Pikemen and the Phalanx

[Oberyn]

Those guys were veterans of all of Alexander's campaigns though, like the wiki page says they weren't "ordinary" soldiers. They were fighting against brand new levies from Macedon that had almost never seen battle, certainly not the ammount that they had.

[Thucydides]

Those guys were veterans of all of Alexander's campaigns though, like the wiki page says they weren't "ordinary" soldiers. They were fighting against brand new levies from Macedon that had almost never seen battle, certainly not the ammount that they had.

which is why i said it was " mostly true". the limitation of the phalanx wasn't the formation itself, but the training of it's soldiers. This applies to all troop formations, but the phalanx was especially vulnerable to poorly trained troops. The levy nature of the later successor phalanx is what, IMO, led to the conception that the phalanx canntot meet attacks on it's flank and rear. With adequate training, a square could be formed to meet flanking pressure until they are reinforced.

[no_rules_just_play]

roman fighting style was completely different from phalanx:

they used their throwing spears to throw at the enemy but than they took their sword and used it to fight while behind the cover of their shield.
the romans made formations so when a guy on the front line fell, the person behind him could jump in and continue the fighting. their fighting style consisted out of staying low in the cover of your shield and hacking towards the enemies feet/body.
also, the front line and the last line of their formations were always the veteran fighters who werent scared to charge into the enemy and the backline could make sure the newbies didnt run away.