Sword or Spear Unit?

[viranto]

I can never decide, should i use the sword units or spear units for the first line by attack or defense? Which is better? Spear only for monster and cavalry? Should i go more to sword units?

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Spears:
- are worse fighters
- tend to hold longer
Swords:
- can kill things
- get munched by cavalry really hard

Why not both?

[TorrentXL]

Spear units tend to have higher melee defence and are therefore better frontline troops to absorb the first blow and then flank with sword troops.

Of course if the enemy has enough cavalry to make it a realistic threat you should keep 2 spear units in reserve to flank your swordsmen.

[†Diablo†]

i have allways two spear units in my army btw in the early game, later i dont use them, later there are better units that do this role better.

[viranto]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Spears:
- are worse fighters
- tend to hold longer
Swords:
- can kill things
- get munched by cavalry really hard

Why not both?

I have always both. My question was, who are better in the frontlines. I make often my own formation. But never know, should i usw spear at front or sword. Sword at the sides? Behind sword? Or before sword. This is my problem :D

[このヘンタイ！]

I always use spear to meatshield / frontline then use great weapon to flank / support

[Egro]

Originally posted by viranto:

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Spears:
- are worse fighters
- tend to hold longer
Swords:
- can kill things
- get munched by cavalry really hard

Why not both?

I have always both. My question was, who are better in the frontlines. I make often my own formation. But never know, should i usw spear at front or sword. Sword at the sides? Behind sword? Or before sword. This is my problem :D

Sword wtih shield is good for frontline. I always have both on front. Spears hold the line and sword push through enemy rank.

[not_slutQueen]

Originally posted by viranto:

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Spears:
- are worse fighters
- tend to hold longer
Swords:
- can kill things
- get munched by cavalry really hard

Why not both?

I have always both. My question was, who are better in the frontlines. I make often my own formation. But never know, should i usw spear at front or sword. Sword at the sides? Behind sword? Or before sword. This is my problem :D

depends on what faction you're playing and what faction you're up against.

Example: you're playing Empire and you're going vs Vampire Counts. I'm assuming you're asking for Singleplayer although most of what I say translates to Multiplayer. It is mid game and the Vampire Counts already have Grave Guard. Unless you can afford Greatswords as a frontline, you want to have Spearmen. The 90 armor the Grave Guard has, together with decent melee defense and anti-infantry bonus will make your Swordsmen worthless. Recruiting Spearmen/Halberdiers will allow you to hold the line longer and be able to deal damage with other means (magic, rear charges, Handgunners...)

[strike478]

Usually Spear is better against cavalry charge and swords are better in preolonging brawls.

[Barser]

Depends on the price of the units. Like with darkelves where the units cost the same I prefer swords as front line at the start of the game with 1 spear at each rear. Maybe one or 2 at the back for protection/reinforcment. But I dont see the big difference in using either. Just needs these 2 spears at the rear.

[GoatPusher]

Talking about singleplayer, it depends on which faction you are using: early swords like Bretonnia's men at arms, empire's swordmans, skelly warriors and the DE Bleakswords, become worthless pretty soon in the game, since they are basiccally meatshields and are mostly useless against any armoured unit and they are wiped out by any cavalry.
Early spears are also meatshields, but they can hold their ground better and can couse some trouble to cavalry and mosters, so they are your guys if you need something to hold the line.
Though in mid/late game you could use heavy swordsman like Grave Guards, saurus warriors, chaos warriors etc, as frontliners, they are a really viable options instead of early spears with low armor, they will hold their ground even VS late game units and will kill something. However many faction don't have heavy swordsman (sword+shield or double sword) and they have to rely on greatswords (greatswords, swordmasters, bretonnia's greatswords, WE wildwood rangers, black orks etc...), theese kind of units are very vulnerable to ranged units (except maybe swordmasters) so you don't usually want to have theese guys in your frontlines, without any cover. That gives you 2 options: 1- you keep bringing cheap spear infantry as meatshield and anvil, or you bring a lot of ranged units to "counter sniping" enemy ranged.
In my late game tipical HE campaing my armies are usually composed by 4 swordmasters to melt heavy infantry, 4 Phoenix guards for heavy cavalry and monsters and 4-6 lothern seaguard as frontline (the rest may be various combination of monsters, sisters of averlorn or cavalry). If I'm facing an infantry heavy army and the enemy won't come to me, I may line up swordmaster in the frontline and charge straight into the enemy, but in most of cases the safest strategy is waiting for the enemy using seaguards as frontline with phenix guard covering the sides and keep the swordmasters in the 2nd line. In this way your frontline of spearman and halberdiers will act like an anvil tanking the enemy and it will give you the time to flank the enemy with swordmasters, archers or cavalry and wipe them.

[Notoko]

Originally posted by viranto:

I can never decide, should i use the sword units or spear units for the first line by attack or defense? Which is better? Spear only for monster and cavalry? Should i go more to sword units?

You need to learn the different types , anit-infantry, ainti large, etc.
Spear units are great for anit-cav and anit-large (monster units), not good against infantry.
Sword units are good for anti-infantry.

Go watch some Warhmmer 2 tactics and army guides videos on youtube.

[dt Walter Robinson]

Spears generally have higher MD than swords, and have Charge Def - Lg. which I consider essential for a front line.

Your front lines' job is to: A. Pin the enemy down and B. Not rout. They aren't actually there to kill stuff, and even though swords are better at killing than spears, you'll have other units that'll be there for killing, and swords are still going to suck compared to them.

Also, I find swords take casualties too swiftly and usually without any Charge Def, they are too vulnerable to too much of what the enemy brings to bear.


Largely though, it depends on what you'll be facing. If the enemy has lots of cav/monsters, then spears for sure, but if they have lots of regular inf, then swords will be a better choice.

[Chthonic Guardian]

I always use spears and then bring my swords and other more elite troops in once the enemy has been stopped and are fighting.
I think spears are better at absorbing the charge, though I have not tested the numbers on that, and hoenstly I just don't care much about them and don't have to worry if they get hit while I am ding macro on something else.

[Desmond]

I only use spear units as my frontline while I have monsters/cav or range units for damage dealing.

the only job the infantry has is to survive untill the rest are in place to kill the others.

[Wyvern]

A lot of it depends on your strat and the units expected function. In MP the rules are very different because even a little bit of damage done in return can be good, but in SP where you basically entirely rely on a front-line of cheap units to just hold, spears are the better choice. That aside, once you start moving into higher tiers high end great weapon/sword and board units can be better than halberds for your frontline, since they can carry to a win vs enemy infantry all on their own in many cases. That aside, its always good to keep some halberd infantry around to provide flank protection against cavalry.