Jolly Roger Wrote:When the 2nd Punic War began, the Phalanx wasn´t an effective tactic anymore. Although Alexanders successors still relied on this tactic, the battles of Cynoscephalae and Pydna disclosed the deadly inflexibility of the Phalanx.
The problem is that the successors of Alexander use the phalanx as the hammer instead of the anvil, and paradoxically, made them more and more heavier in armament and composition: longer sarissas for 16, even 32 ranks depth phalanxs (like at Pydna, not so dumb since nothing could stop a 32 ranks depth phalanx but what if the Macedonians double or quadruple their front lines with 8 or 16 rank depth phalanxs?) instead of 8 ranks depth with Alexander. By doing this, they worsened the defaults of the phalanx (his lack of mobility) and misused them tactically but the phalanx was still a very good tool if used correctly (like a wall, none shall pass![/quote]).