Your Army

My Sixth-Seventh Century A.D Byzantine Army, Overview:  My army has one million men and women in it, Four hundred thousand of which are Cataphracts! (cue the evil laughter), one hundred and fifty thousand heavy infantry, fifty thousand light infantry/ psiloi/scouts twenty thousand archers Toxatai Although the Byzantines of that era, may have still called their archers Sagittarii, (not sure), five thousand greek fire, hand sryinge operators, five thousand baleric slingers Twenty thousand crew, for my trebuchets, catapults and repeating ballistae, fifty thousand buecallarii one hundred thousand light cavalry which serve as horse archers/javineers/staff slingers, fifty thousand war elaphants twenty five thousand are heavily armored, twenty five are lightly armored or no have armor, and one hundred and fifty thousand scythed ballista chariots with armored horse teams and steel axles and wheels and,... drumroll... fifty helepoli and crew. and a bunch camp followers a.k.a cannon fodder, animals, supply wagons, and lines and guards for the supplys, medical stuff, preists, and one hundred thousand mercenarys (better trained cannon fodder) Cataphracts: My Cataphracts have strong but light steel armor which consists of: padded undergarments, chain mail chauses and long sleeved hauberk and chain mail gauntlets and aventail of three layers thickness the layers are staggered, to stagger the shock of a blow as is the layers of the padding and then a scale hauberk and a lamellar hauberk which have calf length tassets and then they have a segmented cuirass similar to the old roman lorica segmenata (these are shown in several late roman miltiary manuals and they could take a direct hit from a ballist bolt with only a small dent to show for it) a  two manicae connecting to the shoulder guards which protect both sides of the arm, and between the shoulder guards and the manica is an elbow length scale sleeeve and another elbow length lamellar sleeve and over the manica are splint vambraces which protect the forearm and the elbow and the hands are protected by another chain mail guantlet the head is protected by a spangenhelm with a molded anthromorphic steel facemask, the eyeholes are enlarged to permit more vision and the helm is made to permit greater hearing and breathing and still provide the maximum amount of protection possible the neck is protected by the aventail and a massive padded gorget the legs and feet are protected by chain mail chauses, lamellar and scale tassets, segmented leg guards whcih ex tend from the down, splint greaves, segmented feet and ankle guards and a steel 'overshoe" their boots have a steel plate in the sole,  their weapons consist of a steel spathion sword a mace, dagger and axe which can serve as either a backup weapon or a tool, a composite bow and a hundred arrows a staff sling with lead bullets a greek fire hand syringe a thureos shield with a spiked boss and sharpened edges which is small enough to provide protection and leave the riders hand free to use his or her bow or other missle weapon and is strapped to the riders arm leaving his free to control another weapon or the riders horse the cataphracts main weapon is the kontos a nine foot long  spear which th cataphracts couch in a charge and it has a truncheon and is carried in a lance case that is strapped to the saddle when not in use and plumabatae and marziobarbouloi  lead weighted darts carried in the hollow of the shield and javelins. the horse is protected by steel scale and lamellar klibanion that hangs to the knees (with caparisons of the same materiel that hangs to the hock)  the armor protects the horses whole body including the neck head and chest the back and front klibanion is split to allow freedom of movement and a peytral and crupper of the same materiel as the klibanion are worn to cover the gaps the horse has segmented leg guards a belly plate and horse shoes that protect the inside and outside of the hoof from caltrops the horse also has a chanfron which has extensions to protect the ears and the mouth and dome shaped grills to protect the horses eyes from arrows the reins and stirups protected with metal and the rider can control his horse vocally and with his knees the saddle has the four roman saddle horns along with a high cantle and pommel the cataphracts and their horses are draped in brown gray and green cloth  and their armor and weapons are oiled so that they are almost silent and the cataphracts have the old roman principle of a silent advance and the cataphracts and their horses are incredbly fast despite the weight of their armor and their horses are quick as rabbit and can through mountains almost as well as any mountain goat and the cataphracts and their horse can swim in full armor if they have to and the cataphracts are trained in all kinds of martial arts and military sciences and they are trained in guerilla and asassination tactics and ther also trained as combat engineeers and they sail a ship read write and do mathematics and they can operate siege engines and they are self sufficent carrying their own food and water and they are trained in logistics and survival techniques. Heavy infantry Skutatoi : Armor: chain mail chauses and hauberk (only one layer instead of the three that that cataphracts have) and all troops have padded undergarments a cuirass similar in design to old roman lorica segmenata like the one the cataphracts have, orcae greaves two manicae, segmented arm arm guards which connect to the shoulder guards and protect the whole arm chain mail gauntlets a chain mail aventail of three layers staggered like the cataphract aventails, to protect the head and neck and spangenhelm and scale tassets which hang to the calf to protect the hips and segmented leg feet and ankle guards worn under the orcae like the ones the