04-10-2009, 05:19 AM
Quote: reckon I could teach anyone/a bunch of people, who had never done drill in their lives, to efficiently perform all of Xenophon's drll in an hour or two at most. This level of drill is easily achievable by even the most amateur of Hoplite Militias, then or now!
I reckon you could teach the marching band of girl's school to do it as well, but this has little bearing on battlefield realities. I'd like to see a thousand yard line of your recruits at 6' spacing move over complex terrain into the teeth of the enemy- all the while veering signifcantly to the right. Bunching is a perennial problem with men under fire or entering danger.
You have asserted that men cannot advance at a more natural spacing, just over a body-width- and I don't buy it. There are many examples of troops advancing as I suggest:
They do it at Yorktown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFZ2I0Fl ... re=related
Ticonderoga:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_AKmHfJ ... re=related
Evidently Johnny Reb can do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bThpbigi ... re=related
Vikings can do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLreqv5D ... re=related
These guys can even do it in the face of deadly CGI while being hounded by a DIRECTOR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdm7UAr ... re=related
Paul M. Bardunias
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A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
MODERATOR: [url:2dqwu8yc]http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=4100[/url]
A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
