why does the pila not work well as a melee weapon?

[Breakingzap]

really though it just makes sense that it would also work somewhat well as a melee weapon. It's a spear why can you not stab people with it better than with a pistol?

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Just part of the melee vs ranged game balance. Everything is not set to be exactly logical compared to the real world.

[BurlsoL]

Probably because your pawn is carrying around a bundle of pila instead of a single one. Fighting with a single spear works better than trying to fight with a spear when you're holding a dozen of them.

Pila, at least the Roman version (pilum) was also designed so that the metal part of the shaft would bend fairly easily, making it good as a throwing weapon since your enemy can't just throw it back at you if you miss, but would have the downside of bending on anything other than a straight thrust.

A pistol on the otherhand is a fairly heavy and sturdy hunk of metal that is still good for bludgeoning skulls.

[ec928]

Same as the real world reason: someone with a dedicated melee weapon would absolutely destroy a pila wielder in close combat. That thing is meant to be thrown and is rather fragile compared to a real melee weapons.

[BurlsoL]

Originally posted by ec928:

Same as the real world reason: someone with a dedicated melee weapon would absolutely destroy a pila wielder in close combat. That thing is meant to be thrown and is rather fragile compared to a real melee weapons.

To be more accurate, while they were designed to be thrown, they were still used as a spear as part of a phalanx style squad, and any thrusting paired with a shield to keep an opponent at distance would still be quite effective. But for your point, someone with a knife or closer ranged weapon could completely destroy someone solitary with a spear and no shield since they could avoid or deflect the first stab and get in closer than the spear would allow.

[Breakingzap]

Originally posted by BurlsoL:

Probably because your pawn is carrying around a bundle of pila instead of a single one. Fighting with a single spear works better than trying to fight with a spear when you're holding a dozen of them.

Pila, at least the Roman version (pilum) was also designed so that the metal part of the shaft would bend fairly easily, making it good as a throwing weapon since your enemy can't just throw it back at you if you miss, but would have the downside of bending on anything other than a straight thrust.

A pistol on the otherhand is a fairly heavy and sturdy hunk of metal that is still good for bludgeoning skulls.

oh ok that makes sense

[KalkiKrosah]

If you melee with a pila the attack type does include a stab, so in that sense it is the best ranged weapon to melee with.

But in Roman times the pila was designed to have a sharp thin tip that was designed to break off upon impact. The reasoning for this was so that the pila could not be picked up by the enemy and thrown back at you. So perhaps that is the reasoning for why it is such a poor melee weapon, it's good for only one attack before you need to break out a new one.

[Bozobub]

Some notes (in no particular order):

• "PIla" is merely the correct plural of "pilum".
  
  
• Pila were actually excellent melee weapons. Roman soldiers loved them, because they pierce armor relatively easily.
  
  
• Spears, in general, are considered possibly THE most dangerous medieval melee weapon ever. This is, however, offset by their significantly higher training requirements, than most weapons.
  
  
• Pila were mainly armor-piercing weapons, hence their pyramidal tip; the thin shaft required for this happened to bend easily but this is considered probably a beneficial but originally unintended consequence of the design, not a primary one. They WERE intended, however, to anchor enemies' shields after penetration; some even had spikes on the butt to facilitate this (by digging into the ground).
  
  
• Most Romans carried TWO pila, although that varied, not the indefinite number in RW.
  
  
• Much of what is claimed in this thread as definite fact, actually isn't; it's *speculation*, albeit by experts in history and medieval weapons. A lot of it has little solid evidence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLLv8E2pWdk