halberdiers or swordstaff militia in mp

**pike master** · 02-28-2007, 01:55

is there any way to get spearwall polearm units like the swordstaff militia to actually become a game winning unit? or are they just a waste of time and effort?

especially time. why did CA have to make em so slow?

**Dionysus9** · 02-28-2007, 05:43

If you take them off spearwall then they are the same speed as normal infantry--you have to micromanage them and turn on spearwall in time to fend off any charges. The problem with spear-staff is that the Danes dont have much else to work with, so its a tough faction to play just for a High era spearwall unit...

High period overly favors cavalry.

**pike master** · 03-02-2007, 17:55

with spearwall units what works best. it seems i can seem to see which formations actually work better versus infantry.

but i know for sure spearwall with guard mode on takes cavalry down.

ive tried testing against infantry even using spread formation. one day i think i have down that the spearwall with guard mode off works best than the next day of testing spearwall off in loosed formation shows the best results. then the next day spear wall off close formation wins the day.

has anyone done extensive testing on spearwall halberd units?

**ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88** · 03-02-2007, 21:05

Hey,

I must agree with my dear mad cat mech..
I always have that though. I think they move alittle faster (talking about Swiss halbeirds/pikemen) then the RTW phalanxs, but they still move to slow. I know they can't move fast fast when they in the spear wall formation, but still..

**pike master** · 03-02-2007, 22:41

i think worse than any performance issue i can think of right now is the unmatched marching speeds between pikemen and halberdiers/swordstaff.

**Sun of Chersonesos** · 03-06-2007, 20:39

To exploit SSM the most first of all bear in mind that they are the only halbedier unit in the high period meaning they have AP.

The next thing which will mostly apply to when playing, but the SSM out of guard mode but in spear wall when facing infantry and also put them in a formation of 3.5. When against cavalry put them in guard mode because that does better against cavalry charges and then change it back to off guard mode once the charge has finished but to be honest if you can't be bothered to deal with wether or not the SSM are in guard mode or not then you're far safe with guard mode off ;).

**pike master** · 03-07-2007, 00:22

well after some extensive testing since ive started playing the papacy and many custom battles it seems that halberdiers are better versus infantry out of spearwall. but best against cav with spearwall on and braced.

pikemen dont need to be braced to hurt cav when they are charged but halberdiers will suffer big time if they are not braced.also they work best if used in blocks like hoplites. whereas pikemen work best when spread out the halberds work best the other way.