Quote Originally Posted by grinningman
I did some testing on the best formation for infantry to receive a cavalry charge.
Thanks for doing this. Your results are definitely food for thought.

[quote[I used a single unit of Berber spearmen (75) to receive the charge, the AI had control of a unit of mailed knights (40). I tried 4 formations for the spearmen[/quote]

Did you do anything with the spearmen after the knights made contact? Specifically, did you tighten the loose formation back up to try to engulf the knights in melee from all sides? I'd really hate it if this ends up proving to be the best cav defense tactic, but I'm worried. Loose infantry formations should not stop a charging cav unit in good formation--the cav should go right on through. But if the loose formation does stop the cav, preserves the most infantrymen from destruction, and allows the dispersed troops out beyond the cav's flanks to wrap in after the impact, then there's a serious realism problem.

These results make sense when you think about my impressions of the charge effect above - the more closely packed the infantry are, the more casualties they'll take during the charge. The case where the spearmen's front rank is the same width as the attacking cavalry's is the worst case, and the cavalry will inflict the most possible kills during this charge.
IMHO, this doesn't make sense. Infantry in good formation historically was able to withstand cav charges fairly easily and with little damage. As long as the infantry's discipline held, and their ranks stayed tight while presenting the horses with a mass of long pointy things, the cav would bounce off or break up and go around them, from Hastings to Waterloo. So you'd think a unit of spearmen in good formation, with a frontage at least equal to the cav's, would be in good shape. But your results show this is the worst possible option. Hmmmm.....

OK, you can make the case that the cav in this situation has a greater reach due to its lances being longer than the spears. Also, cheap spearmen's light shields ain't much good against anything, anyway, especially not a lance with cav momentum behind it. So maybe cheap spearmen are just doomed from the start. But what about other situations, such as better infantry defense and/or longer reach?

Is there any unit in M2TW that can form a shield wall formation like in BI? If so, does a shield wall help the infantry withstand a charge better, even if the infantrymen have swords/axes instead of spears?

And what about pikes? Do pikes (even unarmored) do a better job against cav than spears?

And finally, does cav treat melee infantry differently than missle infantry? I've heard that missile infantry won't stop charging cav--the cav just runs through them. Is that true?

Thanks in advance.