Attacking with pikemen

[Kommodus]

I realize pikemen are primarily a defensive unit, but out of curiosity, is it possible to attack with them? When I order them to attack an enemy unit, they march in with their pikes raised, and appear to try to keep marching after making contact with the enemy. Eventually they attack with their swords after a bunch of them have already been killed.

[{Don}_Sky{Mh}]

Pikemen are only truely effective against cavalry. You can click on them to attack, but make sure that your line is wider than the cavaly's so that way you don't get cav to your side or back. It will most likely kill the general on contact and then rout.

[Carl]

Taking them of Guard Mode will help, but TBH you need the Pike Fix for pikes to work in any usful way beyond being uber spearmen.

[Psyco]

I haven't had the same bad experience with pikemen that most have. If you single-click attack they lower their pikes and march at the enemy. As long as you avoid cities, where pathing issues interfere with their formation, they destroy anything in front of them.

Speaking of single click attacking, is it well known that this works for infantry? I was quite surprised when I realized that it works. As a plus, the men hold their formation better, as well as using a rather cool charge animation. If not, it might be worth creating a thread, as this is a good fix for people's issues with formations when charging.

[Sheogorath]

They can be fairly effective attackers provided you use the no-swords fix. If you dont they tend to switch to their swords, which they suck with. While they have their pikes out they can keep a lot of enemies out of contact range.

[pike master]

he he he

[antisocialmunky]

You could try the old hoplite tactic of walking your line of infantry up to the enemy line and sit there. Formation units have a nasty habit of turning to face the centers of enemy units and getting slammed on the sides. Just a thought when fighting with a line of phalanx type units.

[Carl]

The problem with them has more to do with the fact that if the pikemen arn't actually attacking an individual model, it can freely walk straight through the pikes as if they arn't their. Without the Pike Fix, if more than a couple of enemy models do that the entire unit drops it's pikes and pulls out it's swords. Most pikemen would be beaten by Armoured Sarges in melee without their pikes, so it kills the pikemen badly.

Some people seem to be able to get them to work without the Pike fix in vanillia, but in general they simply won't attack infantry with their pikes for most people in vanillia.

[Kommodus]

Pike fix, eh? Hm... does it cause them to lower their pikes as they get near the enemy?

The problem I'm experiencing is that they don't even start fighting - with pikes or swords - until well after they've made contact with the enemy. At that point, they appear to be continuing their march to an unknown destination (pikes raised), while the enemy simply hacks down the pacifists.

I've tried taking guard mode off, but the only effect it's had is that they draw their swords before making contact and charge, badly out of formation.

I'll have a look at the pike fix.

[Carl]

With the Pike fix they'll actually lower pikes when out of Gurd Mode and use em. But it's far better to get the enemy to charge you as they really suffer otherwise.

[Censor]

I've had some success with pikemen. I don't usually watch up close as I play multiplayer but I usually march my pike line up to charge distance and assign units to attack, or use the group attack (though there can be nasty disorganization if your group is misaligned).

When taking enemy charges, the pikemen do very well in most instances. I just rally on impact, and after a few seconds i order my pikemen to counterattack. There aren't really any problems as the enemy are already well positioned to be skewered by the pike "push". Quite a very effective tactic, especially with high end pikes like Aventuros or Tercios. It's a thing of beauty to see an entire rank of enemy knights fall as my pikemen move forward.