Slitherine

I somehow have one of my phalanxs in a square bit there doesn't seem to be a button to get them out of square even after letting it sit for a full turn...what am I missing?

Right click on the square. The option is there to leave square.

Thx devon, I could have sworn I've tried that, but will try again..........

No worries...as for thinking you tried it already......

Welcome to my world! ☺

When leaving square, how do you choose which direction to face?

You can't, it remembers its original facing. Use square formation with caution.

That produces some absurd results making the square formation almost useless.The player gets no indication of the facing of the square when it is in square, so has to remember the facing. Once the battles around it have been resolved so it is safe to leave square, it is facing the wrong way 87.5% of the time meaning it takes two turns, one to leave square, one to face the right way, before it can do anything useful.

A block of pikes should be able to deploy in any direction from square. It just makes no sense for a square to take two turns to deploy in a fresh direction, whilst in standard deployment any unit can deploy in any direction in one turn. What is the RL justification of this?

You should be able to see which way the unit banner is facing.

SnuggleBunnies wrote:You should be able to see which way the unit banner is facing.

And the unit can make turns while in square (except on the turn it forms square).

julianbarker wrote:That produces some absurd results making the square formation almost useless.The player gets no indication of the facing of the square when it is in square, so has to remember the facing. Once the battles around it have been resolved so it is safe to leave square, it is facing the wrong way 87.5% of the time meaning it takes two turns, one to leave square, one to face the right way, before it can do anything useful.

A block of pikes should be able to deploy in any direction from square. It just makes no sense for a square to take two turns to deploy in a fresh direction, whilst in standard deployment any unit can deploy in any direction in one turn. What is the RL justification of this?

As RBS explained its always a two turn process, you can either turn before leaving square or turn after but its a time consuming process. For what its worth I agree that you that it may make sense for Pikes more competitive vis a vis Impact foot if they could leave square and face the direction they want right away. I find them a bit lackluster at the moment.

Thanks. The replies are helpful,I had not noticed the ability to turn. I could only see an out of square button but will look again. But it still seems inherently wrong that a unit with standard formation can move off in a new direction in a max of two turns (turn then move) whilst for a square it is three (turn, leave square, move or leave, turn, move.) It should be easier, not harder for a square to move off in a new direction as it can (and historically squares did) deploy in any direction.

julianbarker wrote:Thanks. The replies are helpful,I had not noticed the ability to turn. I could only see an out of square button but will look again. But it still seems inherently wrong that a unit with standard formation can move off in a new direction in a max of two turns (turn then move) whilst for a square it is three (turn, leave square, move or leave, turn, move.) It should be easier, not harder for a square to move off in a new direction as it can (and historically squares did) deploy in any direction.

My opinion is the ability for pike ( and only pike ) to turnsquare is a generous gift of the gods to piko philes and to make it even more usefull would over exaggerate it to the extreem.

Im not sure how it could "go off" in any direction. The men had very specific roles ie file leaders and file closers the armoured men would be in the front rank or so only... Since it would be an emergency and haste needed, the orders would likely be simple: ground pikes, left and right flank and rear files about face or whatever. Once the emergency is over, the files leaders etc would still be facing in the same direction (and side) as before the "square" was ordered...

I wonder if it would even be square shaped, I envision more of a "klumpen" formation (I believe used by Austrians in Napoleonic times, basically a hasty square formed aroud the command staff and round-ish)
Wouldn't there be big gaps (ie lack of pike coverage) in the corners in a true square?

Yes, it would be a mistake to think of it as anything like a Napoleonic square formation. Perhaps we should have called it "Orb" like the Romans did. But that just seems pretentious.

Dont know what i am missing here - but i have a unit in pike square and there is no option for it to leave - i can rotate , i can move one square in one direction , but no option to leave - does it matter if i am in base to base contact with another enemy unit ( tho not in actual combat)?

FightingPoultry wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 8:56 pm Dont know what i am missing here - but i have a unit in pike square and there is no option for it to leave - i can rotate , i can move one square in one direction , but no option to leave - does it matter if i am in base to base contact with another enemy unit ( tho not in actual combat)?

Could you post a screenshot please, with the unit selected?

thanks for the reply - i got it sorted -