Adjusting depth of Unit

[Severus]

One of the options you have in the battle mode is to adjust the depth of men of your unit. You can make the men lineup short side to side and long front to back, or vice versa using the "-" and "+" hotkeys. I'm wondering how to properly use this function to my advantage. It seems like it could be handy, I just dont have any experience with it. I was thinking when defending a city gate lining up the men in the condensed set up would be a good idea, and when fighting against an enemy that outnumbers you lining up the men in the thinner set up could help keep your lines from being enveloped in a flanking manuever. Can anyone can relate their experience or advice?

[WhiskeyGhost]

thicker works best for holding lines longer, thinner works best when you need to kill things faster. Most of the time you'll only want to really stretch your ranks thinly, if your up against archer/crossbow fire (a thin line works even better then a loose formation at times), or to help cover a larger area more easily (like with pikes near your archer units). For the most part, you'll want a middle way anyways, since if its thin you get attacked by more then one unit or being charged by cavalry, and with thick lines you end up having yourself getting flanked or easily hit by ranged weapons fire (i've lost upwards of 60 men to a single trebuchet round because my unit was too tight).

[pevergreen]

A deep unit absorbs a charge better, a thin unit will generally engage more people in combat.

[Severus]

Im pretty new to medieval II but I've noticed in battle that only the men in front seem to be getting involved in the actual hand to hand. Couldn't thinning out the lines help bring more men into actual combat then otherwise would be?

[FactionHeir]

Yes and no. A thin line is prone to getting holes punched in it so the enemy can essentially split your unit into two. Similarly, you have less to fall back on if your engaged thinly spread unit is attack from flank or rear.

Generally you want to aim for 2-4 ranks for missile units, 3-5 for melee infantry, 4-6 for spears, 3 for cavalry. This is for small unit sizes.

If you are defending a city, sometimes its better to block an entire street (i.e you already lost the gate) with 2-3 regiments side to side, so they are only 4 men wide and the rest deep.

[Old Geezer]

I did tests in MTW with cavalry charges and when the cavalry line is spread out wide to only 2 deep the unit always had more kills because of the charge effect was greater and the wrap-around effect from what I could observe. It seems to be the same in M2TW, but I have not run any trials.

In a narrow area defense it is best to have very deep units to keep from getting pushed back. Pikemen are the very best because of their high mass value. If you charge any type of cavalry into the back of your men while trying to charge through to the enemy it will add extra mass to counteract the enemy's push on you. Its a good way to keep from being pushed out of formation when holding a bridge or gatehouse.

[Yaropolk]

I agree with OG, for cavalry I always spread them as wide as the game lets me (2 men deep) since I generally charge, and pull out almost immediately, so I want the surface area of the charge to be as large as possible.

[Severus]

In RTW when i pulled out my cavalry I'd have them go through the enemy, is this still best in Medieval?

[WhiskeyGhost]

In RTW when i pulled out my cavalry I'd have them go through the enemy, is this still best in Medieval?
I found that works wonders if you micro it right. Just don't do it against spear types and you can mop up a weak unit quickly by getting your cav deeper into the unit then ordering attack on said unit (especially against archers. I've had light cav take down an entire archer unit without charging them in about 15 seconds with almost no losses).

[Yaropolk]

I prefer to pull back in the direction I came from. Unless you punch through a thin line of enemies, you're asking for trouble trying to muscle your way through engaged troops. A few of your guys will get trapped and killed.

[anders]

there was a rank bonus in MTW, and maybe RTW too, for spears and pikes. are these bonuses kept in m2TW?

[mir]

I agree with OG, for cavalry I always spread them as wide as the game lets me (2 men deep) since I generally charge, and pull out almost immediately, so I want the surface area of the charge to be as large as possible.

I would have thought that having a deeper cavalry file adds to the weight of the charge... Just as a spearmen in deep files (4-6 ranks) can absorb a cavalry charge better, so can cavalry increase the effectiveness of their charge by having deeper/more compact formations.

This is not to say one should have a cavalry formation of 2 men in front and the other 78 behind. Heheh. About 3-5 ranks is optimal, methinks.

A thinner line will impact more, yes, but would also lose the advantage of mass and be vulnerable to enemy countercharges...

Can anyone confirm this please?

[Ethelred Unread]

Playing H/VH on Stainless steel 6.0 and I gotta say that having your heavy cav in 2 ranks is the best for charges.

On huge unit sizes I charged my general (#60) into spearmen (#150) who were about 4-5 ranks deep and hey presto, 10 seconds later 20 spearmen are fleeing for their lives, the rest being dead. Ok so it was a bit downhill as well but only a slight incline, plus the spearmen weren't braced but moving too which I know helps, but even so, not bad.

The wider line of cavalry enveloped the spearmen, about half of the spears died in the initial charge and the rest just after. I think I lost about 2-3, max 5 knights.

So for charging I would definitely recommend 2 ranks for heavy cav.

[Old Geezer]

About 14 months ago I ran numerous trials, charging my mailed knights into the AI's mailed knights who charged my knights. I tried various formations, even the wedge. Invariably the widest spread (i.e., 2 lines) won even against the wedge.