Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-17114085-20150207130230/@comment-24696651-20150209224522

Harold Burned-Mane wrote:

(Then the phalanx wouldn't be as effective. The Spartan Phalanx worked so well because they all fought the same and with the same weapons, spears and then with swords for close range. Their standardized equipment made it so the whole formation was at the same level. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Actually much less tired, the warriors only started fighting after the wall was breached and their first opponent was actually the phalanx. Before that they did nothing except move or form up the formation. And I already explained why the Spartan situation doesn't apply here.

The cavalry were there at the entrance, so it is not like your men are at the door to the watchtower. Your men weren't even near the watchtower until after the men had reinforced with the great cavalry two posts ago.

The Skirmishers are elite archers, you never said anything about them being light infantry. So they wouldn't be any better than regular archers in melee. And the two situations are very different. 30 archers trying to fill the gap in the phalanx would be much less effective than archers using a firing squad tactic in a space in which only about 3 men can stand side by side.)

The dismounted cavalry were using swords, so pushing them closer to the wall did little to diminish their fighting ability. The street was packed with men all fighting each other so the Skirmishers had to be right next to or adjacent to the men to even be able to fire at them accurately, which put them right in the range of the swords of the cavalrymen. The skirmishers may have been fast but with how the street was packed they weren't able to dodge forever. In the fighting Falkreath lost 20 men in the south and another 10 in the west. The status in the street was 595 vs. 545 men as the cavalry had lot 20 soldiers in the south as well.

They were able to slow down their demise but it continued. It was now 80 vs. 190 men atop there.

The skirmishers weren't able to seal the phalanx as it had already been breached by the warriors. They had pushed into the hole created in the formation and were able to strike at the remaining heavy infantry from the sides. This was a snowball effect as the more heavies died the less effective the phalanx was thus enabling the warriors to kill them faster. Falkreath lost another 20 men in the phalanx as well as 5 archers, leaving only 50 heavy infantry left and with 165 archers left. The status in the street was 570 vs. 530 men as the warriors suffered 15 casualties from the phalanx attacking the men still in front of them.

As night was rolling in the housecarl knew that the rest of the army would arrive soon, maybe within three hours or so. So they just had to hold Falkreath at bay while the rest of the Jarl's men arrived in the town. (Whiterun still has another 600 men marching to Riverwood as so far only the cavalry has arrived.) (How are these people moving so quickly. I know we've already adressed (well, adressed in inverted commas) the issue of time, but infantry marching seventy miles in a day? Thirty miles a day is pushing it, seventy would probably kill them (figuratively).)

(I did mention in the unit card that the Forest Skirmishers could function as good light infantry.)

(I think you're overestimating the ease with which one can break a wall of pikes, especially one that is ten men deep. Their weapons are several meters long, longer than the spears the Spartans used, and quite vicous. You have to get past that wall of spears without being mullered, then engage in close quarters melee, to have a chance here. The key element is a bottleneck, and having lots of sharp sticks pointed at the enemy. The training and whatnot, though nice, is not essential.)

(Also, the skirmishers are right behind the phalanx. You have to kill all of them to roll up the flanks. To break a phalanx is hard work, and to then resist the onslaught of light infantry is harder. The men would get bogged down eventuall and not be able to fight all too well. Add this to the fact that your shield wall has been attacked from the rear, and it's going to be very hard indeed.)

(Luciun's men's charge made contact within half a minute of it coming into eyesight. Given the fact that the shield wall was engaged with killing the phalanx, and the fact that it takes time between a captain issuing an order and the order being carried out, and the fact that it takes a half minute or so to turn around and form a proper shield wall, and the fact that they were charging the rear... They should be doing a lot better than they currently are.)

(If you get shoved into a tight space, even combat with a sword is hard.)

Luciun's nobles pressed the assault on the shield wall, avoiding the problem of the shields by striking low at the enemies' relatively unprotected legs. For every man that died, the shield wall lost more and more of its formation that was critical to its success. The heavy infantry at the rear, who numbered one hundred and fifty(ish), continued the fight against the cavalry. Although they were equal in heavy infantry, the skirmishers helped turn the tide of the battle in their favour.

The infantry on the walls got decided they were unwilling to die for Falkreath.

"Give us quarter!" the commander shouted.