Looking for tips on new formations

[Orvis Tertia]

Hello, all. I've been away for months and months, but I finally cancelled my World of Warcraft account (time-sucker from hell) and got BI. Yowza! I'm loving this game again!

I've been poking around here for tips on using the new formations in BI (sheild wall, etc.) and haven't spotted anything yet. Anybody got some pointers to share?

[Orvis Tertia]

OK, how about a more specific question: Are sheild walls effective at attacking, or should you put them back into normal formation before charging? In particular, I'm thinking about situations where you are in shield wall and the center of your line is attacked. Is it best to put your flanking units in the line into regular formation before charging them against the units attacking your center, or does shield wall remain effective enough to make it worthwhile to keep it on in the countercharge?

[Well Hung]

OK, how about a more specific question: Are sheild walls effective at attacking, or should you put them back into normal formation before charging? In particular, I'm thinking about situations where you are in shield wall and the center of your line is attacked. Is it best to put your flanking units in the line into regular formation before charging them against the units attacking your center, or does shield wall remain effective enough to make it worthwhile to keep it on in the countercharge?

You could take an easy one or the “lazy man” defence and have your hoplites (or whatever) take up a triangle shape and let the enemy throw themselves on your weapons and as they run away, you run them down.

Works every time, but not much fun.

[magnum]

A unit in shieldwall moves at a slower speed than a unit not in shieldwall. As such its intended as a defensive formation. So if the enemy attacks a part of your line and you intend to flank them with the part of your line that is not being attacked, I'd recommend taking them out of shield wall formation first.