Cav, # of bases for Alex....

[OhReally]

I'm in the poor shape of having my books ordered and them not being here.

I already have a fairly large Alexander army from DBx, but I can't find my Companion Cav only my Thess. So I'm going to order and paint up some companions and I'm curious how many bases I would normally be able to reasonably take in a normal to large army list.

I already have 6 bases of Thess, and about 10 of Thracian and handful of Prod. cav and plan on painting both some greek allied horse and persian allied horse depending upon which time period I feel like representing.

Any help would be appreciated.

[flameberge]

Well it depends if you are going to use the companions in conjunction with your Thessalians. The typical game is 800 points and companions are 17points each base and the Thessalians are the same if you choose to make them superior or 13 points each if only average. Four bases of Companions are mandatory in the list, the max BG size is 6 bases, and you can have a max of 12 bases of companions in your army. Hopefully that is enough info to help you make your choice. My thoughts would be you wouldn't need more than 6 bases of companions and I plan on only having one BG of 4 bases because for the cost of one BG of 6 bases of companions you could buy two 8-stand pike blocks and still have 6 points left over.

[OhReally]

I'll just paint up 12 bases then I'm covered for everything.

Thanks!

On a positive note I think my army book will arrive tomorrow! i think the stupid rule book just shipped today though...

[batesmotel]

Note that you are also allowed 4 stands of elite Agema (historically the most elite unit of Companions) in addition to the maximum of 12 stands of superior Companions. Also, the 12 stand maximum applies to the total number of stands of Companions plus Thessalians/Greek Mercenary Cavalry. Assuming you normally plan to use your Thessalians, you are probably fine with only 6-10 stands of lance armed Agema/Companions. If you do want to max out the number of lance armed cavalry in your army, you may want to go with 16 stands.

[OhReally]

Note that you are also allowed 4 stands of elite Agema (historically the most elite unit of Companions) in addition to the maximum of 12 stands of superior Companions. Also, the 12 stand maximum applies to the total number of stands of Companions plus Thessalians/Greek Mercenary Cavalry. Assuming you normally plan to use your Thessalians, you are probably fine with only 6-10 stands of lance armed Agema/Companions. If you do want to max out the number of lance armed cavalry in your army, you may want to go with 16 stands.

I'm a little confused about what you are saying I can take, hopefully my army book will be in tomorrow!

All of my Thessalians currently have a cavalry pike, which I'm guessing is just a lance in this system as will my Companions (of course). Are you saying the max is for the # of "lance" armed cavalry I have and not by the unit type?

[pezhetairoi]

Yeah I can see why you would be confused ... Some things said are wrong!
If you don't get your book here is the simple breakdown for the weekend.

You can have 12 bases of Thessalian/Companion cavalry total.
0-8 bases may be Thessalian.
4-6 bases are basic Companion cavalry (must have 4 bases at least!)
0-4 bases are Agema Companion cavalry.

So maximum 10 bases of companions, minimum 4 bases. You can have all 10 if you take no Thessalians.
If you want to use all 6 Thessalians, you can have 4-6 bases of basic companion cavalry (reaching your total of 12)
If you take only 4 bases of Thessalians, you can have 4 bases of Agema, and another 4 bases of Companions maximum, (reaching your total of 12).
If you love Thessalians (?) you can have 4 bases and another 4 bases, thus leaving you with 4 bases of basic Companions.

That should clear it up.

[flameberge]

Note that you are also allowed 4 stands of elite Agema (historically the most elite unit of Companions) in addition to the maximum of 12 stands of superior Companions. Also, the 12 stand maximum applies to the total number of stands of Companions plus Thessalians/Greek Mercenary Cavalry. Assuming you normally plan to use your Thessalians, you are probably fine with only 6-10 stands of lance armed Agema/Companions. If you do want to max out the number of lance armed cavalry in your army, you may want to go with 16 stands.

I'm a little confused about what you are saying I can take, hopefully my army book will be in tomorrow!

All of my Thessalians currently have a cavalry pike, which I'm guessing is just a lance in this system as will my Companions (of course). Are you saying the max is for the # of "lance" armed cavalry I have and not by the unit type?

