Quote Originally Posted by Titus Marcellus Scato View Post
I think the historical way to use shieldwall is as an entirely defensive formation. That's what it was used for.

Which means not combining shieldwall with attack orders. Shieldwall is not for attacking and killing the enemy troops - it's for blocking them and stopping the enemy's advance. Then when the enemy are tired and worn down, you break out of the shieldwall and finish them off.
That's how I used it - the problem seems to be that even with no attack orders, when a unit with shieldwall in guard mode is itself attacked, it starts (slowly) advancing against the enemy, which in a city street means that it gradually grinds them down. If you choose a street that's long enough, with no wider sections where your shield wall can be flanked, then you can just sit back and watch 5 minutes of slow slaughter (with occasional bursts of excitement where you actually lose a man). Maybe it's purely a unit mass thing, maybe the defensive bonus is too overpowered, maybe Massalia's layout is adding to the impact, but the overall effect seems unbalanced in my experience so far.

At this point I'm pretty sure I could defend Massalia with two slingers on the walls (to cut down any cavalry who might break the shield wall), two hoplites of any flavor (to block the square entrances in shield wall), and my general (to throw in a final charge and get 500 kills in the rout). The rest of my force just sits around on the square twiddling its thumbs and moaning about how much blood there'll be to mop up...