemies of Alexander's pre-Imperial army are Illyria (#26), Thrace (#27), Later Hoplite Greek (32) and Later Achaemenid Persian (#33). Missing from the list are Phillip's campaigns against the Skythians (#25) during Alexander's youth.
Tactics
One of the nice things about having the army of Alexander the Great is of
course the chance to emulate some of the most brilliant tactics in history.
Even when outnumbered an alleged 20 to 1, Alexander the Great managed to
rout the enemy!
Well, first of all it's best to read the ancient sources. You can pick up
a cheap translation of Arrian at any bookshop (just say you're studying
history or something...) Alternatively, read the history of Quintus Curtius
Rufus, also available in Penguin Classics. Others include Plutarch's short
biography, and the works of Justin and Diodorus Siculus - though where
you're going to get the last two I don't know.
An excellent source on video is The Great Commanders series, which has
its first episode about Alexander at the Battle of Issus, with cool VR
graphics.
Anyway, on to tactics. Alexander's army is quite complex, because it's a
combined arms type of army, with important roles given to all components.
The traditional Macedonian tactic is to put the phalanx in the centre of
the army on flat ground. On the left is placed the Thessalian cav, and on
the right, Alexander's Companion cav and light horses. Screening the army,
or placed on rough ground, are the many light troops.
The way the traditional tactic worked is this: The phalanx would use its
formidable array of pikes to hold off the enemy. The Companions would
charge at the left wing of the enemy, supported by light horse. They would
crush the wing, then the pikes would advance while the Companions turned
inwards to strike at the enemy centre. The Thessalians would attack less
strongly on their side, but would help pursue the beaten foe, or defend
against an attempted enemy assault in that sector.
The most striking and classic use of this tactic was at Issus where
everything went along nicely. Sadly this wasn't always the case; at
Gaugamela Alexander was outnumbered a nauseating 20 to 1, and was not this
time in an enclosed battlefield...Gaugamela was fought on a flat plain
where the Persians could make good use of their advantage in numbers.
Here Alexander deployed the same way, but advanced obliquely, causing the
Persians to send their cav to prevent an outflanking. Alexander sent his
allied cav to hold off the Persian counterattack, along with light horse.
More and more Persians were sent out to prevent an outflanking....This
weakened the centre, where Alexander smashed through with his Companion Cav
(or Kn). Unbelievably, the entire Persian army was annihilated - again!
Sadly Alexander couldn't pursue and capture Darius - as at Issus, the left
wing was under pressure, and he couldn't risk a rout himself. However, the
Persians on this wing suffered a low PIP roll and fled too...I know you can't be outnumbered 20 to 1 in DBA... (hmmmm...there's an interesting idea....!!!)
Finally we come to the fourth "great battle" - the battle of the Hydaspes,
against King Poros the Indian. Here, Alexander couldn't charge directly at
the enemy due to elephants screening the main force. He couldn't advance
with Pk alone for fear of the phalanx being outflanked by Indian cav. So he
lured the enemy cav out with his right wing cav. His left wing cav swung in
and hit those cav in the rear; they were hit for six, and the inf advanced.
When the elephants were hit for six, too (and that's one hell of a shot!),
Alexander ourflanked the Indian army with his cav and crushed them. I know
this is strictly speaking the Alexandrian Imperial Army, (and, yes, low pip
roll=demoralised is for DBM only) but I reckon it's a jolly good tactic.
I have left out the Battle of Granicus due to lack of evidence. Also, many
other battles are described in the sources. These are minor battles - only
2000 per side or so - but they are also interesting. Read, read, read.
Anyway, hope that helps all you aspiring world-conquerers out there. Just
stick to the terrain table and don't bother about conquering the real world
- it's too big.
Painting Guide
Ahh...the glories of the ancient world, and all that. When Alexander the
Great (or, Accursed) set out from his palace to conquer the known world, he
was only 20 years old. A couple of years later - 11 to be exact - he had,
much to the disgust of cartoon villains everywhere, done exactly that.
Sadly, he died, and we are left with a man who was the proverbial Conquerer.
But ever tried to find info on uniform colours? It was, for me, a difficult
and lengthy task. Eventually though, I found the excellent Osprey guide.
But, remembering the days when I was shuffling through a million books
looking for info, I decided to say a few words on the topic for those of us
who would probably conquer the known world to get a few uniform colours.
First of all, I must sadly say that this army has what is probably the
ugliest uniform in existence. Alexander probably didn't have to do much
fighting - one look at this lilac-coloured horde would have sent the
Persians into hysterics. If you don't want your army to look like a lot of
lavender bushes, you might want to use stronger colours than what I describe.
Pezetairoi: The Pezetairoi, or Foot Companions, were the pike-armed central core of Alexander's army. The colours are:
- HELMET: The Phrygian-style helmet (looking like a Smurf hat in bronze) was
either painted electric blue or left in bronze. The back flap of the helmet
was painted in a different colour, presumably unit colours. Officers had an
odd curl of white paint on both sides of the blue helmet. Most soldiers had
two plumes of feathers on both sides of the helmet, extending from tubes
near the cheek-hinges. The feathers pointed up, and were large and white.
- CUIRASS: The cuirass was a nauseating mix of colours. Usually it was
lilac-coloured with a band of dyed yellow around the upper chest. This band
was about a foot across, and extended all the way around. The edges of the
cuirass were bright red tubing. Sometimes the cuirass was red with yellow
band and tubing - this may represent an officer.
- PTERUGES: These were leather, dyed bright yellow, with white, red or blue
stripes at their ends.
- TUNICS: These were red or purple. Purple was for elite units. (?)
Hypaspists: These dressed much like pezetairoi except maybe with no armour, maybe with purple helmets/tunics. They MAY have had spears, not Pikes.
Companions:
- HELMET: Beotian helmet, bronze or silvered, with big white horsehair plume
and/or gold/silver wreaths for bravery.
- CUIRASS: White, with grey shoulder flaps, belt in unit colour, iron scales
below belt. Red tubing on shoulder flaps. Often cuirasses not worn.
- PTERUGES: White, black double stripes at bottom.
- TUNIC: Lilac, long sleeves.
- CLOAK: Yellow with wide lilac border for the normal fellows, lilac with
yellow border for the important ones.
Unit colours were, apparently, green, red, yellow. Maybe others.
Thessalonian Cavalry: Much the same, except simpler white cuirass or no cuirass. Darker purples (thank God), no yellow border on cloak, only white border.
Prodromoi: Light horse, used for skirmishing/scouting.
- HELMET: Rose coloured phrygian helmet.
- TUNIC: Yellow sleeves, torso from top to bottom was: Light blue band one
foot wide, rose band two feet wide, another light blue band, then a dark
blue band at bottom.
- CLOAK: Rose coloured (yuck).
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Comments, questions or suggested additions to this page can be sent to Chris Brantley, brant@erols.com.
Last Updated: March 30, 1999
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