Roman Empire of Total War
Chapter 197: "·Implementation of Phalanx"
I don't want to capture the world with a brush, I want to change it!
-Leonardo da Vinci (typical artist of the Renaissance)
The above facts mean that the shortcomings of the Macedonian dense phalanx are also obvious. Such a dense phalanx has to rely on cavalry and other arms to protect its wings, but the cavalry is stronger than the defense. Once it is defeated, the dense phalanx flank or Behind is easy to be attacked by the enemy, then this rigid formation may collapse and become out of control.
Moreover, the phalanx lacks synergy, it is difficult to use in siege operations, and can only cooperate with cavalry; Alexander himself is not using this phalanx. His cavalry is a real main force in a sense, and it is enough. powerful.
Obstacles such as ditches, woods, ridges, rivers, etc., often cause dense square formations to be divided or block the formation. Once the formation is destroyed due to these reasons, the resulting gaps are easily used by the enemy's melee troops. Everyone should know.
Although Alexander the Great solved the mobility problem of the phalanx very well, it did not mean that the phalanx would have no problem; in fact, as a reserve team, a chasing force, and a protector’s cavalry, they were easily defeated and the entire battle failed. Because Alexander himself is in the cavalry formation (the square formation needs to maintain its formation).
This problem has been seen in several battles between Alexander and the Persian army, but the King of Persia did not seize these opportunities. Cautiously, he thought that Alexander had broken through his former and middle armies, but in fact Alexander had entered After the Persian formation.
Out of fate, Alexander did not die, but in the thirty years of war thousands of years later, King Gustav II of Sweden used similar tactics (lined musketeers, artillery squares, breastplates) The cavalry protects the flanks), and was killed by accidentally entering the enemy line...
The Macedonian phalanx adapts to the structure of Macedonia as an emerging slavery country. A large number of farmers and a very small number of nobles. Therefore, the heavy armored soldiers composed mainly of noble citizens are not the heads of Macedonia. In addition, the heavy armored phalanx is fighting. The low maneuverability of the hilly and hilly areas cannot meet Macedonia’s conquest needs.
The core of the newly formed Macedonian phalanx is a spear formation composed of about 100 people. The heavy armor was completely eliminated from the formation, and the shield of the first-line soldiers was greatly reduced. The reduced shield allowed the soldiers to stand closer; At the same time, the spears in the rear are gradually lengthened, and finally all the spearmen can attack the enemies in front of the other party, the longest reaching ten meters long!
If you think that the Macedonian phalanx is just a spear, it is very wrong. In fact, only one third to one quarter of the spearmen included in the phalanx in the army, the rest are all archers, warriors, Stone throwers and shooters, these soldiers are usually non-citizen civilians, allied soldiers, slaves to be released.
In combat, they attacked the enemy with arrows, stones, and guns to reduce the pressure of the Phalanx charge. When the enemy was overwhelmed by the Phalanx, they followed up to kill the scattered enemies.
This kind of tactics is very similar to the ancient Chinese car battles. First, the enemy was dispersed by chariots, and then the enemy was killed by the garrison. Similar, but the difference is that Wei Shu replaced the spear formation with the armored sword and shield formation of the abandoned car, but they also achieved a brilliant victory.
Relying on the fighting ability of the Macedonian phalanx, Philip unified Greece, and Alexander destroyed Persia to establish the Alexandrian empire; but the weakness of the Macedonian phalanx is as unique as his strengths. The biggest weakness is that its combat power is concentrated in the front, side We can only rely on mutual protection. Once the opponent breaks through the flanks, the spearmen in the spear formation do not have to resist, and there is no chance of escaping.
The Romans first tasted this taste in the battle with the Gauls. When Gaul's sword shields broke the Romans' flanks, 30,000 Romans and the Allies were killed in positions without resistance. dead.
The fiasco caused the Romans to realize that it would be difficult for the spear array to resist the attack of the sword soldiers if they were breached, so their revolutionary improvement of the Macedonian phalanx led to the production of the Roman infantry phalanx tactics, which was Rome Legion!
Many years later, the Roman legionary tactics, which were much more flexible than the Macedonian phalanx, easily launched in the narrow valley and squeezed the same in the valley during the war with the last powerful enemy of the Mediterranean region, the Greek Syrian kingdom. After the battle, the 40,000-strong Syrian army with the Macedonian phalanx was completely wiped out. After this battle, the majestic phalanx was completely disappeared on the earth.
The main reason for the disappearance of the Macedonian phalanx is precisely because of the advancement of the projected weapons, so that the enemy can use arrows and shots to kill the soldiers in the formation away from the phalanx, disintegrating the attack ability and attack ability of the Macedonian phalanx. The disappearance of the means the disappearance of the defensive ability of the Macedonian phalanx. The tiny iron arrows, which can penetrate the iron javelin of the Bull Shield, play an important role.
Rows of spears were raised, and there were 16 rows in the front and back. The spears also had sharp edges at the end to prevent you from coming from behind. The tips of the guns in the first five rows were placed on the shoulders of the first row. The entire square was like a hedgehog. .
Because there is no room for activity, your best posture is to stand upright, and don’t lie down to avoid being trampled to death; the people in the formation can’t run, and the run will die first. In fact, most of the war dead at that time were not Hacked to death, but trampled to death.
The core army of the Roman city is definitely the systematic army summoned from the system, but the population size of the Roman city greatly limits the number of troops that the Roman city can recruit, which directly leads to the temporary failure of the Roman city to rely on the system army to become strong .
The Roman legion composed of system forces is definitely more powerful than the Macedonian phalanx, but the crux of the problem is that the city of Rome cannot achieve this goal in a short time, and Bai Feng, who is helpless, can only put hope on these barbarians. The soldier is on.
If you build a legion of barbarian warriors by the standards of the Roman legion, then it is impossible to form a large-scale army with the production capacity of the Roman city. This also involves another relatively fatal problem.
How did the Western Roman Empire perish in real history? It was not that the barbarian army employed by the Western Roman Empire learned everything about the Romans. In the end, the German Barbarian who completely overpowered the Western Roman Empire completely wiped out Western Rome. empire.
With the limited strength of the Roman city, does the White Summit really teach the barbarian warriors the core of the Roman legion? The warriors in the city of Rome have never been mobilized, but they are not only used to defend against foreign enemies, but also against enemies that may come from within.
It is precisely in the blacksmith's shop in the city of Rome that mass production of more than three meters of spears can be produced. Bai Feng naturally has to use the sharp battle line of Macedonia to arm the cheetah corps of Gattus. The most important thing is to deal with this powerful battle line. The barbarian army, which lacks long-range attack methods, is absolutely amazing, and the lethal weakness of the battle array is controlled by the Roman legion.
Based on all these considerations, Bai Feng decided to implement the Macedonian phalanx in the Cheetah Legion; however, he did not know how to list the phalanx himself, and the Roman army did not have a phalanx arm. The only thing Bai Feng could ask for was the Temple of Apollo.
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