Slitherine

Why didn't the Greeks, while getting owned by Romans, put spearmen and or swordsmen at the front of their pike units to prevent the disruption of pikes? Put a few lines of archers behind to fire arrers over and it's an easy win. Maybe.

Roman Legionaires. Fought them, tough b*stards. In my Thracian days in a past life. Were they almost immune to arrow fire because of their testude formation? I can't see a way through that, so I guess so.

Also, supporting archers may seem a bit overpriced, but when you use a front rank base, the archer fill in the 2nd rank and fight at the same poa.

Dailami: mf, imp foot, ar, dr, superior
Archers: lf, un protected, drilled, superior.

So there is a saving on armour and mf vs lf poa. For less than 1/2 the price.

I got sidetracked.

put spearmen and or swordsmen at the front of their pike units

Because this would have put holes in the pike block, creating weak points.

The greeks didn't lose due to ineffectiveness of the Pike v's the legion. They didn't want to fight the pike blocks where possible. They lost due to many, many things, battlefield performance being just one.