Alexander the Great Vs. the Wheel of Time.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Supported, of course, by his army, about as it was at the time of Arbela, some 40,000 assorted infantry, including the phalangites and shield-bearers, and light support, and some seven thousand cavalry, boosted now by the conquest of the West Persian Empire, plus expert siege train and a coterie of philosophers and intellectuals from Greece.

There is a small twist here, however, which should allow him to hold his own against this particular world. As we know, Alexander the Great had begun to believe that he was a deity. In this case, whatever has brought him to this new lands, ripe for conquest, has indeed made him into an actual deity, with the full powers of a Greek Demi-God, the son of Zeus, and equal of Hercules and Perseus.

So, can his organized and already veteran army cleave its way through the disorganized hordes of the WOT-universe and, with the powers of a demi-god, can he avoid the magics that would strive against him, that he might achieve there what he had attempted on this mortal coil?

[Alex Moon]

It depends. Against the Aiel alone, he would probably have a good chance of winning. Same with most of the wetland nations. However, if he goes up against Rand's Empire, the White Tower, The Seanchen or the Dark One's forces, he's fucked six ways from Sunday. Too many power users will rip apart his army, especially Rand's or the Seanchen.

[Ghost Rider]

Alexander cleaves throguh the regular armies including the Aiel and Children of the Light...yes.

His deity powers allow him to then go basically up to either the White Tower group...or worse Rand's group. I'd say Rand is where he falls given what the numbnut is and has done.

[D.Turtle]

Alexander doesnt have a chance.

There are approximately:
Around 500k Aiel in Cairhien, Caemlyn, and that area.
More in the Aiel Waste.

The Borderlanders have an army of around 300k or so marching south - including lots of heavy cavalry (plus whatever is at the Borderlands).

The Seanchan have an army probably in the millions - including cavalry and an air force (hundreds of thousands on the East side of the great ocean at least.)

The other forces are smaller: 30k or so with the Twoer Aes Sedai (similar with the Rebels).
The Legion of the Dragon (probably also around 30k or so).

Not to mention the magic users:
Probably around 500 or more Ashaman - trained to destroy and able to destroy pretty much any ground army (not using modern tech of course).
Several hundred Aiel wisewoman - not that adept at destruction.
Hundreds of (or more than a thousand) Aes Sedai - quite well trained and quite adept at holding off large conventional forces (seen in Lord of Chaos when 30 or so Aes Sedai plus around 500 troops held off 40k Aiel and 200 or so Aiel wisewomen).
The Seanchan have probably more than a thousand (maybe thousands) of Damane who are trained only in destruction.

40k soldiers armed with conventional pre modern weapons- no matter how well trained - do not have a chance.

Alexander gets killed by a single Ashaman making his head explode like a melon.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Alexander doesnt have a chance.

There are approximately:
Around 500k Aiel in Cairhien, Caemlyn, and that area.
More in the Aiel Waste.

And this is going to halt the veteran phalangites? Numbers are irrelevant to the Greek system of warfare. Organization and tactics, the combination of integrated combined-arms formations with the shock units of the Hellenic Age, allowed the Macedonians to regularly cut through armies which had a nearly twelve-to-one numerical advantage over them--with losses in the low hundreds out of forces of tens of thousands engaged, while the enemy was totally routed! And, bluntly, from everything I've heard the Aiel are even more disorganized than the Persians, which is pretty bloody sad.

The Borderlanders have an army of around 300k or so marching south - including lots of heavy cavalry (plus whatever is at the Borderlands).

So about the same size as the force that Alexander historically defeated at Arbela with these units he has with him, which also included considerable Median lancer contigents?

The Seanchan have an army probably in the millions - including cavalry and an air force (hundreds of thousands on the East side of the great ocean at least.)

And can all of these troops be committed in the same place without starving to death? If they were, they'd just be killed, anyway. Darius probably had 400,000 men at Issus--it didn't matter. It's nearly impossible to effectively deploy that many troops in a good formation on any sort of terrain. It would be hugely unwieldy, for starters, in deploying, and Alexander could choose where he fought. If he choose constricted terrain on which to fight millions of men, the numbers wouldn't matter--the phalangites would just keep slaughtering those Seanchans until their pikes were broken and their arms were so exhausted they couldn't raise their swords. Maybe then the survivors would have a chance, assuming they weren't all fleeing.

