Quote Originally Posted by Olaf The Great View Post
I recall it being mentioned long ago on this very forum that the phalanx could march backwards instead of turning around.
Yes this would be almost as easy as walking forwards. (possibly easier than for other units as the pikes both keep the unit together as well as offer visible aid to where the rest of your friends are without taking eyes off the enemy, in contrary a shieldwall-unit can easily leave the first line behind and even that can easily lose its solidity as they back up, a wavy snake thingie look with gaps forming between the shields is something we suffer a lot.) Straifing or sideways movements is a no-no with the weapons in lowered position, what differ pikes from other utits is that you involve yourself with several rows of your own unit. the pikes/sarissas litterally from fences within the unit, so ging back and forth is fine to some extent but sideways is blocked with a pike locked in place by the people around it, turning, thus forcing the pike on to the diagonal, doesn't work very well either unless you loosen the formation, which you normally don't want, ecpecially for pikes. There's also the offset weight to take into accont, perhaps the pikes we used (Which were supposedly Swedish army replicas) were heavier than the Greek sarissas, but you really needed a solid stance to keep the tip up and mine was just five meters, I know the Greeks had longer pikes than that.
That also have me wondering how agressive you can actually be with the weapon (we never forght or simulated any fighting, other than where we pikemen acted as a mobile fort for the musketeers and bowmen.) It just felt that you couldn't thrust the weapon forward much asit had sucha a massive impact on your balance and center of gravity, you'd be forced to drop the pike to the ground and pull it backif you over reached (which wouldn't be that far.) On the contrary a unit with 3 meter spears I know is horribly aggressive, those spears are flying everywhere. And I think that might be because they weigh almost half as much and don't have the same unbalancing leaver effect on the wielder.