Pondering Sun Bin's Qu

For my Warring States Project, I'm not planning to recreate history. I am, however, certainly going to steal from it! (I'm also going to steal these awesome figures from the person who created them once I find out where he lives.)

In between researching miniatures options and potential rule sets, I've been perusing Sun Bin's account of the organization of infantry during the period.

Apparently, the basic building block of mass formations was the "Qu" or 曲. A Qu consisted of 200 infantry organized in a squarish rank and file of either 40 men abreast and 5 deep or 20 men abreast and 10 deep. The constituent element of the Qu was a five-man squad of two swordsmen, two dagger-axe men, and an archer, one behind the other.

Thus, in the 40x5 variation, there would be two rows of 40 swordsmen in front, two rows of 40 dagger-axe men in the middle, and one row of 40 archers in back.

I suppose the 20x10 variation would be similar, only doubling the number of rows and halving their lengths. In that way, there would be two rows of 20 archers who could alternately fire volleys at the enemy, a well-known Warring States tactic.

So, if I ultimately do not purchase miniatures and opt for a more abstract representation of troops on the battlefield, could I utilize Sun Bin's 20x10 Qu in "tile" fashion?

Then, rather than needing a rule set that tracks the deaths of individual soldiers, perhaps what I need are rules that address the cohesiveness of organized infantry in massive battle. For example, after how much clashing does a particular Qu deteriorate into a Bo (100 men), whether from soldiers' deaths or the scattering of men?

Another question would be how many Qu do I want for an entire army's overall formation? A small version of a Warring States "Square Formation" might require 20 Qu arranged 5x4 - that's 4,000 soldiers.

Can I really hope to capture the flavor and strategy of all of this in a solo game?

Lots to think about...