Alexander campaign notes

[GiveWarAchance]

I'm doing the Alexander campaign now. I like all the campaigns but this might be the funnest one yet I think. Very high bodycount, good units and very crafty enemies that take me to the limit of my ability to stay on my feet in a fight.
I had to retry the first battle a few times cause I got whooped but good.
I like these campaigns a lot more than MP games cause the MP games usually turn into ballroom dances with players forever twirling around desperately trying to set up flank attacks.
I'm on the second battle against the Carthaginians having a lovely battle.
Why they don't have elephants or maybe they get them in later fights.
Is it cause of the different era or different leadership?
Their army is strong enough as it is so I'm not a masochist wanting to be stomped on by elephants but just curious.

[julianbarker]

As it was Alexander's successors who brought elephant warfare to the Med from India, why would they have elephants before Alexander had a chance to bring them himself?

[rbodleyscott]

The Carthaginians only started using war elephants after the war with Pyrrhos of Epeiros - about 40 years after the hypothetical events of the "what if" Alexander campaign.

[GiveWarAchance]

Thank you. Good to know that.

[GiveWarAchance]

The garrison duty requires a lot of troops in this campaign so I have to redo a battle to try and not lose so many casualties cause all my reinforcement points were expended on refilling so I will lose about 10 units including some elite phalanxs, archers and my 2 beloved artillery and can't buy new ones. I'm not sure though cause I only lost 3% casualties in the last battle. Maybe this campaign is designed to make the player's core army shrink catastrophically over time.

[rbodleyscott]

The garrison duty requires a lot of troops in this campaign so I have to redo a battle to try and not lose so many casualties cause all my reinforcement points were expended on refilling so I will lose about 10 units and can't buy new ones. I'm not sure though cause I only lost 3% casualties in the last battle. Maybe this campaign is designed to make the player's core army shrink over time.

Unlike the sandbox campaigns, the historical campaign battles do not necessarily get progressively larger each time, and some may be smaller than the previous one.

In that case, the game has no option but to make you leave some troops behind.

In the Alexander campaign, the campaign text gives you a "historical" explanation for the stages when this happens. Carthage was a major state, and you would certainly need to leave plenty of troops in garrison, to prevent it revolting. Hence the army available for the invasion of Spain is significantly smaller.

As an actual historical example, Alexander left half of the Macedonian army behind when he invaded Persia, partly to protect Macedonia, but also to prevent the Greek states from revolting. He also took many Greek troops with him, as "semi-hostages".

Think of leaving garrisons not as an imposition, but as an opportunity to refine the composition of your field army. As Alexander did historically, leaving the less effective troops behind as he advanced. These are strategic decisions that every historical general had to make.

[GiveWarAchance]

Okay Spain needs a smaller army. My pain was that I loved all my army and I had to leave behind stuff that was really good like the stuff I mentioned so I left behind elite units cause they are worth more and my other units should progress to elite later. The one unit I could never part with are the amazing indian archers, even though they are very hard to preserve cause the enemy loves to hound them and they don't evade attacks I think cause they are large units.

[GiveWarAchance]

I redid that part and I dropped off 11 units mostly damaged elite & superior phalanxs and light cavalry and stuff, and I chose numidian allies. I think it is better cause I still have my 2 artillery batteries and 2 elephants which i lost on the previous drop but only 3 phalanxs left. I chose the Numidian ally branch.

[GiveWarAchance]

The Spanish really have a beef with Indian archers. I put 2 indian archer units on a nice big hill behind a ad hoc group of stuff to shield them while they innocently potted away at the badguys from a safe distance. The badguys attacked uphill, chopped through the protective layer and then when hellbent after the innocent indian archers. Each volley they fired, they backpeddled one square before firing but it was all in vain. The sadistic Spanish massacred my indian archers making one unit disperse and the other ran from the field after taking a terrible beating. I sent 2 phalanx and Alexander himself with lancers to help by attacking up the steep hill against the badguys who are king of hill now. And all along the rest of the line, the Spanish are breaking up under heavy arrow fire and elephant & phalanx attacks (only 2 elephants and 1 phalanx attacking there now). I wonder why the Spanish have such a beef with my indian archers?

