Shieldwalls

[Greek Fire 19]

What do shield walls actually do? I tried using them a few times but it seems to bunch units up awfully close. I imagined it conferred some sort of defensive bonus, but it doesnt seem to protect much against arrow fire, and when it's attacked by another melee unit it generally gets flanked/surrounded by the enemy and so any defensive bonus is negated by the fact that the enemy is suddenly attacking from behind.

I suppose it could be handy if you had enough units to form a line long enough that it couldn't be flanked by an enemy attack, but in truth I very rarely have that sort of numerical advantage in ATW.

Given that, are there any specific circumstances where it's useful?

[swabian]

yes, well.. your not forced to use shieldwalls :p As for the AI, Darth made our formations and he wisely avoided to use shieldwalls where the AI would act incompetent. I told him otherwise, but he is right.

In one 1:1 battles, the unit using the shieldwall will win... try it with equal units (f. ex aulue vs aulue). flanking doesn't matter much, because they can also be flanked without shield walls. One major aspect of shield walls is the resistance against charges. If the battle results in a heap of mess with you units being partly encircled, its best to use shield wall, because your units will stand closer which is of course a big advantage as one can figure easily.

We decided to use shield walls, allthough its actually debated among historians. However, once there are shield walls, the AI needs them too and they must be available or some units in every faction. Hence you'll often see shieldwalls in ATW battles.

[Antagonist]

I guess by it's very nature a shield-wall renders a unit vulnerable to flanking, although I don't think RTW's shieldwall is anything like as flexible as it would have been in real life.

Anyway, their most obvious usage is in siege-defence. One unit in shieldwall can cover a gate or a small route between houses which can hold it's own against much larger numbers... for a while. In open battle it's not really useful to form a shield wall with only one unit, but with 3 or 4 you can generally form a decent length "line of battle" if you spread your men out a bit thinner then the default number of ranks. To avoid flanking, it's important to deploy some units outside your main battleline to deter flanking attacks. Try to use things like cavalry to funnel enemy units towards the front of your line.

Antagonist

EDIT: I took so long to write this I didn't see swabian's message. *cough*

[swabian]

yes flanking is easier with shieldwalls. I also agree with Antagonist... you should put some units at the flanks, not in lines but in colums, if there is cavalry or generally outnumbering amounts of infantry.