German Phalanx Question

[Spartakus]

It is a bit odd that they gave the Germans a phalanx. Not completely odd, but a bit odd. Some German tribes did fight in close formations with spears; but the phalanx is usually considered a Greek innovation that spread from them. If you're going to give it to the Germans, there's no real justification for denying it to the Gauls, the Britons or the Romans pre-Marius.

Balance. While this game does a great job in re-enacting history, it's still a game. Sometimes the developers must sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of playability.

Now you could argue that the Gaul's troop rooster sucks and needs spearmen capable of forming the phalanx, but that's another discussion.

[Watchman]

At Hastings the Saxon "grunt" troops, the fyrd levy, fought mostly with spears and shields, and formed a shieldwall. By what I've read it had quite a bit of depth, though more in the "throng" than the "rank and file" sense - Harold had, after all, brought every man he could muster. The Saxons' elite troops, the Huscarles, were the ones with the big axes and they naturally enough could neither use shields with them nor form a shieldwall to fight from. Big axes need room and both hands to swing. I've read (and the Bayeux Tapestry seems to suggest) that the Huscarles "teamworked" - every axeman was paired with a guy who wielded a sword and a shield, and protected the axeman as necessary.

For RTW purposes a "shieldwall" phalanx and a "macedonian" phalanx ought to be similar enough to use the same basic mechanic - what mostly separated the "macedonian" phalanx from the older "hoplite" one (at least on the battlefield) was the pikes, and the special considerations they required.

[Colovion]

my German campaign was the fastest completed campaign because the surrounding 'barbarian' nations couldn't stand up to my Phalanxes whatsoever. I think I finished that one about 230BC or so.