Reading through D@W: Battles, I find myself unable to determine the benefits of Formed Mounted units over Loose Mounted units, mechanically speaking. Loose mounted units seem to have the benefit of being able to break contact and evade to avoid damage, so given the choice of training, say, a medium cavalry unit to be Formed or Loose, why would one choose to train them as a Formed Mounted unit?
The primary advantage is that Formed Mounted receive bonus attacks when they charge based on the mount’s attack characteristics.
Loose Mounted will have, e.g., 2 lance & shield attacks while Formed Mounted will have 2 lance & shield 11+ attacks and 3 hooves 8+ bonus attacks.
A secondary advantage is that Formed Mounted gain a +2 morale bonus when adjacent to friendly units.