Villages quite often and an all-round defense as stated above. We have squares, being meleed in square has a bonus for the attacker and being in square has a negative for firing from square.
In my opinion, the best, realistic formation to defend a village is a square. All around fire. All around ZOC which encourages an opponent to give a village a wide birth. If you're not keen about allowing this, just remember you can surround the village and put it in isolation.
If a unit is in square, the defender will have to change formation to get the unit out quickly, so the unit can't be disorganized which it will become as you move it into the village, because you have to form square in the open, ie you have to prepare to defend said village, and you have to hope it un-disorganizes the next turn or so, and that doesn't always happen.
BTW, squares weren't just for anti-cavalry needs by the drill books of the time, and lines could be crocheted one or both flanks. We can't do that in the engine, so the games square formation is a good way to handle things like this, with all the advantages and disadvantages using it brings.
This is one reason why I play with no house rules. I enjoy the game that way.
_________________ Général de Brigade Amos 1ère Brigade Cavalerie, 3ème Division de Dragons, Réserve de Cavalerie, La Grande Armée
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