How to use Greatswords

[athornton78]

Hello, I have been trying to figure out the best use of the Empire Great Swords unit. They are classed as an elite but struggle against even basic infantry. Any tips?

[StarofTanuki]

Right click at unit card or unit then click point to go or enemy unit .

[Sargeist]

They do alot of armor piercing damage - so they work best aganist heavily armored enemies.

[Shirome Artiste]

Greatswords aren't meant to be used akin to your Swordsmen. Their melee stats are worse(Especially given Honest Steel) but their main strength lies in the fact that they do comparatively high damage/swing and do AP damage.

This leads one to two things:
They're good at hitting armored things
They're good at hitting stuff without being hit back in return.

Ergo: They're meant to charge into armored units that have been caught fighting your basic swordsmen/spearmen and dish out damage. Kind of like slow cavalry that does a bit better in melee and has a bigger unit size.

[Sultschiem]

Swordmen and Spearmen will use against Dwarves, because those have high armor.
Greatswords laugh at armor.

The best way to use Greatswords is either for flanking or as second row attacker.

If you let them charge first, chances are they get shot down by skirmishers because they have no shields.

You want to use Greatswords especially against Dwarves and Chaos, who field heavy armored infantry.

They are also the only armored infantry of the empire themselves.
You can also use them for example to kill Big'Uns since they have no (major) armor piercing.

[athornton78]

Thanks Guys, so I am early campaign playing as Gelt (Great Swords are onelof his additional starting units for those that don't know). Am I better holding them back early game until Chaos arrives?

[Cataph]

What basic infantry are we talking about that can trouble them? With their armour and vs Inf bonus, even dorf warriors (insanely good for their tier) will hardly be a problem.

[athornton78]

I nearly lost my GS's to sword infantry on three occasions so far against successionists in the early game. In fact I have re-started my second campaign as Gelt this morning as I was doing very badly with them and the Outriders. The only decent thing about Gelt so far is that he has access to a mortar when you begin.

[Spooner]

Gelt will become much better once you´ve done a couple of his quest battles. He collects more magic items from quest battles than any other leader.

[George Flowberry]

Originally posted by Shirome Artiste:

Greatswords aren't meant to be used akin to your Swordsmen. Their melee stats are worse(Especially given Honest Steel) but their main strength lies in the fact that they do comparatively high damage/swing and do AP damage.

This leads one to two things:
They're good at hitting armored things
They're good at hitting stuff without being hit back in return.

Ergo: They're meant to charge into armored units that have been caught fighting your basic swordsmen/spearmen and dish out damage. Kind of like slow cavalry that does a bit better in melee and has a bigger unit size.

what this dude said. and what you can do is you can have your basic line infantry/fodder charge their line and charge your greatswords in then. that means your swordsmen and greatswords are mixed in so the swords take the brunt of the melee attacks and greatswords hold out longer so more damage