Originally posted by Deejayvee: Quote My main point is that if they introduced pikes at Arbedo and they still lost, what made them then decide that pikes were the way to go? I guess that it's probably something like the pikes held but the halberdiers didn't.[/QUOTE]

Dunno sorry - there isn't that much information in teh battle descriptions.

Jagger at teh start the Swiss wore almost no armour - either for pike and halverd.

And yes pikes are almost certainlycheaper than halberds - teh driving cost in those times was the amount of iron required - it was extremely expensive and the cost of making pike poles instead of shorter halberd ones would ahve been negligible compared to the difference in costs of the weapon heads IMO.