[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[Bryan]

Bryan:

on your picture:





I'd say guy with the Spartan shield would be most vulnerable to side strike from enemy that faces guy with the  warthog or chicken shield..

Why, because he's a bit taller and has about 2 inches of extra exposed skin, it suddenly makes him an easier target? He's taller, that also means he has better reach...Uh oh, natural reach advantage means you might need to take you're spear back to the work shop and have the armorer add a longer shaft and heavier sauroter. You don't want to lose the War of the Reach Gap, where over the many centuries of hoplite warfare each side kept extending the shaft length of the dory to try to regain the advantage over the enemy! Oh wait, that never happened...

Besides as much, using an overhanded grip he will easily be able to parry any telegraphed underhanded thrust. There is no hiding where an underhanded thrust from the middle guard will be, its only going straight. So if you aim at his face or upper shoulders/neck with an underhanded grip, its going to go straight at it, on an upwards angle, and likely miss everything even if it wasn't blocked or parried.


JaM wrote: 
and why exactly it would have to be one or another? they could easily close in like this, and fight whatever gives them advantage if enemy got too close.. You should consider the possibility spear could be used in various role, and crouched lance is also one of the options..

You have presented two means of hoplite close combat. Spear fencing and charging with couched spears. You've discounted shield to shield, you've turned othismos into both sides pressing spears into each other's aspis' and pushing at each other. In every single possible version of your hoplite battle, spear length doesn't just have a small advantage, it is the primary advantage. So in that case, why didn't they go with longer and longer spears as time went on? The Peloponnesian War had quite a few hoplite battles between Greeks. Why not during the 20+ years did either Sparta or Athens simply add an extra cubit to the length of the shaft? Because then they'd automatically win every battle, because they had the reach advantage. But then their enemy would add two cubits to their spears. And so on, an arms race of lengthening shafts, all to gain advantage in reach. 

And yet none of that ever happened.