Question on Wedge Formation

[MegasAlexandros]

I'm just curious as to why I haven't come across any cavalry with the ability to use the wedge formation? I've read several books on Alexander the Great and all say that the Companion Cavalry fought in wedge formations. I'm assuming that the developers of EB removed it as being ahistorical, or that it caused AI problems? It just seems like something that should be useable. Additionally, how could I mod it in?

[vollorix]

Just add the marked word into the "formation line" - that should do the job.
formation 1.5, 4, 3, 6, 4, square, wedge <- ignore the "spacings", they are form BI vanilla.

[bobbin]

We didn't include it because the formation doesn't work very well in RTW.

[Darius]

The RTW engine isn't able to do the formation justice. It's meant to allow a unit of charging cavalry to effective "pierce" an enemy line in the wedge formation, but all it does is reduce the effect of the charge by limiting it to only a few horsemen at the tip. Simply forming your cavalry into a rectangle will give you a better result as far more of your horsemen will be able to bring their lances to bear in the charge, and cause far greater disruption to the enemy ranks. If you find a rectangle formation is too sluggish and unable to manueveur well, try making a square formation, and you'll be able to make far sharper turns in much less time, will still retaining a decent charging line.

[Randal]

You can still use the wedge formation on a larger scale though. It's surprisingly effective at breaking an infantry line in a frontal charge, if you form up a number (4 or so) cavalry units in a huge wedge with narrow-frontage units in the first line, wider in the second, etc.

I learned that trick in this thread on cavalry tactics. I think it's actually a better representation of the kind of wedge described in the battles of Alexander the Great than the one you can get in the engine, since Alexander's wedges would have been large with hundreds of horsemen, not several small ones.