Quote Originally Posted by paullus View Post
they didn't have the mounted capacity they had formerly had in Alexander's time. But if you'll look, my list advised one unit of companions (the somatophylakes) and 2-3 other cavalry units, so 3-4 total.

Bear in mind that even in the time of Philip II and Alexander, when the Macedonian cavalry had been considerably strengthened (more than tripled in size, perhaps) and supplemented with Thessalian cavalry as well, they didn't have a huuge number of cavalry:
Chaeronea - 2,000 cavalry, a little more than 6% of the total force (one unit, maybe 2, in a full stack in EB)
Granicus - 5,000 cavalry, or just over 10% of the total force (2, maybe 3 units in a full stack in EB)
Guagamela - perhaps 7,000 cavalry, or about 15% of the total force (3-5 units in a full stack in EB)

Cavalry made up roughly 8% of the Macedonian army at Cynoscephalae, and a little over 10% at Pydna.
Quite, although of course the Successors were to some extent in terminal decline after Alexander's death. Macedonia's position at game starty resembles the situation in 359 BC to a certain degree, but another Philippos II could have reversed that.

In other words I personally think it is permissable to raise the quantity of cavalry and regular line troops when your empire is stable and on the Up.

Generally my Makedonian Armies leave the Depy like this:

1 General
1 Hetairoi
1 Thessalian
1 Thrakkioi Prodomoi
1 Hippeis Thrakkioi
2 Argaraspides
4 Pezhetaroi
1 Hypaspists
2 Agrianans
2 Thrakkioi Peltastoi
1 Peltastoi
1 Hellenic Slingers
1 Kretan Archers
1 Peltastoi Makedonioi


Excuse my mangling of Greek, that's the basic set up, armies in the East tend to aquire losts of Persian archers and lose their peltasts. sometimes the cavalry contingent will rise as the psiloi drop off and I end up with a serious hammer for the anvil, generally phalangites replace losses in other units as the casualties mount up. I've coloured it to demonstrate the breakdown, Hellenic troops, Makedonian Royal and Regular troops and non-Hellenic vassels. It's more of a concept than a fixed breakdown.