spearwall

[sabaku_no_gaara]

I tried to use the pikemen for the first time, and assumed that the spear wal was, just like the phalanx, an impenetrable block of spears, but I noticed that it didn't do much to stop enemy charges and if you take them off defensive stance, they don't even stay in a spearwall formation. Am I doing something wrong? The spearwall in defensive stance does nothing besides looking impressive, they don't hold formation, and stop enemies with their spears like phalanxes would do in RTW, as soon as a heavy cavalry unit charges them the formation is disrupted and they lose their effectiveness. I should add that I used them as a gate defenders in a siege defence against mongolian invaders, seeing how the general has a tendency to charge in first, I figured 3 of these pike units at the gate would finnish him and anything that came after him off without problems, but they, as mentioned earlier, turned out useless

[Sher Khan]

Strange. Pikemen in defensive mode with the 'phalanx' special mode turned on should destroy cavalry if they charge from the front.

Maybe it was the quality of your pikes? Try some better pikemen like Swiss pikes? Or, since you said you tested it during the opening of a gate when the Mongols attacked, maybe it was the sheer weight of the cavalry? I mean, the Mongols literally send every single horse they have through that gate, and I doubt the pikes could hold back that many horses concentrated in one place. Some whould have gotten through the pike line, and your pikemen would have to break formation to engage with swords then.

Why not try a custom battle on an open field? Give yourself some heavy cav and the AI some pikes. Charge the pikes from the front and see if you can make the same thing happen?

[Ahiga]

I'm told that pikemen in vanilla suck for a number of reasons, chief of which being their lack of mass or weight to resist the thrusts, and especially that they take out swords as soon as the enemy gets close, and then breaks down the phalanx.

[Kruniac]

I'm told that pikemen in vanilla suck for a number of reasons, chief of which being their lack of mass or weight to resist the thrusts, and especially that they take out swords as soon as the enemy gets close, and then breaks down the phalanx.

I can vouch for that. I had scots pikemen who OBLITERATED horses as soon as they would thrust... of course then everyone went to swords and got pawned.

Every so often, they would pull out their pikes to get in a poke or two, then switch to swords. I should just remove the secondary weapons from them.

[Sher Khan]

The trick is to keep your pikemen in defensive mode only for absorbing the initial cavalry charge. If they're kept long in defense mode after that, especially when facing infantry, they'll pull out swords.

The trick is to immediately turn off defense mode after the charge runs out of steam and then single click the enemy the pikemen are facing. This'll cause the pikes to lift their polearms and poke their way through the enemy. A few may pull out swords, but this method should ensure a majority use of pikes. It's wonderful as a cavalry killing tool after the first wave of horses slaughter themselves on pikes.

It's true, their mass in vanilla is less than desirable, but by having them single-click attack, you negate that by having them take the fight to the enemy. Horses litterally fall by the dozen with this method, and the pikes do well against infantry with the same tactic, with the only casualties resulting from one or two pikemen being forced to fight with swords.

Another way to reduce pikemen casualties is to have a unit of swordsmen stand in between the pikes in front of the front pikemen lines, but behind the spear tips. They'll be tasked to charge out and attack infantry as they approach the pikes while the pikemen slowly move up with stabbing pikes.

[billerator]

Has anyone tried making a pike square against cavalry? You use four or more units of decent pike with guard and spearwall on,put them all facing outwards with no gaps, wait to be surrounded and charged and then simply leave them to it. I've never seen them lift spears when using this tactic and they can see off at least their own number in heavy cavalry (losses likely to be heavy though, especially when enemy fielding missile or decent infantry as well)

[Ippius]

Pikemen aren't very good at all in the Vanilla game. They do pull out their spears when they're directly in contact with the enemy though which is sorta bad becuase pikemen die pretty quickly without the spearwall...

[parvus]

spearwall is basically there to absorb the cavalry charge