The Makedones were not noted for their ability to stand toe to toe in hoplite battle. Their army was made up of magnates and companions on horse, and a myriad of light armed followers on foot. While they could be effective countering Illyrian, Thracian, or Paiaone raids, they could not take on the city-states and hope to succeed.
Until Philippos Amuntou Makedonon, that is. An earlier king, Arkhelaos, had attempted to build an army of hoplites, but his effort died with him. The older brothers of Philippos, Alexandros and Perdikkas, may have attempted some reforms. But success came under Philippos. He reinvented the phalanx, taking as his models the tactical innovations of Eparninondas and Peolpidas at Thebai and of the Athenian general, 1phikrates, in Thrace. He went beyond their efforts to create a new combined arms warfare.
The Makedones phalanx was different from the Hellenic hoplite phalanx. A sarissa or pike replaced the spear. Instead of 7 to 9 feet in length, the pike was 18 to 20 feet in length. While carefully balanced, it required two hands to thrust. No hand was available for a shield. So the shield was reduced in size, hung on a strap, and, in battle, carried on the shoulder.
In formation, the basic unit was the syntagma of 256 men or 16 men by 16. Under Philippos, the ideal phalanx is made up of 64 syntagmai. In attack, the front five or six ranks thrust their pikes forward. Facing the advancing Makedones, each hoplite of the opposing front rank sees a cluster of pike blades slicing at him.
While the Makedones phalanx was a basic building block in Philippos' invention, it was only the anvil. Philippos' hammer was the reformed, disciplined heavy horseman. No southern Hellenic state could match the Makedones and their Thessaliote allies for the number and ability of their horsemen and the quality of their horses.
That was not all to Philippos' reforms. He lightened his men's armor, and he lightened his trains. The hoplite army was slow moving, with one or more non-combatant for every hoplite. A plodding army on the march, with heavily laden carts, forced to follow routes that could accommodate their carts and oxen or else forced to do the slow, hard labor of improving the road on the march. Philippos relied on mule trains. He increased his army's mobility significantly, often to the consternation of his enemies, who learned of his army's arrival before they expected it could reach them.
Philippos also was attentive to improvements in siegecraft. Hellenes were notably incompetent in conducting sieges and assaults on fortifications. The Assyrians of centuries earlier and the Romans in the centuries that followed were masters. Not the Hellenes - for them war's epitome was in the fight between hoplites on a level field.
The Makedones king gathered siege experts to aid his armies. The innovations in catapults of a generation earlier in Syrakuse were adopted and eventually improved. His engineers invented torsion catapults (using twisted hair or sinew) to smash walls. Yet their main value was in the support of assaults, as was his extensive use of archers and slingers. By concentrating heavy missile fire against the walls, he cleared them to permit successful assaults.
Translation into Game Mechanics
The game design emphasizes the combined arms nature of the Makedones warfare, especially the hammer of the heavy horsemen. The Makedones are also more mobile in the game, reflecting the logistical advantages created by the king. Their siegecraft is superior as well.
Yet Makedones' victory is not a certainty. The Hellenic hoplites having staying power. They are difficult to grind down, for though they don't have the offensive power of the Makedones P halanx, they are stronger on the defensive. They become vulnerable only to their enemy's combined arms.
Hoplites vs. Phalanx
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