Weird infantry charge

[4th Regiment]

When you order infantry to charge, only some soldiers from the first line charge, while rests of the unit slowly sneaks toward he enemy. Even those in first rank do not keep integrity of the line. So , this leave only small group of soldiers fighting the enemy while rest will slowly sneak until making contact with some of the enemy warriors. This is often too late and too little. Not to mention whole integrity of the unit is in total mess. Whole idea of the charge – hitting the enemy hard with masses of your force is ridiculed by this. Not to tell that first thing the even levy units will learn is to keep integrity of the unit/line while charging/fighting.

I usually overcome this by ordering unit to run in some point behind the enemy which will make most of the unit making fighting contact. Of course, by doing this you will lose charge bonus…

[SicilianVespers]

I noticed this as well, will have to look into it.

[Ultimus]

I'm sorry if raising a thread from the grave is against the rules but I didn't want to start a new one while I found this.
I'm experiencing the same issue. Have you found the cause for this?Is it fixed in version 4.0?
Cheers

[Iguanaonastick]

It's a vanilla bug that mainly seems to affect spearmen. I'm not sure if any mods managed to fix it but it's very annoying.

The player can sort-of get around it by ordering his troops to run past the enemy instead of charging; they'll start fighting as soon as they make contact. You miss out on the charge bonus but at least your guys attack as a solid block instead of a few stragglers at a time.

[Morfans]

Beg to differ.

I find this "bug" very realistic in fact.

One thing is what spearmen should ideally do, another is how they actually react.

Spearmen were trained to hold the line, not to charge like freaking bersekers. Even
Varangian-class unit would not charge as a single man, come on !

One of the things I dislike most is the compact formations of some other mods in TWC
and their perfect manoeuvres - sort of John Woo's movie, ballets not battles. ( This is
one of the main reasons for me not to play recent SS versions, I must say )

Ridiculously synchronous and unmodified lines were unavoidable with early pc games'
poor engines, but today ...

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[Ultimus]

Morfans I see your point. To tell the truth the synchronous movement didn't annoy me but I agree that realistically its not correct.
Thank you both for your answers. I will do what iguanaonastick suggests (meh the charge bonus of spearmen isn't that great eitherway)

[VINC.XXIII]

One reshearcher told me, some spearmen(poor italian ones) should anyway fight in random order. While some others(heavy ones with pavises) should execute their...ballets.

"In response, a moving fortress of pavisemen and crossbowmen can take the offensive"

Osprey

[Lуra]

I don't mind the bug, orders weren't always carried out well on a battle field, so there should be a margin of error.. It's not like it's Rome MP or something
But it never happens on an initial charge, so I'm fine.

~Lyra

[Iguanaonastick]

Morfans: That'd make sense if all infantry behaved like that. But they don't; it's a spearmen only "feature."

You're quite right that the Total War representation of battle as perfectly ordered blocks of troops massacring one another in extended mêlées is wildly inaccurate, but randomly occurring bugs where some units on rare occasions do not behave as intended aren't the right way to fix that. It'd require a dramatic overhaul of the entire battle system. (And would possibly be much less fun to play.)

[Morfans]

"In response, a moving fortress of pavisemen and crossbowmen can take the offensive"

But that is possible in SV 3.3 - I mean, a coordinated and relatively slow advance, like a living fortress.

The unit breaks formation if you order them to rush into an attack. Nobody can tell for sure, but I guess even the most celebrated elites could not do that "as a single man".

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