While Hoplites are the citizen soldiery of a given City State, the Phalangites are its professional army. Hardboiled and scarred veterans of countless campaigns, Phalangites take everything that makes a phalanx deadly, and kick it up a notch. Eschewing the use of the hoplon (shield) their daily drills allow them to employ their pikes, the dreaded sarissa, while holding formation. This turns them into both a hammer and an anvil, allowing them to retain their defensive nature while crushing the opposition behind an impenetrable hedge.