You need to cross a bridge and pic related blocks your path

they are clumsy beasts and the piles of persian dead are slippery

Not to mention that whole "getting stabbed by 10-20 pikes that heavily outrange my tusks"

send in the fully maxed out BERSERKERS

Let me play some music

About 8 of these

Pay them 100 denars to fuck off.

Top kek

t. Theodocuckus II

Would be mighty difficult to deploy and hit a moving phalanx with that.

A ballista would be a far better option.

Use one spear to pole vault across

set the bridge on fire and build boats

fire on them all day with archers while feinting attacks with skirmishers dressed as heavy infantry if they withdraw out of range

>H-hey can I go past please
>STOP MUMBLING WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT WE'RE WAITING FOR BARBARIANS
>Can I please get past you I'm late for supper
>SPEAK UP I CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU. YOU A BARBARIAN OR SOMETHING?
>N-no
>WELL THEN PROVE IT, TAKE THIS PIKE AND STAND IN FRONT
>Fuck.
And so I joined the Army and had a great time meeting new people and buttfucking them for fun.

Sounds fun my dude!

> fire on them all day with archers

But they usually had their own archers and slingers in support.

>phalanx
>moving faster than a rock than a trebuchet's projectile

Skirmishers were equipped and trained specifically to survive a constant barrage and they fought in a loose formation while phalangites had to carry a 20 foot pike, limiting the endurance they could devote to carrying a large shield.

The archers supporting the phalanx would have to be a bit further back. The only advantage the phalanx would have in a skirmish would be that they could place their phalanx at the start of the bridge, thus further from enemy archers dotted along the bank of the river on the other side. However archers on the bridge with pavise shields constantly rotated with fresh archers could put a sufficient volume of arrows into the phalanx so this is not much of an advantage.

option 1:

>pay a couple psiloi to go up and grab one of the pikes from the tip and yank it out of the enemy's hands and bring it back
>measure it
>order a bunch of sarissas that are longer than it and arm my troops with it

option 2:
>get a bunch of heavy-weighted scyth wagons (yes, scyth wagons, not chariots)
>specially designed it to be pulled by two horse teams consisting of 2 horses, both pulling it on the far front flanks of the wagon, and not directly pulling it from the front
>make them run up at full speed to the bridge and aim for the phalanx, and have the driver on the wagon cut off their reins about 30-40 meters before getting close to the phalanx and then jump off
>let the wagons crash into the phalanx
>move in with a bunch of missile units and fuck them up before sending in heavy infantry

option 3:
Just use a bunch of artillery if I have any

option 4:
If the bridge is just low-height one that spans across a river:
>just construct a trireme and ram the fuck out of it.
If the bridge doesn't span across a body of water, or is to high up in height for a tririme to ram it, then:
>burn it or over-burden it

option 5:
>get a bunch of light mobile wheeled siege engines with the front covered in iron plates and a ram and line them up into a single file that cover's the bridge's width, and push them towards the phalanx

build some pilings 2 feet thick angled into the direction of the water and drop them with the proper tackle, then go downriver and drop pilings facing upstream in the same fasion.

then bind them lengthwise with iron bands, lay timber, and cross.

ill proceed to destroy you in 18 days and return home

Either way, a counterweight trebuchet isnt a field weapon.

The only field stone-throwing Catapult I know of are Roman Onagers, ballistae of various missiles (though the large stone throwers were for sieges), and the Chinese man-pulled trebuchets.

Basically ancient "field artillery" are basically ang engine that doesnt need to be constructed, or is easily packed away. Big counterweight trebuchets aren't such weapons.

Pila+scuta breaks these formations.

swim

use scutum and gladius and rape them head on

*Kites them forever*

Nothing personell 50 % of the known world

> >moving faster than a rock than a trebuchet's projectile

Yes.

> Skirmishers were equipped and trained specifically to survive a constant barrage

lol no, they were rarely ever armored in any way and carried small shields.

> Skirmishers were equipped and trained specifically to survive a constant barrage

Still a formation, and sling bullet storms do not choose ground.

> while phalangites had to carry a 20 foot pike, limiting the endurance they could devote to carrying a large shield

They wore armor though.

> The archers supporting the phalanx would have to be a bit further back

Usually along the sides.

> The only advantage the phalanx would have in a skirmish

Armor.

> However archers on the bridge with pavise shields constantly rotated with fresh archers could put a sufficient volume of arrows into the phalanx so this is not much of an advantage

Then the phalanx orders a charge and ass blasts those fucktards out of their position before they can even fire three volleys;

"seize and put them by with their very hands; while the Macedonians, holding them firmly advanced with both hands, and piercing those who fell upon them, armour and all, since neither shield nor breastplate could resist the force of the Macedonian long spear" - Plutarch

"while the latter drove them firmly grasped with both hands with such force against the enemy..." - Livy

> *Kites them forever*

> gets slaughtered by foot archers and slingers

Ask them very nicely if I can please cross.

Throw 256 javelins while moving backwards slowly.

Wait until winter then lead a cavalry charge over the frozen river to attack it from the side.

...

I would do is realize that this is Clearly a trap. After a short fight they would retreat to the other side of the river and trap my army with a narrow bridge being the only route of escape. Then I would attack them burn down the bridge the moment they retreat and form back up on the bank. If they are stupid they attack and get slaughtered, if the are smart they retreat and I try to force them into a more opportune battle field.

I read it in his voice, damn it.

use slingers, archers, skirmishers.

oh wait did u make an army comprised of only elite troops?

lindybeige we know its you.

Ballistae and javelins while I circle around my heavy cav

If they're pinned on the bridge?

Lean some trees up, and the push them over on them to break their formation.

>> gets slaughtered by foot archers and slingers
>in the dying dream of an archer bleeding out from a lance wound

They sure look flammable

*shoots arrow to your knee*
nothing personnal, kid

>Set my army up with a main force of heavy infantry at the bridge and two contingents of light infantry on the left and right
>Move a mile upriver with some sappers and dam it.
>Have the light infantry flank while my heavy center units push forward

ford the river under arrow fire

Wait until they leave for food or sleep. And then cross.

Levitate

Stug didn't have an MG yo.

Javelins or if I catch them on a hill light a hay roll and throw it against them.

>turn 360 degrees and walk away

this and steel rehn

Is this you as in only myself or you as in me and an army of my countrymen?

Assuming the latter, order my men to swat the enemy pikes to the side or break them with their feet or whatever other bullshit roman historians invented about how Roman generals fought the phalanx.

I would wonder why a formation that is best used when marching or charging forward is sitting still.

I use my diplomatic speech to recruit them in my army.

I give everyone of them a piece of cake and drink some coffee. Then I walk over the bridge

Archers?

Use the light of the sun to blind the enemy, causing them to lift their pikes up in sheer terror as I charge head on into them with my light cavalry.