Cheers DEI Team,
First conrats to the new release! Love the work and effort you guys continue to put into this Mod. I see it like many others, there is really no Rome 2 without DEI.
Since I only post very very very seldomly on this forum, I thought I give some of my thoughts on this topic. I know at some point the whole Pike-Phalanx Issue was a "hot potatoe" topic and I don´t know what the situation is know. Anyhow...
Since KAM released the alternative Pike and Hoplite Submods I frankly only played with these submods because I didint like the Pike Phalanx in DEI at that point and thougt KAM`s solution was a very interesting one (I should state that I mostly play hellenic factions in the game, because they are my main historic interest and I think that the DEI Team captured the feel and the estatic of the hellenic armies very well).
But I recently finished reading "An Invicible Beast: Understandig the Hellenistic Pike Phalanx in Action" by Christopher Matthew and thought I really missed the visual of the formation so when the new beta hit I gave it a go.
Firstly, I dont know if it has something to do with the game engine but hoplites just push through pikes like they hold paper straws. Roman Units, especially Principes just straight up beat Chalkaspides in a 1v1 in a streetfight were there is no way to flank (and my generall and army was quite experienced, so they had a lot of combat buffs. I played on normal dificulty). That was just one siege, but I noticed that pikes just perform really bad, or at least much worse than they should.
This made me think, because the more we understand (especially the Book by Matthew really challenges the narrative of the amboss that really had limited offensive power and lack of movement or flexibility) about the sarrisa (the german reanactment group Hetairoi did a lot of testig with reconstructed Sarriasae if I remeber correctly) the more clear it becomes that this was not simply a long stick but a truly terrifigly weapon in the hands of a trained soldier.
So I have a couple of questions:
1. Is it a balance descision that hoplites and short sword wielding infantry beat pikes or is it a problem on my games part (no other mods than DEI and the beta) or is it an enginge thing of Rome 2?
2. Why is the long pike seen as a more defencive weapon (at least that is in the description of the submod)?
Because from my tests in campain and in custom battle with and against pikes, they seem to perform rather poorly in combat, and I think that this nether really reflects the efficientcy of the weapon in reality (as far as we can actually reconstruct and take from the scources) nor really justify the high recruitment and upkeep costs in game combined with the strong restriciton of beeing part of the second and sometimes first population grp.
Just some curiosities of mine, thanks for taking time to read and I hope this does not sting in a hornets nest, like I remember the topic used to.
Cheers,
Boltgun