Beat this: I lost a defensive bridge-battle with a full stack of expensive mercs inclduing one phalanx, let by an experinced FM. I still don't know what exactly had happened, but suddenly I had a chain route and all were running for safety across the bridge . No chance to rally them again, all were slaughtered instantly. The last thing I did was to charge the general into the next enemy phalanx, because that was something he could have hardly explained to the king.