To charge or not to charge (with pointy things)...

Spears/chivalric sergeants/pikes etc.

Is it best to receive a charge or to charge with these kind of units? Would the enemy unit they are facing have any effect on whether you would charge or not?

Any comments?

Peace and tolerance


J

Froggy thought this through, and came to the conclusion that it a complex issue. Essentially you trade the charge bonus for the ordered rank bonus, and what tips the scales (for Froggy, anyway) is the organization factor (ie standing troops tend to stay more organized in formation.

Charging Spears thread

ichi

I'd say stay their ground as they are more defence oriented.

muwahid is the only pure spear that I would charge.

for related units like polearms, I always charge.

BTW, for uber strong units like Italian light in fin early, you can actually charge all the time as the units they face aren't that buff and they don't need their rank bonuses as badly to win.

even in those cases, I never charge more than about jav range.

more than that and your formations just comes apart.

Good point Katank. The distance to the target (the enemy flank) is important as your unit may become tired and /or too spread out to do much damage when they hit. I love charging into rear and side flanks though, especially when the attacked unit is already engaged on another side, or even when the attacked unit is in the process of going after someone, hitting them simultaneously is sometimes very disorienting for the AI.

Another situation might be where you might simply want to tie a unit up so that you can xbow/bomb/shoot it from behind. So attacking it first before it moves off will keep the unit from leaving the area.

Overall, the Spear units are best for defence. Line them up and tell them to hold position. The only time I break this rule is when Cavalry are involved. I love to charge Spears into Cavalry. There are a few units that have Spears that are good at charging although, the list is small.

1)Italian Light Infantry
2)Rus Spearmen*
3)Muwahid Foot Soldiers
4)Saracen Infantry
5) Slav Warriors*

Units with a star* are Viking Invasion units.

Of the units in the above list all are good at the multi purpose role of Attack & Defence except for the Slav Warriors. They are pretty much only good for charging as they have a Charge Strength of 5 and are Fast to boot. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...s/bigthumb.gif

P.S. The information given by katank is very relevant when it comes to charging with Spears. Timing is everything.. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...evalcheers.gif

Despite their unit picture, Slav Warriors are treated as a sword unit within the game. So charging is always best with them - they get no rank or anti-cav bonus.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I did read the guide posted by frostbeastegg which was what prompted my question because previously I always used to wait until the enemy were close and then charge them with the spears... I think staying put is the way forward for the future though (ironic huh?).

Peace and tolerance


J

don't charge you lose rank bonus essential to a prolonged combat

@ rock hammer, muwahids have 7, hence irrestistible charge.

this, along with 60 men unit size, hint that this isn't a normal defensive spear unit.

use like swords who get cav bonuses.

they are best attacking spears.

slav warriors are definitely swords and can be used in woods with great effect.

if just to tie up a unit, using a thin line of maybe 2 rank slav warriors on hold hold is actually beetter since they can have wider frontage.

also, swords esp. the big units like Byz Inf can be used as spears when in hold hold as they can last quite a while and pin the enemy.

simply hold the enemy with them and charge into the rear with another unit.

If charging spears, only do so at extremely short range and it's usually around jav range for me.

if the enemy unit is moving away, halt the spear as the distance to impact would be too far and your ranks will really get messed up.

sometimes, if charging for rather lon distance, halt a short distance away from target for ranks to recover order and then charge again.

keeping your guys together as much as you could is the key.