Shield Wall Fighting - how would you model it?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Some horses definitely WILL impale themselves on a line of spears. The question is whether there are enough of them to break the formation. There certainly are examples of cavalry charging an intact line of spearmen/pikemen and breaking through to cause havoc within the lines.

But all of them that I can remember are due to the infantry panicking prior to contact. Except possibly Garcia Hernandez, when the horse is conjectured to have been shot on the last yards and to have fallen into the formation, breaking it.