I have also had trouble getting squads to attack the rear of the battlefield at times.
I did observe some interesting things Last night, however, in a new game I started playing the Niefelheim theme of Jotunheim. One battle, I had all of my melee troops, spearmen and axemen, set to attack closest and a squad of woodsmen (sacred and blessed by my prophet) set at the top to attack rear and a squad of my winter wolves set to hold and attack rear.
My squad of woodmen avoided the clash in the middle of the field and went straight to the back. My winter wolves, after waiting a few turns, ran right through the middle of the battlefield and continued on straight to the back, completely ignoring the battle. This surprised me as many times in the past, and as many here have observed, normally an attack rear squad will join in the melee in the middle if they are near.
In my past game playing Arco, I would use my heavy cavalry to attack rear and they seemed to have much more trouble actually getting to the rear and would join in on the flanks in the middle more often than not.
I just looked up a little here and I am wondering if it has something to do with morale. It appears the winter wolves have a 50 morale, and that may explain why they held orders well and attacked the rear alone. Also, my jotun woodsmen (the sacred troops) were blessed giving them 16 morale (13 +3) if I recall correctly, which allowed them the same bravery to attack alone. I suppose this may have some real merit considering it would probably take a high morale to leave the rest of your army and march on alone against a squad in the rear.
Anyway, these are just some random observations I have had this week. They may or may not mean anything
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