How to enable shield wall formation for units

[AntonisTheGreek]

Introduction
A discussion I had some time ago led me to write this tutorial.In this tutorial I will show you how to enable shield wall formation for units.
For this tutorial,I assume you have unpacked the game.If you work on the export_descr_unit.txt of some mod,unpacking mustn't bother you.If you want to work on the vanilla game,and you haven't unpacked the game,use the unpacker.If you don't find it,download and install the 1.2 patch.After you install,you can find the unpacker in Medieval II Total War/tools/unpacker.
We will work only on export_descr_unit.txt file.

Let's start
Before starting,we must choose the unit which we will give the shield wall formation to.The unit must carry shield,and mustn't have any other secondary formation (phalanx,schiltrom,wedge) or special ability (chanting).It must be an infantry unit as well.The dismouted Conquistadores is a good unit to use for this tutorial,as it meets all the requirements above.Here's its entry in EDU:

type             Dismounted Conquistadores
dictionary       Dismounted_Conquistadores      ; Dismounted Conquistadores
category         infantry
class            heavy
voice_type       Heavy
banner faction   main_infantry
banner holy      crusade
soldier          Dismounted_Conquistadores, 48, 0, 1.2
attributes       sea_faring, hide_forest, very_hardy, can_withdraw
formation        1.2, 1.2, 2.4, 2.4, 3, square
stat_health      1, 0
stat_pri         16, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, sword, 25, 1
;stat_pri_ex      0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr    no
stat_sec         0, 0, no, 0, 0, no, melee_simple, blunt, none, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex      0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr    no
stat_pri_armour  7, 9, 6, metal
;stat_armour_ex   7, 8, 0, 0, 9, 6, 6, metal
stat_sec_armour  0, 0, flesh
stat_heat        3
stat_ground      1, 0, 2, 0
stat_mental      11, low, trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay  0
stat_food        60, 300
stat_cost        1, 690, 150, 100, 75, 690, 4, 170
armour_ug_levels 3, 4
armour_ug_models Dismounted_Conquistadores, Dismounted_Conquistadores_ug1
ownership        spain, portugal
era 2            spain, portugal

;unit_info        16, 0, 22

Adding the shield wall formation is very easy.Add shield_wall in the end of the attributes and formation lines.The new text must be separated from the previous word by a comma and a space.The entry should now look like this(newly added text is in red):

type             Dismounted Conquistadores
dictionary       Dismounted_Conquistadores      ; Dismounted Conquistadores
category         infantry
class            heavy
voice_type       Heavy
banner faction   main_infantry
banner holy      crusade
soldier          Dismounted_Conquistadores, 48, 0, 1.2
attributes       sea_faring, hide_forest, very_hardy, can_withdraw, shield_wall
formation        1.2, 1.2, 2.4, 2.4, 3, square, shield_wall
stat_health      1, 0
stat_pri         16, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, sword, 25, 1
;stat_pri_ex      0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr    no
stat_sec         0, 0, no, 0, 0, no, melee_simple, blunt, none, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex      0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr    no
stat_pri_armour  7, 9, 6, metal
;stat_armour_ex   7, 8, 0, 0, 9, 6, 6, metal
stat_sec_armour  0, 0, flesh
stat_heat        3
stat_ground      1, 0, 2, 0
stat_mental      11, low, trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay  0
stat_food        60, 300
stat_cost        1, 690, 150, 100, 75, 690, 4, 170
armour_ug_levels 3, 4
armour_ug_models Dismounted_Conquistadores, Dismounted_Conquistadores_ug1
ownership        spain, portugal
era 2            spain, portugal

;unit_info        16, 0, 22

Now save and close.That's all!
But now we need a proper UI icon for enabling/disabling the formation.Dowload the attached file,and extract it in C:/Program Files (x86)/SEGA/Medieval II Total War/data/ui/southern_european/interface,and accept to replace the file.

Preview
Dismounted Conquistadores in standard formation...


...and when doing shield wall formation


Notes
I also tried to add testudo formation,but it doesn't work.Testudo will crash your game if added to a unit.


I hope you found my tutorial useful

[lampros69]

Interesting. Two questions (and I know you are still here!):

1. Does Shield Wall do anything beneficial in terms of making your units more effective - or is it merely for show.

2. The attached file only works for "southern European" units?

[lampros69]

Hmmm, initial testing seems to indicate that the Shield Wall formation turns unit movement into a mess, as units do not move in formation, and stragglers appear everywhere. Did you experience the same problem? Perhaps I need to adjust other areas of the formation line to make it work, but it seems too much of a work.

[AntonisTheGreek]

Interesting. Two questions (and I know you are still here!):

1. Does Shield Wall do anything beneficial in terms of making your units more effective - or is it merely for show.

2. The attached file only works for "southern European" units?

1.In tests I have done,I noticed that if a unit is in shield wall formation,it suffers less casualties from an enemy charge than if it was in standard formation.

2.It works for all units.

[lampros69]

1.In tests I have done,I noticed that if a unit is in shield wall formation,it suffers less casualties from an enemy charge than if it was in standard formation.

2.It works for all units.

Ah, ok. I will have to test it myself. But given my own mod implements HorseArcher's charge changes, I am not sure if I want anything but pikes taking charges from cavalry!

[lampros69]

An update, Antonis:

You are absolutely right: Shield Formation does make a night-and-day difference when encountering a cavalry charge. And this is a huge factor, because I am using HorseArcher's charge principles, and hence a heavy cavalry can literally obliterate any non-pike infantry in a single charge. So I needed to compensate for the boosted cavalry.

In this context, tested with Dismounted Conquistadores v. Lancers, and with Shield Wall I found that Dismounted Conquistadores took about the same number of casualties as Lancers - which meant that the Spaniards won in the long-run. This obviously contrasts greatly without Shield Wall, when the Dismounted Conquistadores would go down to about 50 percent casualty while inflicting less than 5 percent in return.

Nonetheless, the problems with maintaining formation and cohesion persist. Visually, I cannot stress more how much of an aesthetic mess the formation is when moving; unlike other formations, it looks like a snake writhing and sloughing off skin. Further, while the formation is excellent in receiving the initial charge, its capacity to receive subsequent - especially rapid - re-charges is greatly compromised because of the problem of maintaining formation integrity.

So for now, I've decided to employ Schiltrom as a counter to the boosted charge instead - across the board for all non-missile and non-"light" infantry. Schiltrom has the same bulwark effect against cavalry charge that Shield Wall confers - without the negatives I outlined. Yes, Schiltrom is inferior in that a circular bulwark formation covers less of an area than Shield Wall - which means that you cannot employ heavy infantry as effectively in a screening role. But I think the cost-benefit analysis still tilts toward the Schiltrom. Further, in terms of modding, it's far easier to use Schiltrom, since I am only changing 1 line as opposed to 2 lines; and Schiltrom can be employed on non-shield units as well.

But if you have suggestions regarding modding further so that Shield Wall can be conferred without units losing their formation integrity when moving and/or fighting, I may change my mind.