Activity!

Actually there's very little activity today. I got up I did WoA stuff I watched 300 with Huw, Andrew and Ryo. So, what on earth will I write? I don't feel it'd be worth your time to visit my blog if all I said were three things? Firstly I'll warn you that what follows is not for everybody, I reckon my guys than ladies will find it interesting. If you find it interesting, you might be interested in World of Arl. 300 is about some Greeks and some Persians. The Greeks fought in what's called a Phalanx, for those interested in a bigger read, Wikipedia has an article on it. For those that don't want to read a lot of stuff, the principle was to have a wall of shields, each man would cover a good portion on the man to his left with his shield while his spear would be held in his right hand over the top of the shield. If you've seen Troy, they use one there. Why am I suddenly interested in something I already knew? Simply put, the Spartans (Greeks) use one. Yeah, I've seen Troy, so why do I suddenly care, and more importantly, why on earth would I care, it's not like I'll find a use for it? Troy focuses very little on the tactics used, it focuses very little on the combat. Sure, it's rather impressive but overall it was a bit fancy and just not my thing. 300 on the other hand was much more combat orientated, in particular, the tactical side was a lot more in-depth than most films. So, now you know that I really like films that display tactical thinking, but why? Well, in World of Arl you can morph a team to whatever you like, one of my teams has it's fighting based around the Roman Empire, it's men have big shields like the Romans and generally fight like them. My current team is based around one person who has an ego that makes a planet look small. 300 has inspired me to design a team that revolves around the phalanx. Specifically the application of such a thing with a very small number of men. I will devote the rest of today to solving the problems inherent in fighting with a Phalanx, specifically one where you have few numbers. 1) A Phalanx has weak flanks The spears point forwards, if you come from the side or worse yet, the rear, you'll crush a Phalanx. The typical method of solving this is to have more men to the sides. Obviously this is going to be the biggest problem with few men. As such I can think of only two solutions to this problem, the first is to fight in a mountain pass, the bad news is that this only works in mountains. Number 2 is to get some allies, now, this is a much better idea, if they send an army and I'm in the middle then my flanks are secure (I hope). 2) A Phalanx simply holds people there Once a charge hits the Phalanx, if it holds then it'll revolve around neither side gaining much ground, the chargers hitting their weapons on some shields while the Phalanx poke people with sticks. Clearly this is a problem. My solution is a simple one, develop my Phalanx to be able to push forwards properly. In WoA you can evolve your people, both physically and mentally, even going so far as to give them an entirely different race. If I make my people 6-7ft tall rather than the standard 5-6ft of most nations, then give them something around 30-50% more muscular strength than the enemy, they'll literally be able to press forwards, trapping and/or crushing the first row of foes, when trapped, they make easy targets for a spear thrust. 3) A Phalanx is defensive You can't charge an enemy with a shield wall, the men are all too close together and if there's a single weak-spot then the entire line can fall. The solution is very simple, march fast in a semi-shield wall to ward off arrows. When near the enemy, form a shield wall. As I'll be using very few people, I will be able to afford to train them to elite status where they can do things like that much faster than normal soldiers. 4) Really heavy infantry can kill you Lets assume I stand still and someone runs into me, I will get knocked over. Now lets assume that I am braced with one leg bent and the other stretched out behind me, odds are they'll bounce off of me. If two or three people hit me within short succession I could well be driven back. If we assume that I have a shield it'll really have little effect. If I put studs on my shoes and was on grass or other soft-ish terrain then I won't move backwards as easily. Better yet, I can have spikes on the bottom of my shield, if I then dig those into the ground then I can withstand several men, even several men wearing very heavy armour (who would thus be harder to stop). Summary 1) To protect the flanks, either leave a wall there or get allies to stand there 2) To kill the people that just ran into your Phalanx, be bigger and stronger than them, then just step forwards slowly but surely 3) To make a Phalanx offensive, well, you can't but you can do the next best thing of making there be less space to advance over 4) To withstand a charge, add studs to your shoes and spikes to the bottom of your shield so that they're basically pushing against a solid wall This was "Tactics with Teifion: The Phalanx" if you have any comments, please leave them. I'd enjoy writing about things like this more often but reckon people would be bored by them. I saw Sam mentioned that people might take an interest in my programs if I explain them more, is this the case?