broken pikes

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Originally Posted by Urnamma

I'd like to note that walking or running up to a line of pointy sticks and trying tp break one will probably get you stabbed by another 5. Also, if you cut the head of a pike off, they still have a 20 foot sharp pole to jab you with.

According to most military historians, the tactic of actually cutting pike heads off DID NOT WORK.

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well, i gues trying to stop itself is pretty much impossible..since there's a large number of men behind you trying to get to the fight..you'll get impaled on teh pikes merely by the push of your own men..

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Originally Posted by Sarcasm

Try and chop off a constantly moving pike head with a short-sword and you'll fail 99% of the times. It's also extremely hard to cut something that is not supported against something...the pike would just move away from the impact...

Even in the armies of the renaissance, with Bidenhänder-armed soldiers, had difficulty performing this type of attack. Spanish armies, though, had a type of sword and buckler troop armoured with a cuirass that would roll under the pikes and engage the pikemen within their own packed formation...as Ranika would tell you, Gallic and Galatian armies had a similar troop-type as well.

When speaking of regular tactics against a phalanx army, they should be faced with flexible and mobile troops...either with javelin and sling skirmishers, horse-archers or massed foot archery. Any kind of flanking was a valid tactic too.

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its quite amazing what degrees of courage such a thing would take , i mean what happens if you messed up and they just stabbed you repeatedly on the ground? scary stuff, but imagine succeeding at it and wrecking the enemies formation, you would have felt like a complete badass.

i think i'd rather say:"after you"..and wait for teh formation to crack ~;)

i think walking up to those pikes alone is brave..let alone knock them up 'n roll under.