How to use Pike/Spears

[AaronJBC]

Assuming it's an open field battle, and there are a couple units of heavy cavalry, as well as some light and heavy inf. You have some units of aventuros and whatever else.

The question is what do you do against a cavalry charge, up front. Put in guard mode, spearwall, and wait for the charge? What do you do after they impale themselves on the initial charge and start swinging? Should you disable spearwall and go into a melee, disable guard, etc. Also, what about vs. infantry?

[Faris ad Din]

This is a quick tip taken from frogbeastegg's guide to the Britannia Campaign of Kingdoms.

Pikes have a problem in M2:TW. They constantly revert to their sword secondary weapons. So what you do is keep pikes OUT of guard mode except when you are receiving a cavalry charge, then you turn it off when done. IN COMBAT what you do is you briefly turn on guard mode, turn it off, and single-left click on the enemy unit and the unit will "magically" produce pikes to fight with. They'll constantly be reverting back to their swords so this takes a lot of micromanaging in battle.

Pikes aren't as effective against infantry, but really they are still more effective against anything using their pikes rather than their dinky swords. Keep toggling/untoggling guard mode and single-attack enemy units to force them to bring their pikes out again.

[AaronJBC]

Well, I'm using 1.2 and SS 4.1., I think Pikes are always enabled and swords are never taken out. Why do Pikemen have such a high charge? Are you supposed to absorb the cavalry charge, disable spearwall and then countercharge at near-point blank range?

[Faris ad Din]

I am no expert on battle mechanics or tactics, and I am not sure what Stainless Steel would change as I have never tried it, but I'll answer as best I can.

As far as I know, taking a cavalry charge with anything other than lined up and well-formed infantry spells disaster. It's usually best to just take charges waiting, unless you're using some shock (2h sword/halberd) unit when you may want to take the most advantage of its high attack and charge value.

And there is a "minimum charge distance" for both infantry and cavalry. It's a smaller distance for infantry than for cavalry, but as far as I can tell, it's pretty much impossible to create a GENUINE charge at POINT-BLANK or near-point-blank range. You need to have your units reasonably formed up, not engaged in combat, and enough distance to accelerate and build up speed for a full "charge" - they need to have their weapons up and yelling a battle cry.

[Metellus]

This is a quick tip taken from frogbeastegg's guide to the Britannia Campaign of Kingdoms.

Pikes have a problem in M2:TW. They constantly revert to their sword secondary weapons. So what you do is keep pikes OUT of guard mode except when you are receiving a cavalry charge, then you turn it off when done. IN COMBAT what you do is you briefly turn on guard mode, turn it off, and single-left click on the enemy unit and the unit will "magically" produce pikes to fight with. They'll constantly be reverting back to their swords so this takes a lot of micromanaging in battle.

Pikes aren't as effective against infantry, but really they are still more effective against anything using their pikes rather than their dinky swords. Keep toggling/untoggling guard mode and single-attack enemy units to force them to bring their pikes out again.

I have found that what frogbeastegg describes toggling guard mode can also be done if you press backspace when your pike units are selected. They stop any movement, revert to pikes and attempt a closer, more compact formation. I find that as a pike formation engages the enemy for longer, more and more pikemen kind of break off from the pike formation to engage single enemies and that's when they draw secondary weapons. Pressing Backspace (Halt) brings them back into formation and tells the whole unit to lower pikes. This also works very well with phalanxes in RTW, I use it all the time with them.