Spear vs Impact vs Pike?

[Agesilaus]

Still waiting on my rules (Amazon, grrrr...) and wanting to understand a few aspects of POV. What are the POV for Offensive Spear, Defensive Spear and plain Spear and how do they compare to Impact Foot and Pike? Could someone take me through the odds in a typical combat of say Carthaginian Libyan Spear vs Legionairres vs Macedonian Pike?

Any opinions on whether spear blocks are cost effective? I know they will do OK vs mounted, but I am interested in opinions of spear vs their foot opponents. Please compare like with like eg Average Protected Spear vs Average Protected Impact Foot, both HF etc.

Are Spear better than Pike in rough terrain or do Pike best them in all situations as in DBM? Do Spear cost any less or are they the same, in which case I presume I am better off abandoning Spear and going for Pike or Impact?

Grateful for any help

Scott Elaurant

[hammy]

Roughly speaking:

Against foot spear have a dissadvantage at impact against both pike and impact foot
In melee they have a dissadvantage against pike but if the spear are steady they have an advantage against swordsmen (most impact foot are swordsmen in melee)

In rough terrain pike and spear are equal.

Spear are significantly better against mounted.

Cost wise spear and impact foot cost the same if they have the same training and armour. Pike are actually cheaper than spear but to get the full effect you need twice as many pike as spear and to be equal to spear you need 50% more so on a BG by BG basis pike are more expensive than spear.

A rough summary:

Code: Select all

             P   S   If  Ls
Pike         0   +   O   +
Spear        -   0   -   0
Impact ft    0   +   0   +
Lt spear     -   0   -   0

             Sp  P   Ss  S   Sw
Stdy pike    0   0   +   +   ++
Pike         0   0   +   +   +
Stdy spear   -   -   0   0   +
Spear        -   -   0   0   0
Swordsmen    --  -   -   0   0

Armoured Roman legionaries have a significant advantage all the time against protected spearmen. Against armoured spear it is more complex. Armoured impact foot swordsmen vs armoured spear has the impact favoring the impact foot but if the spear remain steady then the melee favours the spear. If the spear become dirsupted at impact then the POAs are even in melee but the disruption of the spear will help the legions as they will have more dice.

The long and short of it is that spear are good troops but so are pike and impact foot. I used all three to good effect in a Santa Hermandad Nueva Castilian army to win a tournament the other week.