@@MikeJones-qc1ju A little too OP in my opinion as part of what makes them OP is that every other unit seems to stand around letting themselves get stabbed. That and in RBM thrusting is by far more superior than slashing since Bannerlord slashing animation makes it highly unlikely to hit weak spots in the armor and none of the troops take them into account when fighting. Pair that with how armored higher tiered units are, spears (and other weapons) never breaking and RBM making spears effective even at point blank range and anything but spears (either on foot or on horse) is absolutely useless in comparison which is not very realistic.
Lol that was the last battle that I showed for the outro actually! The numbers were slightly better than having a small number of pikes - so year Fians are literally broken as they counter cavalry better than pikes :D
@@Strat-GuidesApril fools idea: Upgrading and combining pike and shot and phalanx formations “To upgrade our archers, Fian Champions” “Since vanilla cavalry isn’t effective we replace em with *fian champions* “ “To upgrade our pikes, we replace em with Fian Champions”
Tactics like this were used in the medieval world, just with the appropriate adjustments to avoid friendly fire. England regularly combined longbowmen with billmen and dismounted men-at-arms in the Hundred Years War, while on the other side of the world, China uses crossbowmen and archers on the flanks of spear units from the Iron Age on. It's mostly just a case of positioning, making sure your missile units can get to safety/your heavy infantry can get in front of them before the lines collide.
it's very possible. take a unit of pikes and/or polearms (menavliaton, veteran falx, etc) and put them in loose. Then, do the same with a sword and shield unit and crossbows. Stack them over each other. 3 units stacked on top of each other makes the formation very thick and can stop cavalry charges with the shields and polearms while the crossbows fire from within without hitting allies and being fully protected. hope this helps
I remember in the Gekokujo mod for Warband the relatively simple change of adding up stab to and removing side swing from all spears dramatically increased the combat capability of ashigaru spearmen from being virtually useless to near Shogun 2 tier against pretty much everything. Yeah the first couple ranks of dudes are still squishy but there's three or four others behind them all stabbing away over their shoulders. Half the time your own men can't hardly get a hit in if they don't outnumber them. Hope Bannerlord improves spearman AI at some point. They're too passive as it is. Always outclassed by everything else.
bannerlord AI's problem is that every single troop acts impulsive and not as a whole unit. Its just the mechanics that keep these seperate troops together in one place, which just creates the look of the formation, but not the effect of it.
yeah but in warband pikes are OP. I remember fighting pikemen and they're all stabbing through each other's torsos and there is no way you can win against that many poky things all at once. So unless there is friendly fire it's OP.
@@ironsoul941 Yeah, they would need to include proper pike collision - maybe that's difficult given it moves around so much. I could see pikemen being just incapable of standing close together then because they're bouncing away, lol
I’m so glad you finally got this video out, we know you’ve been struggling a lot with this video and the script so I’m happy you were satisfied enough with the video to post it :)
Thanks! I was really trying to make Spanish Tercio work, but the results were worse than if you just used 2 lines like usual and micro them, whereas this formation actually provided better results against cavalry.
the result of Strat's Indepth analysis: Taleworlds needs to fix there units and math. great video. its funny to see what tactics work vs what don't in a video game. since games like total war have similar play styles on a more RTS level. be interesting to see if taleworlds snipes the RBM crew one day to implement the combat system they developed into the game. keep up the good work.
I've been playing pike and shot since bannerlord dropped, I've written a few guides on it on the subreddit as well(probably nearly impossible to find them). It's a great way to play the game. I simplify it even further, and keep it more historical, by mixing the pike and crossbows into the same unit. I'll typically run 2-4 blocks (depending on my army size). It's very effective to create enfilading fire opportunities. Central blocks will receive enemy infantry, and then flanking blocks will advance beyond the infantry line, and be able to pump nearly point blank xbow fire into the flank/rear of the enemy infantry line, while being protected from other infantry/cavalry due to the pike mix in the block. You can achieve all sorts of real worldly type tactics with this. Oblique attacks can be extremely effective. Overload one side, but remain in oblique order. Set up so your oblique wing is on the shieldless side of the enemy line. Then you just pump bolts into their unshielded side. Lot's of fun. Glad Strat is doing something similar.
