Are you supposed to melee pikeman?

[Doom Sayer]

So I tried to use mortars to take out pyschic drone but every colonist died due to the low accuracy. (Spiraled and had to do suicidal rush) Right before everyone died i killed the two pikeman with melee, is this the canon way your supposed to kill them?

[Grumpy Old Guy]

All the mechs are easier to deal with in melee if you have shield belts to get there before you get shot to pieces.

Skip them into your melee line works pretty well. Even your guys that do have guns it's usually better to rush them (assuming they aren't the melee mechs) because most of the mechs have good guns but terrible melee stats. Once you get zeushammers they become a total joke. Just don't use sharp weapons they have super high sharp armor. They're also totally immune to fire so don't bother with plasmaswords.

They are, strangely enough, vulnerable to berzerk and berzerk pulse. Smoke pop can help too.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Grumpy Old Guy:

They are, strangely enough, vulnerable to berzerk and berzerk pulse. Smoke pop can help too.

Most psionics, really. They have 50% resistance but that still means it works on them. Not sure if there's any meaningful effect from vertigo pulse though since they can't vomit.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by Grumpy Old Guy:

They are, strangely enough, vulnerable to berzerk and berzerk pulse. Smoke pop can help too.

Most psionics, really. They have 50% resistance but that still means it works on them. Not sure if there's any meaningful effect from vertigo pulse though since they can't vomit.

It still makes them stunned and really hurts their accuracy.

[Astasia]

Generally want to avoid Scythers in melee of course, if possible. Centipedes are "easier" in melee than at short/mid range but still dangerous, they do a lot of blunt damage and can splat a human skull in a couple hits even through a legendary cataphract helm, doesn't happen often and isn't a serious risk if you can kill them quickly, but it can happen. Safest way to deal with centipedes is with sniper rifles or charge lances, they move slow and can be kited to death without taking any damage.

But ya, pikemen and lancers are basically harmless in melee combat.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Generally want to avoid Scythers in melee of course, if possible. Centipedes are "easier" in melee than at short/mid range but still dangerous, they do a lot of blunt damage and can splat a human skull in a couple hits even through a legendary cataphract helm, doesn't happen often and isn't a serious risk if you can kill them quickly, but it can happen. Safest way to deal with centipedes is with sniper rifles or charge lances, they move slow and can be kited to death without taking any damage.

But ya, pikemen and lancers are basically harmless in melee combat.

Should be noted, Charge lances and sniper rifles work if you're kiting them (which you should be) but if not DO NOT sit there and let them fire at you it's a losing battle they have way more hp than you do and sharp damage from guns takes forever to kill them.

[Doom Sayer]

Next time will melee them then i can just have a distraction run behind trees while others get in close.

[glass zebra]

To quote from their in game description:
"While effective at distance, it is weak in close-range fights and in melee combat.
Veterans of mechanoid wars know that often, the safest place to be around a pikeman is touching it."

Pikemen and lancers are both super easy in melee combat, though you can still easily outrange and stagger lancers. Pikemen are just their sniper counterpart, with much less damage (but high penetration) though. If you can get in range with them, you can also shoot them down if you really want to. All mechanoids except the centipedes have low sharp armour (slightly less than a colonists with nothing but a normal quality devilstrand duster), so pretty much anything except auto pistols works against them.

That said there is no reason to not melee someone who is slow and has no real melee capacities. It's basically auto win against pikeman and lancers and pikeman just can't be outranged. Scythers can still shred your people in melee range and centipedes do a lot of blunt damage, which is only really safe with the power armours and even then can mess people up. Having a zeughammer and a handful of monoswords or charge rifles can kill every mech in stunlock though. You can also skip cast them onto a emp grenade explosion or use a lot of other psy options.

Pikemen are the 2nd slowest mechs, so you can often deal with the others on range and then just open a door and kill the remaining pikeman when they move around the corners since mechs will not actively seek cover. If you try to distract them earlier than that, be prepared to fight the other mechs.

[Vintorez]

Generally if an enemy is using a ranged weapon, you want to melee them. If they have a melee weapon, you want to shoot them from a distance and not let them get close.