Auscifer
Veteran
bubble said:
Speaking exclusively of the 1h spear + shield combo:
The spear is my favorite weapon, specifically the cheapest/shortest spear. I think it has a steep learning curve due to its misleading animation/hitbox whatever. I am not good at writing tutorials, but there is something you could try that might help you become proficient in this style.
Familiarize yourself with the kick+slash technique. Using a 1h sword/axe, kick your opponent and then land an attack before your opponent can block again. Once you are comfortable with this, try it with the spear. If you can land a thrust before you opponent can block again, you may have learned an important aspect of spear fighting.
The whole motion is like an act of habit for me, and I may not give useful directions but I can try. After landing my kick, I click and hold Left Mouse Button for the shortest moment before releasing. In the meantime, I think I am moving back, and possibly to the right to give my thrust more room to extend before contact. The most important part: as I release LMB, I turn sharply to the left, it seems like dragging my spear tip left across their torso. If you are a US player, I'd be happy to try to show you in game. And this lesson is just meant to teach you how to aim the spear/pike. It seems to me, you need to "turn" or "spin" your thrust when you are at close range in order to land a hit. The spear really sucks at 1on1 duels, so switch to an alternate weapon for that purpose.
I don't know how to begin to try to describe my tactics against cav. I suppose you want to keep your character right in front of the horses body and release your spear/pike thrust at the earliest possible moment so it is fully extended as the cav rides into the point. Of course the cav will turn as they get within lance range so your spear will miss the horse but your face gets hit with the lance. So you are trying to move unexpectedly, use terrain, or otherwise deceive your opponent; do whatever you need to do so that you are infront of that horse's face with your spear thrust at full extension when in range. It is very important that you aim at the horse's chest/head. Rarely do I make the mistake of thrusting too soon, often do I get trampled because I was too late. Once the horse rears up from your thrust, back up, and thrust at the horse's knees so your thrust doesn't bounce off the rider's shield. Try to land two more thrusts on the horse's knees after it rears up. Of course, you can go straight for thrusting the rider if you want, but I find it more risky and tend to only try for it when the rider is distracted fighting someone else or I just feel confident in that particular situation. If the horse dies, either thrust the rider before he can get up then switch to your alternate weapon, or switch to your alt weap then try to land the free attack before the rider can block.
Try to find a buddy, an archer perhaps, to "protect" him. (Let the archer think you are there to protect him when you are really using him to bait the cav to come meet with your spear) Or if you see your teammates engaged in a melee, consider using your spear to watch their backs to ward off and intercept enemy cav. You just have to evaluate the situation to see what is your best course of action. Do your teammates need you to keep cav off their backs while they melee? or do they need you to come help with their melee? but then you need to stay out of your teammates' way and not stab them. Don't let cav "pull" you around. Don't be a bot and aggro on that frustrating cav and chase him all over the place. You are on foot so you control where the face-off will take place. (Does that make sense?) So stay close to your buddies, go where they go. Let the archers kill the horses, sometimes your threatening presence next to that archer will prevent any cav from ever approaching. Don't move around a lot when on guard duty, you want predictable movement so the archer is comfortable shooting on either side of you without shooting you. If there are not 2+ cav opponents threatening you, then it can be a good idea to put your spear/pike away until the cav begins their approach.
Other misc. things I do are rebind kick to the thumb button on my mouse, "M3" or "M4," don't remember exactly. Easier for me to use, but if I have a "Oh Sh!t" moment I have accidentally clicked kick and died as a result. I rebind "view outfit" to Ctrl, so I can push it while running and move my camera to check my back for opponents. [Off topic Rant]The alternative to using this would be for me to spin in circles often, which would look incredibly silly and prevent me from blocking the archer shooting at me and make "sprinting" somewhat impossible. Some players claim you can use sound to prevent being hit from behind, but while I can use sound to accurately determine enemy locations in every other game I play, it doesn't work for me in Warband. I won't argue with people, but for me it seems like the horse outside of my field of view has an "on/off" audio, either I hear the horse but I have no idea from what direction other than not where I am looking. Or I don't hear the horse at all until the last moment and then it is too late. So using view outfit is necessary for me not to die from behind. I also just try to keep a tab on the # of cav I see and where I last saw them last so I have an idea when and where to expect them to come next, but in the midst of an intense melee you can lose track of these things.
I apologize for the wall of text, I didn't intend to write so much. Hope this may be helpful, and if not, at least on topic