Been waiting for guide. Love it. Been using strictly knights and crossbows in my last playthrough they are effective. Using tactics instead of f1 f3 is the way to go. Terrain advantage can really destroy larger armies against all odds
A pike and shot formation in real life would usually mix shock infantry behind the first few ranks of pikes, using two handed swords, voulges, and halberds, etc. I don't know when that fell out of favor but there's plenty of examples of this type of mixed infantry in history.
That specific formation is the Tercio. It fell out of favor as firearm technology improved and the threat from shock Cavalry decreased thereby reducing the need for pikeman and counter pikemen This style of mixed regiment fell out of favor in the 1700s
Man, I laughed my a** off when you mentioned Ramsay at 01:55 😂🤣 Also, this might not sound relevant to this video, but I just wanted to thank you for confirming and fixing some of the loopholes of the knowledge I'm having about pike & shoot formation. I'm currently writing a novel, and the main character's army comprises mainly of pikeman, range-weapon users (a few bow and arrows, rifles, etc.), with a company of cavalry troopers. I'm also using it in a medieval-like world, so I'm not very sure about how accurate the battles would be. But now that I have this vid, I can somewhat go back and take a look to see what I can fix. Thanks for the vid, Strat. This is very much needed for me.
That's definitely cool, I have my own fantasy fic that is sorta on hold. In it, the army is more specialised to deal with more monsters such as orcs, goblins and imps etc. I was planning on introducing concepts such as special rituals for new recruits and explaining the 'progress tree' that functions very similar to Mount&Blade.
I was confused, I thought the quote from William Wallace is more famous.. Longshanks: Archers. English Commander: I beg pardon, sire. Won't we hit our own troops? Longshanks: Yes... but we'll hit theirs as well. We have reserves. ua-cam.com/video/QNVEYO4BNKQ/v-deo.html
One thing people don't talk about much is that the Genoese crossbowmen weren't just crossbowmen. Each man with a crossbow usually had a spearman, so it effectively was poke and shot before pike and shot was a thing.
It’s probably worth saying that medieval archers did shoot at enemies in a melee with their friends and at Agincourt after the French knights and men at arms had been fighting their English counterparts for a while some would line up behind them and shoot for at least a while before the archers themselves engaged in the melee and that the idea of archers firing volleys like in tv and movies was also largely fiction, unless there was a reason not to just aim at someone and shoot at them (like shooting over a wall or over a shield wall up a hill at people you can’t actually see) archers would shoot at will and at people and their individual weak spots to the best of their abilities
Honestly, I think the real missing ingredient here is effective field artillery. Shred infantry squares with grazing shots, stop cavalry charges cold with canister. Slaughter anyone trying to storm fortifications en-masse. Like the other comments are saying, combining unit types to cover for weaknesses was nothing new in the early-modern era. It was the level of refinement and the scale of production we saw with gunpowder technology that really shaped the battlefield in that period. Artillery went from being exotic one-off pieces you hired mercenary crews for, to an entire dedicated branch of your army with standardized bore diameters, shot weights, powder charges and so on. Handguns went from being expensive, despised novelties to being a cornerstone of how the infantry and cavalry fought. Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl.
I usually used the legend of total war cheese strat. The board formation at edge of map hahaha. I win most of my battle especially when ur band is so high tier. Split your troops with multiple squad. Checker board them and get a little squad of cav to aggro Them when the range squad doing their magic.
I've been running the mod called 'Guns and Powder', which is a Napoleonic warfare mod. Was looking for exactly these kinds of tactics, so thanks as always Strat! It's gonna be some radness. Austrian Jaegers FTW! The mod itself doesn't have Napoleonic pike units, so I have been variously using Khuzait spearmen, etc, for the pikes. I think I have settled on the Sturgian Heavy Spearman as my pike guy (Vlandians have been replaced with Napoleonic Austrians, so no Voulgers unfortunately). Also, the Napoleonic cavalry are Uhlans, Hussars, and Cuirassers, which... are difficult to know how to use properly. The Uhlans have an actual lance, whereas the others only have one-handed swords, so I'm amassing Uhlans, but honestly I still don't know how to use them properly. I am guessing you're into that sort of stuff. Anyway, cheers as always my man.
Pike and Shot formations where used during medieval times before gunpowder. The best example i can give are the English with the Longbowmen/Billmen formations against the French Knights.
