Ancient Greece
The Phalanx Formation
The Phalanx formation was the most widely accepted fighting formation due to its effectiveness in small numbers. The phalanx formation was built around the advantages and fighting techniques of the Greek Hopilite soldier. The Greek hopilite soldier is at the most basic form a soldier that is called to arms. Depending on the city-state the training of each soldier is different so the phalanx formation was set as a standard so every Greek hopilite can move in a basic unit if called to arms for the defense of Greece or the defense of the state. The Lochoi were the hopilites in the formation and were usually 16x16 in a tight formation. This tight formation involving long spears and heavy shields were extremely effective when fighting larger numbers. This formation was extremely useful in the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans and 1,000 Greek hopilites from other city-states held off an army 10,000 man strong from the Persian empire (Cartwright).
Naval Warfare
In Greece the city-state with the most advanced ships, strategies, and tactics was Athens. The ship most commonly used by the Athenians and most other Greek city-states was the trireme. The trireme was a ship designed as a multipurpose ship that could attack in various ways. They could be used for amphibious landing vehicles, and the ships are versatile and can preform more than one task during a conflict. The trireme as a versatile ship was used in many conflicts for troop transportation and sea superiority (Greek Warfare).
Sieges
Sieges are crucial to attack any Greek city-state with the exception of Sparta most large cities had extremely high walls, signal towers, and large gates that are bottlenecks. A narrowing point it makes the amount of soldiers unnecessary because there are no flanks and with the tight phalanx formation that already had defensive qualities gates were extremely effective at stopping oncoming invaders. As well each city-state with the exception of Sparta had an acropolis. An Acropolis was well guarded with limited entry points that was generally above the rest of the city. With all of the defensive measures taken place the attackers in these situations made the first types of catapults, battering rams, siege towers, and even flamethrowers. Even with technology constantly advancing, most of these early attempts failed or were ineffective in nature. The biggest weapon either side had was food source. In most circumstances there were no effective supply routes to give food and other supplies to soldiers. Sieges would take long periods of time because armies would wait for starvation to take place. In most attacks soldiers only had three days supplies with them and would scavenge the lands they attack for additional supplies. This gave the advantage to the defender, but a common strategy for an attacker is blockage ports and cut off all access to a city in hope to draw out the defenders and leave them vulnerable (Greek warfare).