Slitherine

I am curious how the 1/2 Spear and 1/2 Crossbow for the Later Crusader List works, any one have any thoughts?

I am still not sure how the shooting and PoA's stack up either.

Mark

Off the top of my head.
The spear being one rank don't get a spear POA at impact or melee, but lance, sword etc don't get a POA against them if they are steady. The rear rank XBow shoot as if from the front rank, as they are the first rank of shooters, at XBow POA. The XBow also get to add 1 dice each at impact at an extra -POA as shooting into combat. So good against mounted, bad against foot, and can shoot quite well.

You lose firepower for more security in the open. You are also more vulnerable to shooting as you can only be in groups of 6 (2 hits for a cohesion test) instead of 8 (3 hits). If you are going to do it, upgrade them all to armoured and make sure the two units on the flanks are drilled for extra manoeuverability. You'll lose a unit or so overall but you'll make the rest that much harder.

Julian