LucaCherstich
Mongoose
I like the rules for shield walls in "Cimmeria", nevertheless I think the author did now not explain how shield walls react against two (frequent) enemies:
1)
wilder enemies who do not have shields but which a shield wall can stop, e.g. picts......I was wondering why the Picts in p. 86-87 should have shields and why they should use shield-wall which does not sound like a Pictish practice.
Picts with celtic/viking-like shields pushing against other shields...it is not the Pictish way of fighting!
They should use guerrilla-like techniques and run and then stalk and fire arrows from above the trees and bushes against those slow Cimmerians making a shield wall.
2)
More organized enemies with phalanx tactics more complicated than just a shield-wall.
Without considering numbers (and Cimmerians were certainly numerous at Venarium) one wonders what happens if a Macedonian-like phalanx with long pikes/sarissae (e.g. Gundermen pikem!!!) meet an unit whose strategy is even simpler than just an hoplitic army!!
Barbaric shield-walls, in fact, have the only purpose of resist and pushing until the wall is broken and then free melee happens...but an hoplite wall is much better than that.
The strength is in keeping the formation and shields never push directly against shields while spears try to hit beyond the shields....
Disorganized barbarians trying a shield wall (just to break it later) can be smashed by a disciplined hoplite phalanx....more if we think about a kind of Macedonian phalanx with long pikes/sarissae....
Any suggestion for the two cases?
1)
wilder enemies who do not have shields but which a shield wall can stop, e.g. picts......I was wondering why the Picts in p. 86-87 should have shields and why they should use shield-wall which does not sound like a Pictish practice.
Picts with celtic/viking-like shields pushing against other shields...it is not the Pictish way of fighting!
They should use guerrilla-like techniques and run and then stalk and fire arrows from above the trees and bushes against those slow Cimmerians making a shield wall.
2)
More organized enemies with phalanx tactics more complicated than just a shield-wall.
Without considering numbers (and Cimmerians were certainly numerous at Venarium) one wonders what happens if a Macedonian-like phalanx with long pikes/sarissae (e.g. Gundermen pikem!!!) meet an unit whose strategy is even simpler than just an hoplitic army!!
Barbaric shield-walls, in fact, have the only purpose of resist and pushing until the wall is broken and then free melee happens...but an hoplite wall is much better than that.
The strength is in keeping the formation and shields never push directly against shields while spears try to hit beyond the shields....
Disorganized barbarians trying a shield wall (just to break it later) can be smashed by a disciplined hoplite phalanx....more if we think about a kind of Macedonian phalanx with long pikes/sarissae....
Any suggestion for the two cases?