The other forces are smaller: 30k or so with the Twoer Aes Sedai (similar with the Rebels).
The Legion of the Dragon (probably also around 30k or so).

If those forces are disciplined, they may actually have a better chance than the huge forces you listed first. If not, it depends entirely on their commanders and their deployment, since they will be less unwieldy and more able to choose the terrain than the huge armies above: but even so an undisciplined force would be at a huge disadvantage against the Macedonians, unable to take their advance at press-of-pike, nor able to effectively fight with their cavalry, which operates in units as opposed to individually. (Parmenio on the left at Arbela fought a local cavalry action where he was immediately outnumbered six-to-one in a series of lancer charges, by fully armoured horsemen, and his lighter, but more organized, Macedonians, were still able to fight them off.)

Alexander gets killed by a single Ashaman making his head explode like a melon.

Did you even read the premise of the scenario? I said, to quote:

In this case, whatever has brought him to this new lands, ripe for conquest, has indeed made him into an actual deity, with the full powers of a Greek Demi-God, the son of Zeus, and equal of Hercules and Perseus.

The magic users are indeed a very severe threat, but they have to deal with Alexander the God before they can worry about the army.

Please remember, also, that even Alexander did not engage in constant conquest but rather had several years between his campaigns; and with the philosophers and intellectuals accompanying him, should he strike at a point of least resistance, he can certainly rest and build up his strength with local materials, or by influence the various webs of power there.

World Conquest is, after all, ultimately a strategic endeavour, and it has always been the master like Alexander, who influenced the central asian tribes in his famous and daring campaigns there, who could understand this and exploit the weaves of the local interactions to his favour, even while driving home the military aspect.

This young and ever-immortal genius is still remembered throughout the whole world for a reason--as Iskander in Afghanistan as he would be Alexander in the United States--for a reason. Consider carefully before you are so dismissive.

[Kerneth]

And he died because he wasn't smart enough to realize that, as the General, his ultimate duty was to stay alive and lead his troops not lead infantry charges against fortified positions.

Veteran Seanchan troops who are used to seeing the One Power used in battle broke and were routed when confronted by the Asha'man. Greek soldiers who have never been exposed to "magic" and are usually deeply superstitious are not going to last long when Rand al'Thor and a few hundred Asha'man begin systematically destroying their ranks with the One Power. Even if Alexander's "god-status" makes him effectively immune to the One Power--which there's no way of knowing since nobody has ever, to my knowledge, quantified Greek diety power levels--the rest of his army is going to get torn to shreds. Unless, of course, Greek Diety Power includes the ability to shield an army of 40,000 men from the One Power being channeled by several hundred enemies, in which case, since there's no way to prove it one way or another, you could just as well say that Alexander grants his men complete immunity to the One Power and all mortal weapons.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but in all the battles where Alexander's army destroyed ones vastly larger than their own, weren't those other armies generally poorly-equipped and badly-trained peasant levies? Compared to a WoT army of several hundred thousand professional soldiers? The Greeks were, if I remember my history correctly, using bronze weapons and armor. Wheel of Time soldiers, on the other hand, are equipped with steel, which gives them a huge advantage at the sort of close-range brawling the Greek hoplites specialized in.

If you assume that Alexander can't simply wave his hand and destroy all the armies facing him with Greek God Powers, and that he can likewise shield himself and his men from all affects of the One Power, you're down to a straight contest of weapons. Thirty thousand members of the Legion of the Dragon, all armed with powerful crossbows designed to punch through heavy steel plate armor, are going to shred men wearing bronze breastplates, as will the (admittedly, only a few hundred) Two Rivers longbows. And after the crossbows (or, if Alexander can't protect his army, the One Power assaults) break up the Greek formations, a charge by heavy cavalry is going to flatten the survivors.

[The Drunkard Kid]

I can't remember any Greek demi-God that had the necessary powers needed to last long in ranged combat with a channeler at Rand's level, provided that Rand didn't fight like a moron, and that the demi-God in question didn't have a magical artifact that allowed him to close range, like Hermes' sandals.

If it was a Greek God(ess) worth their name, on the other hand, they'd just wave their hand and turn the entire side into statues or some such (I believe Aphrodite did it when an entire city pissed her off, but I may be misremembering the story), provided they decided to use their powers effectively instead of just fighting it out the mortal way, as was Ares' wont....

