08-24-2016, 05:22 PM
no you wouldn't if both sides use spear for the longest reach, and would stay away from each other.. but you definitely would, if one side would use spears holding them in the middle giving up reach..
My view in all this is that casualties of such clashes would be quite small. Front rank is armored, yet some hits could be made as fatigue would kick in. you wound or kill few men in the front rank, (usually some nobles) and guys in the rear ranks who noticed this would start hesitate.. at some point they would just break and run away, at which point chase would start and the massacre.. for example in another Matthew book about Phalangites he claimed Pydna was a close call.. yet, Romans reported like 500 men dead or wounded, and Macedonian lost the army.. thing is, these casualties occurred during the time Romans were trying to get close, and once they did, and Macedonians ran, they just slaughtered them completely...
My view in all this is that casualties of such clashes would be quite small. Front rank is armored, yet some hits could be made as fatigue would kick in. you wound or kill few men in the front rank, (usually some nobles) and guys in the rear ranks who noticed this would start hesitate.. at some point they would just break and run away, at which point chase would start and the massacre.. for example in another Matthew book about Phalangites he claimed Pydna was a close call.. yet, Romans reported like 500 men dead or wounded, and Macedonian lost the army.. thing is, these casualties occurred during the time Romans were trying to get close, and once they did, and Macedonians ran, they just slaughtered them completely...
Jaroslav Jakubov
