Here, a topic to get this new forum rolling.

I am very interested in knowing more about the ashigaru's spearwall formation. We all know it kills cavalry in no time flat. We seem less certain as to how it does versus infantry.

Weeks ago I saw a post somewhere which suggested that it made no difference against infantry. I haven't been able to find it again, so if anyone knows where it is I'd like a link, please. My own experience is that it feels like it makes the unit a bit more robust and drops its killing power, as if it were taking points off the unit's attack stat and adding them to defence. We know that similar formations did that in prior games, such as the shieldwall formation in RTW: BI. What's the real deal when no fuzzy feelings and faded memories of a post read weeks ago involved?

I would like to see a full and scientific investigation of the matter! Any volunteers to devise and run some tests?