I´ve found parts of Bar-Kochva's book on the Seleucids on google books and John Warry stands here on the shelve.
Anyone more suggestions, sources or tips on the composition of Hellenistic armies??
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I´ve found parts of Bar-Kochva's book on the Seleucids on google books and John Warry stands here on the shelve.
Anyone more suggestions, sources or tips on the composition of Hellenistic armies??
there was a really good guide about that but I'm afraid I don't remember where I found it ...
I think it was in one of Quintus' AARs
bumpytidompity :bump:
no one has a clue?
or no one has the time-patience to explain? :huh2:
Try this thread.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=105811
I've been looking too. I've found a lot of wargame army lists ranging from the early armies, like the Eumenid, to the more "exotic" Cyrenaican Greeks.
I dont know how accurate these are but they *could* be used as a guideline. Here they are:
http://fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/index.html
And:
http://www.dbaol.com/armies.htm
The second link doesn't seem very accurate, from what I've seen of their Hungarian setups.
Edit: The first link isn't either. The thing to remember about early Hungarian armies, and even those well into the Christian kingdom period, is that infantry isn't mentioned at all in the historical sources. Apart from (presumably) using them as garrison troops for castles in the later period, they didn't form any part of the early Hungarian army (which was focused basically on fast looting raids into Europe, for which infantry is completely useless), so this "Slavic spearmen" or adding 8 spear units into the early Hungarian army is a dead give-away of a faulty source of info.
At least for the armies I know of, I would say that those are as accurate as they should be - for suggested army composition for wargamers that is, not correct historical OdBs of armies we often don't know very much about.
There is a generic formation that applies to most organized armies in history:
- Spearmen and other heavy infantry in the centre
- Missile units (and sometimes light cavalry) ahead of the main formation
- Light units and cavalry on the wings
I have set up some armies with EB units using the DBA compostions. I think, the results are quite reasonable. (units in a line mean "either"; not all possible units for each class are listed)
Early Karthagian
https://img244.imageshack.us/img244/...hfrhcg6.th.jpg
Later Karthagian
https://img257.imageshack.us/img257/...hsptpa2.th.jpg
Getai/Thrakian
https://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7784/getaizn2.th.jpg
Generic Eastern (Pontos, Armenia etc)
https://img440.imageshack.us/img440/...ternce7.th.jpg
KH early
https://img440.imageshack.us/img440/...partyi2.th.jpg
KH Eastern
https://img233.imageshack.us/img233/...hostui5.th.jpg
KH Later
https://img440.imageshack.us/img440/...hsptgt4.th.jpg
KH Western
https://img253.imageshack.us/img253/...westkf3.th.jpg
Ptolemaian
https://img233.imageshack.us/img233/...aiansm4.th.jpg
Seleucide
https://img369.imageshack.us/img369/...cidegq4.th.jpg
EDIT: And some more:
Epeiros
https://img377.imageshack.us/img377/...rroset8.th.jpg
Armenia
https://img79.imageshack.us/img79/81...eniads6.th.jpg
Makedonia
https://img377.imageshack.us/img377/...edonhf7.th.jpg
Baktria/Indo-Greek
https://img501.imageshack.us/img501/...triaei4.th.jpg
Pontos (Hellenic)
https://img501.imageshack.us/img501/...tnosha6.th.jpg
Wow, looks good Konny :)
Besides the one Konny mentioned i don´t think there are standard formations
For example: at gabiene (315 BC) Antigonus massed his heavy Thracian cavalry, elephants, light infantry and skirmishers on his right and advanced against Eumenes, while refusing his ''center'' infantry and his very small force of light horse on his far left flank.
So you could say that the Antigonid infantry actually formed his left flank ;)
Eumenes basicly used the same formation...
Historical formations need not to be the best for a game like EB anyways. For example I get the best out of Camillan Romans when using the Triarii as a Hoplites Phalanx in the centre and the Hastati as flankers. Also playing the Romans I got very good results using somewhat Alexandrian tactics in Spain with a massive cavalry attack on one wing.
EDIT: Charthagians used the Tactics of the army they had copied I would guess. That would be Greek Hoplite for the early army (of this is hardly anything known) and Successor style for the late army (yes, we all know about the exception at Cannae).