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Mine is the army I just sent into Iberia. The last one was 600 men and 43 made it back after the siege of mastia went horribly wrong. I decided not to halfass the second invasion.
https://img363.imageshack.us/img363/5633/armynr3.jpg
Theirs also a long string of hoplites, axemen, light infantry and celto-hellenic infantry waiting just behind to reinforce this army.
friggin Awesome!!!!!!!
Cavalry is seriously missing, otherwise very fine and not to expensive.
In my experience the AI would immediately go for the cavalry on the left front. You really can't expose anything but your heaviest troops, because some AI family member or other heavy cav will crash into it first thing they do, guaranteed. That would bog down your cavalry in a melee you don't want to have it in generally.
I have fought full scale battles as the Makedonians, and my long line of phalangites was never touched, the AI is always going straight for the flanks, and most enthusiastically for any cavalry on the flanks. Maybe that's kind of smart, since otherwise I could do the Alexandrian hammer and anvil tactic much more easily. Why I have 6 units of Pezhetaroi (medium phalanx) in my army I don't really know, if I don't wheel them around they just stand there and twiddle their sarissas. Maybe to channel the AI into the fangs of even heavier troops on the flanks. :idea2:
I wanted more cavalry but I was still two turns from being able to recruit gallic light cavalry *awesome* and greek medium cavalry are goddawful. Also that formation was just being tested out in that battle and it didnt work at all.
how about this: imagine a forest of pikes, 77 files wide, 11 ranks deep, the right of it=Argyraspides, rest Peazhetairoi. now imagine royal guard units on the right, and thorakitai on the left, archers to the rear. add to this a giant cavalry charge (4-5units H-cav), that's my AS army 202BC as I took the title king of the world!!!!
Mine, Parthian campaign 167bc, VH/M, no retraining, large unit size:
General: faction leader (52 horsemen), gold chevroned, 9 stars, a bit old.
Two Grivpanvars (silver chevroned, still a bit "unexperienced"), slghtly depleted, about fourty horses per unit.
Two Armoured horse archers, full strenght, gold chevroned.
Four Noble horse archers, full strenght, gold chevroned.
Four Persian archers, silver chevroned, full strenght.
Naked swordsmen, full strenght, silver chevroned.
Two Parthian Hellenic infantery, silver chevroned and not outstanding by the way, 75% strenght.
and four units of the Bravest, Most Heroic, Cheap and Useful, the Kings of the Low Life Expectancy...
.... Pantodapoi Phalangitai, silver chevroned and meeting their fate damn easily.
Upkeep of this stack: I don't want to know about it.... likely to go down since this army has gone deep in KH's territory, heading to Byzantion.
My best, using the combined might of the united tribes:
2 FM (1 General, 1 "Apprentice")
2 Dacian light phalanx
2 Thracian elite (Rhomphoia)
4 Dacian falxmen
3 Thracian peltast
4 Scythian HA
2 Lugoan(sp?) swordsmen
1 Rhaetic axemen (ok, they're foreigners, but I like em)
Lots of high-lethality, ap weapon guys and some mobile archers that can chase surviving routers.
@PenguinLobster:could I make some suggestions about the formation you used?
The slingers will mow down your own troops if you leave them in the rear like that. If you place them in front of your line and retreat them before engaging in melee then they will be more useful. Also, they will help bait the enemy into the middle which is where you want them. Your middle looks rather weak. It might be a good idea to move some troops from the flanks to the middle as reserves.
As the Saby'n:
2 bodyguards
9 Red sea levies
9 Archer-spearmen
Relatively easy and cheap to build, recruit, maintain and replace and it handles the local Eleuthroi just fine. I've yet to try it out against a Diadochi faction but I think it could hold it's ground if I had some merc cav to support it.
I rarely build elite armies. Instead, the theatre of war usually has a dramatic impact on what kind of army I end up fielding.