One of the things I've found in general, is that there are some units whose animations mess up their fighting ability. But with fixes/patches, that changes. But what's really interesting to me is that you have much better results in melee if you do the following:


make a line of defensive units. (High armour, defense skill, etc) doesn't matter all that much what weapons they have, as long as they can take a beating for a while and have large numbers.

Now, on the flanks, use high attack units. Those unarmoured scottish longswordsmen, billmen, anything with a big honking slashing dragging poking weapon. Keep the ATTACK stat high, and they make excellent flankers.

The defenders use all their defensive power on the front, so they are perfect for "melee" melee. But attackers typically have lower defensive power, and they are sometimes badly armoured or shieldless. They are awesome flankers. That affects how best to use them in the field, in seiges, in forests, bridges, etc.

Horsemen do great when charging flanks, and sometimes when charging the rear, but I've found they can escape easier from a flank charge that a 180 degree reversal from a rear charge. They tend to get pinned. Better to use missile cavalry at the rear, to kill flankers and shoot missiles at their line, instead of charging from the rear.

Pikemen are excellent units for some situations, but terrible in others. I cant wait to cover all these things.