Welcome all. This short series of articles is designed to give you an overview of the
various armies used throughout history (A very few of them I admit). Later issues will
go into roman (early and late period), "viking" i.e. generic scandinavian raiders,
Byzantine, crusader, swiss, machiavellian, and maybe one or two others. Each article
will discuss what they wore, fought with, some of their tactics and include a short
bibliography.
Any such discussion needs a few definitions first. I will define tactics, therefore,
as the movement of men within a single battle. It is the science of how to win a
fight. Strategy is defined as the science of winning a war (i.e many battles). A
strategist will tell a general where he must win (i.e. go take city X), the general
should be a good tactician which will allow him to win each fight. Needless to say
these lines get very fuzzy, especially when dealing with something I choose to call the
tactics of mistake, which will be covered in a future issue.
I will begin then with the greeks. The average greek city-state army was pathetic.
Below I discuss the Alexandrian army which incorporated the entire concept of the greek
phalanx. Each grecian army consisted of 1 or more phalanxs of men armed with spears
(usually 18' long); armour consisted of a small targe (round shield) and sometimes a
leather breastplate. When a war was to be fought the armies arranged a place to meet,
both sides arrived, lined up, and walked into each other. Tactics was unheard of.
Needless to say, they were easily conquered by Phillip of Macedon who used tactics.
Out of the city states he created an army which he passed on to his son Alexander.
With it Alendander went on to conquer the world.
The Alexandrian army was drawn up as follows:
[\] XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX [\]
{} {}
[\] YYYY YYYY YYYY YYYY [\]
{} {}
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
[\] = 2 ilae
X = Psiloi
Y = Syntagma
Z = Peltasts
{} = 1 ilae of light cavalry
Cavalry - 1800 men formed into 8 ilae (225 men each) (each [\] is 2 ilae)
armour: helm, metal/leather breastplate, leather skirt, greaves
arms: large targe, 6' thrusting spear, short sword
refered to as the "companions" they were alexander's favourites
Light cavalry - 900 men formed into 4 ilae (each {} is one ilae)
armour: helm, small targe
arms: 2 hand spear, throwing spear, bow
Peltasts or Hypaspists - 3000 men (reserves) (the Z's)
armour: as heavy cavalry
arms: sarissa - 8 to 10' pike with 1' metal head
Pezetaeri: main bulk of men. The Phalanx is broken down into 4 chiliarchias each of
1024 men, each chiliarchia is broken down into 4 Syntagma each of 256 men (each Y is
one Syntagma)
armour: as heavy cavalry
arms: 18' sarissa
Psiloi: are light misslemen using javelins, bows and slings (the X's)
At the onset of a battle the Psiloi let fly with whatever they had time for,
then they retired to the back and sides. From that position they continued to harrass
the oposing army. The Phalanx was set up as an anvil, held almost motionless and
oposing armies were allowed to break themselves upon it. The cavalry then used a
sequence of charges from one side then the other to shatter the bulk of the enemy. The
light cavalry was used to prevent the army from being outflanked by harassing any
cavalry forces the oposing army had. Their light weight and missle weapons keep them
moving far to fast to be engaged by the heavy cavalry of their oponents or by a body
of foot soldiers.
To make the standard comparison to the SCA these fighters are of very little use
to us as their dominant arm was heavy cavalry which we don't have. The tactics
that we learn from them are, however, applicable. Picture Calontir (C) as that
heavy phalanx. 2 forces of fast moving heavy fighters are placed as wings (A &
B). As the oponents approach Calontir holds fast and the wings begin alternating
sweeps. A hits from the left, pushes for 30 seconds and then falls back, as they
fall back pulling some of the East with them, B hits from the right, pushes for
30 seconds and then falls back. A can then charge again and so on. Several small
forces (such as Ealdormere) which are highly mobile and can hit hard are then
used to prevent the enemy from flanking us or retreating out of the killing ground.
This sort of tactic can be used down to units as small as 20 men a side although
it then begins to rely VERY heavily upon the abilities of the indivual fighters.
Also note the effect that missle weapons can have. Perhaps our closest approximation
is the twostick fighters. If you open a battle by sending several in to shake
up and sting the enemy line it will hit your center with much less force. As a
final point in this tactic if the center slowly retreats it will help the wings
with their charge, although this makes it much more tricky.
AT THE OUTSET
-------------------------
---------THEM---------
E1 AAAAAAAACCCCCCCCBBBBBBBB E2
BECOMES
AA BB
E1 AA-------- BB E2
AA--THEM-- BB
AACCCCCCBBB
(Or so says the theory)
Next month the romans. If there is any interest I will attempt to analyze the various
kingdom armies in the same way (for those kingdoms who have an identity in their
fighting forces).
Bibliography
- Tactics, Balck tr. Walter Krueger, greenwood press, Westpost, Conn.,
printed 1977, ISBN 0837195128
A german history translated, VERY heavy going, not much use.
- The Fighting Man, Peter Young, Rutledge Press, NY, NY, c. 1981,
ISBN 0831745037
A wonderful overview of the armies of history, no depth.
- Arrows against Steel: a history of the bow, Victor Hurley, NY, NY
Mason/Charter, 1975, ISBN 0884050947
A very biased book -- uses only the facts that fit the theories.
- History of Herodotus, Herodotus
- History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
- Education of Cyrus, Xenophon
- The cutting edge: Military History of Antiquity and Early Feudal times,
Paul F. Gavaghan, NY NY, P. Lang, 1990, ISBN 0820411906
- The Spartan Army, John F. Lazenby, Warminster, Aris & Phillips, 1985,
ISBN 0856681423