Tactical role of halberdiers

[apollon]

Given that halberdiers lack the ability to form spear wall like they have in vanilla (the button that makes them do that was removed in CoW), I struggle to find a useful role for them in my army. Their stats make them seem on par with swordsmen, but in melee they seem to perform worse. Am I better off only recruiting swordsmen, or is there a niche that halberdiers can fill?

[isa0005]

I've generally used halberdiers for flanking maneuvers and shock troops while using spears, swords and/or pikes as my center line. I've had varying degrees of success honestly, so I'd like to know how others use them as well! Great questions!

[apollon]

I did some test battles, and I have observed that halberdiers and swordsmen perform equally against infantry and missiles. No difference at all.
However, against cavalry, the halberdiers fared much better. Not only did fewer of them die (1 dead halberdier for every 2 swordsmen), but they also killed more knights (10 kills by halberdiers for every 1 kill by swordsmen).

[Ajpav]

Apollon,

Its actually super easy to get those abilities back into your game.

Before starting, I cannot stress this enough: Make BACK UP FILES of EVERYTHING!!!


1) Download Notepad++
This is not technically needed, however its free & quick to download. It will make editing game txt files waaay easier and allow further search/editing options that normal notepad doesn't give you. If you're going to mod - trust me: you want to use this.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.6.3.html

2) Read through this "A Guide to the export_descr_units.txt file:"
I suggest you read through it entirely, you'll probably get piqued by other options you never knew you could mod.
http://medieval2.heavengames.com/m2t...de/index.shtml

Basically all you need to do is edit the "formation" section of the Halberdmen to include phalanx & for the Swordsmen of Empire to include shield_wall - that's pretty much it!