[Crown]

Well I don't know much about the Wheel of Fire series, so I will contribute to the best of my knowledge the attributes of Alexander's Army and I will let the rest of you fill in the blanks.

Greek warfare, and the success that result there of, rested in the following attributes;

1. Training and disipline. The Spartans were agurably the best soldiers in Ancient Greece, and up to their failed war against the Athenians, they were the predominate land power. While you might make the argument that we are talking about Alexander's Army and not an amalgam of all Greek abilities; the legacy of the Spartan's fighting format (the Phalanx) is what the Macedonian's used to conquer first the entire Hellenic world (under Phillip II), and later the Persian Empire, under of course Alexander.
   
   The Phalanx of course needs little explanation, it was the closest thing to heavy armour as you could get in the ancient world. With strong training and disipline, a marching Phalanx did not flinch nor did it ever waver as it marched upon the enemy. Alexander showed this at Issus, and the Spartans showed this at Thermaplyoe, were a force of 10,000 odd Greeks held back 300,000 odd Persians under the command of Xerxes (I say odd, because history is told by the victors, and the Greeks, and the records tell of 1 - 2 million Persians however this is absurd since there was no way Xerxes could have supplied such a large number).
   
   In the end the bulk of the Greek forces had to flee (more on that later), leaving 300 Spartans to fight, who held out to the last man for an entire day, facing attacks on all sides. They did not break formation, and died on the field.
2. Strategy and the use of the Lay of the Land. As Duchess has already shown a large army is nulled simply because it can't be used as effectively as a smaller one. In the end a war of attrition ensures, and if the larger army is not disiplined, even then they risk the chance of losing, simply because they break from the fight. In the above I mention the battle of Thermaplyoe, and how the the bulk of the Greek army had to retreat.
   
   This is because there was a choke point on the field, that the Greeks were holding for 1 - 1.5 weeks, that didn't allow Xerxes to flank the Greek position. This was finally solved when a Greek traitor showed the Persions through a goat trail, that allowed them to circle the Greeks. Realising what had happened the majority of the Greek forces decided to fall back to the cities, while the Spartans bought them some time.
   
   Now even here Alexander has shown his brilliance. As we all know at Issus, the armies had an ocean on one side, and mountains on another, thus once again nulling the Persian number superiority. However at the battle of Gaugamela (Darius and Alexander's second meeting) took place on a wide open flat field, with no enclosure to cram the Persians. Alexander was out numbered 7 or 10 to 1. Alexander once again emerged victorious.
3. Superior equiptment. The Armies of the Ancient Greeks were always to a man, well disiplined, well trained but above all well armed. This originates from the Hoptile (the for runner to the Phalanx).
   
   Hoptile's were the infantry of the Greeks, they were all free men (which meant they all owned land), and had to provide for their own equiptment. Which inevetably led to all of them wearing armour. What kind of crazy idiot rushed into battle without armour? The kind that is pressed into service, and that doesn't recieve adequate training. The Hoptiles were fighting for their own land, a powerful incentive to make sure that they didn't skimp on protection. So when city states were powerful enough to employ professional soldiers, they remembered the lessons of their Grandfathers and were always protected.
4. The Idea of Total Warfare. This was an area where Alexander particularly excelled in; the continuation of the battle even when the enemy fled. This was where Alexander showed about as much mercy as a viper. As soon as an enemy broke and fled, the Greek cavarly would be unleashed to butcher the soldiers.
   
   On an averaged day at battler, Alexander's army was estimated to be killing 300 men a minute. A very fucking scary statistic.

As for Alexander the demi - god, does he get assistance on the field like Achielles? Because Athena is not a nice God to be fighting against, nor is Apollo. Ares is as much a hindress as he is a blessing. Zues could really fuck up everyone's parade.

[D.Turtle]

Alexanders conventional forces are irrelevant in the face of Ashaman or Damane.
Ashaman (in Lord of Chaos) easily held of a force of 40k Aiel, by generating a shield around a large area - a shield impenetrable by (pre-)medieval weapons. The soldiers have no way of attacking the Ashaman. The Ashaman then raised the shield a couple of meters and immediately started blasting the Aiel to bits (imagine heads, bodies and more exploding everywhere as fast as you can look). Do you think that any conventional force can face that?
Damane are also used a lot in battled - they simply explode the ground beneath enemy forces: No phalanx is going to help you there - in fact it just presents them on a tablet to be killed.

