Chaeonian Guard's?

[toxicseagull]

first off, im having a wonderful time at the moment playing the epeiros, facing both pontus and getai with little resources, i have got to the level of being able to employ Chaeonian Guard's and it got me wondering as i had never heard of such a unit.

now i know they are not the most reliable sources etc but they usually throw something up. i both googled and wiki'd them and i got nothing. apart from referances to them in warhammer and this game.

were did you guys get them from? personally i love them, i just managed to win a massive attack from the getai (4000+) with my 2000 and them and only two other units were left standing.

would love to know more about them?

[davepyne]

maybe its an alternate spelling of Cheronia aka Chaeronea, Χαιρώνεια Khairṓneia in Greek, which is a city in Boeotia aka Beotia near Thebes. There's a very brief article on wikipedia on that city here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaeronea

[Sarcasm]

I believe the Chaeones were one of the three Greek tribes that composed Epeiros, the others being the Molossians and Thesprotians.

It was the main one and that which the leader of the kingdom was part of, hence why they constituted his elite forces.

Anyway, I'll let a proper hellenism expert answer this one properly.

[toxicseagull]

thanks for the link,

so are there any hellenic experts to answear my plea? :)

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Our unit leader (especially for the Hellenic factions) is out for the week. Sorry. I've just about given up on saying anything about specific units, but Sarcasm is right in what he has said about the ethnic division of Hellenes known as the Chaeones, and that they were one of the three main divisions of the ruling Epeirotes. Playing as Epeiros you'll see a description of the ethnicity as one of the traits your generals can get - and it's got a good description of them.

[toxicseagull]

hehe ill try and find some, tho my army at the moment is so spread out, i have spartans hellentics asia minor, italian etc .

[Krusader]

first off, im having a wonderful time at the moment playing the epeiros, facing both pontus and getai with little resources, i have got to the level of being able to employ Chaeonian Guard's and it got me wondering as i had never heard of such a unit.

now i know they are not the most reliable sources etc but they usually throw something up. i both googled and wiki'd them and i got nothing. apart from referances to them in warhammer and this game.

were did you guys get them from? personally i love them, i just managed to win a massive attack from the getai (4000+) with my 2000 and them and only two other units were left standing.

would love to know more about them?

I'm not sure, but I think that the Chaeonian Guard were established by Pyrrhos or earlier by Alexander (Uncle of Alexander the Great, brother of Olympias who was wife to Phillip II) to serve as bodyguards for the King of Epiros and they were modelled upon the phalangitai of neighbouring Makedonia.
They might have received their name Chaeonian Guard because the first guardsmen were Chaeonians. :laugh4:

I would still wait for an answer from our Hellenic expert though.

[Byzantine Prince]

Well there isn't much to be known about this really. It's pretty obscure. Chaon was the province in the north west of Epeiros and also contained the capital. So they were the guards of the capital city and they were of higher quality than the other troops. Can't think of anything else.

[paullus]

Y'all got me curious, so I went and found 'em. They're mentioned in Plutarch's life of Pyrrhus at 28.2, in the battle at Sparta. They're described as the "Chaonon logados," the picked men of the Chaonians. They were mobile enough to be used by Ptolemaios in an attempt to get around the edge of the trench outside the city, along with 2000 Gauls, but they were also heavy enough to participate in a pretty ferocious fight with Akrotatos' 300, which they eventually lost. That's about all I know about 'em.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

That's not exactly a great resume I'd say. :grin: Quite embarassing actually.

[paullus]

I didn't say it was good...and besides, maybe there were only 300 of the Chaonians, too...its hard to say from the text who was really in the fight against Akrotatos, who presumably had more men on his side than his 300 (they would be his hippeis, ya know? they crossed town with him to get there, too), but the Gauls were breaking up the barriers, and it seems like the Chaonians basically get flanked, try to respond, eventually get pushed back out of the breach, and all with a great deal of carnage. Wonderful stuff!

But not a great resume...true.

[toxicseagull]

wow, thats great paullus, thats the kinda thing i was after. :) *waits for expert input*.... "i have waited and travelled far master......."

[Slider6977]

Little off-topic, but why is the Chaeonian guard unit only 160 men strong on huge unit size. After all, they are a pikemen unit. Is this intentional.

[toxicseagull]

i figured becouse they are elite? are the other elite pikemen short staffed? they look so pretty as well, was wondering were they got the red cloaks etc from?