Quote Originally Posted by vartan View Post
As you can see, for a non-phalanx defender, defending (i.e. idling) will result in a tricky situation. Either you can idly defend, losing more men yet remaining fresh, or you can actively defend (i.e. guard mode disabled), and be more tired yet survive with more men (because you routed the enemy faster). The question is: Do you want less men that are more fresh to be used later in the end game? or do you want more men, albeit tired men, to be used earlier, during the mid game? To be honest, I would go with the latter because fatigue doesn't play nearly as much a role in the game as quantity does.
I agree that it's a tricky choice with no obvious clear-cut winner. Letting them fight feels a little less "gamey" to me (since that's what the AI would do), but sometimes when facing overwhelming odds I want to keep a phalanx fresh so that it can become the next flanking and/or router-chasing unit.

I'm also not so sure about fatigue, because tired units seem to kill at a lower rate. I'm getting quite good results by cycling units out of combat, especially where it's constrained terrain (e.g. city streets). Of course, you suffer casualties as you disengage, but if you carry on cycling then your units will always be warmed up or winded at best, while they're fighting (and then pulling back from) very tired and exhausted enemy units. And it's much easier to disengage from a tired enemy.