Low Tech – How to play a frontal clash between two phalanxes (Hoplites, Shield Wall)

[(E)]

There is a pike battle in alatriste that might be worth a look, I ended up using the same approach the movie did, put the PCs in irregular support rolls.

The novel "Lion of Macedon" stresses the importance of depth of soldiers, if you go with that style of combat then it would be closer to a rugby scrum full of armed men. So close combat modifiers would be important.