Spear militia

[OnmyojiOmn]

One thing I really like about certain other strategy games is that you use a lot of militia spearmen in the classical/medieval period. It's more realistic, I like the aesthetic a lot more than axes and swords, and there's more opportunity for flavor elements like shield emblems. Historically, cheap levies and militia with spears were a large part of any army. Spearmen in LoR look awesome, but they're still underused and they're never shown on top of a stack.

This is something I've always missed in Civ. Ideally someone will implement a limited recruitment system, similar to what Medieval 2 has. For now, my suggestion is to make spearmen cheaper and increase their garrison effect by 50%.

 

[esemjay]

Spearmen don't end up in my stacks because I don't build them. :\ They seem sort of useless to me, unless the enemy is charging with a LOT of horses. Archers seem to do the job just fine, unless the stack shows up and it has elephants. I may just be warring incorrectly, but to me, a spearman is just a crappy version of an axeman who can upgrade into something useful.

 

[Alsark]

Yeah, I don't really build spearmen, either, but I have never been much of a warmonger anyway.

 

[Gresharas]

I use a LOT of spearmen already. They normally are my "support": medics, guerrilla, woodsman ones. It add a lot of flexibility to the army and when things get dire they are decent fighters against damaged opponents.

The main issue with spear in history was the fact that it is a weapon very simple to make, maintain and give basic train to. It is also pretty damn versatile and give deep wounds that are difficult to heal*.

Of course in CIV it is necessary to make each "weaponry" unique and thus spears were assigned to do their signature work: cavalry counter. But LoR already make the pikemen's THE most powerful unit in combat between stacks until gunpowder, pretty much what it was supposed to happen history-wise, and in the meantime gives more importance to the crossbow as "unique" counter.



*: I started as much people loving the sword as iconic weapon and got some train in it - then I tried the shortspear and had a lot more fun. Now I also understand why on hell one might want to design and field a weapon like the many halbeard variants.