"Good opponent for Macedonian Successor army?" Topic

I'm curious what you all think… I recently acquired a beautiful MacSucc army in 28mm, and I'm trying to decide what would be the best direction in which to head regarding building (or buying) an opposing force that would give a reasonably balanced and preferably historical match up.

The floor is open…what army and why?

Thanks!
Rob

Any of the other successor armies. After the death of Alexander his generals fought each other for control of various parts of his empire. Also you can use the forces you add to your armies because during the period the units are interchangeable.

Republican Romans are a good choice as they fought against Pyrrhus of Epirus, Macedonia and the Seleucids at one time or another.

Greeks (of the later Hellenistic version) are another option.

Other than that just divide the army in half and buy some more regional units like Thracians, African elephants, scythed chariots and Arabs to make two successor armies.

If you're looking for something different from a clash of phalanxes, the Galatians fought against Macedonian Successors…and pretty successfully too.

It really depends which Successor army you have. The Western ones fought mainly each other, while the Seleucids had t deal with Parthians, Skythians, and Indians as well as the other Successors. The Ptolemaics squabbled with the Kyrenians at times, sometimes controlling Kyreniaka, as well as the Seleucids. Lysimachos' army had lots of Thracians, which would make an interesting opponent for a "conventional" Successor. Any that lasted long enough, in Greece, Syria and Egypt all ended up as Roman provinces (although the Ptolemies didn't really fight them).

Thracians (or Bithynia) and Illyrians are possible tribal opponents to.

Wow, thanks for all the great comments! My army is phalanx and infantry heavy…4 phalangite units, false legionaries, medium and light supports…elephants and just 4 cav units. I like the Republican Roman idea…I do want to avoid two phalanx armies just locking horns….but I wonder about "no phalanx" vs "mostly phalanx"?

Haha!…but of course, the logical thing would be to split it and add to it…!

Three of the cav units are heavy…Companions and two units of cataphracts.

It sounds like you have a later Seleucid army; the most appropriate opponent would be Republican Romans, then you could do Magnesia.

yeah sounds like later Seleucid. In which case if you don't want another Phalanx heavy army as opponents then Romans, Parthians, Judea or Pergamum are your best bets.

Thanks for the info, guys! Republican Romans would be awesome!

Just to keep your options open for later, the DBMM Army List (and I assume the DBA lists would be similar) for Seleucid, eliminating those who they fought before your "Roman" argyraspids appear in the Seleucid army (in 167BC), gives the following enemies:

Kimmerian, Skythian or Early Hu (Skythians)
Thracian
Mountain Indian
Classical Indian
Ariarathid Kappadokian
Seleucid (must have been internal conflict, probably too early for yours but I'm not sure)
Ptolemaic
Arabo-Aramean (Nabatean, Petran, Hatrene etc)
Later Pre-Islamic Arab (The nomadic Arabs not included above)
Early Armenian and Gordyene
Galatian (Who could resist!!!)
Polybian Roman
Attalid Pergamene
Later Macedonian
Parthian
Maccabean Jewish

There are others for the earlier period but the army looked radically different earlier on without the "Roman" Argyraspids and with the cavalry being more "Alexandrian" rather than cataphracts in the Parthian style.

The Seleucids were obviously a cantankerous bunch, which gives you tons of scope, with everything from nomadic horse archers (Skythians), cataphracts, massed foot bow (Arabs), camel and light cavalry (Arab nomads) to Western heavy foot armies for the future. Minis will indeed be your Waterloo . . .
:-)

Cheers,
John

John, thanks so much for all that info…it really is hard to decide as doing this in 28mm is a bit more costly to the national budget! I had thought that, going into my sixth decade I would stop building new armies but alas…it just never ends!

There is some morphability potential of course. A Roman army could have a Pergamene ally (a la Magnesia), which is essentially a successor army's light troops.
Cheers,
John