The Makedonian phalanx -- why such depth?

[tsafa]

I believe the most important reason for such depth in ranks is so that you can rotate the lines and keep fresh men in the front. I have a lot of experience with armored combat and a well trained man will loose his edge after 10 minutes of continuous combat. If the lines are 10 rows deep and the lines are rotated every 8 minutes, that means that each row fights for eight minutes and then rests for almost an hour and half. This is a lot more resourceful then letting each man on the front line fight until he is dead and then bringing up the man from behind to replace him. That would also be very demoralizing. Rotating the lines with long Pikes would not be as difficult as you would think for trained men. It is only a matter of each man dropping back to his right between two men and dragging the pike behind him. The long pikes would actually help maintain order in the ranks and make it difficult for any single man to abandon his post. The difficulty with such Phalanxes is turning them. They can only make wide circles when the pikes are forward or lift them all vertically to make a sharp turn.

There is two ways a battle between two hedgehog formations will likely go aside from a surprise outflanking. The two armies come within pike range of each other and the front line begin to spear duel at the edge of their range. There will be a gap of about 8 to 10 feet between the lines. The possibility is that one of the sides (or both) decide to charge. In that case the font lines go hand to hand with short weapons while the 2nd, 3rd and possibly 4th lines go to work with the pikes.