Repels and the pike square

[Dedas]

But the defender also needs to attack/repel the attacker and score a hit before the attacker must pass a morale check. So units with low attack and long weapons against units with high defense and shorter weapons is not very effective. And if they also have high morale they are almost never repelled. They do take a one HP damage though (protection counting) if they pass the morale check and the defender succesfully hits them with their repel attempt. All this according to the manual.