Historical (Alexandrian) army make-up?

[tumbitiger]

Was wondering what composition would be deemed as historically accurate as far as DEI allows?

Was thinking somewhere along the lines of

2x Companion Cav
1x Thessalian Cav
1x Foot Companions
1x Shield bearer
7x Pikemen
1x Agrianians
???
...

[Mithias]

It's wholly dependent on the period. Your companion composition is far too high for any period of Ptolemaic armies. The best documented army is probably the forces at Raphia of which the Companion Cavalry numbered 700 of the 5000.
Polybius gives the troop details as follows: 3,000 Hypaspists, 2,000 peltasts, 25,000 Phalangites, and 8,000 Greek mercenaries, Achaean, and 2,000 Cretan and 1,000 Neocretan archers. He had another 3,000 Libyans and 20,000 Egyptians under his chief minister Sosibius trained in the Macedonian way. Apart from these he also employed 4,000 Thracians and Gauls from Egypt and another 2,000 from Europe.


The he peltasts were elite phalangites. The mercs normally operated as thureophoroi but were rearmed for the battle of Raphia into phalangites. The Ptolemaic cavalry were throughout the Hellenistic period predominantly Achaean and not Thessalian and would likely operate as Tarantines. Egyptians were only trained and armed 2x in Ptolemaic history in large numbers. Ptolemaic forces often relied heavily on mercs. Gauls were very prevalent in Ptolemaic armies throughout the Hellenistic period. Hope it helps.

[tumbitiger]

Sorry. By "Alexandrian" I meant a Macedonian army during Alexander's reign.

[geala]

Alexander was dead for over 60 years in 272 BC. Do you mean really his army or one of the Diadochoi? The latter would differ according to the time and region. (Edit: ok, I saw your last post after my posting) The composition of Alexander's army depends on the sources which give different numbers. Realistically Alexander had about 30.000 infantry and 4.000 cavalry in the beginning. The cavalry was composed by about 1800 Hetairoi and 1800 Thessalians and some lighter Greek and Thracian cavalry. There were only about 9000 phalangites at that early date. The numbers of the phalangites in the Diadochoi armies grew and grew and the percentage of cavalry decreased and so decreased the effectiveness of the armies. With Alexander were Greek and Thracian infantry contingents, hoplites, (Cretan) archers and peltasts.

The Alexandrian army I would compose like this:

General (Hetairoi))
1 Hetairoi
2 Thessalian cavalry
1 skirmisher cavalry
(that is much too much cavalry by percent but can reflect the high priority of Alexanders use of cavalry)
6 pikemen
1 Hypaspists
3 hoplites
1 Agrianian infantry
1 Thracian peltasts
1 javelinmen
1 slingers (although not mentioned by the sources)
1 Cretan archers

An army of the Ptolemaioi in the 3rd c. BC I would compose like this:

1 General (Hetairoi)
1 Hippeis
1 light cavalry
1 Afrikan elephant
1 Basilikoi Peltastai or Basilikoi Klerouchoi Galatians
8 pikemen
1 hoplites with thoureoi shields
2 thoureophoroi
1 javelinmen
1 native archers
1 Rhodian slingers
1 Cretan archers


An Antagonid army after the last barracks are build:

1 General (Hetairoi)
1 Thessalian cavalry
1 light cavalry
1 Basilikoi Peltastai
1 Hypaspists
8 pikemen
1 hoplites
2 thoureophoroi (later 1 of them thorakitai)
2 Thracian peltasts
1 archers
1 slingers

I don't know enough about the Seleucids to judge the army composition without some research.

I don't think the armies mentioned are very good ones in game. My actual armies as Prolemaioi are different, because I don't play the errors of the real people but create a different history. My army is like this:

1 General (Hetairoi)
1 Hetairoi
1 light lancers
1 Aethiopian cavalry
1 Syrian armored merc elephant
1 Basilikoi Peltastai
1 Galatians
1 Epibatoi
4 pikemen
2 thoureos hoplites
1 thoureophoroi
1 Euzonoi
1 Cretan archers
2 native archers
1 native slingers
(native just for the look, could use better mercenaries)

Most of my armies however are composed mostly of lower AOR units to make it not too easy.