cataphracts have, Weapons: a spathion a parma oval sheild a kontos like the one the cataphracts have only it's eleven feet long instead of ten and a dagger pugio their training is the same as the cataphracts only the cataphracts are better  yuk yuk yuk   Light infantry: Scale cuirass, spathion and dagger, composite bow, javelins staff sling with lead sling bullets and plumabatae, Greek fire hand sryinge operators: same as light infantry, Slingers and siege engine crew: quilted cuirass spathion and dagger and for the slingers staff sling, obviously Buecallarii: equipment is similar to the cataphracts only their armor and their horses is gilded and inlaid with gold  and with gold filigree on the sword hilts and the armor is also silver washed and they are better trained Light cavalry: armor: spangenhelm and aventail, short sleeved chain mail hauberk, lamellar cuirass, spathion, dagger, staff sling, composite horsebow, kontos and javelins War Elephants: Armor a giant scale klibanion with scale caparisons and scale crupper and peytral and a belly plate and steel "shoes" to protect the elephants soft feet from caltrops the elephant has chanfron with dome shaped grills to protect the eyes from arrows the trunk and tusks are sheathed in metal and the elephant is armed with a mace and spearsthe howdah is armored and has a greek fire turret and a ballista the crew are armed and armored like heavy infantry only with pikes instead of  the kontos the elephant is controlled by a mahout inside the howdah along with a "spare" mahout and the elephants armor is draped in grau green and brown cloth "light" elephants are unarmored but have the same type of howdah as the heavys and are draped in the same type of cloth and have the same shoes as the heavys the are the biggest breed of elephant the loxadonta africana africana the largest elephants in the world  Chariots: The Horse team: the horses are armored in the same style as the catphracts horses the crew is armored like the skutatoi, the chariots tongue is made of steel as are the axles and the wheels the body is made of cross hatch and latticed teak wood and the layers staggered the chariot is longer and wider than conventional designs so it can hold the small ballista and the crew for the chariot and the ballista, the scythes are made of high qualty razor sharp steel.  The helepoli: Each helepolis serves as the tanks/  watch towers/sieg towers/troop and supply transports and fortresses of of my army each one is armored on all four sides and equiped battering rams, trebuchets, catapults, ballistae, siege ramps on top of the helepolis, greek fire turrets all of these weapons are on all sides of the helepolis the wheels and axles are made of are made of steel the helepolis is made of cross hatched and latticed hardwoods mainly oak and teak and it is armored with massive steel plates on all sides including the underbelly the helepolis is propelled with a team of three hundred elephants thus enabling it too move at great speed considering it's size, and it can change directions like a modern tank and last but not least myself the general I'll be fighting along side my cataphracts and buecallarii, my armor and my horse's armor are like that of my buecallarii only I have muscle cuirass and a crest on my helm and my harness and my horses harness are bejeweled with emarelds, rubys, and diamonds, my officers have similar equipment only they have have a red crest instead of a purple one and they only have rubys instead of the other jewels, and our cloaks and cloth barding for our horses are made of the finest silk, and my barding and are dyed purple like my crest and my sheild is over laid with gold  The Terrian, Climate and Tactics:  The terrrian and climate is medditerranian, mountainous, subtropical, desert, jungle, prarie/savanah, forest, and maybe some tundra. My tactics are this: send twenty five helepoli as a solid core, myself and my beucallarii at the head along with half my cataphracts the cataphracts and buecallari have their center troops fire none stop right up to the point where they hit the enemy lines, the other half are positioned on the flanks to hit outflank the enemy to reinforce me and to protect my flanks in some wise guy decides to charge my flank, thinking he'll give me a taste of my own medicine but when the cataphracts send him to the afterlife he'll wonder what he was thinking, my light calary provide scouts and a rearguard and mobile archers and messengers, the same thing goes for the light elephants my sige engines and remaining helepoli provide artillery support, same thing with my archers, the chariots provide mobile anti-personnel  flanking headhunting support, and after my helepoli, cataphracts, and buecallari, smash my enemy the light and heavy infantry move in to mop up whats left of my enemy, so my army serves as all purpose combined arms force, victory is assured, I apoligize that I didn't talk about ther mercenary but there's so many of them, each with their own different kinds of weapons and aromor that it's almost impossible to write them all down, My men are so disiplined that the climate wouldn't bother them, I would treat a captured city/town by killing anyone who resisted me that may sound harsh but their soldiers and thats the risk you take when your a soldier, however any soldier or civilian who surrendered would be spared and there would no killing or harming of women and children and I keep morale up with a system of victory, reward and propaganda, and punishment when need be and any rebellion is intantly crushed the officers and instigators of the rebellion are intantly poisoned or assinated or captured and tortured for any information they have and then executed and the troops that supported them are decimated and then the survivors are brain washed to serve me. ROMA INVICTA !!!