Sweboz Wedges

[blitzkrieg80]

most likely, the war-leader would never have stood first in line, that's an exageration of their relative position toward the front compared to more cowardly warfare of civilized peoples... The leader would have been close enough to keep morale up, but the Germanics were not stupid, if they were first in line then they'd most likely die long before the battle got much action and it would seriously hinder the entire side of the dead general- probability is a huge factor, which we well know today as it's used in all of science, and common sense can tell even a primitive person that much: the more exposure one has to javelines, arrows and enemy weapons- the higher chance you're not going to survive. In HBO's Rome, I remember a great quote, although I will probably butcher it: "even a pack of mangy dogs can bring down a lion" - Mark Anthony after Caesar's murder. Even the most awesome warrior is unable to block every attack, thus why shields were invented and why the shieldwall is as good as it gets (including legionary and phalanx tactics)- they're increasing their odds!

Indeed, Saxo Grammaticus describes the normal deployment whereby the foremost men formed a wedge at the front of the army, backed up by the youths armed with throwing spears, while behind them stood the older, more experienced warriors- in a position to give advice and encouragement to the others and to take in the tactical aspects of the fight. Amongst the veterans behind the youth would be the leader surrounded by his bodyguard.

Just like in Roman warfare, the poor and young warriors who have less value get to die first because partly they receive experience through survival and mostly because they are worth less than the veterans and probability gets to pick them off first so the veterans have a better chance- sure, it's not noble at all, but war is not a noble thing- it's about success.

Anyways, the vanguard would have formed much of the "point" of the wedge and they actually used a word for that which meant "point", "vanguard", "spear" too- ON oddr, OE ord, OHG ort, Alb ušt, Lith usnì-s, Sanskrit uz-dho- (all cognate)... Proto-Germanic uzdaz (thanks, Shiga! can't wait for that book, hehe)

It could be called a "spear-formation" more accurately for Germanic warfare... just FYI since RTW is too limited to portray it.

As Bovi explains, the wedge is good because isolation and flanking is invaluable, it causes the other side to panic because so many know about probability of exposure.

Interesting tidbit, Anthony tell's me that the Gallic Celtic name for the wedge formation is edac which similarly means "point" and the word for vanguard is Edac Argoann - "Noble Point".