swords infantry vs. polearms infantry

[Budwise]

Yeah, I use Billmen exclusively as I have mentioned a few times in the past and I can honestly say that they take both the Spear and Swords out of the match. I'm totally convinced that a line 3/4 billmen and the rest calv and bow will truly kick even the armies of todays back to the tankyards. Imagine the bonuses for anti armor to lets say the armor of a tank.

Well, its 3:00 am and I can't sleep, maybe I'm wrong.

[antisocialmunky]

The Swiss Halberdiers are better than the Billmen as they're more powerful and no one can get an armor bonus when attacking them. If you can get billman to valor 1, gold sword, and gold shield, you have a unit of Chivalric Footknights. Then there's JHI which makes even Chivalric Knights evaporate like peasants.

The only better infantry(1 v 1) in the game are Gothic Foot Knights(try 2 JHI vs 3 GFK and you'll see). Gothic Foot Knights have giant Armor Piercing Swords making them the best swordsman in the brute force stat wise.

Byzantine Infantry is still my favorite swordsman. You have to love these guys unless they mass rout on you and you have to take a 20 stack with your 14 star Jedi General. They're the only swordsman unit that can take cavalry out since they outnumber them 2-3 times. Just get them moral and attack upgrades and they'll be good throughout the ages.

[Mrlin]

Thanx to all the replies. they are certainly insightful.

So according to all answers, swords are still better b/c they have higher attack and moral stats.

However, I must ask why are polearms weaker against ranged missiles??

Also, people seem to forget polearms, spears and pikes generally have higher charge stats than swords. You can see this when comparing cavalry with sword and cavalry with spear...(the latter one always has higher charge stats)

This means polearms and spears combination could be more effective than swords and spear combination. I mean using 100 spearmen to pin enemy, especially cavalry, and charging polearms toward enemy flank (since polearms don't care about the cohension of their formation)

The reason I said "especially cavalry" is because I love killing enemy cavalry. They are a big threat with their high attack and charge stats, incuring enormous damage as long as they exist. Also, the general and king, and princes are usually cavalry, and when u destroy them, well, u are about winning the battle.
Not to mention, polearms are number one killing unit against cavalry

I guess I am saying in high and late eras, I am willing to use polearms instead of swords, because the benefits of killing cavalry and other armoured units from polearms' higher charge and A-P bonus, are greater than the benefits of swordsmen's higher attack and moral stats.
(this is of course the attack and moral stats are not too much higher)

I hope this makes sense.

ps: I am playing XL mod, and I think the author has readjusted most of polearms' moral stats, so they are higher in XL than in orignial version.

[Productivity]

Most polearms don't have shields right? That would be why they are weaker against missiles.

[antisocialmunky]

Spears aren't exactly sued for charging, more like standing there and dying as slowly as possible. If you can get another unit that can last just as long and cover the same span, there's no point in spears anymore.

[tigger_on_vrb]

In the campaign Billmen can seem even better than they are because of the bonus in Mercia. If you build a master spearmaker they get another bonus. Any decent troop with +2 valour to start is going to kick ass.
Even after saying that, Billmen still kick ass if you use them in custom etc - the high morale helps hugely.
The reason I go for polearms over swords in my campaign armies is not how they do one on one with other swords, but they are more versatile as they also kill cavalry very well.

[antisocialmunky]

You can also use Longbows to back them up since they have an armor piercing mace or hammer to kill those pesky french knights. Go England!