I ask because I don't think this is something that will "scale" very well. Ten or twelve people standing in line, even two deep, are going to be vulnerable to a determined sword charge. 600-800 people drawn up six deep (average deployment of a Civil War pike regiment) are a lot less vulnerable. The attackers have each to dodge half-a-dozen spear points aimed at them, not just one or two, and that's a lot harder. Since they're likely part of a larger unit themselves, they'll also be hemmed in by the crowd of people charging with them and be less able to dodge.
If the battle breaks up into lots of small-scale combats, that's when the spearmen have to drop their pikes and draw swords or daggers. The lesson is that you don't deploy spearmen in small groups (except in confined quarters). History shows that if they can fight on their own terms, phalanges are nearly unbeatable. To win, their opponents have to either use missile weapons (bows, pila, muskets, dropped rocks carried by flying Orlanthi) from a distance, or manuoevre to hit the pikemen from the flank or rear (cavalry, skirmishers, or Roman chequerboard formations), or use difficult terrain or fake retreats to break up the enemy formation.
Stephen
Powered by hypermail