Dr. Bret Devereaux

Yeah, because you're just going to fling solid iron balls, you know, moving at half the speed of sound, into the middle of that mass, and they just bowling pin the guys.

With every shot.

Yeah.

So, I mean, I read that as a wedge formation and I have to admit, I mean, this is one of the things that I read it.

I sort of raised my eyebrow a bit because a wedge is a really odd thing to do with infantry.

Yeah.

You do encounter wedge formations with cavalry.

Macedonian and Thessalian cavalry seem to fight with wedges, at least some of the time, although not all of the time.

But a wedge is a really odd thing to do with infantry.

The idea of an attack in a wedge, right, is that you're sort of, it's a concentration of force.

It's hard to see how you do that with an infantry attack.

But I think what we're to understand, right, is that he would have preferred to assume an offensive formation and attack, right?

And you can see kind of why he might have preferred that given the differences in morale and cohesion between the two forces.

He's badly outnumbered.

But his opponents don't have a lot of staying power, right?

Because when they engage their initial, they attack, they take some losses and they scatter.

And they scatter so badly that he thinks he might have dispersed them and might be able to move again.

So they scatter quite badly.

And so he may be thinking, you know, ideally, if I was up on the hill in better terrain, I could deliver one really solid offensive punch, scatter these guys and then be on my way.

But I can't because the terrain is terrible.