engage at will?

When should you use the engage at will formation, as oppossed to hold and stuff, thankyou.

Engage at will is for general combat use. for example, your spearmen unit is engaging an enemy spearmen unit of the same type/quality/quantity. It gives you good chances at killing enemy troops at the expense of protection.
Hold formation is for engaging an enemy unit that has better odds of killing your men faster than you can kill theirs. Your men increase their defensiveness at the expense of killing power. It works best for use with troop-types that might not do so well against a well-trained enemy (your Ashigaru versus enemy YariSpear,for example) and is normally used just to hold the enemy for a while until you can get your better soldiers into combat.

You will notice that if a unit in 'Hold' formation gets a flank or rear attack only a few units will be engaged. Using 'Engage' will allow them to swarm in, but, it also reduces their defensive advantage.

In pursuit, 'Engage' formation allows your pursuing forces to freely attack anything in their range. In 'Hold' formation they will try to stay close together and pursuit is greatly hampered.

Likewise, in a charge, 'Hold' formation will keep the unit together (French style charge) while 'Engage' will allow a 'British' style charge where it arrives piecemeal at its targeted unit.

On defense, 'Hold' formation uses only the front line and losses there are replaced from rearward troops in that formation. 'Engage' formations will attempt to find the flanks and get more individuals from that formation into combat.

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Wind fells blossoms, rain
fells steel,yet bamboo bends and drinks

thanks alot guys

Monks and No-Dachi seem to work well on engage at will.

BTW, welcome to the dojo larue!

[This message has been edited by Shiro (edited 04-11-2001).]

When defending with Naginata, YS, or YA, I find that having both Hold Formation and Hold Position to work best. Monks and Nodachi seem to work better on engage at will. Does anybody know what setting is best for killing the most number of fleeing troops? Loose formation AND engage at will?

Never use loose formation in hth combat. It lowers the morale of your men and routing is more likely to happen.

Use loose formation when your units are under archer attacks.



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