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.

[Forrest]

Honeybadger has it right.

I like Ea C'tis. Put your sacreds on one corner and runners or elites on the other corner. They melt under archer fire but most of the time that does not happen. Enemy infantry melts before them.

That said I find the elites speed over comes their lack of shield enough to make it worth while to put a unit in the center and have them charge. The archer loss can be worth the effect. With Att 12, dam 18 and Mov 10 they make quick work of opposing infantry a good distance from your lines.

What runners can do if they do attack rear is staggering. Their 16 speed and Att 11 makes them terrible if they swing around. Since you can buy 30 to 40 a turn they are a archers worse nightmare. Very few enemy will survive retreating past them.