[vakarr]

You can now try the Chandragupta campaign for the ultimate in Indian archer practice

[fuzzayd]

The battle again the hordes of scutarii is good fun. I kept my core force and reinforced them, so I charged with five good phalanx and some supporting hoplites and that was all she wrote. Had a nice moment with my general Epiktetos holding the top of a hill and fragmenting an enemy scutarii and then a general.

Can't say enough good things about this DLC and this campaign in particular. Having a great time.

[GiveWarAchance]

Ya it is a very good campaign. My core is weaker with only 3 phalanxs but more archers so I need to cut down the badguys with volleys of arrows before going melee. In that hill fight, I was using a screen of light javelin units both the throw/evade kind and the melee kind. I was hoping the hill will give my irregulars enough grit to hold their own while my beloved indian archers culled the scutariis by the hundreds. I have (had.... one dispersed) 3 of the precious indian archer units.

[GiveWarAchance]

You can now try the Chandragupta campaign for the ultimate in Indian archer practice

Where is this campaign? I don't remember seeing it in the list.

[rbodleyscott]

You can now try the Chandragupta campaign for the ultimate in Indian archer practice

Where is this campaign? I don't remember seeing it in the list.

It was added to the user content last weekend. Check the user content button near the top left on the main menu page, epic battles or campaigns pages.

[GiveWarAchance]

Okay thanks. I love having more campaigns.

[GiveWarAchance]

Here is the hill situation, though a bit after my hapless indian archers were massacred upon the heights. On the left side of the picture you can see the carpet of dead Indians in their fancy green shorts that lay alongside the carnage of other troops that fought over the dusty hills for no reason other than to lay down a carpet and provide Alexander with another battle to enjoy.
My one remaining indian archer unit has joined a line of archer units nearby that keeps the badguys under a constant hail of fire, while my phalanx climbs uphill to save the Indians that no longer exist in terrain absolutely inappropriate for phalanx operations. They are trying to squeeze up a rocky gorge on ground even animals like bighorn sheep find somewhat challenging. The last of my defending light troops on the hill are enjoying their last turn there before being seen off the hill in the coming turn.
My light cavalry unit behind the badguys pecks away at their backsides constantly like an angry goose both with ranged and melee attacks. The fighting has gone just as badly for the Spanish who have had a lot of units rout from this hill as well. The hill feels like Mamayev Kurgan with both sides feeding fresh units into the meat grinder.

[GiveWarAchance]

In my second battle against Rome (after I got smashed badly in the first battle), my phalanxs are being shredded immediately by the enemy hastati, especially the veteran ones. I know it is bad to fight the legions face-on but their legions outnumber my phalanx by exactly 3 to 1 so flanking them is absolutely out of the question, A major river going along one side further helps the Roman cause. On contact, my phalanxs lose between 97 to 120 troops plus lose cohesion and get pushed back while the Romans usually lose about 20 to 30 troops.

Note that I am not complaining with this post or suggesting anything is wrong, just showing what it is like to fight the Romans.

Here is a sample picture. Note that phalanx lost cohesion and was pushed back just after the photo was taken. My other phalanxs received the same treatment but I was able to square the two out in front on my turn which should help to mitigate the damage while my archers even the score bit by bit. My Indian archers are in the middle of the field knocking away at the Romans as they savagely rush towards my puny army.

[GiveWarAchance]

The veteran Hastati legion squeezes past the squared phalanxs now bereft of ZOC power and delivers a second smack to the same phalanx (superior quality) and routs it with a head on attack. It should be named the Mike Tyson Legion.

[SnuggleBunnies]

Is there a reason you didn't post those archers in that big patch of rough ground? Would give them some survivability vs the legions.

[GiveWarAchance]

I don't trust those archers in melee combat at all. They typically lose like 157 archers in single attacks and only cause at most 10 to the enemy. The rough ground would improve those numbers but I don't know by how much. Basically, archers in melee with legions is a horror show. My only chance of winning is by keeping the arrows airborne cause even with low ammo the indian & cretan archers are absolutely deadly and cause most of the losses I inflict on the Romans. The area to the right of the pictures is filled with cretan & horse archers. The Roman skirmishers have already been seen off the field and some legions break up starting on the next turn.