Do Formations have an Effect?

[Sanguivorant]

If so, could I briefly understand what each formation does to an army? Thanks.

[scythetwirler]

Right now, they just look aesthetically pleasing.

In the future, we hope to implement damage bonuses in defense/attack based on which side you are attacking/being attacked from.

[Flavius Aetius]

I'd like to see it so units remained in formation rather than broke up into a melee like Age of Empires.

[David_J_Rogers]

Perhaps there could be counter-formations, it could be the same concept as counter-units although it would depend on your formation.

Hence, if a player's army was surrounded by enemies and reverted to a "box formation", they would receive more HP/ defense as well as a small damage bonus if actually surrounded by units. And the other player could counter the formation by micromanaging units, or the use of another formation if disadvantaged.

For instance, a spearman will more than likely win against cavalry due to the distance the spearman can strike and the vulnerability of the cavalry. However, if there are many spearman against a handful of cavalry - say the player sets his spearman in the wrong formation and hence, loses many more units than they intended to, or completely loses it.

I don't know how that could be implemented in code, but I could also see this as being a bad idea in some ways.