This seems like what the AI does when you give them command of mixed melee and ranged. They'll push the archers out to volley, then pull them back whenever melee and cavalry get too close, where they'll fire from the backline, then push back out in front of the melee when it's safe to volley again. It's usually why I F6 them: They do a better job of microing what I wanted them to do, so I can do whatever I want to do.
I wish there was a pike formation option for formations. The tight pike formation with the first 2 rows pointing out and acting as a pointy barricade. This was effective against Infantry just as much as being a defense against cavalry. Their only weakness was missiles
You forgot about nomad archers. They approached very close to make bowmem run and shoot pikemen in short distance. To prevent this you need heavy chivalry)
Since your main source of damage comes from archers, replacing pike with shield would be an improvement. I normally min max it to 2 groups of 50-100 heavy shield carriers in the front with a slight gap and the rest with archers at the rear. Sometimes I dismount my calvaries in front of my front line to add an extra layer of meat shield if my enemy have a lot of horses.
Its all about combined arms warfare. Its as old as war deapite commonly attributed to the modern era. Its just the different arms were artillery, heavy infantry, skirmishers, archers, amd cavalry. The specifics changed over time but the idea of combining and coordinating different unit types to cover each other's weakness is a classic
I'm such a small channel compared to them, but I'm thinking about making my own video like this, but make it cinematic and cover an historic battle. I think it would be interesting!
This tactic would still work very well with friendly fire. There's no avoiding the chaos it would cause on friendly units at that point, but that's when you just treat your spear infantry as expendable. And honestly, they are. Infantry are cheap to recruit, cheap to upgrade, easy to upgrade, and can easily be recruited in large numbers. I haven't seen any other practical uses for a spearwall such as this in Bannerlord - compared to just fielding a mass of Fians and KG - so, nice job with the strategy.
The main issue with bannerlord and pikes and other cav-deterrent formations or weapons is the fact that cavalry have 0 life preservation instinct and just run through every formation. This applies to every unit in the game but it makes cavalry in particular have a VERY different dynamic than they would irl.
Friendly fire can be actually easily modded into the game if you are interested in testing it. Just add MissileWithPhysics="true" to the weapon flags of ammo such as arrows and bolts. But be warned, AI does not understand that it can team kill and it will do so with extreme prejudice (archers will kill 25% of their own archer formation for example).
I would be interested in starting off with the archers within the pike men but as the enemy begins moving forward, pull the archers out to the wings and shoot the enemy in the flanks, head of or behind the pike men.
I was like "cool, let's see how some good and effective tactic works in this game", all of the sudden, I read "El Borracho gained a level" and my spanish blood goes BRRRRRRRRR
I think what Bannerlord needs to do is introduce Combat Styles for units. There's more than one way to fight with a single weapon type - right now, each weapon type assumes only one fighting style. In the real world, there were different ways to use a spear. Combat Styles would also make it possible to tell a unit to only thrust rather than stupidly swing a spear.
I thk the best strat would be to put 1 row of shield in front and put pikes on scatter form behind. This would block arrows and enemy infantry, which pikes are vounerable to, while stopping cav affecting the form. Then, just move the 2h infantry where enemy cavs are stuck. As for cavs charging at archers, I just put my own cav right behind the archers so they are stuck there. Then my archers usually finish them off. Additionally, when using horse archers, dont just charge them. Put them behind the enemy shields so they get clear shots. Great for stacking up kills. (Accuracy falls dramatically when left on charge due to speed and hence, poor dps). If u have bunch of Khuzait elites, place them on unprotected enemy archers to wipe them off.
I mean medieval strategy aside, just per the bannerlord mechanics, a shield infrantry in the middle would just do better. Their shields would protect from the onslaught of the cavalry better and they can sustain shots, while you can use two formations of archers to the sides with the same effect.
I once tried a mod that implemented teamkills, to make the battles more immersive.. It just looked absolutely ridiculous. My men were killing each other by accident through mele hits in an extremely high rate.. The mod however does not affect skirmishers and archers. It seems these units never hit allies, no matter what. The worst is during the sieges, when armies clash in a tight location.. Units start massacring each other as much as their teammates.
