Heavy Pikes

Do you use them and in what situations?.. I find them only useful in cities where speed is not an issue. Because they lack the ability to run it makes them little more than targets it seems at least against a missle heavy force... in cities ill have em garrisoned but I usually build spear militia for the open field.

I had an "impressive" Danish force that got pwned by Milan because of the xbow and the inability of my front line to engage it. At least if they can run at an enemy you can force them to skirmish :help:

On the defensive and to defend choke points seeems to be most effective

You mean Swordstaff Militia or Obudshaer? Both of them you can turn off the spearwall formation and they'll run about as fast as any infantry. Obudshaer, IMHO, are buggy. They don't seem to fight well under any circumstances, even against a heavy cavalry charge. Just don't train them. Swordstaff militia are excellent troops.

:egypt:

Specifically I meant units such as Obudshear (mispelled Im sure..) or other Heavily armored spears. Just seems that in the open field they move slower which does make sense I guess. Even with spearwall off they dont go as fast as a militia or merc. Maybe it just seemed like that to me at the time. As I said before, I usually dont field heavy pikes/spears instead I stagger a militia/merc spear into the front line which is usually swords/ranged and keep 1 or 2 back to hold calvary off flanks. Fielded against the Mongols for example, I use only militia spears because of cost and (I thought) speed.

I use Pike miltia they are quite fast but aren't very good Heaveys are better against misiles