Pikemen: bugged?

[al Roumi]

Does anyone know if Pikemen can advance or attack in a "pike wall" formation in Patch 3?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have been unable to get pikemen to advance, attack or do anything other than stand their ground in either pike square or wall formations. Telling the unit to attack when not in either formation results in the unit not using it's pikes at all -rendering them useless unless assigned a defensive role.

Given how buggy units have been in ETW battles until now, i hadn't been sure whether the inability to march in spear wall formation (as pike/phalanx units have been able to since RTW) was a bug or not.

I would find it hard to accept that it is correct for them not to be able to attack using their pikes (historicaly), and frustrating in terms of gameplay.

[dulsin]

No the pikewall and square formations are static. You can not do any movement.

[al Roumi]

I know they are a technologically redundant unit and aren't recruitable unless you want them to be after 10 turns or so, but why can't they advance and attack in pike wall?

Doesn't make sense to me. Is it a bug?

I think (regardless of it being a bug or not) that they should be damn well able to advance in some semblance of a pike wall -or at least do more than wait for someone to be stupid enough to engage them from the front.

Anyone agree or am i alone in a padded cell here?

[dulsin]

Pike wall was a very tight formation. What you want is the pikemen to move forward with their pikes down in an attack formation like they did in MTW2.

The wall is a defensive formation but they should use their weapons offensively also.

[Miracle]

I know they are a technologically redundant unit and aren't recruitable unless you want them to be after 10 turns or so, but why can't they advance and attack in pike wall?

Doesn't make sense to me. Is it a bug?

I think (regardless of it being a bug or not) that they should be damn well able to advance in some semblance of a pike wall -or at least do more than wait for someone to be stupid enough to engage them from the front.

Anyone agree or am i alone in a padded cell here?

Yes, they should be able keep spearwall formation whilst advancing offensively. After all, it's what Swiss and Landsnecht pikemen did.

The trouble is, CA historically has had trouble with 3D 2H pike animations. They dropped the ball in M2TW and they've repeated it here. The ultra smooth, effective 1H pike use you see in RTW just couldn't be applied to 2H use.

CA didn't bother fixing 3D 2H pikemen for ETW possibly because they didn't have time or it wasn't worth the resources involved.