This whole maniple thing

[mini]

I had a defensive siege battle the other day, where my levy phalanx was broken by skirmishers, mostly Akontistai (greek light javelin inf), and maybe one unit of Peltasts. Had a unit if Hoplites behind, so they couldn't use their breakthrough, but it shows that light phalanx can be broken into by the lightest of troops if the fight happens on the width of a gate. Heavy infantry might break into heavy phalanx the same way.

Back to the maniple thing, there is of course one opinion among historians that while the romans had gaps between their maniples at the start of the battle, the 2nd Century of each maniple would eventually move forward and sideways to plug the gap after the Skirmishers have done their work and moved through the line. The equivalent in EB would be to group two units each of Hastati/Principes together, one behind the other, and create a single line before the clash. This would allow the Velites to move to safety a little faster, and make them less vulnerable to the inevitable AI charge. Second, it would create a straight line with no flanking units in the gaps, and the replacement of the Hastati with fresh Principes might be executed more smoothly. On the other hand, it would either shorten the line or thin it considerably.

Has anyone ever tried this consistently?

I'm a big believer of this theory, as it would make no sense to keep the plugs in the line.
Therefor I usually skip the checkerboard setup and place my troops as a single line, hastati in front with defence on so they keep the line.
Depending how it goes from there, I either flank with my principes, or make them move as a single line on the position where the hastati are, defence on.
When they mingle with the hastati, i make the latter retreat and regroup on the flanks.. let the battle rage on for a while, and then use them as flankers if I haven't used the cav by then.

Seems to work pretty well.

When I have a general with good command traits, I justify even more changes because he's such a smart ass: i use princeps as main defence line and use the lighter hastati to swing around, as they're lighter due to their being medium infantry, swifter flankers

[antisocialmunky]

Gates have a different effect though. If you move a unit through a gate, they have to move to a specified pathfinding node before they are able to move around in the city. Try it, you'll see what I mean. If you have phalanxes on that node or before it, it will get pushed around everywhere especially if the enemy just rushes untis at it. Infact, it'll get split in half.

Same thing happens in bridges. Its an RTW engine quirk.

Now I'm not saying that its impossible to break through the front of a phalanx, but its hard and not that efficient. Your best best is some high mass, high morale infantry. You can attack it or tell them to run through.

[Ibrahim]

Back to the maniple thing, there is of course one opinion among historians that while the romans had gaps between their maniples at the start of the battle, the 2nd Century of each maniple would eventually move forward and sideways to plug the gap after the Skirmishers have done their work and moved through the line. The equivalent in EB would be to group two units each of Hastati/Principes together, one behind the other, and create a single line before the clash. This would allow the Velites to move to safety a little faster, and make them less vulnerable to the inevitable AI charge. Second, it would create a straight line with no flanking units in the gaps, and the replacement of the Hastati with fresh Principes might be executed more smoothly. On the other hand, it would either shorten the line or thin it considerably.

Has anyone ever tried this consistently?

I can proudly say that I have been doing that for ages now-its actually very effective, though not exactly as you describe; I put the units next to each other seperated by a considerable distance, like so

1)normal: H-H-H 2)checkerboard: H----H----H
----------P-P-P--------------------P----P

to make into one line, just take them and stretch them out into the line before you move, and after the velites are safely behind the lines: having them as you describe takes too long to deploy into a battle line, by which time the enemy may be on you and all around you