Donate to the Lead Adventure Forum to keep it alive!
beside having some literary evidence of small heavy infantry detachment in Hellenistic times (and with various degree of success), c
Okay, going off my mind, need to dig out physical stuff and right now I am not in the mood, I just took a seat after switching stuff in the miniature boxes... it is July, I am lazy. but there are references to small groups of pikemens in the bible during the Maccabean insurrection. Some researcher interpreted them as thureophoroi too. Also there are references to pezetairoi involved in some flying columns during some of Alexander pacification operations after Gaugamela. The caveat here is that they were not dozens of troops, but small full fledged columns (I think a couple of thousands troops on the small side of estimates, and they included mounted units and light support. Now, this is not concrete evidence of skirmish phalanx, but certainly could make a case of plausible use of Phalanx units in smaller operations, beside the full fledged, whole army battles there were smaller operation that required a battle line, but were not the high stake (and high personalities) battles ancient historians loved. Not Macedonian, but in Thucydides and Xenophon there are mention to small columns with Hoplite contingents. Of course the big caveat is that if not properly supported they could be decimated (what Hiphicrates did at Corinth to the Spartans).
Hi,in the thoughts of not specialists people Macedonians soldiers are what you see in SPQR warband. But there were many other kind of troops... If you want a fun gamey game all Is ok, but please don't call It historical, unless You consider historical sorces TV series like BRITANNIA or games like Rome Total War. You use terms with a bit of confusion. Phalanx for example... Hoplites and macedonian pezetairoi are totally different
Hi guys!What to Say about this?http://www.warlordgames.com/collecting-spqr-darrens-macedonians/I was afraid It might happen... A macedonian phalanx in a skirmish, or warband if you prefer, situation. The macedonian general should be a fool. At the best would be completely useless, but probably a disaster in the real world. Totally Unreal...Davide
Hi Arrigo. It's not a matter of rules... A small detachement of pezetairoi armed with sarissae Simply don't work in the real world....
Realistically GW/Warlord/Etc are realising that people in this day and age (and possibly in the future depebding on economics etc) don't have time/money/space for bigger games. Skirmish and Warband games are the in thing. Will it cycle back ? Maybe. But if they want to keep up they need to go smaller and historicals will have to join them.
Hi,in the thoughts of not specialists people Macedonians soldiers are what you see in SPQR warband. But there were many other kind of troops... If you want a fun gamey game all Is ok, but please don't call It historical, unless You consider historical sorces TV series like BRITANNIA or games like Rome Total War. You use terms with a bit of confusion. Phalanx for example... Hoplites and macedonian pezetairoi are totally different. Well armoured with armour and big shield and armed (2m spear + sword) vs low or no armoured, a small shield, only a very small sword for melee and above all a long long pole (5/6m) that make a big and compact group of them virtually indistructible frontally but give a very very small manouvrability, totally incompatibile with skirmish tasks.(a small detachement of macedonian phalangites Is a dead detachement).As I said if you want to play only for fun Is All ok, but for me a skirmish macedonian phalanx Is like an artillery battery of WWI that charges enemy trenches.But I'm only a boring wargamer, with a degree in archaeology and a special interest in hellenism and above all Macedonia. Davide http://www.mondoclassico.it/
I posted what I've posted since After some answers After my indication about a matter of fact about the functionining of phalangites that Is incompatible with a skirmish /warband Wargame ("no, it's possibile..." or "you are the typical boring historical wargamer..." Are the Key concepts). Actually not, because I don't play historical wargames since are boring... I play fantasy skirmish. I have some DBA armies with some cms of dust above... (Hope for the best with Clash of Spears)The problem of the sarissae goes beyond simple historical accuracy. Historical accuracy maybe regards the problem if a small Number of Roman legionaries would be Better of the same small Number of gaulish/ german warriors... How can a man with a 5/6 meters long pole move fast and in difficult grounds or do other things other than stay in Place or Advance straightforward?If you want to play like this I have no problem, but do not pretend it's historical...Why Simply don't use light infantry or hypaspists in a Macedonian Alexandrian warband? Because in common thoughts Macedonians are Pikemen?