Macedonia and thorakati

[dbarger58]

why is it that macedonia didnt take the next step and use thorakati, just theurope, or are they recieving them in later builds
thx

[abou]

Makedonia had a more conservative military in our time frame. The Thureophoroi was about as far as they were willing to go in that direction. But hey, those Agriankioi are pretty wicked.

[Cash Staks]

But hey, those Agriankioi are pretty wicked.

You got that right. I'd rather have Agriankioi

[keravnos]

They stayed with the phallanx

Hysteroi Pezhetairoi, was the "evo" phallanx of theirs. And it wasn't the phallanx that failed, it was the fact that everyone with half a brain would flank it, and attack from every other direction, not the Kebab-izing front.

And the Romani, as you probably have guessed by now, have had MORE than half a brain.

[mAIOR]

ANd unfortunatly Makedonian rulers didn't... Wasn't in Pydna that Perseus fled with the entire right wing of cavalry before battle even started??

Cheers...

[paullus]

In his defense, he had to ride his horse a loooong way to get to where the action was, and he wanted to keep his cavalry rested so they could make a powerful charge, and so that nice little trot across the battlefield took a while...and the battle was being lost before he got in position (plus, by the time he got to a good vantage point, the charge would've been uphill! better to let the flower of his army get slaughtered than risk that uphill charge!), so he headed home.

[O'ETAIPOS]

First of all Makedonia do have simillar, even better unit - Pheraspidai.
And Mak Phalanx was not that bad as everyone "copy-paste" from Polybios statements, like that about flanking or that phalanx is useless on hills.

For the first: it's not so easy outflank battleline 2km long no matter what formation it is. Obviously if you have many more man, or brake units stationed on wings...
For the second: Sellasia happened on hills, with some fortifications, and even there Makedonian phalanx shown it's value.
At Kynoskefale Philip was also victorious, no matter hills, but roman line was 2 times longer, as 1/2 of the army arrived too late and in disorder.

[mAIOR]

Well, my statement was to attest to the Mak phalanx. And Perseus still is a bad commander if he allows the enemy to take the initiative before his man are stationed (yeah I don't like the guy that much :p I bet his grandfather sold a mule to my great-great-great-great...-grandfather who was limb and he knew it and ten refused to pay over!).
As for the phalanx, I like the way they are in EB. from the front, impossible to beat but if you flank them they are in a major major disadvantage.


Cheers...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

The thing about thorakati is that while they're more flexable they can't go toe to toe with the phalanx or reply cavalry as well. As a type of soldier intended to cover the gap between phalanx and cavalry their role was traditionally taken by more elite troops in the Macedonian army.

I suspect that from an Antigonid point of view they were really a bit of a gimmick and to be honest you don't need them in EB, you're better taking Thrakian or Thessalian Cavalry.

[mAIOR]

Well, they have a reason in other successor armies as they had more trouble finding the elite troops they needed (the bulk of their phalanx was made up by reservists) so, they had the manpower but not the quality I guess (not that the Torakitai were useless mind you!).


Cheers...