Ditches and stakes.

[tyronec]

Irrigation ditches & hastily dug protective ditches – these give
“Protection” but no Cover, +100 POA Protection bonus in close
combat for pure missile foot defending against mounted troops,
and +25 POA for other foot or opponents.

Stakes give “Protection” but no Cover, +100 POA Protection
bonus in close combat for missile foot defending against
mounted troops, and +25 POA against other opponents.

Can you expand on the last phrase of both of these paragraphs. Am not clear on exactly what circumstances the +25 applies, it seems to depend on how the sentence is read.

[rbodleyscott]

Irrigation ditches & hastily dug protective ditches – these give
“Protection” but no Cover, +100 POA Protection bonus in close
combat for pure missile foot defending against mounted troops,
and +25 POA for other foot or opponents.

Stakes give “Protection” but no Cover, +100 POA Protection
bonus in close combat for missile foot defending against
mounted troops, and +25 POA against other opponents.

Can you expand on the last phrase of both of these paragraphs. Am not clear on exactly what circumstances the +25 applies, it seems to depend on how the sentence is read.

They both really mean the same thing. The wording is different because the only troops who have stakes are missile foot. (Although stakes would in fact give +25 POA when defending by other foot).

So in both cases:

1) They give +100 POA for pure missile foot (i.e. 100% missile capability, with no other currently counting combat capability - see below) defending vs mounted.
2) They give +25 POA vs all types of enemy when defended by non-missile foot.
3) They give +25 POA to pure missile foot when defending against foot.

Units such as longbowmen with swordsmen capability count as "pure missile foot" at Impact, because they have no impact capability, but don't count as pure missile foot in melee, because they have swordsmen capability. So, vs mounted, they get (from the ditch or stakes) +100 at impact and only +25 in melee.

Raw longbowmen, without swordsmen capability, get +100 vs mounted in both impact and melee.

This certainly needs clarification, And I will include such clarification in the manual update that will come with the next DLC.