Phalanx

About the Phalanx

The Phalanx formation is originally a Greek invention for armies fighting a pure surface war. This game, for all that it purports to be in space, is still conceptually limited to two-dimensional surface war capabilities. This is because our display systems are inherently two dimensional.

The game's fleet formation layout, a 3x3 grid, almost dictates the Phalanx formation or variations thereof.

For the purposes of this article;

C = Core
T = Tank
H = Nose Gunner
G = Glass Cannon
A = Tail Gunner

The diagrams that follow have the top of the grid as the front of the formation and the remainder follows the Fleet Design Documentation Conventions.

Components of a Fleet

Note: This follows Fleet Design Documentation Conventions

A fleet has a leading edge or front. In these diagrams, the front is at the top. Other terminology is Rank and File, corresponding to rows and columns, with the first rank at the top and the first file being on the left. The in-game nomenclature for each position is a Stack and is limited to 3,000 ships. Ergo, a fleet can have a maximum of 27,000 ships (9 STacks of 3,000 ships each).

Position mapping of a fleet
	1st File	2nd File	3rd File	Attack Power
1st Rank	Left shoulder	Head	Right Shoulder	100%
2nd Rank	Left Flank	Glasshouse	Right Flank	90%
3rd Rank	Left Rear	Tail	Right Rear	75%

First Rank (100% Attack Power)

Left Shoulder - First Rank, First File
Head - First Rank, Second File - Optional Nose Gunner position
Right Shoulder - First Rank, Third File

Second Rank (90% Attack Power)

Left Flank - Second Rank, First File
Glasshouse - Second Rank, Second File - Most protected position, usually contains Glass Cannons but may also contain Flagships.
Right Flank - Second Rank, Third File

Third Rank (75% Attack Power)

Left Rear - Third Rank, First File
Tail - Third Rank, Second File - Second best protected position., vulnerable only to rear assaults. - Optional Tail Gunner position
Right Rear - Third Rank, Third File

Special Notes:

The Glasshouse is the single best proteced position in any Phalanx.
The second best protected position is the Tail Gunner position.
Both Shoulders are equally the most vulnerable positions due to exposure to both frontal and flank assaults.
Most critical position is the Head since it has second highest exposure to assault and has to protect the Glass Cannons or Flagships in the Glasshouse.
In-game reference is the help reference(?) under "Military->Create Fleet"