So how was Phalanx combat fought? How common was the Phalanx...

So how was Phalanx combat fought? How common was the Phalanx? I've heard that Phalanx combat wasn't as organized and it was pretty chaotic.

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The formations usually fell apart if they weren't on flat ground.

In the early days a lot of people would break and run if they were on the edges of the formation, so they adopted to practice of having the most experienced soldiers in the front, rear and sides of the formation so any noobs thinking of routing would have no choice but to fight it out.

seems like it was mostly intimidation, the enemy is also forced to mirror the formation if they want to fight back, the advancing lines plus spear men being protected by shields would be strong against anything other than suicidal charges so you always need more soldiers than the enemy to win and a willingness to sacrifice yourself.

>other than suicidal charges so you always need more soldiers than the enemy to win and a willingness to sacrifice yourself

God reading the battles the Romans fought against the Macedonian phalanx are absolutely insane. Just literally trying to dodge the spears and then hacking the phalangites to pieces. I think there's a description of the Macedonians at Cynocephalae after the battle being absolutely horrified at the carnage the Romans inflicted, with decapitations left and right, limbs hacked off.

Takes some real cajones to run willingly into what effectively is an enormous bristling pincushion.

yeah but if they refused their own brothers in arms would have beaten them to death with their fists

*goes around*

>So how was Phalanx combat fought?
You march slowly towards the enemy, relatively invulnerable to missile fire and begin spearing, pushing and potentially trampling the enemy. If it's versus another phalanx you get a lot of pushing and jostling if neither side breaks
>How common was the Phalanx?
Given that it was the backbone of Greek infantry for most of antiquity, quite common
>I've heard that Phalanx combat wasn't as organized and it was pretty chaotic.
It really depends on the state using them. Spartans, Thebians and Macedonians were generally exceptionally disciplined and drilled during their heyday

Itt nightmare fuel

Just go to /wsg/ and ask nicely for that Rocroy webm, if you want pointy nightmare fuel

They were very organized until about the first few minutes into a fight. It'd get very chaotic and there are even accounts of hoplite units accidentally charging into their own troops.

There's a reason why marching in formation was so important.

>Best executed on flat terrain
>Often mutually agreed field of battle
>Paeans and war cries before and during marching towards enemy phalanx
>Known war cries probably sounded something like ELELELELELE
>All phalanxes tend to turn a little gradually as they march, fixing course once in a while, forget why
>Interlocked shields, overarm or underarm holding of spears according to whom you ask
>The phalanxes meet, lots of spear jabbing, spear breaking and shield bashing
>Combat becomes shoving your shield into the enemy formation and trying to stab with the xiphos/spear through gaps
>One formation breaks apart, the other one wins
>Relatively few casualties in phalanx warfare

We don't know much for sure if they often over-lapped shields like people commonly like to say. There's inferences that they instinctively did it when shit got tough. We're also not sure if they literally collectively pushed against each other with shield-walls, or if it was just mere metaphorical wording by writers who mention such to refer to close-quarter combat between the two phalanxes, as doing it literally will probably end up with the front-lines of the phalanx tripping over if one or a few men slip from the pushing and getting trampled by the next, which doesn't get mentioned in texts. I never quite figured out how the spear tactics worked out either (was the second line behind the first arrayed in a fashion where the back-end of the spears used by the first line wouldn't hit them? Did they aim their spears to the enemy too over or through the gaps of the front line to hit the enemy?). But yes, despite common-thought, MOST Greek hoplite cities didn't have military training (that we know of) that drilled them and trained them in conducting phalanx maneuvers. We hear of many having weapons training, or having regular physical exercises as their training regime, and requiring missile troops have target practice for their training, but no mention of them coming together during peace or before battles and having mocked battles or drills. Some likely did (like the Spartans) but we don't know for sure. But writers like Xenophon and Plato apparently thought that keeping a 'high-morale' and 'brave-spirit' was important for the men of a phalanx to have, and that dedicated formation training wasn't needed, as, according to them, the men will just naturally come together with keeping the phalanx in-tact and listen to officers when they need to roll or shift around.

They tended to turn because you actually protected the guy on your left with your shield, being in turn protected by the guy on your right. Because it was intstinctive to huddle close to the shield protecting you, phalanxes had a tendency to drift to the right. Also, if you were the rightmost guy on the line, sucks to be you.

Sounds reasonable

interesting genetic experiment at this stage you had melee feints in that man fought for his own self and his own life, next to a brother, who fought similarity, providing the pattern loosely labeled the phalanx, which became the legion as breeding patterns were enforced on a scale by rome backed by the bread basket of greekenised egypt (Which was a major collection point for slave labouring 2 continents of eurasia & africa, so it was sustainable). this geographic socio-pol interplay changed human genetics through darwins repetition series of generation breeding to this extent, the idea politically is to contain these purpose bred genes to specific tiers of social strata and use but bastardom is required to keep it fresh (like the blood of tyrants on a tree of liberty) but too much breeds chaotic discontent and upsets the system in which you get revolutions and lose wars and shit so its a delicate interplay of keeping the blood pool fresh.

caste system*

>Phalanx can't move straight because of men cuddling each other.
That's...very gay.

Genetics werent a thing untill the 1900 why do you believe they influenced things around 300 bce

youtube.com/watch?v=-ZVs97QKH-8

This answers the first question pretty well.

cojones*

I'm convinced they did it over arm in formations. Not only does the art depict that, but as that video explains you have more control in a tight formation reaching over your own shield when you hold it overhand, so you can thrust harder and deflected with a firmer grip. Also it's much easier to avoid hitting your friends with the back of the spear when you hold it overhand .

Try holding a broom both ways and you'll see that in a tight formation the overhand makes more sense.

In unorganized fighting though there is much more use for underhand.