Good informative post. The new engine really likes charges and countercharges. I've seen highly variable results testing units charging vs. standing still or countercharge.
Your results explain a lot about the AI. It uses a mass rush pretty much every time. Since this takes all of a few seconds to hit your line, there is little time for a human to stop and countercharge. Too bad we don't have some sort of "charge closest opposing unit command for battle lines." Deployment be damned, because if you aren't charging, even defensive troops buckle. There is some presidence for this with sword armed infantry. Caeser said that charges should be met with a charge, rather than lying there and taking it.
No wonder my cav tactics work so well in SP. I end up charging everything and am not getting stuck defensive. If the AI rushes I withdraw the cav and hack at the chargers flanks with my own charge. You can't do that with infantry, because you lack a speed advantage. I rarely hit spears/infantry frontally unless I need to hold a unit for a few seconds while flanking cav destroys it.
One has to wonder why the cav is allowed to charge completely at close formation spears or pikes *frontally* in the first place...not too historical. Perhaps some heavy cav would if trained, but I doubt light cav would. Horses are smart animals--although it has been a very long time since we've owned any.
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