Newbie questions

[Foom]

Hey marc420, welcome to the addiction.

The thing with the spears makes a lot of sense, and they do have a "repel" attack in Dom2. But sadly, this doesn't work well against heavy cavalry.

My favorite tactic against these buggers is: Large block of heavy infantry with orders to "hold and attack", backed up by a group of mages casting damage spells. Having crappy troops like Mictlan slaves or Maenads absorb the initial lance charge helps too.

I don't think there's a definite answer to small squad vs. large squad. That's the beauty of Dom2: You have to adapt to your enemy and the situation.

[deccan]

Another advantage of having multiple squads instead of one big block is that if you spread the multiple blocks across the battlefield it makes it less likely that enemy non-flying flankers will be able to get to your rear where the vulnerable mages are likely to be.

[Ironhawk]

Coming in late on this thread...

If I recall correctly pikes are the only normal weapon long enough to gain a repel attempt on a lance. But since the repel attempt is against the morale of the attacker and HC usually have good morale, you are probably going to fail.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Ironhawk said:
If I recall correctly pikes are the only normal weapon long enough to gain a repel attempt on a lance.

Long spears (Man has some) are length 5, longer than mounted lances.

And there are also forgeable items (whips, Dancing Trident, Stone Bird). And the female Titan's owl pet. Maybe others, including special attacks on summonable critters - eg, Wailing Ladies if I remember well. True, all of these aren't very common on your regular troops.