Re: The pike issue
Pikes are great on defense, especially at defending the gate or wall breaches. However, when used properly they can be almost as astonishingly effective on offense, if their secondary weapon is removed. About the most effective exploit that I have seen is to use spies to open the gates and send in pikemen (inexperienced militia will do fine) straight to the town center - or even a citadel center. Unless there are hordes of good defending archers on the walls and you have no swordsmen with which to rush and engage the archers, the pikemen just macerate every living thing in their way. The best general bodyguard units hold out slightly longer than most but only by a few seconds. If you try this without a general and the enemy has a dreadful general your militia may route. If the enemy is defending a citadel with his level 10 king and nothing else (as sometimes happens) you can take the citadel with Scots pike militia with almost no losses.
The most astounding thing to watch is a unit of Timurid elephants charge into some Scots Noble Pikemen. I saw 5 elephants just fall over immediately upon impacting the pike line. The rest of the elephants were killed off in moments. Usually the AI won't charge pikes with elephants and they have to be pinned down to allow the pikes to get to them. Pikes attacking the elephants from the rear is a good show. For some reason Varangian Guards do much better against pikemen and can defeat the lower morale and armored ones.
Pikemen do not do well attacking across a bridge against the Mongols.
Does anyone have experience in multiplayer using pikemen with their secondary weapons reomved? I imagine that they would not seem to be so overpowering.
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