Unit Combat and Charging; Intuition vs. Testing vs. Animation

[geala]

Great test, thank you.

I think it has something to do with flanking.

In my tests with Landsknechts against French Lancers (H) in default setting (7 deep in case of the pike) every time the Lancers won. Normally a third of the Lancers died in the first charge, the rest hacked the Landsknechts whose formation was disturbed to death without having to charge again.

The Lancers also won in most cases when I set the Landsknechts only 3 deep, so to have roughly the same front length as the Lancers. But in that case the fight was different. In the first charge c. half of the Lancers died, the rest, being repulsed, had to form for a charge again. In that second charge they normally brake the thin line of the remaining Landsknechts who had lost mostly a quarter in the first charge and formed only two rows.

When I used 2 units of Landsknecht and put them close together, 6 deep, the Lancers lose every time in a humiliating way. Two-third died in the first charge, they normally were held at bay by the pikes. Even some flanking did not change the results: total defeat of the Lancers, minor losses among the Landsknechts (ca. 30 to 40 dead). After that I was very pleased of the game mechanics because it is exactly the result I would expect from pike versus horse.