I love the shieldwall

[Braxton]

The shieldwall formation has saved my ass plenty of times against the cavalry of the Il-Khanate. I tell my infantry to form a shieldwall then two times of stand closer so they stand shoulder to shoulder and then I can pwn pwn. First off the enemy use all their spears against the front row then the enemy has no real way of touching my men

 

[voronius]

I've beaten spearmans using shieldwall with the xbow from the horse.
I'm always aiming for the head(shields are covering the rest)  and I go replenish my bolts when needed.
I've even killed 40 deserters alone and unschratched .
Maybe AI should be thought that formations moving should be shoot at rather than charged.

 

[Braxton]

What difficulty you playing on?

 

[voronius]

60-70% or so, limited by battle size also, I think.
Full damage on.

When on horse and armed with a bow/xbow with unlimited arrows supply the infantery (with no ranged option) can't do much.
There was a formation one could use (against archers) that protected against the initial volleys but that in not realy made to use against horse archery and also the unlimited arrow supply is a bit of a cheat (I realize that).
The most effective formation against the initials archery volley involved forming very closed rows of infantry,making them kneel-bend, with the first row having the shield stuck to the ground to protect the body from the front while the rest of the rows are using the shield above the head horizontaly to cover them (and the 1st row too).That's the most effective formation I know for the infantry to use at the start of the battle to protect against initial archery volley.I guess something like this would be hard to implement.

Against mounted archers infantry without ranged options can't do much, but they should spread and try to hinder the enemy movement and eventualy get to abrupt land or patch of woods.Or use the "thight wall/cover" I described here until the enemy runs out of arrows(but this doesn't happen in the game for me ). In this game the shields are leaving the head and sometimes the feet(depends on the shield) uncovered, but it's ok, no unit should be 100% fool proof against any of the other units - for balance.
It's called turtle formation I think, here's a pic

Spoiler

They're in movement here and they sacrifice some protection, but in the no moving(men semikneeled)  version no arrows can harm this.
And description :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testudo_formation

 

[cyx]

In warband the distances are short so it would be easy to flank them and shoot from the side or rear, they're turning rate must be very slow due to the necessary coordination needed to maintain that formation

 

[voronius]

For the turtle?
Yes, they move very slow.But they turn around ok, every man just does 90 degrees or 180 , as needed.A little coreography it's involved but its easy to do for any soldier a litle trained.Takes a couple of sessions of training to authomate the movement in respose to "formation turn left" and "formation turn right".And with a bit more training they learn to defend each one its side and to keep it as compact as possible.
As I said the formation main use is for the start of the battle - to protect against the first initials volleys.
As for the rear, the can do the same thing as for the front.First line from every side protects that specific side, rest of the lines protects from the arrows falling.It's realy the most effective thing against archers (close to 100% protection).

 

[MrExpendable]

Well, not entirely. You'd need highly disciplined soldiers and a strong hierarchy of command in order to organize such a formation in the first place, let alone make it mobile. And, have you ever tried mobilizing as a soldier within a formation while in a battle? It's !$%! difficult to keep behaving accordingly when under fire, charged by enemy soldiers etc. You keep hearing cursing and howls everywhere, making it difficult to hear the commands of your betters.

I'd be ****ting my pants standing in such a formation under arrow fire, with the knowledge that the only thing between me and those pointy ****ers is a shield. Now try to manouver like you did during your training sessions. You'd need to be more than "a little trained". You'd need to get the highest drill possible. I don't know if every legionary formation was cappable of applying such tactics in the heath of battle or under the heaviest of arrow fires, but I highly doubt it.

 

[voronius]

I don't know realy - never tried it under real fire .
Kids manage to learn the basic of this formation realy fast however and I was shooting paper balls at them .It was fun.

 

[Braxton]

Just go in an red jumper, eat some shrooms and those turtle formations are getting stomped