Quote Originally Posted by Jolt
I suppose people are just making this a one on one situation, but in a battle, it'd be very hard to achieve something like that. The Wedge matter can be successful, simply put, but if you put them in the midst of a battle, what happens is that they form to attack a simple phalanx, probably leaving them open to other attacks. Ranged attacks, javelins and etcetera would quickly disrupt such an attack. Furthermore the phalanx would actually be making it's job of holding the enemy down (even if the enemy's objective was to break the formation), possibly long enough for an "assault" infantry or cavalry to charge in and cause massive casualties, which would be enhanced since such a formation would have the same downsides as the phalanx, since it would be a densely packed formation focussed on pushing foward, and if a cavalry charge came from the sides or rear mayhem and chaos would ensue.
You are assuming a whole lot of things.

  • Phalanx-side has javelineers amidst the phalangites (they can't be thrown that far, yet phalanx blocks are 16-men deep with back rows keeping their sarissae erect, and wouldn't have space in between them... Or a wedge to push through the phalanx formation wouldn't be necessary)
  • Enemy doesn't have javelins (the setting that I imagined was Romani vs. Makedonia/Seleukids/etc)
  • Enemy uses ALL troops in a formation to form the wedge, and leaves [unit's] flanks undefended
  • Phalanx-side will keep the enemy busy enough for flanking/rear attacks to hit home even if penetrated by an infantry formation (as in the phalanx will not break and flee)
  • Enemy is vulnerable to assault infantry/cavalry, even though the enemy would most likely have to be heavy infantry to even have a shot at pushing through the phalanx formation, or at least possess great discipline
  • Enemy leaves flanks/rear undefended, and doesn't have reserves or additional units behind the front line


;)