Defensive Squares?

[Durnaug]

Is that a new defensive formation or is it already available in later TW games? (Never played any titles later than Med II)...



As an aside, I never bothered with ETW after some bad reviews and the realisation it didn't cover the Napoleonic conflict. After that my interest waned in any new titles and I stuck with the RTW1/MTWII mods. The advent of Shogun II didn't interest me either because of the puny scale

[Breoghan]

It's the same square formation from Empire and Napoleon: total war, however, i doubt this was used in the antiquity...

[GrudgeNL]

It's the same square formation from Empire and Napoleon: total war, however, i doubt this was used in the antiquity...

I may be horribly wrong, but I am fairly sure the roman legions used the square at the Battle of Carrhae

[Durnaug]

It's the same square formation from Empire and Napoleon: total war, however, i doubt this was used in the antiquity...

Firstly, thanks for the response!

I think Thucydides describes Brasidas using such a formation in the Peloponnesian War. Xenophon might have mentioned its use and the Romans use it at Trebia?

[iuliuscaesar1396]

The caption for this screen on Gamestar says that the picture was staged.

[Durnaug]

The caption for this screen on Gamestar says that the picture was staged.

Lol. And we're back to the drawing board

[MathiasOfAthens]

This formation was most certainly used.

Formations can better hold their formation and effectiveness when they have room to move. If they are in a square block and are surrounded and have no room to move then they will lose effectiveness and be slaughtered. Better for a unit to form a square like the picture above than a solid block of men who are crammed together.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

That can't be a picture of an ingame formation, because the officers formed in the middle are mounted. It would actually not even make any sense for the Romans to make a hollow square like that since that is only useful for musket&bayonet troops.

They did make use of legionary squares though (as did most factions at some point), but that is more a matter of deployment than a specific formation for an individual unit.

[Maleventum]

the Romans used a circle formation called "orbiter" , it was used when a small group was surrounded by the enemies