how are pikemen after patch 9

**jo the greek** · January 25, 2014, 06:12 AM

I think pikes are one of the units in the game that made cool and gave variety althoug pre patch 7 they were abused greatly wih constant micromanagement

and after that patch simple dissappeared in multi

but i wanted to ask have you seen any changes after patch 9?

**jamreal18** · January 25, 2014, 06:32 AM

More swordsmen can penetrate through their pikes. Seems like there are no resistance from pikes again. I hope it will be fixed when the patch go live.

**neoptolemos** · January 25, 2014, 06:35 AM

My phalanxes did a better job earlier in the game than with the last patches..
I am loosing a lot of pikemen when an enemy makes a frontal assault in my unbroken line....

**DarkKismeth** · January 25, 2014, 06:46 AM

Ha! Skirmishers are tearing apart the poor Pikemen. Their shields, they do nothing! Just like their pikes.

**ProtoBo** · January 25, 2014, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by DarkKismeth

Ha! Skirmishers are tearing apart the poor Pikemen. Their shields, they do nothing! Just like their pikes.

This is the problem I've seen most. If a unit throws missiles during its charge, the missiles kill the front 2 ranks of the pikemen, leaving a broken line that they can just charge into, avoiding the whole phalanx part of the fight and going straight to close melee. I do think the pikemen should make more effort to use their shields if possible, but at the same time I believe it should be possible to destroy a phalanx with missiles since in terms of game balance they do need a weakness. But at the moment it is certainly too extreme.

**alQamar** · January 26, 2014, 09:14 AM

Originally Posted by ProtoBo

This is the problem I've seen most. If a unit throws missiles during its charge, the missiles kill the front 2 ranks of the pikemen, leaving a broken line that they can just charge into, avoiding the whole phalanx part of the fight and going straight to close melee. I do think the pikemen should make more effort to use their shields if possible, but at the same time I believe it should be possible to destroy a phalanx with missiles since in terms of game balance they do need a weakness. But at the moment it is certainly too extreme.

Shields and pikes are not an active weapon then? They seem more to act like swordsmen while pikes and shields are just optical gimmicks, based from the feedback here. And how about the "aimbot" of slingers?

**antred** · January 26, 2014, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by alQamar

And how about the "aimbot" of slingers?

What about the incredible accuracy of just about any artillery piece in this game? I highly doubt that ballistas could adjust their aim at fast moving targets so quickly and still almost never miss. If ballistas had been that good in real life, they'd still be in service today.

**GideonAI** · January 25, 2014, 10:52 AM

I remember in patch 8 just two days ago, when one volley from skirmishers wiped out 40 of my levy pikes. Really horrifying stuff there.

**Taskeen** · January 25, 2014, 11:42 AM

Sigh, so sad. I have an SP game with the Iceni, but my MP co-op game with a friend we are playing as the Greeks. We haven't continued that game since the pikemen are just no where near as effective as they were in Rome 1. With Greek Factions and phalanx tactics I had some of the best and favorite SP experiences in Rome 1.

**DarkKismeth** · January 25, 2014, 11:48 AM

Do you know, why the pike phalanx have such a formation? Having the pikes in the air over their comrades? To block and making arrows and javelins go to the ground without killing anyone. Great way to support your own skirmishers with new ammo. It was great before the new changings, totally historical.

But no, too many are crying about the broken pikemen and the ineffectivity of skirmishers. And suddenly, the pikemen are the new mobs, just with longer sticks! Great.

**DramaBelli** · January 25, 2014, 05:14 PM

AI is not fast to switch from sword to pike often. And usually not so much intelligent to plan a phalanx assault against troops not deployed in wide line of battle, as usually happens in land battles. You can have feeds of this maybe during melee.

**Dago Red** · January 25, 2014, 07:10 PM

Originally Posted by DramaBelli

AI is not fast to switch from sword to pike often.

It doesn't seem to matter since there is no stat for the 2nd melee weapon (sword). It's just a visual cosmetic thing.... even more pathetic.

**jamreal18** · January 25, 2014, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by Dago Red

It doesn't seem to matter since there is no stat for the 2nd melee weapon (sword). It's just a visual cosmetic thing.... even more pathetic.

Agree!

**sobchack** · January 26, 2014, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by Dago Red

It doesn't seem to matter since there is no stat for the 2nd melee weapon (sword). It's just a visual cosmetic thing.... even more pathetic.

I don't believe it is purely cosmetic. From my experience it seems that a pike unit in phalanx mode will perform much worse if they are unable to get their Spears down before the melee begins.

**sobchack** · January 25, 2014, 08:12 PM

Their post patch 7 spacing is unhistorical and looks awful. It also makes the unit perform horribly. Hope they change it back to thetighter earlier formation

**Octavius Vatco** · January 25, 2014, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by sobchack

Their post patch 7 spacing is unhistorical and looks awful. It also makes the unit perform horribly. Hope they change it back to thetighter earlier formation

Done too much tightness and that would make the Romans unhistorical in turn. So no back to the earlier settings because the Romans looked horrible..

**sobchack** · January 25, 2014, 11:23 PM

Originally Posted by Octavius Vatco

Done too much tightness and that would make the Romans unhistorical in turn. So no back to the earlier settings because the Romans looked horrible..

Spacing for different unit types can be done separately.

for instance the mod linked below only changes the spacing of pike units, and leaves all other spacing the same. I agree with you that romans (and most other units) feel good with their current spacing.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=195738666

Another thing this mod does is allow the 4th rank of pikemen to attack with their spears which is nice. I've been playing this mod since patch 7 and pikes don't feel overpowered in the least.

**Octavius Vatco** · January 26, 2014, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by sobchack

Spacing for different unit types can be done separately.

for instance the mod linked below only changes the spacing of pike units, and leaves all other spacing the same. I agree with you that romans (and most other units) feel good with their current spacing.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=195738666

Another thing this mod does is allow the 4th rank of pikemen to attack with their spears which is nice. I've been playing this mod since patch 7 and pikes don't feel overpowered in the least.

That is very good that it can be done separately... and that is a fine mod there.

**Friar Chris** · January 25, 2014, 09:48 PM

Still too widely spaced to be effective, and CA - 'clever' as they are - reduced pike/sarissa damage in the patch 9 beta too, because they thought they'd fixed them so well they were too powerful.

Ugh.