Later Macedonian

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Historical Overview Section

260-148 BC
After the conquests of the Alexandrian Macedonian army, Macedon was one of the big 3 Successor kingdoms first under the Antipatrid dynasty, which was in turn overthrown by the Antigonid dynasty soon after by 294 BC, leading to a civil war - the upshot of which was that Antigonus II (277–239 BC) ended up at the top of the pile when he defeated a Galatian invasion, regaining his family's position in Macedonia and establishing the Antigonid dynasty.

The Macedonians clashed with the Mid Republican Romans in the 1st Macedonian War (214 BC - 205 BC) which took place against the backdrop of the Mid Republican Roman vs Later Carthaginian Second Punic War (218 - 201 BC) against Carthage. During the war, Macedon was attempting to gain control over the Illyrians, and then realised they had an opportunity to land an army in Italy whilst Hannibal was handing the Romans a pasting at Trasimene and Cannae. However the Macedonian leader Philip bottled it when he came up against a rather inferior Roman fleet as well as getting rather bogged down suppressing the Illyrians and so ended up not invading Italy at all. He did make overtures to the Later Carthaginians, but the only material result was that the Mid Republican Romans found out, and then started on stirring up the Hellenistic Greek states and Attalid Pergamenes against Macedon through an alliance. The combined Mid Republican Roman, Hellenistic Greek and Attalid Pergamene armies clashed fairly inconclusively, but the upshot was that whilst Philip's grip on Greece tightened and the Mid Republican Roman anti-Macedonian alliance faltered, the Mid Republican Romans did succeed in keeping Macedon out of the Punic Wars. The "Peace of Phoenice", a treaty drawn up at Phoenice, in 205 BC, formally ended the war.

When the Early Successor King Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt died in 204BC Philip V of Macedon and Antiochus the Great of the Later Seleucid Empire decided to carve up the Ptolemaic empire in a secret pact. Philip hoovered up several Hellenistic Greek city states, worrying the Attalid Pergamenes prompting them to appeal to the Mid Republican Romans for help. The Romans saw their chance, and tried to drum up support amongst the Hellenistic Greek states for Roman intervention, although most decided to wait and see who might win before committing. A Roman general Flamininus led a vigorous Mid Republican Roman campaign against Philip in 198 whilst the Hellenistic Greek cities of the Achaean League (traditionally favourable to Macedon) were busy with their war against Hellenistic Greek Sparta, and the Roman success brought many of them to the Roman side.

Philip tried to sort out a peace deal, but Flaminius needed to keep winning the war to help his election chances back in Rome so managed to wriggle out of doing a deal. Seeing things were going Rome's way, Philip's few remaining allies amongst the Hellenistic Greek states abandoned him. The Mid Republican Roman legions confronted and defeated Philip at the Aous ad more decisively at Cynoscephalae in Thessaly in June 197 BC, when the legions of Flamininus defeated Philip's Macedonian phalanx. Philip was forced to sue for peace on Roman terms.

Upon Philip's death in Macedon (179 BC), his son Perseus attempted to restore Macedon's international influence, and moved aggressively against his neighbors. When Perseus was implicated in an assassination plot against an ally of the Mid Republican Romans the Senate declared the third Macedonian War. Initially, Rome did not fare well against the Macedonian forces, but in 168 BC, Roman legions smashed the Macedonian phalanx at the Battle of Pydna. Perseus was later captured and the kingdom of Macedon divided into four puppet republics that Rome controlled.

Using the army in FoG

  • This list has more Thureophoroi, Cretan archers than the other Successors. Anchor one flank on terrain, perhaps augmenting MF Thureophoroi with Thracians to exploit it, and crush the enemy with pikes.
  • The Pikes are the killer troops here, so your game plan should be about using terrain, aggression and your other troops to force the enemy to take on your pikes. The trick is taking enough "auxiliary" troops to do what they need to but not so many that you haven't enough phalanx.
  • Superior pikes or not? Well, opinion is divided. Taking a 2-3 BG of superior pikes in an army which pretty much relies on the pikes to do the winning has a lot of good points, but Pk (O) are still very good, and Superior pikes may prove too intimidating for an enemy to even try and take on at all.
  • Armoured HF Thorakitoi spearmen can do a very good job of supporting the pikemens flanks.
  • The Thracians and Illyrians will be sufficient to at least contest RGo, allowing you to upgrade the Thorakitoi. The army wants to win with it's pikes, not win in terrain as well.
  • Alternatively maxing out the good medium foot to dominate terrain is an option (you can have 4 BGs of 8, one armoured and up to 2 with heavy weapons)
  • The Galatians are a novelty item best avoided
  • Cavalry is limited in numbers and competence, but as they aren't shock troops they can choose their time to engage. Maybe best kept in reserve or teamed with some MF Offensive Spear. Cretans paired with the LH can be effective.

Allied Contingents

  • Achaian Greek - Hellenistic Greek : Date restrictions None Book: Immortal Fire Page: 59 - The spearmen are a sideshow - the MF Theurophoroi are where this ally is at, and can dominate any Rgo in period. 4 Lh is always useful too

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15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army

A listing of who supplies what can also be found at my 15mm Suppliers directory

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You can see some of the figures in the Ancients Photo Gallery also on this site

Tournament Performance

3 / 10 Later Macedonian Luncarty Doubles 2008 (RoR)
5 / 10 Later Macedonian Luncarty Doubles 2008 (RoR)
13 / 20 Later Macedonian Warfare 2008 15mm (RoR, IF, LT)

Army Lists

Sample army lists for this army

Name of Army / Date

  • Using asterisks inthe edit mode creates a bulleted list in the actual site
  • This is a lot easier to do than easier than setting up tables
  • For FoG I suggest listing your army in order or march
  • with troop desctiptions on each line, for example
  • 4 HF Armoured Average Drilled Impact Foot Swordsmen
  • 8 LG Undrilled Unarmoured Poor Bowen
  • Dont forget to include your Generals !!!

Include any notes you want here

Remember to leave a line before you copy the above section as a template for your own list

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