Yeah, it's pretty common historical knowledge that Alexander's men threatened to revolt wanting to go home.

Quote from: Motorskills;1060563It is very possible that this perceived pyrrhic victory was the straw that broke the back of the Macedonian army's morale

Going by the video, that seems unlikely - it wasn't a pyrrhic victory by any normal standards. Macedonians lost 1,000 of 45,000. It may be that a higher than normal proportion of those were actual Macedonians rather than auxiliaries though.

Quote from: S'mon;1060936Going by the video, that seems unlikely - it wasn't a pyrrhic victory by any normal standards. Macedonians lost 1,000 of 45,000. It may be that a higher than normal proportion of those were actual Macedonians rather than auxiliaries though.

Totally agree, "stats-wise" it certainly wasn't a pyrrhic victory, it was a plain and simple victory.

But to the Macedonian core, who were already unhappy, losing an even slightly higher proportion of "their own" probably had a much deeper perceived impact.

I think it might have been more just a case of general morale.  The India thing was the start of a whole new campaign, and going farther away from anything familiar (the Macedonians would at least have recognized the importance of Egypt and the importance of Persia).

Quote from: RPGPundit;1061489I think it might have been more just a case of general morale.  The India thing was the start of a whole new campaign, and going farther away from anything familiar (the Macedonians would at least have recognized the importance of Egypt and the importance of Persia).

Greetings!

That's right, Pundit. The Macedonians were tired. They were all now quite rich--some 50-60,000 of them, by this time. They were all very rich, and had not seen home in 8 or 10 years! Plus. you're right about India.

India was strange, wondrous, and weird to the Macedonians. There was a whole bunch of new animals they had never seen, new plants, everything. Plus the rumours they were getting about *dozens* more kingdoms, just like King Porus's kingdom. Porus was defeated--but it was not especially easy, and the Macedonians were probably not looking forward to fighting "dozens more" kingdoms such as Porus.

It certainly was NOT a "Pyrrhic" victory, as Motorskills claimed. It was a strong victory. The Macedonian warriors at this point in time weren't really interested in yet more and more fighting, just for the sake of fighting and gaining more loot. So, there was a morale problem, in the sense that there was a disagreement at the campaign's root purpose. Persia had been conquered. For many of the Greeks, the campaign was over with. Alexander, of course, was seeing whole new opportunities!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: SHARK;1061566It certainly was NOT a "Pyrrhic" victory, as Motorskills claimed. K

Note that I said "perceived", as in perceived by the Macedonians themselves. Obviously there's some trans-millenial psychological guesswork here, but I don't think it is too much of a stretch to suggest that at that point one dead Macedonian footsoldier was one too many if you are one of the PBI!

AFAICT, we are all saying the same thing, no?

Quote from: SHARK;1061566Greetings!

That's right, Pundit. The Macedonians were tired. They were all now quite rich--some 50-60,000 of them, by this time. They were all very rich, and had not seen home in 8 or 10 years! Plus. you're right about India.

India was strange, wondrous, and weird to the Macedonians. There was a whole bunch of new animals they had never seen, new plants, everything. Plus the rumours they were getting about *dozens* more kingdoms, just like King Porus's kingdom. Porus was defeated--but it was not especially easy, and the Macedonians were probably not looking forward to fighting "dozens more" kingdoms such as Porus.

It certainly was NOT a "Pyrrhic" victory, as Motorskills claimed. It was a strong victory. The Macedonian warriors at this point in time weren't really interested in yet more and more fighting, just for the sake of fighting and gaining more loot. So, there was a morale problem, in the sense that there was a disagreement at the campaign's root purpose. Persia had been conquered. For many of the Greeks, the campaign was over with. Alexander, of course, was seeing whole new opportunities!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

They'd leveled up too high.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1061873They'd leveled up too high.

Greetings!

LOL! Ahh, Pundit! That made me damn near spit my coffee out from laughing! Sweet! It fits well, in a weird way, huh?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Like seriously, you're well past 9th level, you want to take all the plunder and set up a dominion and run it, and here's this asshole king of yours wanting to just keep right on looting like you're all level 1.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1062212Like seriously, you're well past 9th level, you want to take all the plunder and set up a dominion and run it, and here's this asshole king of yours wanting to just keep right on looting like you're all level 1.

I can just imagine the frustrated GM throwing Daedric-armoured epic legendary war elephants with adamantium tusks at the increasingly jaded players...