Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[lilroblis]

Iran Macedonian for the umteenth time in nationals this year, had a blast - but have been trying to figure out how best to run the list.
The challenges of almost any Macedonian list are limited light cavalry/skirmishers - and really in my opinion their major role is to keep people off your flanks while the battle line closes - but being timid with that battle line (as I was on occasions this year) will doom you to poor matchups on the table and dramatically raise the chances of a low scoring game (bad for everyone)
That being said I believe the best two armies are Seluicid and Alexandrian imperial - but there are other very interesting lists.
That being said the three pillars that macedonian armies rely on for performance are as follows:
Elephants/Pike/Companians - with peltasts/hypaspists providing cover in brush etc.
I have become a believe in 3 elephant units / 32 man pike blocks and LHI peltasts - I am not a fan of Hypaspists as they are not as good as pike, and are a target for high performing infantry - varangians and anything with a heavy throwing weapon.
The things that really make or break the lists are the performance of the lights and the ability to force your pikes/elephants into combat - that wins or loses games.
More on how I see running each army to come

[lilroblis]

So this may seem a little trite - but my best results have always come when I am very aggressive - deploy as far forward as I can and attack - trust your troops - mass firepower - roll forward. Pike is pretty decent against most things - ditto elephants - so as long as your peltasts are not easy targets force the fight with your strength - screen the rest - and use your lights and peltasts to prevent concentrated fire on your key units. If you want to pick a spot and concentrate force there either you have to edeploy that way or play another army.
The macedonian regular lights are very good for what they are (not mongols or bow armed lance) - the only choices are whether they are Reg B or C - I have never had much luck with irr LC in my lists as most other lists just have better lights and support troops and eat them up.
So a simple but fun army that relies on combat - not guile to win games - I can think of very few games ever where all my pike fought and I did not win

[Todd Kaeser]

Asiatic Early Successor
1597 points – 71 Scouting

CinC 2E Agema Reg A HC L 150
Sub 2E Agema Reg A HC L 100
2E Companions Reg B HC L 64
2E Lancers Reg C HC L 58

8E Phalangites Reg C MI P,Sh 138
8E Phalangites Reg C MI P,Sh 138

4E Veterans Reg B 1E HI, MI P,Sh 98
4E Veterans Reg B 1E HI, MI P,Sh 98

2E Elephants Ir C 1P, 1 Jls, 105
2E Elephants Ir C 1P, 1 Jls, 105

4E Peltasts Reg C LMI LTS,Jls,Sh 90
4E Peltasts Reg C LMI LTS,Jls,Sh 90

6E Cretans Reg C LI B ½ Sh 52

2E Paidos Reg B LC Jls,Sh 46
2E Tarantines Rec C LC Jls,Sh 42
6E Medes Ir C LC B 73
6E Asiatic Cav Ir C LC Jls,B 85
4E Thracians Ir B LC Jls 65

[Frank Gilson]

[lilroblis]

Nothing wrong with the list, but not a lot to recommend it - for me my Macedonians lose when facing high morale shooters and good cavalry. This list does not have any of the strengths that make Alexandrian or Seluicid so strong - Alexandrian light troops are better - reg B lc rank and a half, li jls, sh reg - and I think Indian elephants are key (IRR C elephants are great if noone shoots - as everyone has shooters - they are less than optimum. Seluicid - 3 element elephant units are more durable - EHC is better than HC, and LHI peltasts are just better - I play around with these lists a lot - your light cavalry is interesting - the rest sub optimal IMHO - and yes HI front rank makes a huge difference most of the time - as they are the hammer in your army. I also do not like 4 element pike units - they seem to get unlucky a lot - 32 man are much tougher to shooting and that is the achilles heel of macedonians