Mania for Subjugation IV now available!

As usual, thanks for your patience.

The next installment of the Alexander the Great story (“Mania for Subjugation IV”) has just been released. You can get it wherever you normally do. Or you can just go here: Mania for Subjugation IV

This part picks up after his victory at the Battle of the Granicus River, and follows the young Macedonian (Makdonian?) king’s efforts to accept the submission of and/or pacify the large region he’s just won (roughly modern-day Turkey). While he’s doing this the Great King of Persia is assembling a very large royal army to deal with him.

The bloodbath that results when the two forces meet at the renowned Battle of Issus has been shortchanged in the movies (if shown at all). But that’s due to budgetary and time constraints, not because it lacks drama. In fact, the mighty Macedonian phalanx gets into trouble in that battle and potential disaster loomed. We spend a lot of time on the whole affair in this show and I make no apologies. It’s obviously one of the great field battles of Alexander’s career (top-2 probably) and one of the largest, most important and most celebrated battles in all ancient history. It deserves to have some time spent on it. “Hardcore” History indeed.

The famous siege of Halicarnasis is also part of this installment. It’s one of those where both besieged and besieger have powerful war machines operating against each other (like artillery). You don’t see that very often in this era. It sort of reminds us of ancient capabilities a bit and how clever our ancestors could be. Alexander is tested against experienced enemy leaders in this siege and his troops get put into difficult situations. It is encounters like Halicarnasis that demonstrate that the superiority of Macedonian arms was not simply due to their formations, weapons and discipline alone. Their individual soldiers were rough and tough as hell, and (almost Homeric at times) hand-to-hand fighting among the ruins of shattered walls against a desperate foe drove this point home.

As far as where this (Phillip and) Alexander story goes next...I have a rough idea, but I am usually a bit surprised myself how things turn out. I am like a guy carving a statue without detailed plans. I think I know what I want to make...I see it in my mind’s eye...but often it takes on a life of its own as I work on it. I usually think that’s part of the fun (and explains why it seems a bit artsy), but it is also the cause of many headaches and inefficiencies around here. Those sorts of things can happen if the artsy bohemians get ahold of the business. (That’s how a single show that was supposed to be about Cleopatra turns into a super-long, multi-part behemoth on the decline and fall of the Roman Republic🙄 Yikes!.) Bottom line: we shall find out together I guess.

Usually when I get one of the big HH shows out (still averaging our blazing pace of 1.5 shows a year) that gives me a little breathing room to work on one of our other two podcasts. Poor Hardcore History Addendum is like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz right now...rusting and in need of oil and life. Maybe I will put a little time into that...

-and now that I don’t have to worry (at least for a while...until the next big show is “overdue”) that I will get all the Substack subscribers needlessly fired up if they see a post here by me, maybe I will get a few more contributions on this platform done. It’s certainly being underutilized (damn Bohemians!).

Thanks again for everything.

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