How to Employ Pikemen

[Bilgediver]

Yeesh the only people who think pikes are "bugged" are those who expect them to be the "be all and end all" of infantry like in RTW.

I use them quite effectively. Sure I get a lot of losses but I use them for what they were intended in one way, as the "anvil", while I use other units to actually deal the damage (either heavy cav or crossbowmen). I had very effective armies as Portugal marching across Europe with Pavise Crossbowmen, Aventuros, and (depending on the age) cannons/catapults/trebuchets. Once I got musketeers, I started fielding pike militia/musketeers instead. I haven't perfected the pike and shot formations, but that will come in time, and pike militia are still just militia.

Why do people think pike militia > even DFK's? Sheesh. I use my missile units to actually get kills. My pike militia are just fodder (with the added bonus of pinning the enemy forces). The instant the enemy makes contact, I disable guard mode, and just let them "push" forward (as pikes should do).

Side note, go up against Brussels with just your basic units and you'll find the Computer can use pikes quite effectively against infantry. I could only take down the flemish pikemen from the side or flanks, my spear militia (as HRE or France) got their asses kicked.

[PrestigeX]

I pretty much always play the Darth Mod (totally awesome by the way, my fave mod by FAR) where the pike units have been modded and basically never drop their pikes so the push of pike is incredibly effective, to kill off pikemen you've got to rely on missle units and clever flanking etc - which is easy enough. . . HOWEVER,

even when I play Vanilla or other mods that use the same effects for pikemen, they are still a deadly force on the field. Yes, they will drop their pikes and are not as domineering as modded versions, they are still an incredibly useful investment and more useful in offense than most players think. I find the pike units especially usefull in attacking a settlement.

ON guard mode with spearwall, I find that the killing power just isn't there and you need more in the way of supporting units. Typically I never use my pikemen with guard mode on. I like using the cheapest pike units available rather than the expensive kind because in my view many of the things that get your pikemen killed (like crossbow bolts and expensive heavy infantry units) will do the same whether it's the cheap or expensive pikes. I'll often use the scots pike militia, and they'll be uparmored with mail and i'd have about 8 of them. I'd just keep them in 4 units in the front, and 4 units behind that, and each unit about 6 men deep, or sometimes even deeper. each unit having another unit directly behind it A - so that there is more momentum and B- nothing is going to break thru that center point. SO it isn't a wide line at all but a wrecking ball...Then all the supporting units you can imagine, I'll usually go opt for cav and sword/axe/mace + shield units, instead of putting some missile troops in there, just tends to be my preferrence to close as quick as possibly with the enemy when using pikes.