Shield wall vs schiltrom

[suntaiguy23]

i've been messing around with the edu of stainless steel and i discovered romes shield wall still works in-game (testudo too but doesn;t work) now i've given it to a few units who i feel would give some uniqueness a few examples are lacas heavy spearman, iltalian militia a few others but im curious as to its effectivness, i've done some tests but im not 100% sure whether the formation is doing anything bonus wise, besides making the units an easiier target for calvary

[sumaznguy]

I imagine shield wall makes it more difficult to attack from the front, but weaker on every other side.


While the circle formation makes it equally protected from all sides but weaker in general since its not adjustable and possibly less men in each rank.

[TW_ruler]

I don’t have the MODs for shield walls for M2 but remembering the shield wall from Rome it was an effective way to slow advancing enemy troops and guarding against arrows I think the Mods work the same way. Shield wall v cavalry seems like it was some what effective in RomeTW but was a lot more effective against infantry and missile. However the schiltrom formation in M2TW is really good but a lot of people don’t use it. I found it to be great offensively believe it or not. Choke points inside of a city cannot handle the schiltrom formation advancing threw the lines. Because it is circular the enemy is forced around it and envelope the schiltrom this is only effective when you have other infantry backing up the schiltrom formation. For instance many times my schiltrom formation penetrated and moved all the way threw the enemey lines coming out the back the enemy; the enemy actually turned to fight the schiltrom behind them giving there backs to the infantry supporting the schiltrom thus busting the choke point to hell. The schiltrom will suffer great losses just an FYI but there isn’t a better way sometimes to break a choke point in a town. I use schiltrom in the field at my flanks defensively so when cavalry hits my flanks they are usually routed. It’s a tough little formation and I do use it a lot in my games.

[Trajan]

Moved to Battle Planning.

[Poradain]

Hmm..interesting use of schiltrom there TW. I normally use 4 of them in a V (funnel) formation to hold choke points. The wave of enemy is forced to wrap around one of the circles while exposing their flanks to the one next door. In one bridge defence battle, I annihilated a 1k army trying to cross while losing only 17 armoured sergeants.

[Khassaki]

I use them outside gates to suck the enemy within range of the towns and sdtop rams. They are also great against Mongols as the Mongol cavalry charge in - and because they are taller than the infantry - take loads of damage from their own archery.

I also use them inside gates to break the rush when it goes down, then as the enemy envelope it, charge them from behind with halberdiers or cavary

[Saibot]

I love putting schiltrom units in my gates and in front of the tower entrances. The enemy will suffer way greater losses and be incredibly weakened once they reach your real defending army.

[Gabriel A]

I do not use shield wall so cannot speak to it.

Schiltrom on the other hand is useless in all situations against infantry, and I would even say cavalry unless one expects to get charged simultaneously from multiple sides.