Maybe in practice we should use voulgers or or vl. sergeants instead of pikemen. They would stop cavalry effectivly as well,but be less vulnerable to infantry and shooters. And in this case we would be some kind of cosplaying swiss combat style.
IRL, a formation of pikes is more efficient in a dense formation, a hightest number of man in the tightest space equal bigest wall of pikes and solid/impassable formation. Then add shooters in mobile formation to come and go around the pikesmen and you optimize the strategy (you will need long range shooters to compensate the travels time. Try it like this in the game. (sorry in advance, english is not my first language)
I used Hannibals tactics at Cannae in Bannerlord! The philosophy is to have strong flanks and weak center. So i place my shilded infantry at flanks against massive cavalary and infantry charge, archers are in center harising the enemy until it comes to contact. When contact begins i order infantry at flanks that are in shield wall to charge, then i order archers to stop firing and charge as well. Cavalary charges to harass enemy cav and archers. Results are massive!!! I managed on a flat ground to defeat enemy in 100vs200 battle. My only advantage is that i had level 5 troops while enemy had Level 3-4. In battles when you outnumber the enemy or you are even, you can expcect minimal loses, like 5-10 KIA in battles like 100vs100 P.S. The trick is to pull back archers like 20 meters away from the flanks, so you make a bulge. I didn't mention that. Additional info: I am at patch 1.1.6. I played Campaign trying to siege down Gersegos castle against western empire, and out of nowhere that horde of 200+ people came, I lost 45 man KIA, 30 were wounded. Battle gave me 33,1 renown
Pike and shot was invented in the time of pikes and crossbows and mainly implemented by the swiss. You said that whit realisum it will not work, but you forget that cavalry never ran into big pointy objects. Also pikes couter infantry even if they are whit shields as we have seen in medieval times or in the greek sarisa phalanx. The pike and shot formation was pikes infront and crossbows behind them so there wasnt friendly fire. The swiss formations where the best in Europe for many years.
Interesting, I've only ever heard/read about Pike and Shot in the gun powder era! I'll have to do a bit more thorough research next time, thank you for the info :D
I'm a bit behind and I'm sure someone's said this already, but one of the biggest factors that's kind of missing from these tests is that Pike and Shotte formations weren't typically JUST pikes and gunners/crossbows -- there was almost always a third type of infantry, usually swordsmen or halberdiers, to aid the pikemen once the melee had begun. Historical armies were well aware of the disadvantage pikes had against closer-range melee troops, and they almost always accounted for this.
This is only true for the 1500s, starting around the second half of the 16th century pike and shot formations in european armies gradually faced out other types of infantry such as halberdiers or sword and buckler to the point of only having pikes. The proportion of shot to pike was also increased paralleling the advancements ocurring in firearms. While maybe around the start of the 16th century spanish tercios would have a rough proportion of 1Pike, 1Sword and Buckler and 1 shot, towards the end of the century it would be more akin to 2 Pike, 3 Shot, since shot had become so effective, pikes now were mostly needed to counter cavalry or stop a "push of pikes" from the enemy. Roughly the same evolution occured in other "pike and shot models" such as the dutch and later the swedish model(which increased the proportion of shot to pike even more), allthoug as fas as i know english armies were amongst the slowest ones in modernizing their pike and shot formations, Billmen and Longbowmen still being seen in english armies very late in the 16th century and i think even around the start of the 17th. (Allthough i am not sure about that, someone correct me if i am wrong)
Now i wonder: would this work in mount and blade with fire and sword? its a historic setting with gunpowder but i dont know if the games Orders would allow it.
Yes. Pike and shot is a big part of WF&S. Pike troops will automatically kneel and brace in front of your lines of marksmen. Game is criminally underrated. We need more videos on it!
I subscribed and couldn't stop watching these tactical videos! Im running a playthrough myself and was wondering if this is a mod? Wish I could command my army like this. lol
When i use pike men i do it like this. One line of pike men two men deep to stop the first charge then either cavelery shock troops or more pike men to kill them when they get to other side of formation
I thought about it, just not sure. I used to play the TW games back in the day, I should give them a try. OR load up one of the older ones that I already own and try something similar :)
I have a question can you make a video on modding basic for people who want to start modding like me so we can understand the basics and how to do it I want to add a few things to bannerlord I really want to get the game files and expand the map and add more kingdoms and Nations beyond the world calradia A few other things to make more of the nation's be more medieval to their real-life counterparts on what they practice in did and that will get interesting😂😅
Also, just to add the pike and shot name is a bit misleading. There were also swordsmen and in later iterations halberdiers in these formations. Giving them a better chance in the areas that the pikes couldn't cover. A great example of this is the Swiss pike and shot formations/Spanish tercio of the late Middle Ages/early renasaunce.
