Late Age, Militia (pike bs Halberd)

[nosjo78]

What is better? Pike, Halberd, Pavise Spear Militia, I thought Pike, but the stats on Pike are so low, example Sicily ( pike-atk 1 charge 2 def 0), (helberd- atk 5 charge 4 defense 11) (pavise-atk 1 charge 2 defense 13). I know those extra long poles on the pike matter, but to what extent. I'm mostly concerned with city defense, as opposed to attacking, but if u know in addition to city defense which is best for castle wall defense, field defense, field offense, city offense, i would be much appreciative.

[PerXX]

Well, it certainly depends on the situation and the types of enemies, but generally I'd say (as in most cases) use a combination. Use Pikemen to take the charges and hold the line, and then move in with halberdiers to chop the enemy up.

[merocaine]

Halberds, in any and all situations.
Takes charge chops up cavalry, light heavy, super heavy, whatever.
Spears, no contest, eats them alive.
Foot knights, AP hurts them real bad.
Armored up, arrows bounce off them, good moral, better than pike militia.
There animation drives them into the enemy formation, great for assault troops.
In Guard mode they can hold the line far better than Pike Militia against Very heavy cavalry.
Rare you get those mega routs you seem to get with pavise spear men
All in all best bang for book in the game, honorable mentions to Voluge Militia and Bill men.
The only troops to need truly fear in melee are two handed axe men, with an AP attack and a faster animation
those guys are a real danger, Vangarian Guard, Fatimid Palace guard, croat axmen, huskarl axmen.

[oxxid]

Also that depends on the pikemen. The late ones, although with good moral, are quite weak. The best are the scots ones, their heavy pike militia are quite resilient, and they start with 2 in attack, not 1. They resist better than any halberd on defense.

Halberds have a very higher destructive power, but also die quickly. Very effective against heavily armored opponents, and if you charge a heavy cavalry stuck in a fight, they'll fend it off like a knife in butter.

So... I would take both, but if have to choose, in a defensive position, and to hold opponents off, I would choose pike.
To attack, better to choose halberds. But note that I really compare the best ones of each, the standard halberd being better than the standard pike.

[Zvornik]

Pikes are good against cavalry
Halberd good for armoured infantry

[Cathedralsquares]

The best solution is to use both! Pike and Halberds, together they fight crime!

[Lugiahua]

If I could only pick one, I would go halberd
as pikeman are nearly useless in a siege, especially on the walls.

(gate? well, halberd are even better at the gate)

[Ichon]

Pikes hold position better while halberds kill faster. Depends on the need which is better. Using both in conjunction work the best. The only place I find pikes fail is attacking on walls. In general on the attack pikes are not great but on the walls nearly useless.

[YuriVII]

On the field I go for Pike. The one thing I like about them that has not been mentioned is that they have alot of people in the unit. That means quite frankly that when you stretch them out they are able cover more space and thus you can devote more unit slots to heavy infantry archers and cavalry.

I'm not too worried about hi going or halberds going up against my pikes. I have my own aryan german zweihanders and imperial foot knights for that.

Right now I am playing against France though so pikes are very important against the buffed up french knights. I tested 1v1 halberd militia vs f chivilraic knights and they loose alot of men and they will route without support.


As for wall and gate defence, halberds hands down.

When I come with a pike army (I usually have 5-4) I use pikes to block a street maybe but my swordsmen do most of the work.

[merocaine]

I should have mentioned I'm using the latest version of RR/RC, this version nerfs pikes quite a lot, it means they need a lot more support to function effectively. The Pike milita in 6.4 are more effective.