Spearmen

[Ironside]

Yep, I get that they are a good cavalry foil, the problem is that it's up to the other player whether or not to send their cavalry at them. You could just send your cavalry off after another, better target. To actually be used in their intended fashion (countering cavalry) you have to
rely on your opponent attacking you in the way you'd like them to.

Their extended intended purpose is to hold the line, to anything that charges them. Placed right they can hold up to 3 units for a loong time, even when losing badly. The cav bonus is just there to make this pupose even more clear vs cav.

As for the archery thing, here's the rub: Your archers are behind the spears (typically thats what the spears would be defending), so the archers targeting your Spears are beyond your archers range (unless you are defending a hill perhaps and your spears are close to the archer line).

If that's a problem the you keep your arbs or archers in front of your spears from the start.

Now, you can move your spears back behind the archers, so both sides can volley at each other, but but when your spears turn around and march away you're inviting a Cavalry/Infantry charge at their exposed backs while they get reorganised.

Called "how to catch horse archers and jinettes when low on archers . Only recommended with some morale upgrades though

Likewise, you could leave the Spears in place and try and move your own archers forward. This'll be pretty disorganised and probably take a while as they'll have to make their way through your spear line, and as soon as they start moving, the opposing player can send his infantry in at the charge without fear of your missiles. By the time the archers have formed up, they'll be running back away from the charging infantry.

As mentioned above, your archers are already in place. If the enemy harasses with cav, then the'll have to run forth and back through a hail of arrows, usually not healthy. If you charge with infantry, then you're pushed to do a melee engagement, and considering that you were threatening with overpowering archery...

The only time I've had much trouble with Spears is when the enemy has used them to attack my engaged cavalry that is harrassing their archers say. Invariably, I can just break off the attack, retreating my cavalry back a way and leading the spears to my infantry. If they won't follow I bring the infantry to them and them move the cavalry to go after the archers again. Once I engage them with infantry the isolated spears are in trouble.

Phoney attacks or retreats are treated the same way as with other inf. Either push on with the whole line or hold the line. Holes in thwe line are always bad and unsupported units are always in trouble.

If you have a good hill site to defend and/or artillery support so you can outdistance enemy archers I can see some value in Spears. Otherwsie I'm not sure you you can get the enemy to attack them with cavalry.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not doubting you guys when you say they are useful, I'm just struggling to understand how to use them really effectively.

There are some decent looking spears like the Italian Light Infantry and Almughavars. Muwahid Footsoldiers look good as well, as do Rus Spearmen.

Italian infantry and Rus spearmen are roughly equal to CS (=aka heavy defensive inf), how to use Muwahid were mentioned earlier. Almughavars are funny though (modded them to see them more often). One volley and then a charge, that can be nasty enough to really do damage.

I just really went off Spears when I tried to use them against the Golden Horde's cavalry heavy armies and found I was much better off with axe and sword units instead. The Horde just rode it's heavy cav around the spears to form up on my flanks, while it's horse archers and foot archers turned them into pin cushions. my own archers were useless as they were trapped out of range behind the spears, which I was affraid to move for fear of inviting a mass charge into their moving ranks.

Silver armoured CS hurt by archery (you should have them at this point)? They're only about the most resistant units to archery fire in the game. They die more from boredom than actual fire. Arbs hurts harder, but them hitting spears are about the most ineffective unit they can hit (arrow resistant large units, hitting the flanks does make a difference though). The longer range of arbs makes then quick work of the horse archers. For the flanking, you'll need a more flexible line, something that atleast in theory could form a circle during duress (shouldn't normally be needed though), or map edge abuse.

On a general note, spears needs morale upgrades to make them decent and does everything slow, even dying and that's thier advantage. Avoid getting them hitted in the back, but a flank hit should stilll take a long time to go through, even if they loose. They are there to keep the enemy bust, so that your freed units can move on the flanks.