how good are Pikemen as standard infantry?

[sturmovik-jp]

so Pikes are called "heavy infantry" does that mean they would be good without using phalanx? like if i use them to assault a wall would they do better than equal tier swords (ex. Egyptian Pikemen vs. Egyptian sword infantry)
if i flank a force in front of pikes with a pike unit do i use pikes and advance or do i get stuck in without pikes

[Lil B_999]

Originally posted by sturmovik-jp:

so Pikes are called "heavy infantry" does that mean they would be good without using phalanx? like if i use them to assault a wall would they do better than equal tier swords (ex. Egyptian Pikemen vs. Egyptian sword infantry)
if i flank a force in front of pikes with a pike unit do i use pikes and advance or do i get stuck in without pikes

They're good.

[LSD]

Classes like Heavy, Medium, Light just seem to be presets for e.g., a unit's mass on the charge, how it behaves when charged (like bracing), how fast it runs, and how quickly it becomes fatigued.

It doesn't determine the effectiveness. The unit's stats do, and as you can see, pikemen have pretty poor melee stats. Their effectiveness is exclusively in formation.

[Salty Nobody]

Look at the stats compared to an equal priced sword unit. Undeployed pikes will do okay when fighting units weaker than themselves but will do very poorly against most proper melee units of equal cost when not in phalanx.

Mass has little bearing on infantry vs infantry combat. It more affects how fast a unit tires and how badly it gets hurt when cavalry charges into it.

Looking at the melee stats Egyptian pikes undeployed would probably trade evenly against Egyptian swords, but take note that the custom battle cost of the pikes is more than double that of the swords and the swords have precursor javelins that will skew the engagement in their favor if they get a volley off. So not a good trade in most circumstances.

While very unrealistic, in terms of just game mechanics charging pikes in undeployed and then deploying their pikes point blank into the enemy is a viable battle tactic. It is usually best to stack the pike unit behind a real infantry unit when doing this though since lone undeployed pikes are very vulnerable.

[`RV|Pride]

pikes are broken op, only way to really deal with em is to pila them and archer them to death and hope you can flank em. in cities almost impossible. i tend to cycle troops throwing javelins to kill as much of em as possible if i run out of archers.

[Ypulse]

Without phalanx, Pike units lose to any melee unit usually. Even some elite ranged unit can beat them. Pike units have low melee defence, damage, morale and charge stat, which are needed in melee, on top of this they have low shield block- more vulnerable to ranged fire. As other said above, unit mass (light-heavy infantry) is a factor only in charge mechanics.
Btw egyptian pikemen is not heavy, but medium inf. unit and move faster too. Sending sword infantry would be better since they cost less and have similar power, and better shield block vs ranged fire. And if they win the fight they throw pila down from walls-very useful.
The Egyptian sword infantry (cost 200) vs Egypt pike (cost 430) in 1v1 the fight is equal, it is based on luck. If the sword unit throws pila or charge, pike stands no chance.

[Deadbeat_Hero]

Pikes like all phalanx units need to be in formation for them to fight effectively. So Storming a wall with them is a bad idea ,even being on the wall as a defensive unit is a bad idea as they cant get into formation.
Using them as Flankers is somewhat sub-optimal, Its doable , but slow and leaves that unit vulnerable to counter charging and missiles.
Pikes are best used as the Anvil in hammer and anvil tactics or as a wall in choke-points. And they do great at that job as long as they get supported.

[닝닝 공주님의 기사]

just read the stats man. pike have very low melee defense.

with out phalanx they are weak

[Mr.Dark]

Phalanx wall will mass flank support means never lose

[Hammer Of Evil]

pikes are ok, and if you're fighting easy computer you wont really need to do much to win. they'll attack from the front and get punched in by the pikes.

pikes are really good to stop serious cavalry marauding, and thats where i tend to use them most, except against horse archers lol. pikes by themselves don't win major battles for me, but, in city fighting they are pretty interesting to stop enemy cav charges that try to press your men flat. like if you're assaulting major fortifications in egypt or carthage where elephants are used.

otherwise, spear infantry in a phalanx or sword infantry in a shield wall are my go-to all purpose infantry unit.

pikes by themselves can't really kill much outside of the pike wall. they're great when you are ok to hold an area, they're not as good when you have to move around. if the AI was using artillery on you, you wouldn't like the pikes as much lol