Wedge Formation

[Veridious]

When should I use Wedge Formation? It seems very ineffective, since cavalry tend to just slam their breaks as soon at the first unit hits the enemy. I tend to line up my cavalry in 3 rows, parallel to the enemy, that way all of the front row reaches the unit at the same time, and if I'm lucky the second and third row may keep charging.

I haven't tried the wedge, for fear of it screwing up, but it shouldn't take much reasoning to assume that the wedge is just too ineffective.

[El Hamburglo]

It used to be awesome in MTW. It apparently gave a morale penalty by dividing the target unit, which worked really well.

Now, as you've found, it seems its pretty much useless.

[Combat Wombat]

Have you tried using it over much longer distances?

[Irishman3]

Its not nearly as effective as it was in RTW or BI, infact it seems pretty useless for a shock attack. But an trick I read (and used frequently) about the best use of wedge for both RTW and BI still does produce some effective results (allbeit irregularly). The trick was to instruct your unit to charge to a point past the enemy formation and hence through it, breaking up continuity of the enemy unit and having foot soldiers (or a second wave of cavalry) come in and attack right behind the wedge. Its not quite as effective in M2TW, and as you pointed out they seem to stop once they hit the enemy line so I've found I have to issue a second order to the point past the unit then issue a run command to get it to work. But I have had some success using it that way.

Nowhere near as effective as it was in the previous TW games I've played though.

[Combat Wombat]

I do exactly the same to try and overcome the damned charge bug. As my units start punching into the foe only then do I instruct them to attack. It makes for a much more robust combat if you ask me. Thing is, they won't get their charge bonus so it's not perfect.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

In MTW2, I solely use it to maneuver my cav through small gaps in the enemy lines to reach their artillery asap.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

I do exactly the same to try and overcome the damned charge bug. As my units start punching into the foe only then do I instruct them to attack. It makes for a much more robust combat if you ask me. Thing is, they won't get their charge bonus so it's not perfect.

I believe the Divided Kingdoms mod helps with the charge bug. Find it here - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ivided+kingdom

[Cato the Younger]

Wedge Formation -- Forms cavalry into a narrow wedge that is ideally suited to moving through enemy lines, rather than stopping to engage.

Straight from the MIITW manual. But back in MTW(1) it mad owned infantry. Irishman3's trick also works.

[Trajan]

Moved to Battle Planning.

[Metellus]

Never use it in M2. Almost always used it in Rome. In M2 you want as many knights impacting at the same time, period. In Rome your cavalry is just mounted spearmen really, so you want as many mixing it up in general melee. In Medieval you want ease of rapid disentanglement.

Also why the heck would you use wedge formation to go through enemy lines when you can just go around without any cohesion loss?

[Irishman3]

Also why the heck would you use wedge formation to go through enemy lines when you can just go around without any cohesion loss?

To breakup the cohesion of the enemy unit, which helps your infantry charge immediately following, if you do it right. Like I said, it was a trick I read on the RTW forums for using inferior calvary to max advantage, tried, and worked quite well in that game and BI. Some of the effectiveness of that use of calvary seems to have carried over in M2TW, but not all.

And honestly, I seem to lose less calvary using it this way than charging in a broad formation, reforming, rinse and repeat (the other suggested method I've seen around for M2TW).

As my brother used to say, "what ever blows your skirt up"

[Metellus]

Is your brother a scotsman?

Aside from that I'll give it a try, although I can't see that breaking infantry cohesion will really mess the infantry up a lot. Sounds like an unnecessary sacrifice of cavalry. Besides, I hate seeing beautiful horses and brave knights litterg the battlefield like dead leaves

[Ippius]

It's a pretty useless action...

[Shazz]

It's a pretty useless action...

In some situations yes, but it works really well in that it seems to minimize the chances of a messed up rush, as is so very common with M2TW . With Wedge they actually run past the nearest soldier and really get in there and chop around, almost all the time.