To hold or not to hold?

The Beginner's Guide to MTW and some experts at the forum recommend to put your infantry (espesially spears) on hold position to enable them resist charges (especially cavalry ones) better. How much does it really prolong their staying in melee?

Hello Gil,

Do you mean Hold Formation or Hold position? Anyways, I'll do both for you... The first entry is from Drones Wiki....

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Originally Posted by MTW Reference Guide

Hold Formation

Units in Hold Formation receive modifiers of -2 attack and +2 defence. This formation is less aggressive, and should be used by spearmen and pikemen to maximize their rank bonus. This can also be used by other unit types when receiving cavalry charges or trying to defend a point in the line.

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And, in the words of Obake Date....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Obake Date

Hold position works a bit differently. With units on hold position, they will stay where they are and defend the area around them. Any unit that comes within combat range will be engaged, but once that fight is over, they will re-form at the same spot and wait until another unit moves close enough to engage. This is good if you want to defend a particular piece of ground, or if you want to keep your men from chasing after fleeing enemies and getting surrounded and cut off by other units.

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Thus clearly, "Hold position" has no melee-bonus at all. All this are valid for all versions of MTW as it is hardcoded.

- A

I will use hold position in defensive battles where I am severely outnumbered, it keeps my infantry from chasing after routing units and exhausting themselves. I think there is also a trick you can use to withdraw from a fight with the hold position setting.

Hold formation is defensive, and it will keep spears and pikes in cleaner ranks.

I was speaking of hold POSITION. So probably it is my misconception and I sometimes use it hoping (apparently in vain) that it will make my sword units last longer against a cavalry charge. I somehow thought that if people are told to hold their ground, this order would linger in their minds and enhearten them to fight with more perseverance. It's a pity I was wrong.

Ya, swords not good against cavarly! This is the job of spearmen and pikemen. Once held in place flank the unit with swordmen and go to work. Sorry we couldn't get swordmen to "man up" against those horseys! Have a joyful day!