Infantry without shields. When to buy? How to use?

[HoneyBadger]

You can try a nice big block of 50 or more shielded infantry in the middle of the front, with two small (say 10) companies of non-shielded shocktroops at the far top and bottom. The shielded infantry is set to attack immediately. They take the arrow fire and close, because the AI concentrates on the big target. In the meantime, your two small companies are set to hold and attack. The shielded engage the enemy, causing the enemy to be engaged-thus distracted. Your smaller units go relatively unnoticed and smash into the enemy, who's resources have already become stretched. Those two-handed weapons and double attacks do all the more damage, because now the enemy can't protect against them as well as they could have at the start of the battle, and your missle troops don't do quite as much friendly fire, because you haven't made your unshielded units that much of a target. Follow this up with another wave or two of small companies, until both sides have pretty much run out of arrows, and then send in a heavy calvalry charge. Note: it's hard to time things right in the game, because you can only hold a unit two turns, and then attack, but you can put units further and further back in a battlefield, to simulate reinforcements. Done right, good timing can really mess the enemy up while keeping your forces out of harm's way.