What if pikemen had their attack rate halved?

[Dizaka]

Just now, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

This is done in DE already. Check it out!

ATM Debian is stopping me from doing that (broke everything, nothing works, don't know how to fix, oh well format it is) ;/.  Once I convert to arch I will however.

[Huffman3829]

On 04/10/2021 at 9:05 AM, LetswaveaBook said:

@Huffman3829 I guess the title for this tread was maybe a ill proven. I mainly wanted to make a point in a humorous way that the armor values are problematic. So take the suggestion with a grain of salt.

I understand. I just wanted to give you some stats.

[davidsrsb]

Pike attack is definitely hack, not pierce. They could defeat any armour, including steel plate, which arrows and swords could not. The rate should be low as this is a very unwieldy weapon, but range is far more than a sword or spear.. I like the idea or being able to reach over another soldier.

A few rows of pikes was a formidable barrier to cavalry or infantry attack and was only beaten when firearms became common.

[ChronA]

50 minutes ago, davidsrsb said:

They could defeat any armour, including steel plate, which arrows and swords could not.

How does that work? I'm not disagreeing, but I'm curious if you have a specific mechanism in mind that made pikes more effective against armor than other generic weapons of the age. That would be news to me.

[davidsrsb]

The pike was basically a very long and heavy ~5kg spear. This gave it the power to puncture or badly deform any wearable armour. The downside was its weight and slowness. One pike against a sword would be in trouble as the more agile swordsmen could avoid the pike and hack the pikeman. Many pikes together can cover each other and become very hard to dodge.

The length of the pike was perfect for bringing down cavalry in front of the line, to be killed by the sidearm sword. So effective that knights would often dismount and fight on foot.