Hoplitai too weak ?

[Watchman]

Yeah right. And that only if we hypothesise hoplites don't just form up in a single line as they used to. You're beeing WAY too certain of the truth of some things. I said phalangites would probably win, not certainly. You're taking too many things as given and talk way too hypothetically.

We're discussing a hypothetical situation, I'll remind you. And it's kind of a given that hoplites in any relevant time period would be at least passingly familiar with the working principles of the pike phalanx; moreover, even if they for one reason or another now were obstinate enough to insist on maintaining a continuous line (anything but a given, given the changes even hoplite warfare had gone through by any relevant stage) there's very little reason why they wouldn't intentionally thin out and lenghten their line to ensure a double envelopement of the cumbersome pike block. That pike phalanxes should not be fought frontally should be something even the slow on the uptake in Greece ought to have grasped by any relevant time period, and trained soldiers most certainly.

Again, compare Marathon - where a rather similar scheme (thinning out the center to ensure the frontage was sufficient and the wings strong enough) was managed by a far less professional and poorer drilled army with quite spectacular results.