Stig, I know you are trying to be helpful but I think you did not quite answer Kyolics question. Kyolic is talking about a specific type of bonus that made men in the front rank fight better if there were several rows of men (in the same unit) behind them. It was something like "+1 defense per rank, capped at 3" I cant recall exactly.

He's not talking about whether cav penetrates the unit, or how many men are engaged (which also effects fatigue [now minimally]), or the morale effects of being surrounded-- he's talking about whether there is a numerical combat bonus given to each man in a unit based on the number of ranks

I have not conducted any testing looking for a rank bonus. I've played a few games though, and tried some units in different depths. As far as I can tell there is not a rank bonus in m2tw, except for possibly for phalanx units (pikes). Maybe its just my imagination but my pikes seem to defend better in ranks of 3 than ranks of 2. This is an impression formed in the heat of battle so it may not hold up under testing.

It would make sense for pikes to get a rank bonus--especially when in spear wall mode. The whole idea of the spear wall is that it is a multi-rank manuever-- concentrating several ranks of spears in a front-facing wall.

It would not be too difficult to test in MP 1v1s with a friend, one player taking pikes and parking them in a spear wall 4 ranks deep while the other guy charges them with some decent swords 2 ranks deep. Repeat 10 times. Keep track of # kills as well as duration. Then try it with pikes 2 ranks deep. Repeat 10 times. Compare results.

Kind of a boring way to spend a few hours online-- but it would be nice to know whether the rank bonus still exists.