Longbow spikes

Ok, I've played several campaigns as the English, but I've never actually seen the spikes Longbowmen can deploy be useful for anything.

Maybe I'm doing something different? Should I be deploying my longbows in front of my infantry, and using spikes to shield them some?

What happens when enemy units cross spikes? Will anything happen to my own units if they cross them?

Stupid questions I know. I should have a clue by now regarding these. I've just never bothered to use them as they didn't fit into my plans.

I've only played the 1.2 version but I noticed that when I have missile units and the AI doesn't they attack. This doesn't take numbers into account and they may loose but you don't get a chance to use your archers to great effect. This may be important in determining whether you set up stakes or not. If the enemy doesn't have any missile units, don't assume that you'll have an easy victory using yours.

You can only deploy stakes in the deployment phase before the battle begins.

Spikes disrupt enemy infantry that come through them, and kill enemy cav that move through them. They will also kill your own cav that move through them.

Generally i deploy stakes in a nice defensive position, with a line of dismounted knights behind the longbowmen, then when the battle starts i switch the 2 round so the dismounted knights are in front beihnd the stakes, and the longbowmen behind them.

I've used it a few times. It can be very useful in defense. See the bridge defense thread for an example image. I did such thing myself, but closer to the bridge, and it was a slaughter. If you don't want your archer in the front line, they can still deploy there and you regroup them immediatly after the start of the battle.

In field battle the enemy cavalry hardly charges into the spikes, but even it it doesnt kill anyone you can plan with it. Where you have spikes, you can assign your spearmen somewhere else.

Obviously, however, the stakes are of little use if you are the attacker and have to move out of your position.

well, the AI cavalry is programmed to avoid spikes at all cost. There are (probably ahistorical) ways to "lure" AI cavalry into them (placing a unit halfway on the spikes, halfway in front of them, pulling the unit back before cavalry impact).

on another note, spikes are useful to protect the archers from frontal cavalry charge. they can sit behind the spikes and shoot away in straight trajectory (rather than over the heads of spearmen, for example), while spears protect flanks.

infantry will still be able to go through the spikes, but infantry is slower and more advanced longbows can hold their ground against infantry anyway. alternatively, pull the longbows back before infantry contact.

Awesome info. I'll be giving them a shot with my Yeomen tonight. :)

They're great because as enemy infantry moves through, their formation is disrupted and they're easier to kill. Also, if there's a way around them the enemy will take it which is useful if you want to "funnel" the enemy army into a kill zone.

Actually stakes do not kill cavalry moving through it. That is a common misconception:
Stakes only kill running cavalry that move towards and into the stakes. The running part is quite important here. If you walk cavalry through the stakes to attack units behind them, you will not take additonal casualties due to stakes alone, but at best due to disrupted formation, i.e vulnerable to rear cav charge. That again isn't actually bad as any cav charging your rear then will impale themselves on their own pikes.

They can be very handy for a 'cheesy' defence tactic in sieges as well - a set of spikes behind the gate can spell the end for the Mongol invasion!

Also, the stakes are great for protecting your men from enemy artillery (everything besides mortars and trebuchets). Lots of projectiles will be stopped by the stakes, while they normally would hit your men.

Stakes will kill about 50% of any Cavalry unit running / charging into the front of them whether they belong to the enemy or yourself.
As others have said they do not kill infantry or walking cavalry. They will not kill running / charging cavalry that approaches from behind. So you can line up your own cavalry behind them and charge through them without losses. It will disrupt a formed charge though.

When facing lots of enemy horse archers and other cavalry (e.g. Mongols) placing your archers just behind the stakes will help to protect them from a charge, but not the arrows.

What I found works quite well when using an archer rich stack is to divide them into two groups. One on each flank and stretch out the line of stakes as far as you can with only a small gap in the middle. The line of stake should be positioned as close as you can to where you thing the enemy will appear.

A soon as you click the “start battle”, run your archers to the back of the map (with the rest of you troops). The enemy horse archers will then charge forward to get in range, but will be decimated by the stakes. Whose that make it through are easy pickings for your own archers. I’ve even seen Mongol unit trying to form a shooting circle, with a line of stakes going down the middle. They didn’t last long.

The gap in the centre is useful for channelling any units that try to avoid the stakes, and later to allow your cavalry back, after a charge.

I wish my game would let me deploy stakes somewhere other than on the tops of walls. :furious3:

I use stakes often. The trick is as has been mentioned is that you put them down in the deployment phase. So you let your archers put them down where you want them and then you move your archers onto a desired location.

Using stakes during seige will stop a cavalry heavy army almost no matter what!!! It almost feels like cheating.

The trick with stakes is knowing where and when to use them, but often they have been the difference between winning and losing in some battles in my english campaign

Indeed, stakes are great. When defending I usually stick my longbowmen out on the wings, protected by the stakes. The enemy infantry generally stay in the center where they destroyed by the longbowmen shooting from the flanks, while the cavalry, which is what would normally disperse archers so deployed, gets impaled on the stakes. Fantastic. It can even work on the offense if you have artillery to encourage the other side the attack.