Hi, my name is Valore Magee in-game and I am apart of the Duchy of Wessex. At first I did not want to join this hugely populated clan but somehow found myself committing my service to them because of their realistic feudal structure and use of drills and formations. Although when I finally arrived at their capital of their kingdom and we were moving out to raid an enemy town, we were surprised with a raid against our own.

What follows was a true mêlée. A mêlée where close combat between disorganized fighters occur if you go by definition. I was disappointed with the lack of leaders, coordination, and formation among our forces. Even more so when they enemy was coming into our Keep and we didn't even organize a defensive line in the narrow stairways.

Maybe it was a bad day for the guys. Maybe not. Perhaps the appointed leaders were fighting all day long leading teams. Whatever happened we had the potential firepower, maneuver, protection, but without proper leadership that is not by rank but by actual leading, our forces were disorganized. Perhaps holding ground in Darkfall is not that important but I see it as a good indication on your combat effectiveness especially if its trying to hold your own defensive fortications.

So what i'm trying to get here is a discussion from intelligent minds about the potential effectiveness of using old style tactics such as a shield wall, schiltrom, volley fire as well as focused fire from archers and mages, testuedos, phalanxes, and any other tactical movement or formation.

From all my reading and brainstorming, the only way to effectively use tactics practically is to outnumber the opponent. While outnumbering the opponent by itself will help you win, I still think using tactics will help reduce your casualties and friendly fire as well as concentrate your firepower onto individual soldiers.

So what do you think? If you were a general and had all the properly trained soldiers, sergeants, and support units do, are there any ideal ways you would deploy your forces in different situations such as attacking a castle, defending a fort, and ambushing enemy units?