Why would anyone build Pikes...

[Doug-Thompson]

Re: Pike line and width.

A pike formation in a defensive spearwall has the first rank kneeling, pointing its pikes upwards. The second holds their pikes at waist level. The third holds their pikes overhead, with the tips pointed down. The fourth stands there with the pike erect, waiting to step forward if one of the men ahead of him dies.

This means that to fully deploy a thick wall of pikes, the formation needs to be 18 files wide and four ranks deep (with three left over in a fifth rank, assuming a normally sized formation of 75 pikemen.

Two such pikemen formations side by side would cover a 60-man archer formation, stretched two men deep and 30 men wide. Then the archer would be covered.

Halbreds can't do that.

Here's a thought: Put the pikes like that and then spread halbreds or zweihanders in front of them instead of archers.