Okay, so historian here. The tercio formation originally had crossbows instead of gunpowder weapons and it still had great success. So yeah, pike and shoot is doable with crossbows
I love your content but id like to know where you take the knowlege about medival warfare did you just research or are you a Historian who studid medival warfare(sry for my bad englisch Im german so sry)
100% agree, they would be better. The only reason I used pikes is because it's in the name of the tactic lol Hard to make a pike and shot video without either pike or shot and I already took out the shot :D
The point of using the formation like this is to allow the pikes to work together with the crossbows. If you put them in line or shield formation, they will block the crossbows from being able to shoot. Pikes are better when they are closer together, BUT they are even better in loose with crossbows to support.
Ngl I do use Pike and Shot in singleplayer BUT I also mix Voulgiers with the Pikes so that way they can not only repel cavalry but also at least hold the line in melee. Sadly however against elite troops or heavy infantry- The line will begin to break if the crossbows/archers don't break the enemy fast enough; however, can remedy that by having a melee cavalry detachment but only if they are not currently preoccupied meleeing other enemy cav units. Pike and Shot fun when on the field but during sieges- Uhhhhhhh. Don't try it lolz.
Can you do videos on console? I use terrain, strategy and everything and ai simply respawns reinforcements right behind my troops, flanking me. So I always need to be on the lookout for reinforcements appearing out of thin air 😅
pikes were effective against infantry, but in the game they're pretty much the worst option.
they also dont use pikes when faced against infantry, they switch to their sidearm weapon.
Unless you use the rbm then they are op
yeah they are useless in vanilla but with RBM, vlandian pikemen are the meta infantry
Alexander the Great was the Floyd Mayweather of Pike warfare
@@MikeJones-qc1ju A little too OP in my opinion as part of what makes them OP is that every other unit seems to stand around letting themselves get stabbed. That and in RBM thrusting is by far more superior than slashing since Bannerlord slashing animation makes it highly unlikely to hit weak spots in the armor and none of the troops take them into account when fighting.
Pair that with how armored higher tiered units are, spears (and other weapons) never breaking and RBM making spears effective even at point blank range and anything but spears (either on foot or on horse) is absolutely useless in comparison which is not very realistic.
I was waiting for the "finally here's a battle replacing the pike with more fians, to show just how broken they are" 🤣
Lol that was the last battle that I showed for the outro actually! The numbers were slightly better than having a small number of pikes - so year Fians are literally broken as they counter cavalry better than pikes :D
@@Strat-GuidesApril fools idea:
Upgrading and combining pike and shot and phalanx formations
“To upgrade our archers, Fian Champions”
“Since vanilla cavalry isn’t effective we replace em with *fian champions* “
“To upgrade our pikes, we replace em with Fian Champions”
The biggest takeaway for me is asking why in the world at least some of the adjustments of RBM haven't been included in the main game.
100% agree
What even is RBM
@@abhi5504 Realistic Battle Mod. I recommend you check it out.
@@anderslennartsson1828 so it makes the ai more intelligent?
Tactics like this were used in the medieval world, just with the appropriate adjustments to avoid friendly fire. England regularly combined longbowmen with billmen and dismounted men-at-arms in the Hundred Years War, while on the other side of the world, China uses crossbowmen and archers on the flanks of spear units from the Iron Age on. It's mostly just a case of positioning, making sure your missile units can get to safety/your heavy infantry can get in front of them before the lines collide.
Would be cool to see an early tercio formation, with 1/3rd sword and shield inf, 1/3rd pike and 1/3rd crossbow
This video was actually supposed to be a Tercio tactics test, but I couldn't get it to work very well :(
it's very possible. take a unit of pikes and/or polearms (menavliaton, veteran falx, etc) and put them in loose. Then, do the same with a sword and shield unit and crossbows. Stack them over each other. 3 units stacked on top of each other makes the formation very thick and can stop cavalry charges with the shields and polearms while the crossbows fire from within without hitting allies and being fully protected.
hope this helps
@@Strat-Guides could you tell me, where did you find so long pikes?
