but it's not 'realistic', nor is it 'fun' for the archer players. And there are cases where you do want your archers to hold--hence the marshal checkbox option.
The problem is the entire BM battle system is unreal. You are playing on a 1D battlefield. You just have to deal with some aspects of it. If I am given a choice between realistic and fun, I would probably go with fun since I am trying to have fun playing a game not a realistic medieval battle simulator.
