Is the phalanx strategy viable?

[ambi]

I've noticed that you can create spearwalls and repulse enemies who move in on you. I'm thinking of creating a spear frontline + flanks, with a pike/archer nucleus. Is this viable, or will the AI just stand there and refuse to engage your spearwall?

[Findanniin]

I'm actually very impressed (and occasionally frustrated!) by the way the AI deals with your spearwalls.

Brainless enemies (beasts, zombies) will charge straight into it, making it very effective.

'Smart' enemies are more complex; they will 'turtle up' and refuse to engage /if/ they have the ranged advantage and can pepper you with arrows and bolts.

I find this sensible. Why would they engage you?

If you have the ranged advantage and create a 'phalanx' / spearwall with your front line - they'll be forced to engage, though if at all possible; they will try to minimise their losses by trying to move around your spearwall, or using shield defense before moving into your spears.

Very efficient play and I'm very impressed by the AI here; The phalanx has it's moments - but it's not always the right solution.

[starkmaddness]

If you have enough good archers, it can work. However as Fin mentioned, the AI is not stupid.

You don't just have to fear their archers, you have to fear their melee switching to Axe/Javelin throwing. So unless you have some leveled 3* archers, you may want some additional range yourself. Wiith a spearwall, they repulse diagonally as well, so you can mix in your own throwers in the spearline.

The second problem, is the AI will also have their units activate shieldwall and charge in, making them fairly hard to hit and repulse. You now have units next to your spearmen who cannot reactivate spearwall.

So, it can be a strong start to a battle, but tactics will often have to change midway through

[Senlin]

Spears are quite nice weapon, especially for the beginning, when your brothers don't have high melee skill. However, later on I found that in general other weapons are more valuable. I would rather aim at having more varied equipment. It also depends on who you fight - if it's heavily armoured opponnent, hammers rock, as they strip armour incredibely easily. If enemy has shields, axes can help by destroying them, or you could use flail to strike over shield. In general I like axes, as they have nice damage and are also good against armour.

Spearwall (the skill) is very effective against enemy that has low melee defense and will blindly charge your ranks, like zombies or the sheep-like things. However, those are usually easy to deal with anyway, so it's not like you have to use the spears.

Myself I usually have 1-2 spears. One of the nice effect of spearwall is that not braindead enemy will try to ignore the spearwall and just attack somewhere else, if it can. This means you can control the flow of enemy units, at least to some extent. I find it works better than if you would just have all units doing spearwall, as then enemy may just wait until your fatigue is high. I have never tried a setup with like 6 spearmen with perk for spear, which would mean fatigue is not a problem though. It could work, if you also had ranged superority.

[Jactar]

Originally posted by Findanniin:

Brainless enemies (beasts, zombies) will charge straight into it, making it very effective.

Lol yeah my elite spear using merc with spear and spearwall killed 15 zombies alone by mostly just using spear wall and letting zombies run to it. It is really killer against stupid enemies.

[MYSTIC]

Originally posted by froz:

like zombies or the sheep-like things.

Lol you mean nachzehrers?

[Senlin]

Yeah, I never remember the name :D

[Pseudomonas]

famed spear + drunkard + strong grip + spearwall + berzerk/killing frenzy = KILLER!
even in late game.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/97233214774227242/D93C931D060C632F9302DB06B567E8D9A5521E7A/

enemies jumping into the spearwall that get hit to their heads are sometimes one-shots

[Horoai]

Originally posted by Pseudomonas:

famed spear + drunkard + strong grip + spearwall = KILLER!
even in late game.

Head hunter + brute works too.

[Pseudomonas]

:) i am still in search of a bbro with brute AND drunkard...

[BrowneHawk]

The spear wall works great but you need back weapons to be able to adapt. Example. Fighting ancient legion. One battle almost all of them had 2 tile weapons. Essentially making my back line of ranged and my spear wall useless. In that example you need to be able to switch to axes and go to town, or else they will just hang back and swing. Also all ranged classes should have a 2 tile back up weapon or maybe throwing axes. SOmeone said throwing axes works great on skeletons.

[Pseudomonas]

the scenario you are summoning is the best that can happen to you.
ancient legion becomes dangerous when their polearms hide behind a bunch of shieldwalling legionaires. in your presented scenario just close in as fast as possible and get them down.

[Horoai]

Originally posted by Pseudomonas:

the scenario you are summoning is the best that can happen to you.
ancient legion becomes dangerous when their polearms hide behind a bunch of shieldwalling legionaires. in your presented scenario just close in as fast as possible and get them down.

They dangerous regardless of what helps them swarm your mercs because they have backstabber and high base melee skill.

[Pseudomonas]

i think their base-skill is rather low, but their pole-attack has a large to hit bonus.
but they lack initiative and thus they are overwhelmed by my archers and get their armor weared down to be killed fast by my approching meleemen.
and warscythes do wonderous things when employed in your first line. just skill them like your standard 2h-guys. brawny, battle-forged, beserker, killing frenzy, reach advantage, etc.

[Pseudomonas]

ps: i build special squadmembers against undead for rotating them in accordingly.

no ranged defence attribute raised, for undeads never use ranged attacks. no anticipation, no crippling strikes, no fearsome, no executioner. leaves much skillpoints & attribute points for offense/defence/initiative

[Whatever100500]

Originally posted by Pseudomonas:

ps: i build special squadmembers against undead for rotating them in accordingly.

no ranged defence attribute raised, for undeads never use ranged attacks. no anticipation, no crippling strikes, no fearsome, no executioner. leaves much skillpoints & attribute points for offense/defence/initiative

What is initiative for against undead? Unless heavily fatigued I always go before any meaningful undead without investing single point into ini. Exceptions are unarmored wiedergangers, auxiliaries and Necrosavants (but you're not going to out-init them anyway).