Did he just spam pikes or was he actually a brilliant general or tactician? Can anyone who knows a good deal about this explain?
>>1074977
Okay so I do know a good deal about this but I can't give you a concrete answer.
To be honest, I suppose he did just "spam pikes" and used the same formation for nearly every battle, but the thing was that nobody in the ancient world had an answer to this.
The Macedonian phalanx was just that good.
As a general and tactican, yes he was brilliant, but he doesn't get enough credit for his logistics (well up until Gedrosia anyway) imo. Think of how difficult it would be to manoeuvre a ~40k strong army (plus camp followers and baggage train) all around the Middle East for years. Not to mention keeping them supplied and motivated.
Of course these last two points really answer themselves; the army was both supplied and motivated by pillage.
But to do that they needed to consistently win often. And the credit for that really goes to Phillip II's establishment of a silver-backed proffessional army with superior equipment (cornel wood lances) and training.
Basically the Macedonians were better equipped, trained, disciplined and supplied than any of their enemies except the Indians, who they were still able to beat because Alexander was just that based.
>>1075016
As far as I'm aware pike formations couldn't exactly move very quickly, couldn't the Persians just have stayed back and rained arrows on them? Sorry if thats a dumb question.
>>1075204
Not that guy, but one thing about pike formations is that arrows aren't as effective as you'd think. You know those rows of protruding pikes pointing up at increasing angles behind the first row? They serve to deflect incoming arrows.
>>1075204
c a v a l r y
>>1075204
Alexander's army was incredibly diverse for a typical Greek army.
Phillips introduction of light cavalry and light infantry gave it the maneuverability that was definitely lacking in the phalanx.
Also like other anon said the phalanx was pretty good at deflecting projectiles. I suppose thats what happens when you're waving a tree sized spear around heh heh
