Swiss pikeman

[axel]

hi all i whase wondering how cane you play the swiss pikeman i started with germany and i take over swiss just for the long pikes but no pikes for me how comme please explane how i cane get long pikes

[Saracen_Warrior]

You need to have a county militia in switzerland, which you cant build unless you have a fortress so its gonna take while to build up to that if youre starting from scratch and it might have to be in a certain time period. YOu can get swiss halberiers pretty quick. Theyre higher moral less armored halberds. Pretty good unit, just dont send em to attack bridge, use reg halberds for that.

Pikeman dont seem that usefull to me since you have to deploy them deeper than spear to be wortht the cost. But if oyu do this you cant cover as much. So its hard to have a pike wall. I jsut use them to hold bridges, breaches in wall, or to attack(but have to ahve at least for with lots of support to protect flanks)

Does anyone know when certain units are avaiable. I know units with fedual in name come in 1205, and so on, but what about other units.

[_Aetius_]

When i go the holy roman empire i use switzerland as my capital, and focus on developing it, youlll be suprised how quickly you can get a citadel and then swiss halberdiers, in the high period you should have money spare enough to build a fortress etc. Really though the Holy roman empire is very rich so you shoul dhave the money.

[Sensei Warrior]

Halbrediers come in high along with English longbowmen.

Pikemen come in late along with the gothic units, gunpowder units, and Spanish Lancers.

Remeber some units leave during periods too. Varangian guard disapear at the start of Late. If you are playing with the VI expansion all of the Viking units leave at the start of high along with Swabian Swordsmen, Celtic Warriors, and Avar Nobles.

Somewhere around here frogbeastegg and Bushface have a nice little download that breaks down all the units and their availibility and requirements. It's very useful but I can't remember where it is offhand.

[Ironside]

All kinds of pikes comes in late (1320), which is interesting considering that the swiss gets SAP:s in high as bodyguards.

[derF]

The pike is an excellent weapon. A Swiss armoured soldier behind it is even better. Used correctly, the SAP is in the army dream-team. However, the fact that it appears late and is expensive and slow to make degrades it very much.

[Sensei Warrior]

It's true, they seem to be great units. I am waiting in breathless anticipation. I am playing HRE and I am set to have Swiss Pike and Swiss Arm Pike when late starts. To date those 2 units along with the Gothic Knights and Gothic Sarges are the only units I've never been able to fool around with.

Hopefully I'll have a half way decent adversary this game to "test" them against.

[_Aetius_]

SAP arent that great, i mean they can do alot of damage but no more so than most hevay infantry can, a flanking attack from even cavalry on SAP causes massive damage and really they dont seem to have the attack power to quickly cut through infantry before they get encircled, using them only on cavalry is wasting them, as chivalric sergeants aremore than adequte or even basic pikemen.

[derF]

SAP arent that great, i mean they can do alot of damage but no more so than most hevay infantry can, a flanking attack from even cavalry on SAP causes massive damage and really they dont seem to have the attack power to quickly cut through infantry before they get encircled, using them only on cavalry is wasting them, as chivalric sergeants aremore than adequte or even basic pikemen.

Pikemen are defensive troops. In other words, their role is not to charge and attack, but to hold and gain time. From your post it looks like your using them incorrectly.

Oh and another thing, theyre probably the best defense against cavilry.