Now, if we say that we ignore the magic users, and use only conventional forces:
How would Alexander's forces survive in the face of massed crossbow fire?
Or how about a heavy cavalry charge, not to mention heavy infantry - all with years of training and countless battles (these are Borderlanders - their entire lives are training and protecting the Borderlands from constant attacks by Trollocs and worse).

Face it: The conventional forces do NOT have a chance.
Alexander might be a military genius: but he is hopelessly outmatched in conventional forces.

So it all comes down to Alexander being elevated to the position of a DEMI-god.
Is this thread supposed to be about Alexander the Great's military genius or about the strength of a greek DEMI-god?
Note: The opener of this thread said that he has the full powers of a greek demi-god - an equal of Hercules.
Can he stop an Ashaman from blasting his head to bits with a fire ball?
Or a Damane from blasting the ground beneath him to bits?
Or how about simply picking him up with the One Power and letting him hang around in the air?

It does not matter how strong he his - it doesn't matter how fast he is - an Ashaman can simply encase himself with a shield and Alexander would be unable to hurt the Ashaman.

But is this really what this debate is supposed to be about?
I think not.
After all - then you wouldn't need Alexander's army.

If you want this to be a debate WoT magic users vs a greek god - then say so - because then we don't need any discussion about Alexander's army.

[HemlockGrey]

Alexander shreds the Aiel with the Companions alone. He similiarly defeats much of the other national armies, which are simply peasant levies supported by a core of 'elite' troops.

The Borderlands are destroyed as well. They're almost entirely cavalry and Alexander's light infantry will decimate them.

However, against the Ashaman and the Seanchan, he'll be slaughtered. Versus the regular Seanchan army, he'll butcher them, too, but against the Seanchan magic-users and the Ashaman, he's screwed, simply because he has no effective counter to his troops exploding by the hundreds.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

And he died because he wasn't smart enough to realize that, as the General, his ultimate duty was to stay alive and lead his troops not lead infantry charges against fortified positions.

Alexander the Great died of a fever in Babylon, after conquering the known world and part of the unknown, ever-undefeated in battle. His tactics always worked. I would really like to some collection arrogant mounted cavalry, used to the glory of single combats, faced with the discipline rushed of the companions, "that golden-haired youth" bearing down upon them at the head, death in his blue eyes, splitting the formations of the enemy at the decisive point on the right while the regiments of phalangites followed with eighteen foot steel-headed pike to tear the gap wide open, and on the left, loyal old Parmenio, the septuagenarian (and still, of course, fought in the front rank like any Greek general), veteran of who knows how many countless battles, who always had Alexander's flank, steadies his units against the onrush of another of the endless assaults, denying the tide, keeping the flank from being turned--while on the right, that beautiful Apollo, that youthful Helios, charges onwards, the enemy formation cracking, splitting, the enemy being killed faster than you can imagine by those "primitive" implements of War--rushing, for his objective: whatever the enemy command is, it will be either captured or destroyed, run from the field, and then their cohesion will utterly collapse, and he'll swing back upon Parmenio and hammer the remnants to pieces.

And it will be done outnumbered a dozen to one, or more.

Veteran Seanchan troops who are used to seeing the One Power used in battle broke and were routed when confronted by the Asha'man. Greek soldiers who have never been exposed to "magic" and are usually deeply superstitious are not going to last long when Rand al'Thor and a few hundred Asha'man begin systematically destroying their ranks with the One Power.

Now, you see, this is one thing I have to wonder about it. You have your commander--for I assume this fellow is a commander. And so he must fight like this, in a very complex field, and lead an army at the same time, na? Alexander's men are veterans, on the other hand--and though they might not have experienced magic before, know they are being led by a god. That shall have a certain salubrious effect. Then see above. The question is really how much damage such a powerful individual could do while trying to keep their army from falling apart while Alexander leads his companions in headlong to kill said person..

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but in all the battles where Alexander's army destroyed ones vastly larger than their own, weren't those other armies generally poorly-equipped and badly-trained peasant levies?

