If I ever make mistakes in battles, it is siege battles where the AI has enough units to actually garrison a town. I remember fighting a Ptolie army with my AS army that had conquered all of the Levant and down the Nile with, were all silver and bronze chevroned, had Syrian archers, a unit of Peltastai Makedonikai, several Pezhaetaroi, and some Ioudaoi, Machimoi, Theurophoroi and Thorakitai. I sieged one of the southern Nile towns from the Ptolies, it was only a large town with wooden walls but unfortunately he posted his phalanxes up front so my archers were nearly worthless. I knocked four holes in the wall including the gate and rushed into the gate and the one immediately to the right with my spearmen. He countered by hitting them with masses of Pantodapoi who I thought would get slaughtered but held their ground surprisingly well, probably based on their numbers. He then flanked with a Machimoi phalanx while raining javilins down with Akontistai. My men went from Eager to Wavering in a heartbeat and I was forced to send in reserve Thorakitai through the gate to support and my Peltastai Maks through the hole to the left to flank. The PM's were especially useful but he countered with Galatian Heavys which stopped the wholesale slaughter of his Pantas. I wanted to flank the Machimoi Phalangites to my right which were butchering me but he had another posted in the other hole in the wall even further to the right. I sent in a native phalanx which decided to switch to axes and were promptly cut down but finally a unit of lowly, inexperienced Machimoi which I had recruited as filler swarmed around the phalangites and slaughtered them to a man. These then swung around and flanked the enemy phalanx which had now pushed to the gate and killed them off. Now I just had to fight through a swarm of Panta, Akontistai and the remnants of the Galatians. Finally I did with 4 PM's left, and a handful of Thorakitai and Machimoi. When I got to the town sqaure to confront his general and two more Machimoi Phalangites, I had next to no infantry left and had to use my Syrian archers and cavalry to finish off the battle. I lost over 2/3 of my army to a weakened garrison consisting mostly of Pantadapoi, Machimoi Phalangitai and Akontistai. It was embarrassing and ensured the survival of the Ptolies for about another 40 years.

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