Best W. Machine

[VAE VICTUS]

IN YOUR OWN OPINION WHO HAD THE BEST WAR MACHINE IN CLASSICAL TIMES?
no romans.they annoy me.

[IrishMike]

In Classical times. The Spartans hands down. They ruled their sphere of influence with absolute control for many many years. It wasn't untill Athens captured some Spartains on a island, that their inviciblility myth was cast aside. And who else could have pulled off Thermopolie. (excuse my spelling on that)

[ah_dut]

Me i think it was the Macedonian combined arms system. The macs had an unprececedented method of combat. This simply means that any one method is not as sucessful as combined arms.

[DemonArchangel]

Romans, hands down.

[Red Harvest]

I'll go with the Macedonian combined arms system as well. It had punch and it certainly had reach. Horse archers were probably it's most severe test.

In my view, Sparta fails because it was an overly specific war machine, meant to fight hoplites or other infantry. They were vulnerable to harrassment by skirmishers and had no effective counter. They lacked an effective navy, so their reach was limited. This deficiency was really illustrated at the island of Sphacteria (home ground) where they lost a small army to Athenian naval power and harassment by skirmishers. That actually brought about an end/intermission to a war that the Spartan allies had started. The other problem with Sparta's war machine is the same as the one that Japan had with its naval aviators in WWII--there was no way to replace losses in a timely fashion. So after a severe defeat or two the Spartan war machine would be broken. Contrast this with the Roman system (and the WWII U.S. system for training aviators.)

[discovery1]

The Mongols. No contest.

[Rosacrux redux]

The... Mongols in classical times? I believe they haven't gotten off the trees by that time.

Philipos' and Alexander's combined arms system, hands down. Spartans, albeit the best fighters of the classical world by a long lead, were not a superior war machine. The Romans are the second, then.

[Sjakihata]

Persians

[Redleg]

Me i think it was the Macedonian combined arms system. The macs had an unprececedented method of combat. This simply means that any one method is not as sucessful as combined arms.

I would also have to go with the Macedonians - they were the first to truely utilize the combined arms concept - or at least that is my humble opinion. The Romans also had an execellent war stragety - however I think the Macedonians were much better at using all of their available weapons and troop types on the battlefield in a combine arms sort of attack and manuver.