is my late macedonian army good

[alexandathegreat]

I starting f.o.g with alexanda macedonian I alltered it many times untill i got my ideal one. But i only hade 1x12 3x8 pike blocks which were to small to deal with big armies like spartans although he won by 2 points one block was fighting 2x6's and my 12 was fighting 3x6's. I then spotted late macedonian which are almost identical but more pike.

heres my 800pts 15mm army:

4bgs macedonian, cv, armoured, average, drilled, light sp, swordsmen 52pts
8bgs creatan archers lf, unprotected, superior, drilled, bow 48pts
8bgs javerlinmen lf, unprotected, average, drilled, javerlins, lightspear 32pts
8bgs javerlinmen lf, unprotected, average, drilled, javerlins, lightspear 32pts
8bgs thorakitai mf, armoured, average, drilled, offensive spear 80pts
12bgs leukaspides hf, protected, average, drilled, pike 72pts
12bgs leukaspides hf, protected, average, drilled, pike 72pts
12bgs leukaspides hf, protected, average, drilled, pike 72pts
12bgs leukaspides hf, protected, average, drilled, pike 72pts
8bgs agema hf, protected, superior, drilled, pike 64pts
8bgs agema hf, protected, superior, drilled, pike 64pts
tc 35pts
tc 35pts
tc 35pts
tc c-in-c 35pts
total 800pts

[hammy]

As pike armies go this is one of the better ones. You need to appreciate that everything in the army other than the pike is there to make sure that your pike actually get to fight.

You may find a second BG of medium foot is a good idea, while thureophoroi aren't as good as thorakitai they are still decent troops.

[pyrrhus]

just as a question how do you deal with light horse or shooty cav armies in general . I would think the light horse could just charge your light infantry screen and bow /bow cav could shoot it away . How do you deal with those ? ps I like the list just a question?

[hammy]

Against shooty light horse you either pivot and fight across the depth of the table, not the width or deploy the pike in a thin formation and hope to push the light horse off the table.

[jlopez]

Personally I'd have all pike blocks as 10 base BGs, drop one of the javelinmen BGs and with the spare points get a LH BG.

Against shooty cavalry/LH, deploy your pike BGs in three ranks (3-3-2 or 4-4-2 or 5-5-2 depending on BG size) and try and march off the table. With the Thorakitai and cavalry you cover something like 1,20m of the table. If there is enough terrain you may be able to just push them off frontally otherwise swing across the table to have the rear edges of the table as your flanks. Not an easy thing to bring off successfully against a competent player.

Julian

[pyrrhus]

I was thinking along the same lines hammy , but wouldn't deploying in a thin line make you more likely to get shot up? if not let me know ?

[hammy]

I was thinking along the same lines hammy , but wouldn't deploying in a thin line make you more likely to get shot up? if not let me know ?

Deploying wider does make you more vulnerable but you need to keep the light horse from getting behind you.

[OldenTired]

Against shooty light horse you either pivot and fight across the depth of the table, not the width or deploy the pike in a thin formation and hope to push the light horse off the table.

this almost worked versus a khazar army. unfortunately my outflank left one unit of 6 cavalry behind...

i wouldn't deploy the pike too thin though (3-deep max). all it does is increase the number of dice, and therefore losses.

[pyrrhus]

wouldn't the pike two ranks deep be the same as spear two ranks deep? for shooting and melee?

[philqw78]

wouldn't the pike two ranks deep be the same as spear two ranks deep

Pike need to be 3 ranks deep

[babyshark]

wouldn't the pike two ranks deep be the same as spear two ranks deep

Pike need to be 3 ranks deep

Clarification: Pk need to be three ranks deep in order to get a POA in impact or melee; Sp only need to be two ranks deep to get that same POA.

Marc

[alexandathegreat]

hi everyone i've decided to not use this army and gone for later selecuid [also a successor] chears for coments