That depends. On at least one occasion Alexander faced an army of about 40,000, at least half of which were Greek Mercenaries. Again, at Issus, 20,000 of the 400,000 troops involved were Greek Mercenaries. Alexander only had 35,000 troops at that battle--and only lost a few hundred, even while defeating those mercenaries. At Issus, many of the troops were such poor levies, but he also had to face the various elite troops of the Persians, though these were probably not more than another 20,000 in infantry--OTOH, they would also include many excellent cavalry, and they were well supported in light-armed troops. (I only count heavy infantry as being particularly relevant.)

At Arbela, Darius III laid out the field of battle very well, and had on the order of 350,000 - 360,000 troops with him, supported by 200 scythed chariots and 15 elephants. These included only some 2,000 Greek Mercenaries, however, and his elite units were of less quality due to combat losses in prior battles. However, he was fighting on the plains of what is modern day northern Iraq (Arbela=Irbil) and it was excellent cavalry terrain: He laid out something like caltrops in certain areas, made preparations on the terrain, and ordered his forces very well.

The Persian army was decently ordered on a strategic level, or at least we know that they were able to attempt a double-envelopment of Alexander, one half led by part of the Greek Mercenaries, the other half against Parmenio with the Median Lancers. Despite having the manoeuvring room ideal for cavalry warfare against the lumbering heavy infantry army of the Macedonians--and Darius was an experienced general who'd fought a civil war to come to power, contrary to the usual conception of him--the result was essentially the same as Issus.

Compared to a WoT army of several hundred thousand professional soldiers? The Greeks were, if I remember my history correctly, using bronze weapons and armor. Wheel of Time soldiers, on the other hand, are equipped with steel, which gives them a huge advantage at the sort of close-range brawling the Greek hoplites specialized in.

In terms of armour, the Greek used to be outfitted with bronze. Macedonians, however, were unarmoured. The cavalry would have bronze armour, which would be a disadvantage, and honestly the biggest disadvantage I see is the lack of stirrups, which perhaps might be remedied before combat if they capture people who have them, but the Phalangites? They just wore light cloth or leather armour.

There was no need for anything else. They had two shields, of wood, of course, one hung over the neck, and the strapped to the left arm. They supported an eighteen-foot spear, which did have an iron tip. The men were stacked sixteen ranks deep, and were packed so tightly that each rank physically pushed on the one in front of it. They thus gained quite a considerable momentum--the Macedonians were the epitome of the original conceptualization of Shock Warfare.

Those first five ranks of spears are going to be levelled against the enemy. The rest will be up to repel arrows and other missiles. They will have a considerable distance between themselves and their disorganized enemy, who, professional or not, fights for personal glory in individual combat--a distance at the end of a pike. Nobody can negotiate those five ranks of pikes, driven in by a charge of men bringing themselves up to a steady effort of speed--in fact, faster than the original Greek phalanx, unencumbered by any armour.

Quite simply, that pack of glory-hounds will hit the phalanx and disintegrate before they can get in range. And then the phalanx will keep on going, and going, and going. And it won't be until every rank has broken its pikes that it'll be sword work. By then things will be so close that you're more likely to be suffocated in the press of bodies or trod to death after falling than stabbed to death. Welcome to the Real world of Greek Warfare.

Thirty thousand members of the Legion of the Dragon, all armed with powerful crossbows designed to punch through heavy steel plate armor, are going to shred men wearing bronze breastplates, as will the (admittedly, only a few hundred) Two Rivers longbows. And after the crossbows (or, if Alexander can't protect his army, the One Power assaults) break up the Greek formations, a charge by heavy cavalry is going to flatten the survivors.

The heavy cavalry will, as usual, be held off by Parmenio, and the Phalangites will advance in the centre. Powerful crossbows have the disadvantage of a slow reloading time, and these men will likely be overrun before they can get off a second volley. The sorcerers may or may not have a feast of trouble.

P.S. Come now, though. We are going straight to the main course. I was asking if Alexander could conquer the world, not win a few battles. Don't you find the challenge of applying yourself to how he could do it intriguing?

[D.Turtle]

Alexander shreds the Aiel with the Companions alone. He similiarly defeats much of the other national armies, which are simply peasant levies supported by a core of 'elite' troops.

If that isnt a bad case of hero-worshipping, then I do not know what is ...

The armies of the Borderlanders, Aiel and Seanchan are NOT peasant levies supported by a core of 'elite' troops. Especially the Seanchan.
The Seanchan are a combined arms force of cavalry, infantry, magic users and an AIR FORCE.
What does Alexander's army have to counter an air force?
What does Alexander's army have to counter magic users?
What does Alexander's army have to stop the strategic and tactical movements made viable through the use of gateways?

