Beginner's Guide to Spear Bracing

[battanianbard]

Greetings fellow infantry bros. I humbly submit this video to help in our fight against the mounted menace.

 

[Lazregamesh]

Good video and i am certain your walk and lock technique is gonna come in handy

 

[DanAngleland]

A "lazy couched lance attack" requires more skill in my opinion than this instant magic brace. With couching you are almost always aiming for an opponent who is trying to avoid your lance or, if they are unaware of you, are generally moving quite unpredictably whilst engaged with another enemy. Bracing against cavalry on the other hand usually means the horseman is aiming for you, so you don't have to worry as much about missing him. Also, it seems in this video that you can "brace" while walking- how is that bracing? No doubt merely holding a spear so that the point receives a charging enemy would be effective, but it isn't actually bracing the spear against anything (i.e. the ground) so getting hundreds of points of damage from it seems cheap.

What's more there is no drawback for the player; in a fraction of a second you can activate this attack having appeared to be defenceless immediately beforehand, then the enemy is taken out by a hugely powerful impact- but this apparent impact doesn't make the infantryman break a sweat, never mind damage his spear (if a horse is downed by the contact with the spearhead, you would expect it to have penetrated it's body significantly, which I would imagine would at least wrench the spear to one side or out of the footman's hands or even break it. But instead horse and rider fall as if they ran into a wall without the slightest effect on the infantryman or his weapon).

 

[five bucks]

Also, it seems in this video that you can "brace" while walking- how is that bracing? No doubt merely holding a spear so that the point receives a charging enemy would be effective, but it isn't actually bracing the spear against anything (i.e. the ground) so getting hundreds of points of damage from it seems cheap.

+1.

TW has a strange idea of how polearms work in general; pike bracing defies physics by allowing a person to instantly stop a 500kg charging horse dead in its tracks just by holding a pole in his hands at an angle without even touching the ground, yet they do nothing at all against infantry. Menavlion are some kind of wonderweapon glaive instead of the pike they were in real life, swinging polearms in general **** out damage even while being used 2-handed from horseback (which should knock the rider off the horse), spears are incredibly slow and weak, Pila aren't a dedicated javelin...

What's more there is no drawback for the player; in a fraction of a second you can activate this attack having appeared to be defenceless immediately beforehand, then the enemy is taken out by a hugely powerful impact- but this apparent impact doesn't make the infantryman break a sweat, never mind damage his spear (if a horse is downed by the contact with the spearhead, you would expect it to have penetrated it's body significantly, which I would imagine would at least wrench the spear to one side or out of the footman's hands or even break it. But instead horse and rider fall as if they ran into a wall without the slightest effect on the infantryman or his weapon).

Indeed. The animation for bracing a spear or pike should at least be a second in length before it comes into effect, and immobilize the player.

To compensate for this, mid-length spears should get some buffs. They shouldn't just be instakills against cavalry and garbage at combat against people, that's totally unrepresentative of real life and a bad gameplay outcome too.