@@ГеоргийБолотник Isn't that just the normal Vlandian pikemen unit?
I remember in the Gekokujo mod for Warband the relatively simple change of adding up stab to and removing side swing from all spears dramatically increased the combat capability of ashigaru spearmen from being virtually useless to near Shogun 2 tier against pretty much everything.
Yeah the first couple ranks of dudes are still squishy but there's three or four others behind them all stabbing away over their shoulders. Half the time your own men can't hardly get a hit in if they don't outnumber them.
Hope Bannerlord improves spearman AI at some point. They're too passive as it is. Always outclassed by everything else.
bannerlord AI's problem is that every single troop acts impulsive and not as a whole unit. Its just the mechanics that keep these seperate troops together in one place, which just creates the look of the formation, but not the effect of it.
yeah but in warband pikes are OP. I remember fighting pikemen and they're all stabbing through each other's torsos and there is no way you can win against that many poky things all at once. So unless there is friendly fire it's OP.
@@ironsoul941 Yeah, they would need to include proper pike collision - maybe that's difficult given it moves around so much. I could see pikemen being just incapable of standing close together then because they're bouncing away, lol
I’m so glad you finally got this video out, we know you’ve been struggling a lot with this video and the script so I’m happy you were satisfied enough with the video to post it :)
Thanks! I was really trying to make Spanish Tercio work, but the results were worse than if you just used 2 lines like usual and micro them, whereas this formation actually provided better results against cavalry.
the result of Strat's Indepth analysis: Taleworlds needs to fix there units and math. great video. its funny to see what tactics work vs what don't in a video game. since games like total war have similar play styles on a more RTS level. be interesting to see if taleworlds snipes the RBM crew one day to implement the combat system they developed into the game. keep up the good work.
I learned about pike and shot back in Warband, playing as the Rhodoks.
I've been playing pike and shot since bannerlord dropped, I've written a few guides on it on the subreddit as well(probably nearly impossible to find them). It's a great way to play the game. I simplify it even further, and keep it more historical, by mixing the pike and crossbows into the same unit. I'll typically run 2-4 blocks (depending on my army size). It's very effective to create enfilading fire opportunities. Central blocks will receive enemy infantry, and then flanking blocks will advance beyond the infantry line, and be able to pump nearly point blank xbow fire into the flank/rear of the enemy infantry line, while being protected from other infantry/cavalry due to the pike mix in the block.
You can achieve all sorts of real worldly type tactics with this. Oblique attacks can be extremely effective. Overload one side, but remain in oblique order. Set up so your oblique wing is on the shieldless side of the enemy line. Then you just pump bolts into their unshielded side.
Lot's of fun. Glad Strat is doing something similar.
Loose formation defeats the purpose of pikemen. Pikes worked by forming a wall to stop frontal attacks.
Been waiting for guide. Love it. Been using strictly knights and crossbows in my last playthrough they are effective.
Using tactics instead of f1 f3 is the way to go. Terrain advantage can really destroy larger armies against all odds
Could you perhaps do a video showcasing the difference between vanilla and RBM?
Easy. Cataphracts dont die in RBM
@@MegaOgrady ever heard of a mace?
@@daldan66 Still take ages to kill a single cataphract
@@MegaOgrady nah man im running realistic battle mod right now and a mace does wonders against them
@@MegaOgradyBlunt dmg melt armored troops
Note that firearms were invented in 13th century. Which is medieval period
I was going to start a playthrough without RBM but it's so obvious how essential it is after that demo
Agreed, It's hard to play without RBM now
@@Strat-GuidesIt sucks that they aren't willing to put mods on console but that's sony and Microsoft's fault
A pike and shot formation in real life would usually mix shock infantry behind the first few ranks of pikes, using two handed swords, voulges, and halberds, etc.
I don't know when that fell out of favor but there's plenty of examples of this type of mixed infantry in history.
That specific formation is the Tercio. It fell out of favor as firearm technology improved and the threat from shock Cavalry decreased thereby reducing the need for pikeman and counter pikemen
This style of mixed regiment fell out of favor in the 1700s
@@SpazzyGenius Not just the tercio every army of that era mixed halberd with pikes, not just the spanish.