Duchess of Zeon: Your entire first paragraph requires that the enemy army be totally inept. You require the enemy to be composed of people who are out there only for personal glory. I would love to see Alexander charge in front of his troops: Only to see him hit by countless crossbow bolts, or arrow, or ripped to shred by the One Power...

To stop your great moving spear wall attack, the proper usage of terrain will be very helpful: Things like fighting in the woods for example - through which such a moving wall can not move. Terrain optimal for the usage of hit and run tactics with crossbowmen.

You also fail to realize one thing: Magic users are not that uncommon in WoT. It is not the commander alone (Rand) who has to do everything, but you have complete military arms of magic users.

And what will it help Alexander's army to know that they are being led by a god if the ground erupts underneath them, if horse-sized and larger fireballs fly out of the sky and hit dozens at a time (because they are packed so closely for that moving wall of spears), to be ripped apart by lightning strikes, to be thrown over by the rolling earth, to hit an impenetrable shield of Air, to run through a wall of fire, to hit flying beasts, etc.
You get the idea?
Alexander's conventional forces are helpless in the face of magic users.
As these are not entirely rare (there are hundreds maybe thousands with the Seanchan, hundreds of Ashaman), he will have to face them - and will be slaughtered.

Rand alone could easily destroy the entire army (using angreal or sa'angreal) by letting lightning bolts strike in the hundreds and thousands within seconds, by sinking the entire continent beneath them if you will.

Now, using only conventional forces: Aiel are known for their mobility: They can run down a horse over distance - do you think that a wall of moving spears - moving in a straight line I would guess - be able to hit them?
The entire wall of moving spears only works in open terrain - choose your terrain wisely and you can't use that tactic.
And seeing as how the Macedonians aren't armoured - I pitty them when they get hit by arrows and crossbow fire...

In WoT every warrior is NOT out there only for personal glory, they are used to large scale battles using large-scale force movements, using large-scale formations.
These are NOT peasants, or other untrained forces - these are professional armies.

[D.Turtle]

.S. Come now, though. We are going straight to the main course. I was asking if Alexander could conquer the world, not win a few battles. Don't you find the challenge of applying yourself to how he could do it intriguing?

The only way he could do that would be if he did it similar to how Seanchan was invaded: alyynig yourself with forces thereand try to exploit the political situation as much as possible.

The problem is, however, that there are now large, unified, forces of magic-users - a thing that wasn't the case in Seanchan - and which was exploited (which lead to the creation of damane, sul'dam, marath'damane).
Such a situation does not exist ATM, so it couldn't be exploited.

One question though: When in WoT is this supposed to take place?
At the end of Book 10?
Before Book 1?
During the Reign of Hawkwing?

[Oddity]

Ridiculous.

Alex vs. the Aiel (440,000):
Alexander’s army is slaughtered. During the Aiel War these people smashed every army that was sent against them, and reached the walls of Tar Valon before they went home. One-on-one they are superior fighters, and their leaders have a good grasp of tactics.

Alex vs. Legion of the Dragon (15-18,000):
Depends on the terrain. In open terrain the Legion will probably be defeated, in forested terrain Alexander will be defeated.

Alex vs. Band of the Red Hand (10,000):
Alexander is defeated. Not only is the Band seasoned veterans, but they are also lead by a man who have memories belonging to several dead generals stuffed into his head.

Alex vs. the Asha’man (1000):
Alexander’s army is slaughtered. Even if Alexander himself is immune to the One Power, his army will be torn apart.

Alex vs. Perrin’s army (1200):
Alexander wins. Perrin’s army was never assembled to do any heavy fighting.

Alex vs. the Borderlands (<200,000):
Alexander is defeated. His powers make him able to inflict heavy casualties on the borderlanders, but plate mail and lances vs. bronze breastplates or leather armor? Come on!

Alex vs. the Seanchan:
We don’t know how many soldiers they have, but I’m chancing on a couple hundred thousand. Numbers are, however, rather irrelevant in this case. The Seanchan are veterans and are trained to fight using the One Power as a weapon. They are used to seeing comrades being struck down by lightning, Alexander’s army is not. Even if we assume that Alexander can mach their damane, his army will be destroyed by sheer numbers.

