Spears and pikes are terrible to the point of being useless in Bannerlord. Or any polearm, really, their main advantage is being a group fighting weapon and their immense reach. Now irl, if you've a shield and proper training with it, it is possible that you can block one thrust and rush in to close off the distance and slash him with your sword or whatever, except you won't be doing that as there is now a whole line of people who will be thrusting their spears into you in the sides, a shield is not helping you with that. Right, now let's talk about reach. Even in 1v1 combat a spear is an excellent weapon to throw your opponent's guard off and unless he's very well trained, he's likely going to be stabbed and poked to death until he's come anywhere near the spear/pikeman. Even with a shield? Yes, with any shield you will have to constantly react to the spear's moves as you don't want to get stabbed by it, you could rush in, but you're exposing a good portion of your lower body doing so, no spearman is gonna stand there poking your shield in hopes of getting through it while you close off the distance and practically nullify his advantage. Except you can do exactly that with MnB's combat system, since you're not aiming for any specific body part but instead have four directions you can swing / thrust your weapon from, with most polearms that is reduced to only two directions for thrust. Even if you try and aim for the feet or the legs since your opponent is holding the shield right in front of his face basically blinding himself, but no, even then you will be hitting their shield, somehow. Quick thrusts to fool and harass your opponent? No, with most pikes and spears being so short in comparison with their real life counterparts, you get one chance to thrust and no more before your opponent is in your face. The reason they aren't as effective as they should be is all the advantages that made them so prevalent and dominant in the battlefield in the first place is made useless and even disadvantageous by the combat mechanics.
Right what about polerarms vs cavalry? Surely that- no. the AI has no how to use their advantage in reach, or how to form a proper pike line (ex. macedonian phalanx). There are several reasons for this, one being aimb the pikes and spears used are way too short, the longest pike I've been able to find in game (western pike) is about half (or longer) as long as a standard medieval pike. Another reason is the poor formation and hence the use of polearms, even in a shield formation, even the spear/pikemen refuse to extend their pikes next to their shields but instead just blind themselves, what the **** is that gonna accomplish? The last reason I can think of is that horses are tanks, even without armour. Besides the obvious "horses wouldn't just charge into long sharp metal shafts to their death", since very few if any pikemen extend their pikes in the game, enemy cavalry can just charge right through and break the formation of the units, through that dense 3 lines of SPEARMEN FOR ****S SAKE, even if they somehow manage to get through the first line, the lines behind are going to be stabbing the horse in the legs, torse, anywhere the armor doesn't protect. But guess what, THEY CAN'T, since the formation is so dense, no spearman can actually thrust as their spears will be hitting each other's massive hitboxes as soon as they raise the spears, meaning the horse can just walk right through them.
So, what can be done about it? Some changes that could help:
- Making the pikes and spears as long as they should be.
- Adjusting the hitbox of shields to be fit with the surface area of a shield.
- Adding proper pike formations such as the phalanx, pike block, charge for horse etc. (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe..._img_3645.jpg/1920px-Pike_square_img_3645.jpg)
- Preventing formations from becoming disordered so quickly
Right what about polerarms vs cavalry? Surely that- no. the AI has no how to use their advantage in reach, or how to form a proper pike line (ex. macedonian phalanx). There are several reasons for this, one being aimb the pikes and spears used are way too short, the longest pike I've been able to find in game (western pike) is about half (or longer) as long as a standard medieval pike. Another reason is the poor formation and hence the use of polearms, even in a shield formation, even the spear/pikemen refuse to extend their pikes next to their shields but instead just blind themselves, what the **** is that gonna accomplish? The last reason I can think of is that horses are tanks, even without armour. Besides the obvious "horses wouldn't just charge into long sharp metal shafts to their death", since very few if any pikemen extend their pikes in the game, enemy cavalry can just charge right through and break the formation of the units, through that dense 3 lines of SPEARMEN FOR ****S SAKE, even if they somehow manage to get through the first line, the lines behind are going to be stabbing the horse in the legs, torse, anywhere the armor doesn't protect. But guess what, THEY CAN'T, since the formation is so dense, no spearman can actually thrust as their spears will be hitting each other's massive hitboxes as soon as they raise the spears, meaning the horse can just walk right through them.
So, what can be done about it? Some changes that could help:
- Making the pikes and spears as long as they should be.
- Adjusting the hitbox of shields to be fit with the surface area of a shield.
- Adding proper pike formations such as the phalanx, pike block, charge for horse etc. (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe..._img_3645.jpg/1920px-Pike_square_img_3645.jpg)
- Preventing formations from becoming disordered so quickly
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