cavalry charges against pikes units

[Wauthan]

Well I'm sure a cavalry charge would be called off if they see a forest of pikes before them. I'm no expert in medieval warfare but surely pikes were used more like a barrier rather then as a meleeweapon? Can't imagine myself hitting a mounted soldier with a what's essentially a very pointy flagpole.

I thought the damage from polearms was already taking "chargeskewering" into consideration? If they don't then pikes should be worthless against most enemies. A weapon that long is impossible to fight with in melee. It only works if there's a lot of soldiers protecting eachother so the enemy can not slip past the points.

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by Pocus:
I like it too. And I like that you see too that something could be done to enhance this aspect of the tac engine.

There is much that could be enhanced in the tac engine. I could probably write an essay on the matter.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
There is much that could be enhanced in the tac engine. I could probably write an essay on the matter.

We'd rather you write code.

[Jasper]

I'd give spears/pikes a significant attack/defense bonus against cavalry, rather like morningstars get attacking units with against shields. I'd give a similar bonus for light troops vs. trampling.

There's not much point in doing more, since the tactical engine doesn't take into account flanking.

[Jasper]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
There is much that could be enhanced in the tac engine. I could probably write an essay on the matter.

I actually don't think it's so bad, aside from the inability to model flanking. The only other things that are grossly off are your troop type match ups -- which could be easily fixed.

Most obvious examples:
1) Pike/Spear vs. Cavalry (and flying?)
2) Elephants vs. Light Infantry
3) Missiles vs. Light Infantry
4) Light Cavalry vs. anything

1 & 2 could be addressed with Morningstar style attack/defense bonuses.

2 & 3 could be helped by allowing LI to spread out to 1 unit per "square".

4 is more complicated, and would take the addition of "shoot and avoid", and "shoot then attack" orders.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Wauthan:
Well I'm sure a cavalry charge would be called off if they see a forest of pikes before them. I'm no expert in medieval warfare but surely pikes were used more like a barrier rather then as a meleeweapon?

Exactly. Some time ago I suggested to remove the repel and instead subtract the sum of the differences between the length of the attacker's weapon and the length of the longest weapon of all the defenders in the attacked square. Thus a single pikeman would have little effect while 3 would inflict a rather severe penalty.

Now with this system, Hoburgs with pikes would be rather formidable.

[Jasper]

This "everyone should use only pikes" approach would give ridiculous results. Pythium legionaires attacking a unit of pike would get -12 to attack!

Pikes most certainly were melee weapons, and a "barrier" only in the sense that units that couldn't fight them didn't come close to them.