Alex vs. the White Tower (15,000):
Well, the Aes Sedai can’t fight unless they are in danger, so they are out of the picture… but I guess the Aes Sedai gathered there can nullify anything Alexander tries to do. Therefore we are looking at a siege that will last months and years. I honesty don’t know who will win here.

Alex vs. the Whitecloaks (9000):
Alexander wins. Not much more to say.

Alex vs. any southern nation not controlled by Rand:
Alexander wins. Not much more to say here, either.

Alex vs. the army of the Dark One:
If Alexander can defeat the countless Trollocs, Myrddraals and Draghkars, as well as whatever the Forsaken can do to him in terms of the One Power… well, why don’t he just snap his fingers and wipe out all the armies in WoT that way?

Alex vs. the WoT world:
You’ve got to be joking!

Conclusion:
The only way Alexander the Great can conquer the WoT world would be to give him powers equal to a thousand Aes Sedai or Asha’man (or a much bigger army). But then it wouldn’t be his tactics, his leadership or his army that did the conquering, would it?

[HemlockGrey]

Alex vs. the Aiel (440,000):
Alexander?s army is slaughtered. During the Aiel War these people smashed every army that was sent against them, and reached the walls of Tar Valon before they went home. One-on-one they are superior fighters, and their leaders have a good grasp of tactics.

The only reason they did so well is because every other military leader in WoT is an idiot. The ENTIRE Aiel 'army' is composed of SHORT SPEARSMEN! Nothing else! No cavalry of any sort, no missile infantry, no siege weapons, no armored troops, nothing.

One charge of heavily armored lancers will split the Aiel open like the fruits they are. The Aiel do not have longspears nor do they pikes.

Further, the Aiel have never committed anywhere near 150,000 soldiers to a single campaign, let alone 440,000, and let's not mention that the Aiel are frequently wracked by infighting.

Alex vs. Legion of the Dragon (15-18,000):
Depends on the terrain. In open terrain the Legion will probably be defeated, in forested terrain Alexander will be defeated.

The Legion is made up entirely of men with crossbows. All Alexander's forces have to do is close to shock combat and they're through.

Alex vs. Band of the Red Hand (10,000):
Alexander is defeated. Not only is the Band seasoned veterans, but they are also lead by a man who have memories belonging to several dead generals stuffed into his head.

And has to date never displayed any sort of brilliant leadership rivaling that Alexander. Further, the Band does not even approach a combined-armed force and is outnumbered 4-1.

Alex vs. the Asha?man (1000):
Alexander?s army is slaughtered. Even if Alexander himself is immune to the One Power, his army will be torn apart.

That is a given. Single Ashaman have slaughtered hundreds of soldiers at once.

Alex vs. the Borderlands (<200,000):
Alexander is defeated. His powers make him able to inflict heavy casualties on the borderlanders, but plate mail and lances vs. bronze breastplates or leather armor? Come on!

The Borderlands suffer from lack of a combined-arms force; they are nearly entirely heavy cavalry, and heavy cavalry loses badly to heavy infantry, as Narses so admirably taught his opponents.

Alex vs. the White Tower (15,000):
Well, the Aes Sedai can?t fight unless they are in danger, so they are out of the picture? but I guess the Aes Sedai gathered there can nullify anything Alexander tries to do. Therefore we are looking at a siege that will last months and years. I honesty don?t know who will win here.

...why would it last months and years, when Alexander can seal off the river, and has access and experience with siege equipment, which is something the Aiel completely lacked?

Alex vs. the army of the Dark One:
If Alexander can defeat the countless Trollocs, Myrddraals and Draghkars, as well as whatever the Forsaken can do to him in terms of the One Power? well, why don?t he just snap his fingers and wipe out all the armies in WoT that way?

Trollocs suck as soldiers, period. Alexander's missle troops along should inflict horrible casualties on them, but he is very likely outnumbered by enormous margins.

[Stormbringer]

In the Wheel of Time universe?

Alexander would be fucked against Rand's forces, the Borderlanders, and the Seanchan. A maybe against Egwyne's Tower forces.


Rands forces (the Asha'man, Legion of the Dragon, and the Aiel) and the Seanchan both have the discipline and channelers to smash Alexander. It'd a repeat of Dumai's Wells all over again. The Macedonians would be a fine mist over the battlefeild.

