If anyone has seen pike 'formations' getting massacred then I wager there were far too few pikes in that so called formation. Pikes are generally underused in any game mode, despite being extremely effective in group fighting (and not too shabby one on one, especially against cav) and a major part of warfare in the era. Too many players play The Deluge as though it were all about getting as many kills with a gun before running away from any cavalry or bots that come near them. As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, many play Invasion mode while apparently only thinking of their k/d ratio. Large pike formations are effective and fun, they are as much a part of the gameplay as muskets yet they are too often neglected.
Frankly I am put off from playing this excellent mod much more because in recent weeks there are fewer and fewer players in public matches it seems to me, and the most populated server is usually an Invasion one. And Invasion invariably means a boring first few rounds where a few kill hunters roam ahead to shoot half the bots as soon as they spawn, leaving the rest of the team bored to tears, then when the firepower isn't enough to kill the larger waves the musketmen run to hide in a corner where the AI struggles to reach, rather than filling enough pikeman slots to keep the bots at bay (which would help the musketmen get more kills of course, as they would have a target for longer rather than that target chasing them away). The very best experience I've had of this mod was one of the first, and it was in Invasion mode funnily enough. There were over 100 players on the server, on the map with the large white fort (Zbaraz?). But we didn't cower in the fort waiting for the AI to stop dead in face of the bugged ladders (except a few players. This was when the ladders were still buggy in Invasion mode by the way). We went down to the row of earthworks furthest from the fort, and the musketmen were largely arrayed behind the earthworks with the pikemen filling a gap in the middle, a few cavalry harassing the bots from the flank, and we had a fantastic match. This mod's potential gets wasted a lot in my opinion. I still have some great little matches in battle mode occasionally, but they are the only respite. I am usually disappointed by a fruitless wait for enjoyable gameplay in an Invasion game, or simply don't bother joining any of the pitifully small battle servers. By the way, why oh why does the Eagle's Nest map seem to be used so much for Invasion? The AI not only struggle to get through the forest (where some of them go in later waves) but they are very slow to enter the keep.
@NightHawkreal: Pikes work very well against humans as well. Try playing Invasion against Swedes, or even Cossacks- the player team gets demolished against modest numbers of Swedish pikes.
