Objective: Control the Entire At Least the Med. Sea within 3 Generations of the beginning of the scenario, and to control the ancient world (Europe [To Danube River] and Southern Asia, Northern Africa, and the Middle East)
Date: c.55 BC

They are mysteriously transported to be brought to this time to fight each other to see who is the most brilliant general of the ancient world and are temporally made immortal and will not age

Hannibal gets N.Africa, and Southern Spain
Ceaser gets Italy, Corsica, Sicily, Sardina
Alexander gets Greece, and Asia Minor

They must train and recruit there armies and each start with 50,000 men but they can be configured into what solider they need. Who wins?

Alexander the Great victorious forces had fought pitched battles on the desert fields against the Persians. They had been suppressing revolts and rebellions in Palestine. They had made incredible attacks on mountain refuges, and had laid sieges to reputedly impenetrable strongholds. Having been repulsed in India, Alexander fixed his eyes on the growing island of Sicily. The rival empire, Carthage, was vitally interested there, and the Greeks ended up crossing swords with her most famous General, Hannibal, who had put Rome on a stranglehold for nearly half a generation. While Alexander began enriching the Sicilians with Hellenization, Phoenician influence was reinvigorated by Carthaginian expansion on the Island, and later the Roman invaders, under Julius Ceaser, Rome regained control of the island, while the Macedonians and Carthage seized the remainder. Sicily became a battleground for the three rival empires….

Well, you must also take into consideration the other events. Why did you not include the Celts? If Rome only gets that bit of land, given the time-period, Vecingetorix probably could have united most of Gaul. This would be a major feat!

Alexander and his descendants. There was simply no way for either of the others to match the huge population and massive wealth of the Near East.

In Ceaser had attempted to make an alliance with Gaul, to destroy the Carthaginians colony in Spain and close off the Penisular to their aid. Meanwhile, the powerful Greek colony under Alexander, at Syracuse attempted to evict the Carthaginians and Romans from their bases on the island. This was ignored by the Romans, as their main focus was consolidating their power of Gaul. However, this was all the excuse the Mago, leader of the Carthaginian dynasty needed to, as he hoped, add yet another territory to his enormous empire. They began construction of an enormous fleet. To help the effort, he instructed his great general, Hannibal, to attack the Greek settlements on Sicily.

Moving by land and by sea, Hannibal encamped at a short distance from the city with harassing raids by land and sea aimed at the Macedonian supply line. When this failed to provoke Alexander into battle, he carefully laid his own plans for a decisive attack. Splitting his army into three divisions, Hannibal planned a three pronged attack which required careful coordination and the cooperation. On the right wing, 10,000 Syracusan and Iberian and Baleric troops were to move north around the city to attack the Greek left. On the left, 8,000 African Mercenaries were embarked on 50 captured Syracusan triremes with instructions to land opposite the Greek right flank. The balance of Hannibal army was to pass through the city, and sortie through the Syracuse strongholds to fall on the main Greek camp, destroying their siege equipment as they advanced. The movements were timed to occur at the morning twilight, so that in addition to surprise, the Greeks would also have to contend with the "dazzle" caused by the rising sun as Hannibal hoped.

At first everything worked well for the Carthaginians and their allies. The Africans landed successfully and drove the Greeks back into their camp. Then to the north, the Allies fell on the other Greek flank before it could organize enough to resist. However, Hannibal had not given his army a specific landing location. His army was then dispersed in the crossing, and it was only his unfailing luck that allowed him to find his army and bring it together. Going ashore a mile and a half from the rallying point, Hannibal’s men attempted a flanking movement through the heavily wooded marsh. On his advance, Hannibal succeeded in capturing a Greek supply train. His men stop their march to loot it however, and they weren’t brought in time to bring it across the valley to support his successes on either flank. Alexander, reacting without hesitation, was able to send reinforcements first to the south and then to the north, and with hard fighting was able to drive back the attackers. The battle was over before Hannibal's main force could even engage.

The Carthaginians, having been beaten back, descended into the plain and encamped themselves on a series of ridges above the river Asopus. The position was relatively easy to supply and had a source of water. Not daunted, he tried again a few weeks later, attempting to maneuver around the Greek southern flank. However, Alexander's superior numbers allowed him to counter this, and his flank was strongly guarded by bogs and hills. Outnumbered and outpositioned, Ceaser still tried to outflank the Scots, but failed and, in pouring rain, was pursued back to his base by Companion cavalry.

Carthage also experienced a military defeat in Sicily as her fleet was cut off by superior Athenian forces By now, the Carthaginian army was running low on food, and the situation seemed hopeless. Hannibal again fell back to his camp, this time planning to abandon the campaign. Sensing total victory against his distinguished foe who he rivaled, Alexander viciously pursued, and managed to get his troops in front of the Carthaginians, blocking the only route back to their trapped fleet. Hannibal's forces were now defeated, starving, soaked by the constant rain, and surrounded deep inside enemy territory. Alexander's army occupied an extremely strong defensive position, on a hill with a deep ravine and stream at its base, and all they had to do was wait for the Carthaginian to surrender.

Instead, Hannibal attacked. He'd realized that the rugged terrain, while it favored the defender, also made it difficult for them to move troops quickly from one part of the battlefield to another. The effectiveness of a phalanx was somewhat limited on uneven ground, and Hannibal's His infantry, (excluding his African mercenaries) are much more mobile and much better on broken ground than the phalanx. Originally he'd deployed his troops along the length of the ravine, with the Greeks on the other side. However, during the night he moved almost all his Numudian cavalry and half his infantry to concentrate against a single crossing-point. During the night, Hannibal ordered his troops to cut down trees to be used as part of an unorthodox tactic. As dawn broke, they forced their way over, with heavy losses - but Hannibal kept his nerve and continued to feed in his reserves to replace each man that lost momentum. The Greeks, taken by surprise and hindered by the ground just as Hannibal anticipated, were unable to do likewise, and so their right wing eventually broke.