The Borderlands army is large, disciplined and is armed with technologically superiour weapons. Bronze and such won't hold up well against steel swords and plate armor. They'd take heavier loses but they are capable of taking the Macedonians.

[Crayz9000]

Ridiculous.
Alex vs. the White Tower (15,000):
Well, the Aes Sedai can’t fight unless they are in danger, so they are out of the picture… but I guess the Aes Sedai gathered there can nullify anything Alexander tries to do. Therefore we are looking at a siege that will last months and years. I honesty don’t know who will win here.

Well, if Sun-Tzu is to be believed, then drawn-out sieges should be avoided at all costs. This Alexander should be smart enough to realize that...

[Andrew J.]

Alexander decides to research his opponents by reading The Wheel of Time series, and subsequently dies of boredom.

[Crown]

Ridiculous.
Alex vs. the White Tower (15,000):
Well, the Aes Sedai can’t fight unless they are in danger, so they are out of the picture… but I guess the Aes Sedai gathered there can nullify anything Alexander tries to do. Therefore we are looking at a siege that will last months and years. I honesty don’t know who will win here.

Well, if Sun-Tzu is to be believed, then drawn-out sieges should be avoided at all costs. This Alexander should be smart enough to realize that...

Alexander has been known to starve, burn and butcher cities that don't open their gates to him...

[Crayz9000]

I see he's good at getting around the siege problem, then.

[HemlockGrey]

Rands forces (the Asha'man, Legion of the Dragon, and the Aiel) and the Seanchan both have the discipline and channelers to smash Alexander. It'd a repeat of Dumai's Wells all over again. The Macedonians would be a fine mist over the battlefeild.

The channelers are the only advantage. The Legion is made up entirely of people with crossbows, for God's sake, and the Aiel are possibly the most pathetic military force ever described in fantasy.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Let's put him at the beginning of the series, in one of the Wetlands States. We'll call his demi-god abilities as, in general, being enhanced strength, endurance, and agility/reflexes, along with eyesight and etc; but he's also unaging and cannot be killed. However, he can be wounded severely enough to be driven from the field--and, moreover, might be inflicted with something that would be so debilitating that he'd choose suicide over continued life. (This would be like Hercules choosing a funeral pyre--ALIVE--over the continued torment of a poison he'd consumed that was supposed to kill him, but didn't. That sort of thing.)

His goal, of course, is conquest. He can integrate units as he sees fit, but never fielded an army larger than 50,000, and is unlikely to start doing so now, though various auxiliaries with interesting tactics might be interesting to the Macedonians in support roles. Naturally, their combined arms tactics and discipline in both heavy infantry and cavalry ruled the day, and so disorganized musters were really only useful as light infantry skirmishers. If there is a chance between campaigns, one suspects that better equipment will be gained for those troops who need it (primarily the cavalry only, and perhaps the shield-bearers--the phalangites are doing quite fine as they are).

Greek economic and commercial practices will be implemented, reinvigorating any stagnate economies, while Greek Philosophy is applied to the local situation by the coterie in the baggage train. Cities that submit will receive the halo of the pinnacle of hellenic thought, as it was about to burst into the hellenistic age--those that refuse will be viciously slaughtered, the survivors among the population sold into slavery. Alexander will always pursue an enemy to destruction and never accept terms short of those he dictates--A Porus might become a valued Companion, but for a resisting Tyre there is only death.

Really, the question here is--Alexander the Great, arguably the greatest tactical mind our history has produced (emphasis on "arguably", so let's not argue that here, it can be argued elsewhere), supported by his army, with his brilliant secondary generals and his veteran troops. These men, their organization and their discipline, their concepts of war, even the field train that accompanied them, with its famed and brilliant philosophers and historians and thinkers--can they conquer the WoT world? It's less about the technology, than the ideas, the concepts they used, and the leadership, which is why I said the idea world--I'm clearly thinking of an extended campaign, since obviously force composition will change over a series of battles.

[haas mark]

Personally, I think he could stand a definite chance, but would have to play it carefully. Depending on who he encounters when, is the main issue, I think.

~ver

[haas mark]

At the beginning of the series? Yes, Alexander wins. No doubt about that.

~ver

[haas mark]

At the beginning of the series? Yes, Alexander wins. No doubt about that.

~ver

That is, of course, provided he doesn't come across too many Aes Sedai..

~ver