Pikemen

Prerequisites

Requires:

Banking

Summary

Defensive bonus vs. mounted units

Gameplay

The Pikeman is the bane of any mounted units’ existence. He is particularly adept at taking down Knights and Mounted Archers with the bladed polearm he wields. Though lacking a Ranged Attack, Pikemen are effective at both standard offense and defense.

Historical

For most of the medieval period, the horse-mounted knight dominated the battlefield of Europe. In 1476, however, at the Battle of Grandson, infantry returned to prominence. There, the Swiss Confederate army defeated the Burgundian Knights, using 600-man squares of eighteen-foot spiked poles. After this event, the pikemen became the mainstay of European infantry until the development of the musket.