I have read about the Battle of Cynoscephalae, Pydna, Magnesia between Rome and Macedonia. Most of the time Roman army triumphed over Macedonia thanks to the flexibility, like in Pydna they made a (feigned?) retreat and use the advantage of terrain to break the phalanx formation, although they couldn't penetrate the pike wall.
I imagine i'm a legionnaire, facing a phalanx formation with my friends, side by side. I see there must be some ways to push through the pike wall:
I'm sure there will be some gap between pike tips. I will put my shield between the small gap, use my strength to rotate it, widen the gap and the maniple will form a single-man line to push forward. If i manage to reach the enemy information where my short sword is clearly having advantage over long pike, the wall will be broken.
If maybe there is no gap between pike heads, soldiers from the last lines of my maniple just need to break ranks, charge and flank the phalanx, while the first line use big shield to hold the enemy.
Every soldiers just throw 2 pila, there would be some serious damage to the enemy, may break their information. Or just making enemy's shields become useless, good prey for missile units.
So why it didn't happen like what i just imagine? Roman legions from what i read on Wiki can't hack down pike tips, being pushed back with high casualties and have to use terrain to turn the table? I'm looking forward to you guys answers and explanation. Thank guys.
P/s: sorry for any typo and bad grammar.
What I think you're missing is that because of the size of the Macedonian sarissa, the pike they used, five or six pike tips would actually be extending out past the first rank of the phalanx. The sarissa was about 6m in length and had a weighted ball on the back end to make it easier to hold horizontal. Even if the Roman maniple used their pila to good effect, there were extra rows of men holding their sarissa upright, ready to drop it down to bolster any gaps in the formation. The soldiers in the phalanx also had a small amount of movement available to them, jabbing and moving their sarissa to cause harm to the opponent. Getting through a phalanx from the front was incredibly difficult, I can't actually remember a time it was ever done successfully.
As for just walking around the side of the phalanx, that was probably more difficult than you think. The sides of the phalanx would have been protected by terrains, like a cliff or a river, or by light troops and skirmishers, or cavalry. Alexander the Great usually commanded the cavalry, and his standard tactic was to hold the enemy soldiers in place with the phalanx, and then charge around their flank with cavalry. If a legionnaire walked around the side of the phalanx and then turned inwards to attack it, his back would be exposed to a similar cavalry attack. Having infantry spread out and flank like that also breaks up and defeats the benefits of having soldiers in a formation like the maniple.
I hope that helps!