You are taking literally the description of battle reported from afar (in time and space). This could be in fact the point of view more similar to what we have as FoG generals (where we include the periods of close combat and rest in a big thing called MELEE), so it can be usefull from this aspect. But there is no doubt that prolonged "melee" where a series of clashes and pauses. There is plenty evidence: both based on phisical and psicological grounds, and even based on the inner working of the manipular system.jlopez wrote:It is possible. Even the Romans managed it, again against the Gauls:philqw78 wrote:.This is impossible. Which is one of the reasons the Romans using a battlefield replacement system worked so well. People naturally have to rest.
Polybius 2.33
"And this was due to the foresight of the Tribunes: for the Consul Flaminius is thought to have made a strategic mistake in his arrangements for this battle. By drawing up his men along the very brink of the river, he rendered impossible a manœuvre characteristic of Roman tactics, because he left the lines no room for their deliberate retrograde movements; for if, in the course of the battle, the men had been forced ever so little from their ground, they would have been obliged by this blunder of their leader to throw themselves into the river."
Polybius 3.73 Trebbia
"The heavy-armed soldiers, however, who were in the front rank of both armies, and in the centre of that, maintained an obstinate and equal fight for a considerable time."
When the ancients say "sustained combat" it should be interpreted that the initial chrage did not break the enemy instantly (wich occur more than often, something that we as wargamers consistently fail to model because of the "fun" imperative. They di not mean that they stood hacking at each other for hours.
It could be interesting to have the account of a battle from the point of view of a Centurion, but i guess they have more important things to do than write and perhaps the idea that you have to REST is SO OBVIUOS that noone would care puting it down in words. I guess you are (as myself) no sportsman nor construction worker. Try asking those guys.
Ouch!
