Personally, as a tactics buff, I love the Roman checkerboard formation. I consider it to be far superior to the Macedonian phalanx.

For the Romans, it was a matter of finding the middle ground between the all too strict Greek phalanx and the all too unwieldy barbarian horde. The checkerboard has the order and solidity of the civilized armies along with the flexibility and manueverability of the barbarian warbands.