Its done by unit type but in the rules the Thessalians are considered "Light Spear" because they wielded a shorter lance while the companions are "Lancers" because they wielded the 9' long xyston so the only difference on your models will probably be the length of the lance and how you paint them. Sorry for any confusion I should have been clearer. To make it simple if you want to be able to field absolutely any combination of heavy cavalry allowed by the list you would need 8 stands of Thessalians, 6 stands of companions, and 4 stands of Agema. How you want to make them look different is up to you since all the models will be about the same. I would suggest looking up the different ways the cloaks were colored and paint them accordingly. I think, but am not sure that the Thessalians had yellow cloaks with lilac trim and the Companions had lilac cloaks with yellow trim.

[OhReally]

Note that you are also allowed 4 stands of elite Agema (historically the most elite unit of Companions) in addition to the maximum of 12 stands of superior Companions. Also, the 12 stand maximum applies to the total number of stands of Companions plus Thessalians/Greek Mercenary Cavalry. Assuming you normally plan to use your Thessalians, you are probably fine with only 6-10 stands of lance armed Agema/Companions. If you do want to max out the number of lance armed cavalry in your army, you may want to go with 16 stands.

I'm a little confused about what you are saying I can take, hopefully my army book will be in tomorrow!

All of my Thessalians currently have a cavalry pike, which I'm guessing is just a lance in this system as will my Companions (of course). Are you saying the max is for the # of "lance" armed cavalry I have and not by the unit type?

Its done by unit type but in the rules the Thessalians are considered "Light Spear" because they wielded a shorter lance while the companions are "Lancers" because they wielded the 9' long xyston so the only difference on your models will probably be the length of the lance and how you paint them. Sorry for any confusion I should have been clearer. To make it simple if you want to be able to field absolutely any combination of heavy cavalry allowed by the list you would need 8 stands of Thessalians, 6 stands of companions, and 4 stands of Agema. How you want to make them look different is up to you since all the models will be about the same. I would suggest looking up the different ways the cloaks were colored and paint them accordingly. I think, but am not sure that the Thessalians had yellow cloaks with lilac trim and the Companions had lilac cloaks with yellow trim.

I wish I had my books in front of me, but I'm fairly certain that the Thess. were sometimes armed with the cavalry pike as were the LH on occasion (granted maybe not enough to be reflected in an army list). One of the books I got this from was an Osprey book on Alexander. I also think the Companions had the Yellow Cloak with the purple border and Thess. had the purple cloak with the white border.

I have not had coffee this morning yet though so I could be totally full of crap!

[flameberge]

I'm a little confused about what you are saying I can take, hopefully my army book will be in tomorrow!

All of my Thessalians currently have a cavalry pike, which I'm guessing is just a lance in this system as will my Companions (of course). Are you saying the max is for the # of "lance" armed cavalry I have and not by the unit type?

Its done by unit type but in the rules the Thessalians are considered "Light Spear" because they wielded a shorter lance while the companions are "Lancers" because they wielded the 9' long xyston so the only difference on your models will probably be the length of the lance and how you paint them. Sorry for any confusion I should have been clearer. To make it simple if you want to be able to field absolutely any combination of heavy cavalry allowed by the list you would need 8 stands of Thessalians, 6 stands of companions, and 4 stands of Agema. How you want to make them look different is up to you since all the models will be about the same. I would suggest looking up the different ways the cloaks were colored and paint them accordingly. I think, but am not sure that the Thessalians had yellow cloaks with lilac trim and the Companions had lilac cloaks with yellow trim.

I wish I had my books in front of me, but I'm fairly certain that the Thess. were sometimes armed with the cavalry pike as were the LH on occasion (granted maybe not enough to be reflected in an army list). One of the books I got this from was an Osprey book on Alexander. I also think the Companions had the Yellow Cloak with the purple border and Thess. had the purple cloak with the white border.

I have not had coffee this morning yet though so I could be totally full of crap!

I can't remember the colors of the cloaks either. From what I've read the Thessalians had a lance it was just shorter, I assume this is why the authors chose to make them light spear. As far the LH goes the Prodromoi are considered Lancers in the Alexandrian list, the other LH is not. Really the light spear cavalry perform as well as lancer cavalry they both just have a slight edge in different circumstances. For one the light spear cav aren't required to make a CMT test to resist charging without orders. Also I think the list allows for as much cavalry of the type you like as you could reasonably fit in a standard 800 point game, probably even a 1000 point game.