Swords, polearms and spears ?

[PIT_DEFENDER]

Guys is there any real difference in what kind of weapons I choose for me militia ?

[Jabberwocky]

spearmen have strong defense due to their large shields, but weak attack damage. They do, however, do bonus damage against units who are charging them, so they are strongest in a defensive line. Also rather resistant against archers.

footmen with sidearms and small shields have good survivability, do good damage and can be used for offense or defense equally. They are a little less protected against archers.

Polearms do massive damage and have a charge bonus which makes them good in the offensive and in charging and flanking maneuvers, but they have no shields at all and their survivability as frontline soldiers is questionable if forced into defense.

Use polearms only for flanking maneuvers or to chase down archers. Spearmen for defensive lines waiting to be charged by the enemy, and footmen for intercepting enemy flankers, reinforcing spearmen or also for flanking maneuvers or to chase down archers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf8po1Fovvo&t=1s

please be advised: Archers have been buffed significantly since this video was made. Their damage output is now up to 13 and their attack range is increased to 87m.

[PIT_DEFENDER]

So atm best way to go is arm everyone with bows and polearms for flanking and stuff and let mercenaries do the tanking right ;p?

[Calimero]

Im going full swords, works pretty good

[Jabberwocky]

Originally posted by PIT_DEFENDER:

So atm best way to go is arm everyone with bows and polearms for flanking and stuff and let mercenaries do the tanking right ;p?

Tanking is best for either mercenaries with shield wall or spear militia in "stand your ground" mode.

Polearms are great for flanking DPS (in an RPG they would be the rogues with backstabbing), but not so strong when facing enemies alone. Footmen are allrounders. Archers are worthwhile ranged DPS once more since the last update.

[Marshal]

Originally posted by PIT_DEFENDER:

So atm best way to go is arm everyone with bows and polearms for flanking and stuff and let mercenaries do the tanking right ;p?

Going full spearmen still works best rn

[Bigc]

i do double line of spearman (shieldwall) with single line polearms behind/support, seems to work

[Jabberwocky]

whatever works for you...

spearmen have a stat called "Impaling" and a high bonus in it. This means that any unit charging into a standing line of defending spearmen will instantly suffer damage from their own charge. spearmen also have high defense but low damage output, which makes them best for holding a line, and less ideal for attacking.

footmen are jacks of all trades, better at attacking than spearmen but less protected due to their smaller shields. They can hold their own against light infantry, enemy archers and brigands, though.

polearms have a charge bonus and high attack, but low defense, which makes them the best flankers. They also have armor piercing weapons which makes them effective against enemy retinue, but not on their own, since their survivability is so low.

retinue are your elite troops and they are good against anything but archers - they are simply too slow and too easily fatigued to hunt down archers. That is best left to footmen or even polearms.

retinue is best used to protect your own flanks and to engage the enemy retinue so that your polearms or footmen can flank them and charge them in the back.

If you wanna go full spear militia, full footmen etc., you can absolutely do that and be successful with it, though. The units do have strengths and weaknesses, but you need not exploit those to their fullest potential in order to win.