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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 4930426" data-attributes="member: 177">First off, interestingly, I cannot seem to find an equivalent of "Set vs charge" in the 4e rules.  However, they are horribly indexed, so maybe I'm missing them.Now, as for under the rules... let's use 3.5e...Take two ranks of close-packed infantry.  These are men on foot, so each takes a 5' square.  The front has spears, the back has longspears.  Your horse is large - takes a 10' space.  You are charging - say you have a lance, so you're doing double damage.  You have a +2 to hit, but a -2 to AC.  There are four spear points readied and set to take that charge (so, doing double damage if they hit, like your lance), after which (because the spears are readied, they get to attack first) that horse and rider gets to make one basic melee attack against one of them.Do you now see the advantage?  The infantry get 4 attacks to the cavalry's one.  In 3e, the odds are a little better, as the horses have a 5' facing, so the knight can be at only at 2-to-1 odds. Now, compare this to spreading out your footmen, so they cannot be taken out wholesale by a fireball.  the horses can pack tightly, and get 2-to-1 odds on the footmen!  The horsemen can charge, if they like, and that footman is at best going to hit one of them with that set spear.  Even better, with the footmen spread out, the horses don't charge.  They just take normal movement.  They lose the double damage on their attacks, but they also don't receive the readied shot.  The horses are faster - so the footman cannot effectively run away.  A pair of knights can just walk up and flank each footman and make mincemeat of him, and move out before people far away in that "loose formation" can come in to help.</blockquote>

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