Call That a Formation: Difference between revisions
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* Averted in [[Overlord II]] with the Glorious Empire. The player character is a roughly nine-foot-tall monster of a man in diabolic armor that wields equally huge and evil weapons, throws magic around with his free hand, and commands an army of psychotic gibbering minions. Needless to say, when catching small groups and individuals, the results are usually (and hilariously) [[Curb Stomp Battle|one sided.]] Then the soldiers get into formations: shield-bearers are nigh invulnerable and cannot be individually targeted, and archers fire in uniform volleys that will devastate your horde. That is, until you make them break formation by killing their commander, siccing the wolf-riders on them, or lob a few catapult boulders/bombs their way...
* Averted and played straight on ''[[Fire Emblem]] Genealogy of Holy War'', where many enemy armies come in formation and try to stay on it (As much as the game design lets them), but you still see enemies scattered around like in the rest of the series.
**But in general terms, the player would be better off maintaining a defensive wall of troops and endure the assault until most of the opposing army is dead (it isn't rare for the enemy commander to be immobile). In addition to limiting the amount of damage the playable characters receives, it also protects the weaker, ranged units. Otherwise, the brawl would but the player's [[White Mage|healers]] at risk, which could potentially cause a defeat through an swift display of attrition.
* Averted in the [[Age of Empires II|second]] and [[Age of Empires III|third]] ''[[Age of Empires]]'' games, where several formations with different uses are available. Units will adhere to these formations to the best of their ability, ordered appropriately (strong melee in front, weak ranged in back, etc), until they engage the enemy. Played straight in the first game, before they had the things we take for granted today, like decent pathfinding and good mass-unit controls.
** Although a staggered formation was virtually king in the second game since it allowed you to take less area of effect damage from siege weapons with virtually no real issues. While a packed line formation remained better for musketeers attacking cavalry in the third game due to being more able to use their hand-to-hand attacks easier which are superior against them as opposed to shooting, the light infantry of the game tend to be always pitiful in melee compared to their ranged attack, meaning a spread formation remained the only logical thing to use for them - especially since everything was [[Friendly Fireproof]], even firing into a melee.
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