There would be a point in creating a shield stat, because some units had shield/armor even in the 18th/19th century. The cuirassier, used by French, Austrians and Prussians:
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles...uirassier.html
And the Austrian version only wore the front plate of the armor, so that is almost like Total War stats carried out in real life (armor stats only apply to the front, though in RTW there is the added direction of the shield-carrying side).
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