Slitherine

Hi, I was playing a FOG Empires battle where the defenders had two Palace Guard units that were superior pikes with a general attached. I shot at them with one or two slinger units every turn for about five turns without every disrupting them - but by keeping supporting units facing them from different directions, I kept the enemy from charging anything with them. Finally, on the last turn, one of these units charged a superior heavy cavalry (lancer) unit - and much to my surprise, fragmented themselves! How often am I likely to see this happen again? I mean they had lost their rear rank but Superior pikes with general charges cavalry without general, with nothing behind their flank except light infantry? https://youtu.be/kSSf0uxqAHk?t=65

If I understand what you are saying, Pikes charged Lancers? Pikes get 0 PoA vs lancers when attacking without the 4th rank

Really? That is interesting! Same if the lancers charge the pikes?

No, infantry gets full impact PoA if defending the charge vs shock cavalry. They get nothing if they are attacking.

In short, pikes are not supposed to be charging lancers. If they do, they lose their normal non-depth Pike POA, and the lancers get their 100 POA for lancers (which is cancelled if they charge stationary steady pikes)

With a full fourth rank the pikes will go from a net +200 POA when receiving a charge, to a net 0 POA if they charge.

Without a fourth rank, the pikes will go from a net +100 POA when receiving a charge, to a net -100 POA if they charge.

Wow! Thanks for that, I had to read the explanation twice but that is really interesting, explains why the AI was reluctant to charge the lancers. In my previous game I had a town militia unit (raw hoplites) vs lancers. The lancers sat facing the hoplites without charging them despite being superior vs raw. The hint text suggested that it was a bad idea for me to charge the lancers so it was a stand-off until I shot at the lancers from behind and caused them to be disrupted (there was a forest directly behind the lancers so they wouldn't retreat). The militia was then able to charge the lancers and fragment them.