Hannibal launched a sudden cavalry attack against the Greek Left wing also causing it to collapse in. At the same time as the right was being pushed into the main body, the troops in the center raised the retreat pennants and began pulling back. As the troops retreated they dragged behind them the trees they had cut down earlier that morning. This raised such a dust cloud that the Alexander thought the Carthaginians were fleeing in panic and eagerly gave chase. When the main body of the Macedonian army was enveloped in the cloud of dust they were unable to see that the Hannibal’s forces had split into two divisions and had turned around. Smashing into the Greek lines out of no where. Hannibal’s maneuver goes well, and because the Greek Phalanx is far too tightly packed, they cannot react in time.

This brilliant maneuver takes Macedonian completely by surprise, and the Numidian cavalry goes on to pin them, completing Hannibal’s electrifying victory. What follows is a great slaughter of the Macedonian phalanx, on a creator scale than that of Cannae. The disintegration of a once-proud army into a mass of panicking men took place almost within a blink of an eye and Alexander's dreams, and reputation, lay shattered. The news of the defeat lifts the blockade of the Island, and Carthaginian ships land supplies on the island to follow-up Hannibal’s success, driving the rest of the Greeks off the Island in the process. Alexander was forced to abandon his colony, and return home to Greece to defend his homeland, which as already in shambles...Something was definately in the making.....

to be continued…

Alexander and his descendants. There was simply no way for either of the others to match the huge population and massive wealth of the Near East.

As far Alexander's manpower base is concerned, it is limited to Macedonians. The Greeks are unreliable, and required a significant military presence on their own. The Persians have little in the way of infantry behind those so singularly ineffective hordes of light conscripts. I'm fairly certain Alexander's army never reached over 50,000, though I suppose that isn't taking his garrison in Greece into account, or a figure for India could include camp followers in the like. But Alexander's army never numbered much more than half that, even at its height, and was largely irreplacable from the Macedonian population.

The Greeks are unreliable, and required a significant military presence on their own.

Where did you hear this from? the Greek city states were reliable, and even supported Alexander in his wars.....They named him their commander in chief even...

Where did you hear this from? the Greek city states were reliable, and even supported Alexander in his wars.....They named him their commander in chief even...

they loved him so much that they threatened to rebel?

Yes the Greeks were very suspect allies for Alexander, expecially the Spartans. Like they did historically, in this scenerio at even a rumor of major defeat or Alexander's death they would rebel. I envision in rough outlines the battle to go something like this...

Caesar would attack Gaul, Carthage seeing this would take this opportunity to attack Sicily. Caesar seeing his grain supply threatened would attempt to invade Sicily only to be driven back by Carthage's superior fleet. He would then take the long route, attacking Spain through Gaul while leaving one of his capable underlings to spar with Hannibal (Brutus?) During this Alex would be rampaging through Persia but would hear of a new challenge out west. Acting under the pretense of defending Greek Syracuse in Sicily, he would invade. He would probabally win, but while away Phyrus of Illyria would be attacking Greece (When asked who the greatest generals of all time were, Hannibal replied Alexander, Hannibal, and Phyrus). Sparta and many Greek states would ally with Phyrus after his early success, forcing Alex home. At this point Alex would pretty much be out of it being surrounded by enemies, Phyrus, prob a renewed Persia, maybe Parthians, Carthage, wherever he was he would win, but once he left to take care of another threat his enemies would go on the offensive again. That leaves Caesar vs. Hannibal. Caesar would eventually win for the same reasons Rome beat Carthage without Caesar.

I would agree that, if we're talking sheer generalship, Hannibal would surely win. He was an unqualified genius and sensible, whereas Alexander was an absolute barking nutcase.

I wonder if anyone gets an interesting discussion running without this X versus Y in A and B stuff.

World History <-> Aliens vs Predator?

That was a real kick-ass movie! :D

As far Alexander's manpower base is concerned, it is limited to Macedonians. The Greeks are unreliable, and required a significant military presence on their own. The Persians have little in the way of infantry behind those so singularly ineffective hordes of light conscripts. I'm fairly certain Alexander's army never reached over 50,000, though I suppose that isn't taking his garrison in Greece into account, or a figure for India could include camp followers in the like. But Alexander's army never numbered much more than half that, even at its height, and was largely irreplacable from the Macedonian population.

I'm sorry, but that is not true. The Persians would likely have proved the base of his empire, he was taking steps to integrate them fully, by making them full citizens and arranging intermarraige. They would have been loyal enough and he could have had plenty of phalangites from their lands.

Well, you must also take into consideration the other events. Why did you not include the Celts? If Rome only gets that bit of land, given the time-period, Vecingetorix probably could have united most of Gaul. This would be a major feat!

Gaul wasn't a united country but just a territory of a lot of different tribes. Leaders like Vercingetorix or Ambiorix have united their tribes with their neighbours to fight a common ennemy. But some Gaul tribes allied with Cesar.

I'm sorry, but that is not true. The Persians would likely have proved the base of his empire, he was taking steps to integrate them fully, by making them full citizens and arranging intermarraige. They would have been loyal enough and he could have had plenty of phalangites from their lands.

making them citizens: yes .... fitting them with equiptment and traing : No...he feared they too might mutiny against him, rather they be undisciplined and ill-trained levies, then pose a threat. They were held in reserve, but were more of camp-followers rather than capable figthing men. While Hannibal's and Ceaser's men never mutinied and rarely deserted, Alexander's did.