Help with Pikemen and spearmen

[Sir Evil]

Hi! I have a few questions on pikemen and spear men which I hope you people can give me a hand with
*How on earth can I get pikemen?
* Are they worth the effort off building them?
*How do I know if my spears/pikes are getting their rank bonus?
*How do I trigger this bonus? should I just form my spears/pikes in ranks and order them to attack or should i just put them one behind another?
*Is there any difference between scottish spearmen(from XL) and armoured spearmen?


thanks!!!!!

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi Sir Evil,

*How on earth can I get pikemen?First you need to tech up your castle to the highest possible level - to the Fortress level! After that you need to build and upgrade the "town millita" set of buildings to as high as it can go! Then, I think, the almighty Pikemen are avaliable for training within your forces.
* Are they worth the effort off building them?Perhaps as a garrision force, but I would say not in regualar armies - although that could just be me. My feild armies are often an almost full stack of elite knights!
*How do I know if my spears/pikes are getting their rank bonus?Within the battle simply press F1. I think that the first screen has a symboy next to your spear-units to see if they are getting their bonuses. The key for the code of symbols is at the bottom of the box.
*How do I trigger this bonus? should I just form my spears/pikes in ranks and order them to attack or should i just put them one behind another?Don't worry - you don't have to set it up! It is on automatically should the unit be placed in three ranks deep (in it's self, left click and drag to change this setting) and, I'm not too sure about this one, it is in the "hold formation" stance.

Hope this helps you, sorry I couldn't answer all of your questions, cheers!

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, Sir Evil. ~:cheers:


Hi! I have a few questions on pikemen and spear men which I hope you people can give me a hand with
*How on earth can I get pikemen?
As Omanes pointed out, you must upgrade the Town Watch to a County Militia, which in turn requires you have a Fortress. If you own Switzerland, you can also train Swiss Armoured Pikeman (which are basically Pikemen on steroids); they require a Master Armourer in addition to the County Militia & Fortress.


* Are they worth the effort off building them?
I would certainly say so, yes! They're excellent at stopping cavalry, and are good against most infantry as well. Their only real weakness is that they're a bit slow and somewhat vulnerable to missile fire.


*How do I know if my spears/pikes are getting their rank bonus?

*How do I trigger this bonus? should I just form my spears/pikes in ranks and order them to attack or should i just put them one behind another?

While it's been a while since I've checked, I believe that Omanes is right in that you can press F1 in battle to see. A general rule of thumb, however, is to just make sure your Pikemen are lined up in 5-6 ranks -- this gives the pikemen their full rank bonus, while also ensuring they have replacements in the rear of the regiment when a man falls.


*Is there any difference between scottish spearmen(from XL) and armoured spearmen?


thanks!!!!!
Hmm, I confess you've got me stumped on that one. It's been so long since I played the Scottish in XL I can't remember. I want to say Scottish Spearmen are a bit better than Armoured Spearmen, but don't quote me on that.

[Martok]

Thread restored and unlocked (after accidental deletion by myself), courtesy of TosaInu. ~:)

[Maloncanth]

* Are they worth the effort off building them?

It depends on what you fight most frequently with units produced in that province. In my opinion, no, not under normal circumstances unless you have access to some kind of unique pikeman.

Pikemen's stats are strictly speaking, much inferior to that of high end spearmen such as Chivalric sergeants, making them very dependent on facing cavalry and gaining their rank bonus which requires about 5 ranks or so to make good use of. In particular, they lack armour or shields, making them very vulnerable to missile fire.

The latter becomes very pronounced in XL, and other mods that make missiles more lethal as even a minor mistake in management will get them showered at great cost.

The necessity for 5 ranks is a big issue as the more ranks you put your men in, the less frontage they are able to cover. The same number of spearmen can cover more frontage at max efficiency than a unit of pikes. This becomes arguably less pronounced when you play with Huge unit size. Having 200 rather than 100 pikes in a unit will let them form a nice long rectangle rather than an easily flanked square. While pike squares were quite lethal historically if well drilled, I don't think MTW simulates that so having a square just means you're very easily flanked.

With much better stats, Swiss Pikemen greatly remedy these issues and Swiss Armoured Pikemen are probably the best infantry in the game.



*Is there any difference between scottish spearmen(from XL) and armoured spearmen?

Scottish spearmen have better attack and so can be relied on to cause slightly more casualties though still not many.

[Ciaran]

*How do I know if my spears/pikes are getting their rank bonus?
*How do I trigger this bonus? should I just form my spears/pikes in ranks and order them to attack or should i just put them one behind another?
You can also easily see if the multiple ranks are playing their fighting animation.
Spears can fight with two supporting ranks, i.e. to get their bonus they have to be at least three ranks deep, and pikes get four supporting ranks. To get the most out of them use them with hold formation and hold position activated. As well, spears and pikes aren´t your killer units - they´re the shield of your army, protecting your units with the real cutting edge, with a few exceptions. Best you get Frogbeasteggs units and Beginner´s guides (in the MTW guide section).

[Caliburn]

Even basic pike armies can be devastating to the enemy in my experience,as long as you keep your formation in good order, don't let the individual squares break up their formation, and support them with other troops. Teching up to them takes quite a long time, though. In late, every unit is somewhat vulnerable to missiles, as arbalests are pretty common, so does it really matter that much? They're cheap to replace and have a great damage potential if used correctly.

[Vladimir]

I recommend increasing their number by 25-50% to use them to their full advantage and reflect their greater avaliability over trained spear units.