why? (formation disruption question)

[Spoofa]

if your attacking an army... they dont move.

[blank]

if your attacking an army... they dont move.

well yes the AI likes to cower in their town square because there they have perfect morale

[antisocialmunky]

I always order my pikemen to walk up to the enemy or behind and it usually works out for me. The only times I really order attack is if I'm fighting other phalanxes.

If you're fighting in a city battles, then you're kinda screwed if they out number you with high quality melee units. That doesn't mean you're totally screwed because we're talking about the AI here. But I if you're only assaulting a town with phalanxes, then you're just asking for higher casualites.

Whenever I siege and have phalanxes(which is 50% of the time with my greek campaigns), I surround the entrance to the town center one one to three sides with phalanxes and have my mobile units(unphalanx phalanx, horsies, hoplites, etc) run around behind and to the other side. Then I order one of my phalanxes to form up(hold drag) on the edge of the town center. The enemy attacks them and then I swarm in on my other sides. On rare occasions I end up with the enemy units caught between two phalanxes at which point I take them off defense and let them squish the guys in the middle.

If you have slingers and start bombarding the enemy AI in the city center, they'll chase you. If you retreat through your phalanx they'll start attacking it. Then you can get behind them with some mroe phalanxes and kill them or if they have multiple units win through attrition.