Slitherine

How effective is 5 rank deep formation of pike is it worth the points or is 4 better?

I prefer BGs of 10. Being 5 deep allows you to take casualties without losing punch (POAs) and gives you a second opportunity against good heavy foot. If faced with shooty horse you can also deploy four wide and three deep (4-4-2) to widen you front whilst making it very difficult for your opponent to score the 4 hits he needs to make you take a cohesion test.

Julian

The gamble is--will you lose cohesion/steadiness or bases first? If unsteady, the POA comparisons even without any lost bases mean pikes are likely to go downhill from there. Then the extra bases will just run away with the rest of the BG.

remember that you only count the first 3 ranks in shooting when it comes to morale.. So a 10 base bg in 2 files.. would be counted as 6 stands for morale.. For me i face alot of shooty armies.. So i would go with a 12 with 3 files of 4.. The BG count as 9 vs shooting for morale. 3 hits vs 2 hits.. it may not seem much.. But 1 hit can make a difference.

MarkSieber wrote:The gamble is--will you lose cohesion/steadiness or bases first? If unsteady, the POA comparisons even without any lost bases mean pikes are likely to go downhill from there. Then the extra bases will just run away with the rest of the BG.

And, as Mark knows once a pikes go unsteady against swordsmen, the death spiral tends to kick in. And deploying in five ranks doesn't help for decreasing the ratio of hits per base since only the first three ranks are counted. I guess I'd stick with deploying in four ranks rather than five, especially given the problem of enemy overlaps on the pike phalanx to begin with.

If you deploy pikes in five ranks you've just narrowed your frontage that much more, allowing for the enemy to more readily overlap. And if they can get rid off whatever you have anchoring the flank of your five rank phalanx BGs, then they have a nice juicy flank to attack

Dale

thanks guys I'll go with the four depth . interesting topic though

pyrrhus wrote:thanks guys I'll go with the four depth . interesting topic though

yes, I'm sure this way you'll end up with a pyrrhic victory

hope so