Formations and stances

[telex4]

I've recently been playing around with the latest Alpha, it's quite impressive so well done!

I can't really work out the formations and stances, though.

Whichever formation I put my units into, with whichever stance, they always just break and run in a melee fashion at the enemy when they engage. The whole point of, for example, advancing hoplites in a line is because in the real world it offered certain tactical advantages. In 0AD I can't see what difference it makes. The only reason I can see to use them at the moment is to vary between a column (to sneak past or through the enemy without engaging on such a wide front) and line (to prepare for a full frontal attack/defence).

Similarly with stances, there is an obvious difference as the enemy advances on your units between them being in defence or violent, but I'm not sure I would notice the finer gradations between, for example, violent and aggresive. And when the enemy eventually reaches my units, if they are in a closed line in a defensive stance they eventually break and start running around, chasing enemy units that walk away, etc.

Is this just because these two features aren't fully implemented yet? Or am I missing a benefit of different formations already present in the game, and not noticing the differences between stances?

[feneur]

Fighting in formations isn't implemented yet.

And yeah, stances can probably take some more work before they're finished

[telex4]

Thanks, I'm looking forward to them both being finished off

I should think they will need to be documented with some examples too, explaining the differences and their strategic relevance.

They remind me of governors in Freeciv allocating citizens to science, trade or production... easy to miss with benefits that aren't particularly obvious, but very effective once you get to grips with them.