Unadjustable formations
Testudo and Hoplite phalanx are unadjustable. Why is this? Testudo presents a narrow column, this is very bad for anti-missile. Throw a missile is has two main criteria, direction and distance. Direction is the easier to achieve criteria while distance is harder, often ending up over shooting or undershooting due to this reason. But in the narrow column formation the distance doesn't matter and so everyone gets hit. Anti-missile formation should be more spread out, true that testudo is a tight formation, but it doesn't have to be 5-6 men per row and having like 20+ rows.
Same with the hoplite phalanx. Yes there were phalanxes that were 16 men deep, there were also phalanxes that were 8 men deep. My question is why is the hoplite phalanx along with the Roman testudo a fixed formation, while other formations have freedom in their geometry.
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