don't agree. now the UMs and MS are poleaxes, not polearms due to not having anticav.

the spears get their rank bonus even fighting noncav.

have you ever used halbs in a headon fight against cav?

if halbs get flanked by the cav, it's true that they are sunk but headon, they'll win easily.

they have 1 AP attack base and 6 defence. this turns into 4 AP attack and like 5-6 due to heavily armored cav and 7 defence due to cav bonus and AP bonus.

they are not at all unreliable. it's just that you dont want to lose a bunch in the initial charge but I've seen maybe 8-10 go down in the charge and then next to no casualties in massacring the cav.

they are by far one of the best defensive troops you can find.