The Pyrrhic Dynasty : A Makedonian AAR

[Reverend Joe]

Wow! That's about the modern estimate for the Persian force at Thermopylae
Ofc, I'm sure various Makedonian historians will "correct" that number to one much more glorious.

Actually, I think the thing that would make this so impressive would not be the number of troops so much (which is damn impressive anyway, if we're comparing it to Thermopylae) but the fact that they will not be marching together, but rather in multiple groups in a coordinated invasion.

Now that's unprecedented.

[Cbvani]

Time for a good old fashioned expedition to the Indus.

[Chirurgeon]

So it begins...Excellent job MAA...I am truly ready for a fight of the ages!!

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Thanks for the comments.

I wanted to wait on responding to comments about Democracy and reform until this chapter was posted. As you can see, they are far less democratic and far more Machelavelian. The province system and official council did get some inspiration from Roma. Philippos was raised in Italy and spent the time from about when he was 5 to 15 within the city of Roma itself. Between his experiences in Italy and his love of all things Athenian, I made this reform. In the end, the Arche was just too large for one man to efficiently control without a complex system of beurocracy and centralized loyal government.

I estimated the army strength at about 220,000. (12.5x for infantry, 8x for cavalry, and about 10x for auxileries) Although, the total force is stretched out along a front longer than 1,000 kilometers and has never gathered in a single location. I gathered about five full armies for my "Syrian Invasion" that ended the civil war and Philippos had four armies in Pannonia a few chapters back, so this isn't the first time I've gathered a huge force. This is probably the biggest army I've ever assembled, though (especially if you include the reinforcements and replacements in the city of Edessa you can see there and Palmyra you can't see).

I have been quite fortunate to get three great leaders in a row. So far the Pyrrhic Dynasty has had Pyrrhos II, who was a great general; Philippos V who followed in his father's footsteps, ended the civil war, and reformed the Arche; and (Alypios) Antigonos III who is turning out to be a good general and leader if a bit overly noble. You're probably right, Hippostratus will probably turn out to ruin everything that his line created and cause all kinds of trouble. We shall see, and hopefully Alypios will have another son or two so I can have a couple to choose between.

[Dutchhoplite]

I hope this will not the walkover it looks to be ;)

[General Appo]

Thank God, for a minute there I thought Phillipos was actually going democratic.

[Subotan]

Actually, I think the thing that would make this so impressive would not be the number of troops so much (which is damn impressive anyway, if we're comparing it to Thermopylae) but the fact that they will not be marching together, but rather in multiple groups in a coordinated invasion.

Now that's unprecedented.

Would that actually be possible in the Ancient World? I tried it on my glorious Epeiros campaign, with Operation Blue Storm which involved four armies blitzkreigen Anatolia as fast as possible, weaving in and out of each other to attack the Antigonids. The amount of communication and co-ordination required would be incredible, even for a front as narrow as Anatolia. For the 1000+ mile front the Phyrric Dynasty is planning, it would be unprecedented.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Philippos is definately not a democrat. His son is very similar to him, so you can expect similar governance in the next generation, too.

I've played the next four years of my campaign, which is actually many hours of gameplay. I've fought about ten battles and the Persians continue sending more armies at me. I may have to cut down on my goals for the war, but you will all see.

It may be impossible to have this many men in the ancient world, both for reasons of supply and communitcation. I'm trying to keep things simple for roleplaying, though. As far as Babylonia is concerned, the orders to the armies are quite simple. Philippos is to go in ahead of the rest and then the other four armies are to move up opposite sides of each river and fight anything that was passed by. Their orders are simply to move slowly to the gulf and stop advancing if you hear one of the other armies has been delayed. In Armenia, things are a bit more difficult to coordinate. We shall see if it all works out.

I hadn't editted my pictures of a while and the last chapter caught up with my editting. So, I've been editting hundreds of pictures and have finally gotten to the writing stage of the AAR. Not sure when I'll have it up, but don't expect anything exciting unless you like battle reviews.

[Subotan]

By Ahura Mazda, you put so much effort into this.