If an enemy soldier is inside the spear forest and the spearhead cannot hit it, it should not be damaged.
Instead it seems that the collision with the stick is enough to cause damage and knock back.
The knock back should be there and also be marked if the tip of the spear hits the enemy shield (or the enemy itself).
In this case of the shield hitboxes of the TRUE GREATNESS OF THE SHIELD, it would not prevent the enemy from entering the forest of spears to deal some blows, or it would force the phalanx to slightly move back and aim that enemy to bring it back to the right distance.
For the distances seen in the video, between warriors with sword and shield and phalanx, the first line would be massacred because their spears should have no effect on the enemy in front of them, because the tip would be
So the suggestions are:
1) the stick hitbox should not have any effect on the enemy (no damage and no knock back) ... indeed, as a consequence, the attack should fail (like when you hit an ally and you have no friendly fire)
2) The tip hitbox should deal less damage but more knock back.
3) the hitbox of the shields should be REAL and not enlarged, so as not to prevent an enemy soldier from being able to enter to annoy him because an invisible wall stops him.
The hitboxes of the tips of the spears must also be equal to the size of these tips.
4) more space between the units, so as to be able to use more formation files and therefore more spears in such a way as to force the enemy to overcome this repelling wall.