How useful do you find spears after 1.02?

[Eng]

Very useful the problem is the lack of morale....

[Von Nanega]

Spears always have a place in my line. They hold well at the MLR (Main Line of Resistance). I have gone back to the English for my currant game. I always put them at the end of the MLR for flanking defense for cavalry.

[Caliburn]

The Italians with their Carroccio Standards have fewer problems with morale anyway, as long as you feel like lugging them along for a battle.

Putting the standards to the flanks of your formation seems like an interesting idea, as they'll boost the nearby units' morale and are pretty tough, so they can keep enemy flankers at bay and flank themselves if need be. Also, charges won't work well against them as the standard is in front of their formation, and they are spearmen.

Might try that as very early on Venice has very limited cavalry and only a few crossbows (before buiding enough barracks), so stacks tend to have more than enough spears anyway.

[Skott]

I find spear units very useful still.

[Betito]

With the turks, i have used fair amounts of spear militia, dismounted sipahis and saracens with reasonable success. I was able to use spearmen the same way i used them in MTW1: stand still, recieve charge, hold their ground till some sort of assistance comes. Worked very nicely with missile support, naffatun preferred.

Always with guard mode on. They did hold their ground long enough

The morale of the spear militia was a bothersome issue, the did rout significantly faster than the others

[Doug-Thompson]

My favorite infantry units are spears, the five units that share the same traits:

• Good resistance to missiles, which helps most in siege battles.

• good attack/defense against knights.

• Can survive attacks by good infantry long enough for my missiles to do the killing, and,

• low cost and building requirements.

These are:

Saracen Militia
Pavise Spearmen
Mercenary Spearmen
Crusader Sergeants
Armored Sergeants

Of those, my favorite are Saracen Infantry because they are a free-upkeep unit in cities.

[Kobal2fr]

Doug : you forget Italian Infantry in that list. Not only do they have the same stats as Armored Sarges except for the -1 in armor, they can also get 2 armor upgrades compared to the sarges' 1. Meaning that if Lusted is right in thinking that armor upgrades really add 2-and-something to a unit's actual armor instead of the displayed 1, then they're actually better than them.

Lusted being Lusted, I trust what he says to be right

[andrewt]

I'm too aggressive as well and rarely use spears. I used them when I played Venice first because their militia spears are awesome but stopped in the late game. My last 3 campaigns (Rus, Turks and Moors), I've barely used any spears. The Turks and Moors I played after 1.2. My late game Moor army in my current campaign is a mixture of Christian Guard, dismounted Christian Guard and Camel Gunners.