Punch through the center, yao

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Flanking is the best way for you win a battle, no matter the time period...

[Parallel Pain]

Not true. It's half-half, between flanking and punching, see who gets to do it first.

[chenkai11]

The AI sometimes can punch a hole into my pike phalanx formation with their cavalry, then the phalanx formation will break, no reserves to fill the gap, then you will lose the battle.

To punch a hole in the formation line, you cannot do it by attacking the enemy but to force them march or run through the line after the attack. (Must use heavy armoured cavalry)

I use that tactic with the elephants. If the charge was not a success, then I will let them run through the enemy lines and you will see the enemy formation will break, then your infantry can move in. (disable the guard mode)

[barabinni]

Well... Mostly my center is very strong. But you can have situations where you have heavy elites just slaughtering their way through some medium infantry and creating lots of havoc. Just so seldom that the enemy attacks me head-on. Most often just go on one side of my line and i can then envelope them with my pretty pretty killing-machines.

[QuintusSertorius]

It's rarely efficient to punch through the centre, since at the very heart of the line tends to be the toughest troops of all. Worse still if they're pikemen.

But it is possible, in a recent battle (see the second one) I routed the units either side of the tough bastards in the very middle, then fell on their flanks to rout them. But that was at the same time as flanking them on both sides as well as aiming to punch through their centre.

[Gaivs]

Look at Marathon. The Persians punched through the centre yet still got slaughtered.

[Parallel Pain]

The Persians did not punch through, the Greeks did a tactical fall back, prove being there isn't much Greek casualties.

As for where punching worked, off the top of my head:
Issus
Gaugamela
Mikatagahara (actually probably 2/5 of all Sengoku Jidai field battles)
Australiz

Looking at Hannibal's double-evenlopment it's the same
If at Trebia the Romans had punched through the Carthaginian center before their own flanks collapsed, the Romans would have won.
At Cannae, if we trust Goldsworthy, then Hannibal had to specify his reserves to seal the breach. If we take conventional, then it is still the same as if the Cavalry did not do their job fast enough it would have been a Roman victory.

That's how the punch and the flanking worked in history. Often one side would try to outflank his opponent while the other goes for the punch. The flanking side focus his troops on one or both flanks and the punching side focus his troops much nearer to the center, wherever he suspect he can punch through. It then comes down to who's can achieve his goal first.

Game-wise, when the AI puts its units in one single long line, it's easy to punch. But now I use darth formation so I can't really punch until much later (though can't flank either) and so I haven't really tried.

[chenkai11]

Look at Marathon. The Persians punched through the centre yet still got slaughtered.

Punching a hole in the center is only use when you can't outflank the enemy, at the same time you got some heavy tanker, like cataphracts and elephants. The main purpose of punching a hole is to disrupt the formation line then you need infantry to do the rest.

[NeoSpartan]

Not true. It's half-half, between flanking and punching, see who gets to do it first.

ur talking game wise or RL????

[Parallel Pain]

RL duh, I was answer MAA

Besides this is a tacitcal simulation. I would prefer it to be as real as possible, especially on the level of tactical decisions.

Thanks chenkai11, I'll check it out.