Equipping your ancient army.

[Afterburner]

Alright, so you have an army of 10,000 fighting men (plus non-combat personnel) The Senate has given you the freedom to equip them as you please. You can use anything invented before gunpowder weapons.

How are you going to equip your army? Also, how exactly will they be trained to fight? (Close formation, skirmishing, what have you.)

Edit: Also, remember it takes multiple people to crew siege weapons, and this is a land army.

[Schofield]

Hmmmm, I would probably have my first row with all spears, and normal soldiers behind them (sword and shield), to repel horse charges. I'd have archers as close to the front lines as possible to get more shots off, and slowly move them back as the enemy gets closer.

I'll probably edit this post later, it gave me the urge to play Empire Total War :P

[Warforger]

Give everyone a spear sword shield horse, then mount the siege weapons on elephants

[Roaming East]

Depends upon the terrain im inhabiting/fighting upon. Ultimately the best composition of forces is going to be a multi-faceted one in which divisions are equipped to support weakness brought about by various formations, For example, A shieldwall/phalanx type formations is very susceptible to missile type barrages be they throwing spears or arrows. They are also quiet rigid and very exposed to light infantry mobilizing along the flanks and rear.

Placing archers anywhere near the frontline has almost always been a bad idea, thats why nobody did it. Hoping to have them 'fall back' with the approach of enemy infantry neglects the fact that with dense formations of men, falling back means your front line is going to break up and lose cohesion...at exactly the point the enemy is in his charge. Archers are analogous to modern artillary, you dont stick them up front because maneuvering them and protecting them is confusing and detrimental to REAL frontline formations. I suppose if pressed my ideal army would consist of a 30% make up of spearmen, 30% light footmen, to protect the flanks 15% light cavalry 15% heavy Cavalry. and 10% mounted archers.

Id array my forces with shieldwall front and center with a light infantry behind and flanking them, all in sawtooth pattern. light cavalry used more so as a recon/harrassment force with Heavy Cavalry used to exploit breaches in contact lines. All the while mounted archers amongst my light cavalry to give the enemies rear lines something to think about.

[Afterburner]

Though I do like the flexibility your army provides I think I'd put more numbers into projectile troops. I haven't completely hammered it out yet but my army would probably look something like this.

25% Archers w/ Longbow- The capability of the longbow may have been overstate somewhat in military history, but there is a kernel of truth to everything. Though this assumes a decent amount of training time.

25% Polearm equipped heavy infantry- Though I don't know what is better. Simple spears/pikes or something more versatile like a halberd.

(Though I'm leaning more towards a 20/30 ratio for archers to heavy infantry)

20% Light infantry- I'm thinking arm these guys with swords and small shields, plus a crossbow to let them function as auxiliary ranged troops.

20% Heavy cavalry- Same reason as Roaming. Exploit holes in the opposing ranks. Or, occasionally, to create a hole provided the enemy is made up of lightly armed infantry. Also can be handy as a reserve. They'd be heavily armored and well armed with lances and swords/maces.

10% Light cavalry- Horse archers, to be specific. Their main goal would be scouting and harassment, but can again function as reserve ranged troops.

Essentially they would be employed like this, though of course subject to the course of battle.

Heavy infantry would form up in the center as a shield wall, with light infantry deployed to the flanks to first function as ranged units and then to guard the flanks of the heavy infantry. Archers would be deployed behind the line to constantly rain arrows down upon the enemy army. Heavy cavalry would be held back in reserve, ready to exploit whatever chances there are to cause havoc. Light cavalry would be used for scouting first, If a major engagement is occuring they'd be deployed far afront first to pepper and harass the enemy with arrows, but would fall back and around the main army if they are engaged. (presumably my light horse would be faster than opposing heavy horses, and at least capable of defending themselves against their opposite number) Once behind lines they'd join with the archers in raining arrows down on the enemy.

[BadHairDẵy]

I'm thinking about Five Thousand infantry units, equipped with spear, large round shield, and a gladius at their side for hand to hand combat.

Another Three Thousand archers with recurve bows for maximum distance and stopping power.

Maybe One Thousand five-hundred are going to be calvary equipped with spears, halberds, anything with a long reach. Of course they have a gladius at their side just in case. Light shields as well.

Maybe about three hundred foragers and two hundred "medics".

Hopefully I'll be able to get maybe around five hundred men to man Ballistas and catapults in the rear.

Every one of my archers and infantry have chain-mail. Calvary have hardened leather armor to stop arrows from mowing them down.

Infantry have two years of training under their belts, archers are only the best of the best from the country-side. Calvary are expert horse riders.

Infantry are in the classic Roman Infantry position while archers are in the skirmishing position for maximum spread of the arrows to take out as many as possible. Calvary follow on the flanks of the Infantry while Archers are in the back, with the artillary behind the archers, bombarding the enemy lines.

[Nemmerle]

If I've got an unlimited budget I'm going to take ten thousands crossbowmen in chainmail, give them horses for mobility, and swords for that sort of close in work and train them to use all of them as the situation requires.

[Octovon]

Depending on the era, and if we're talking ancient (as opposed to say, medieval or late imperial)...

4000 heavy infantry that make up the my main fighting force, heavily armoured and equipped with sarissas
1000 lighter infantry in reserve
1000 slingers, archers and skirmishers to harass the enemy
2000 cataphracts or similar heavy cavalry
1800 light cavalry, equipped with both a sword and a bow or javelin
200 war elephants

[Anlushac11]

10,000?

That about right for a Mongol Tumen.

Following Mongol organization 60% are cavalry horse archers with the famous Mongol recurve bow.

The remaining 40% would be heavier cavalry more akin to European Knights who attacked with lances, axes, and their Scimitar's

The Mongol's excelled at mobility and flexibility and excelled at logistics and used a communication system called a Yad which was what hte US Pony Express was based on.

I would also train my Army with the state of the art Arabic medical knowledge of the time.





Ok now getting crazy...


The Aeolipile was a B.C. era Greek invention that showed steam power

The wheel was around for centuries before gunpowder.

The Romans built carts with gears and cogs for measuring distance.

Therefore I propose steam tank's armed with Ballistia and flamethrowers shooting "Greek fire".

Nothing as large as DaVinci's proposed land ships mind you, something more akin to a moderately large horseless armored cart with a Chinese style repeating crossbow enlarged to Ballistia standards and Greek fire launchers. Top enclosed and rear doors to let out heavily armored "shock troops"


The English Longbow and the Japanese long bow are both well known for their range and penetrating power. So is the Mongol recurve bow.

Historical evidence exists that show that Mongol's recurve bows often used womens hair braided into bow strings because the womens hair was resistant to moisture and humidity changes meaning the Mongols could fight with bows in rain and high humidity.

I have always wondered how Mongol mobility and tactical flexibility would have done against a Roman Legion when they were at their world conquering best.

Mongol flexibility and adaptability versus Roman discipline and order.

Mongols also had a similar discipline for combat deserters. The deserter and 9 of his compatriots were executed.

[Nemmerle]

If we're inventing things you can link the repeating crossbow idea up to a crank, take that and link it to your steam motor, like a linear version of a gatling gun. And since you're no longer relying on muscle power to pull the thing back you don't have to use light arrows anymore like the original design.

I think your main problem would be mobility, I can easily see steam tanks getting bogged down or running into ditches and so on.