using voulgiers?

[Bosje]

couldn't find a specific thread on these guys so i thought i'd ask

how does one use voulgiers exactly? I find that they are not quite as effective as even the blandest militia pikes, and based on their stats I thought they'd be excellent at both holding a line in pikewall formation, and in charging the flanks as AP polearm wielding maniacs, but they seem to do neither

having them run around a little and charging a flank causes them to get exhausted really quickly and they die very easily, and as I said my simple pikes seem to hold a line better despite the good stats on the voulgier

to clarify: I was playing Genoa and finally made it though to the 14th century (something which I rarely manage) I looked at the new units and figured I'd build an army of spear militia and pikes while having voulgiers in a dual role: hold flanks while screening xbows and then doing some flanking of their own when the battle called for that kind of thing. I tried it and got my arse handed to me by merchant cavalry militia who charged in while the voulgiers were taking their sweet time getting into formation (exhausted just by walking around a little)

any suggestions or am i being extremely stupid in the way I'm using these guys (they seemed so great with high attack, ok defense, charge value around 4 and upkeep of 120)

btw this is SS6.1, RR and RC but not BGR

cheers, bosje

[Goofy]

I think they are at their best at the centre of the battle line. But I never have had one in SS, because I haven't played by France yet.

[burninglegionx]

with voulgiers and pikemen, try overlapping them with a solid defensive infantry, like armored sergeants, with sergeants placed a bit in front of the pikemen/voulgiers, and turn on guard mode.

This way, the sergeants can take the damage for your pikemen/voulgiers and prevent breaking of your formation. (I love how pikes and voulges can attack through the armored sergeants).


p.s. what i meant by overlapping meant placing the armored sergeants INSIDE your pikemen formation.

[KittySN]

p.s. what i meant by overlapping meant placing the armored sergeants INSIDE your pikemen formation.

This is a very good tactic (overlapping) that I don't think a lot of people consider, probably because it's annoying to have a blob of men cramped together. I've done it with the HRE using pikemen and dismounted Teutonic knights. Once those knights get some experience with the muddling attack by the nearby pikes, they'll slay just about anything that comes near them, and the barrier helps prevent the pikemen from going to secondary weapons.

[Point Blank]

This unit type (phalanx polearms such as Voulgier) has been rebalanced for next RR/RC update.

[Bosje]

aye, i messed around a bit in a late genoa campaign (handguns and pikes but nothing fancier)

instead of putting ranged units between the pikes, I found that dism. hospitaller knights or spear militia are great for the actual fighting while the pikes shield em from charges

voulgiers, though, don't quite reach through the infantry front line in my battles
I find them most effective for charging in and out of the melee, where the polearm armour piercing thing and charge bonus come into effect nicely. the spear wall funtion makes less sense for me so far

good to hear they are being looked at in the next issue, cheers everyone for the input