re: Who had the best phalanx formation?

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Instead of squares or lines of men, imagine a sledgehammer. Where the handle bends a little while the hammerhead obliterates its opponents side of the line.

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Well, to be fair, they use the cavalry as the hammer in these situations not the phalanx by itself.

I’m glad we have an ancient history topic on the board, but I will say this one is a little bit like asking which phone or Bluetooth speaker is the best. The Macedonian phalanx is the most recent one of the options listed so it has the advantage of learning from the others and improving on what they had already done.

The Spartan phalanx was the dominant fighting unit of its time thanks to their training and focus on it, but its time peak time was 100 years before the Macedonian one. And to be fair, when Philip and Alexandria were conquering Greece in the 300’s bc, the only major city state they left alone was Sparta, so maybe it’s better than we are giving it credit for

Macedonia for its time, no doubt

it crushed everyone

Do they save the brass and reload it onboard ship? Does the military even keep spent brass?

The Carthaginian and Macedonian look the same

The Swiss brought it back in the MIddle Ages to much success. The Spaniards finally figured out how to use their swords to push the lances to the side and attack.

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The Swiss brought it back in the MIddle Ages to much success. The Spaniards finally figured out how to use their swords to push the lances to the side and attack.

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everyone else figure out you run your cavalry through the flank

That was a movie, not real

Sounds dirty.

They figured out how to shoot the pikemen