well, if it looked like i was personal, i was sorry..it was more meant of a (sarcastic)joke.
and about the glory of being butchered is, in a way, indeed dumb. but it's somehow heroic, i personally found it breathtakign to read how spartans(&allies)stood up against such a force, each man taking 10 persians with him. but at Thermopylae it was mostly a neccesity to atke that stand..dunno how futile it was in your book.

about gaugamela. it was a Victory of Alexander on Darius, on open field. alexander being outnumbered 1:2 or even 1:3 (Alex had 47.00 inf, and 7.00 cav. Darius is guessed between 100.00 and even 500.00). what actually happened isn't know. the dust was kicked up rapidly. and nobody coudl really notice what was goign on everywhere.
quite possibly Alexanders strategy of an echelon-phalanx with light cav on the left. and heavy cav+alexander on teh right.
it's not really a typical case of alex slaughtering teh Persians. Alexander didn't win, Darius just lost: Darius himself fled, and with him, a lot of his army. probably one section of darius his line refused, creating a gap in wich Alexander rushed to get to Darius. maybe soembody else can get it better..