Why do you build spear/pike men?

[cronullasharks]

got ya , missing the point is my speciality.......I think its just I`m ultra protective of my CR maces with rifling coming soon , so I try to ensure they dont face any combat till they attack

 

[AfterShafter]

got ya , missing the point is my speciality.......I think its just I`m ultra protective of my CR maces with rifling coming soon , so I try to ensure they dont face any combat till they attack

I think that's exactly when you want some pikemen. If you don't have any of them, when a knight comes rolling around, those CR macemen will be first in line to defend. That takes a round out of your attack stack.

And yeah, my point wasn't to say "Well, who needs macemen?" It was to say "All right, if you build 8 macemen and two pikemen, those two pikemen aren't *useless* against enemy cities - they're good for those last few unit cleanups."

Oh, and if you're running out of siege, CR macemen or no, you're likely not moving on until you have more. One or two pikemen in a stack of ten isn't going to change that

 

[cronullasharks]

quick question for you......sometimes when I can see the makeup of the city that I`m going to attack next turn I can see that to upgrade the pikes to CR would suit , but I dont want to as I`m scared of what will come at me in the turn before so its usually combat 2 (and formation if possible).. what do you do?

 

[ezwip]

Your pikeman is still going to defeat any calvary in a one on one. If CR is going to help you in the near future, why not? Just as useful as a medic upgrade IMHO. How often do you stop for several turns to heal units on the way to attack a city anyways? Personally I'd go with the combat upgrade it is more useful.

 

[Walliard]

Then suddenly all his fast moving mounted units come from nowhere , cut down your stack , flank your seige and basically wipe you out....."I wish I had brought just two little pikes"

That's another good point. Just a few knights can damage an entire stack of cats/trebs just by winning a single battle. Pikemen ensure that they don't.

 

[AfterShafter]

quick question for you......sometimes when I can see the makeup of the city that I`m going to attack next turn I can see that to upgrade the pikes to CR would suit , but I dont want to as I`m scared of what will come at me in the turn before so its usually combat 2 (and formation if possible).. what do you do?

Well, it's kind of situational. If I'm a bit low on siege units, and my stack may be a bit on the underpowered side to take the city, I will probably favour CR just to give me that little bit of extra oomph against units that aren't completely softened up.

But if that's not the case, I'll favour combat and medic upgrades, since the Pikemen's only role will be to beat up on guys who are easy fights anyways - and those strength upgrades actually can be quite handy against units like Cataphracts or Cuirassiers. What's more, Pikemen are usually my guys who end up with a lot of very diverse upgrades, so I try and get as many up odd lines as I can so when they upgrade they can fill odd little niche roles (medic mainly).

9/10 times I'll favour strength/medic - but in that rare situation I outlined above where that little bit of extra city hitting power will be potentially critical, I do CR on my pikemen.