Rank Bonuses

[Tomisama]

Does anyone have a list of who gets what bonuses, for how many ranks?

Thanks http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-curtain.gif

Tomi

(Don't worry, I will be back to work next week, and my posting back to near zip http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif )

[CBR]

Spears get 2 support ranks and pikes 4.

First support rank gives +1 defense, second +1 attack/defense, third +1 defense and 4th +1 attack/defense. Each support rank also gives +1 to charge bonus.

List of Spear units:

Spearmen
Nubian Spearmen
Feudal Sergeants
Muwahid Foot
Armoured Spearmen
Gothic Sergeants
Chivalric sgts
Saracen Infantry
Almughavars
Rus Spearmen
Italian Infantry
Order Foot

List of Pike units:

Pikemen
Swiss Pikemen
Swiss Armoured Pikemen


CBR

[Dionysus9]

"Spears get 2 support ranks and pikes get 4 support ranks"

When does a rank count as a support rank? Does the 3rd rank count as a support rank, or is it the 4th rank? 5th rank? I think its the 5th.

Lets assume that the first 4 ranks are non-support, and that the 5th rank is the 1st support rank, and the 6th rank is the 2nd support rank. So a spear unit 6 ranks deep would have its support bonus maxed out.

It would take 8 ranks to max out a pike unit's support bonus.

Am I correct?

[Nigel]

Can't answer your question, Dionysus http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif
But got anouter one of my own :

How are Billmen classified here ?
Spears or Pikes or a class of their own ?

[CBR]

First rank does the fighting, the other ranks behind are support ranks. For spears that means you need it to be in at least 3 ranks to get full benefit of rank support. For pikes it is front rank +4 support ranks meaning 5 ranks total to get all.

Billmen is a polearm unit. It does not get support ranks nor the spears advantage of negating cavalry charge bonus. It is armour piercing plus have +3 attack and +1 defense when fighting cavalry. Spears get +1 attack and +4 defense.


CBR

[Dionysus9]

ok CBR, thanks for the lesson. I was never sure about that support rank stuff. So, actually, it does not directly effect combat stats to keep your spears in ranks of 4 or greater.

3 ranks for spears (33 man wide front)
5 ranks for pikes (20 man wide front)

Polearms get no rank bonus, so you can string them out 1 man deep and still get full stats.

Thanks again-- good question Tomi.

[CBR]

Yes spears dont need more than 3 ranks but if you want to be able to take some losses and still fight at highest strength then 5 ranks is good if you expect a tough fight.

When a spear unit starts losing men from the third rank (second support rank) then it loses a lot of combat power as that support ranks is the one giving +1 attack/defense.

So in most cases its vital to have enough men to replace losses and keep all 3 front ranks full.

Depending on situation I use spears in 4-6 ranks when facing infantry and I do have a weakness for my 10 rank spear blocks heh. If I dont have many spears I might go down to 2 ranks only just to protect missile units against cavalry, as long as there is no enemy foot close by. They can still stop the cav charge and do some damage against the lighter cavalry.


CBR