Shield Wall Testing

[Wambat]

I did some testing of the shield wall using RK Men at Arms against various Adunabar units. I compared the effectiveness of the unit in shield wall formation compared with standard and loose formations, each time in "do not pursue" mode. The unit acted defensively and was not ordered to attack.

Against ranged attack, shield wall seems equally as effective as loose formation in reducing casualties by about half. The advantage being that the unit is not defensively compromised against melee and cavalry attack, and takes up less room, allowing deployment in a small space. Handy in an urban environment, or when you want to avoid having your unit formations overlap as a result of a loose formation.

Against cavalry attack the major difference is that the unit does not get pushed back by the weight of the cavalry, but tends to maintain it's position, where a unit in standard formation would continue to be pushed back until it hit some obstruction. As such, shield wall can work in your favor if you are trying to maintain a line in the open. However, if you want your troops to be pressed against a wall so as to make their rear secure; you might do this in a town square engagement; normal formation would give better results. Shield wall also has the disadvantage of not offering as much cover to units to the rear of the unit as normal formation, meaning you will need more units to form a adequate line. Loose formation, of course, has no advantages against cavalry.

Against infantry things get worse. The melee capability of the shield wall does not seem to suffer, but the lower pressure of the infantry assault compared with a cavalry assault, results in the shield wall being pulled forward into the melee, as from a vacuum. This in more detrimental to a line's integrity than the unit being pushed back, and results in enemy troops getting into the rear of the unit, which is all bad.

It seems the best use of shield wall is sitting out ranged attacks, and absorbing cavalry assaults when in the open, or part of a line.

[The Sloth]

Thanks, Wambat. Makes me want to try another Rhun campaign to get my hands on some vassal macemen. I think they would combine nicely with some berserkers, absorbing arrows for them. But I still haven't quite gotten over my hearthmen-induced trauma.

[CountMRVHS]

Interesting. So the aim is to recreate Hastings (just don't break formation!). It's unfortunate that shield wall doesn't seem terribly suited to the inf. vs inf. grind, though, since I would assume that was its main intent.

[webba84]

I have to be 100% honest, I never use the shieldwall formation, in this mod or any others. Seem to be pretty justified in that, based on what Wambat has discovered.