Byz. Spearmen should have the Spearwall ability.

[rvg]

Keep their current lousy stats, but give 'em spearwall. At least, that'll make them somewhat useful and hey, they *are* greeks after all and deserve to have the formation invented and perfected by the Greeks.

[Mithradates]

Dnt know about spear wall but i wouldnt mind seeing an armour upgrade of some kind.

[WhiskeyGhost]

maybe you should just give them schiltrom instead?

[Shahed]

It's easy enough to do, see here if you want to give them spearwall:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79633

[zxiang1983]

The problem is AI will never use shield wall.

[Furious Mental]

The AI does use shield wall if you give their units the ability to do so.

Didn't the Byzantines have some kind of pikemen or at least soldiers with long spears? "Skutatoi?"

[econ21]

Didn't the Byzantines have some kind of pikemen or at least soldiers with long spears? "Skutatoi?"

Yes. I've never understood why in MTW and M2TW, CA emphasises the Byzantine swords. It may be because people expect the heirs of Rome to still have some kind of pseudo legionnaire. I think the Skutatoi should have large shields, long spears and some mail. I thought their infantry mainly provided a protection for their archers and a centre around which the cavalry could maneouvre.

[Joshwa]

I guess their spears have been nerfed to emphasise their use of cavalry, since if they had good spears as well they would be pretty kickass at everything. As it stands, an angry fishwife could take on a byzantine spearman

[rvg]

I guess their spears have been nerfed to emphasise their use of cavalry, since if they had good spears as well they would be pretty kickass at everything. As it stands, an angry fishwife could take on a byzantine spearman

IMHO, the Byzantines have been dealt a pretty lousy card in M2TW. They have excellent horse archers and that's pretty much it. Their foot archers are adequate, their melee infantry and cavalry have outlandish building requirements and they have the worst spears under the sun. Oh, and no gunpowder of course. I wouldn't call them a weak faction, but their lack of decent spears makes it difficult to field solid infantry-based armies.

[Joshwa]

I think byzantine guard archers are pretty solid, and varangians kick some major butt. Dismounted lancers and byzantien infantry are well pointless though. TBH i quite like the shortcomings of the byzantines, i think its pretty representational of the major crapification that they undertook