Man, I laughed my a** off when you mentioned Ramsay at 01:55 😂🤣
Also, this might not sound relevant to this video, but I just wanted to thank you for confirming and fixing some of the loopholes of the knowledge I'm having about pike & shoot formation.
I'm currently writing a novel, and the main character's army comprises mainly of pikeman, range-weapon users (a few bow and arrows, rifles, etc.), with a company of cavalry troopers. I'm also using it in a medieval-like world, so I'm not very sure about how accurate the battles would be. But now that I have this vid, I can somewhat go back and take a look to see what I can fix.
Thanks for the vid, Strat. This is very much needed for me.
That's definitely cool, I have my own fantasy fic that is sorta on hold. In it, the army is more specialised to deal with more monsters such as orcs, goblins and imps etc. I was planning on introducing concepts such as special rituals for new recruits and explaining the 'progress tree' that functions very similar to Mount&Blade.
@@TheNapster153 Now that sounds quite interesting! Man, you piqued my interest already, what the heck 😂🤣
D*ick
I was confused, I thought the quote from William Wallace is more famous..
Longshanks: Archers.
English Commander: I beg pardon, sire. Won't we hit our own troops?
Longshanks: Yes... but we'll hit theirs as well. We have reserves.
ua-cam.com/video/QNVEYO4BNKQ/v-deo.html
One thing people don't talk about much is that the Genoese crossbowmen weren't just crossbowmen. Each man with a crossbow usually had a spearman, so it effectively was poke and shot before pike and shot was a thing.
It’s probably worth saying that medieval archers did shoot at enemies in a melee with their friends and at Agincourt after the French knights and men at arms had been fighting their English counterparts for a while some would line up behind them and shoot for at least a while before the archers themselves engaged in the melee and that the idea of archers firing volleys like in tv and movies was also largely fiction, unless there was a reason not to just aim at someone and shoot at them (like shooting over a wall or over a shield wall up a hill at people you can’t actually see) archers would shoot at will and at people and their individual weak spots to the best of their abilities
Honestly, I think the real missing ingredient here is effective field artillery. Shred infantry squares with grazing shots, stop cavalry charges cold with canister. Slaughter anyone trying to storm fortifications en-masse. Like the other comments are saying, combining unit types to cover for weaknesses was nothing new in the early-modern era. It was the level of refinement and the scale of production we saw with gunpowder technology that really shaped the battlefield in that period. Artillery went from being exotic one-off pieces you hired mercenary crews for, to an entire dedicated branch of your army with standardized bore diameters, shot weights, powder charges and so on. Handguns went from being expensive, despised novelties to being a cornerstone of how the infantry and cavalry fought.
Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl.
I usually used the legend of total war cheese strat. The board formation at edge of map hahaha. I win most of my battle especially when ur band is so high tier.
Split your troops with multiple squad. Checker board them and get a little squad of cav to aggro
Them when the range squad doing their magic.
I've been running the mod called 'Guns and Powder', which is a Napoleonic warfare mod. Was looking for exactly these kinds of tactics, so thanks as always Strat! It's gonna be some radness. Austrian Jaegers FTW!
The mod itself doesn't have Napoleonic pike units, so I have been variously using Khuzait spearmen, etc, for the pikes. I think I have settled on the Sturgian Heavy Spearman as my pike guy (Vlandians have been replaced with Napoleonic Austrians, so no Voulgers unfortunately). Also, the Napoleonic cavalry are Uhlans, Hussars, and Cuirassers, which... are difficult to know how to use properly. The Uhlans have an actual lance, whereas the others only have one-handed swords, so I'm amassing Uhlans, but honestly I still don't know how to use them properly.
I am guessing you're into that sort of stuff. Anyway, cheers as always my man.
Always a great day when my bro uploads a Banner Lord video
Making Rhodok proud 🥲
Pike and Shot formations where used during medieval times before gunpowder. The best example i can give are the English with the Longbowmen/Billmen formations against the French Knights.
There wasnt pike and shot in medieval warfare but there was the Swiss pike square
This seems like what the AI does when you give them command of mixed melee and ranged. They'll push the archers out to volley, then pull them back whenever melee and cavalry get too close, where they'll fire from the backline, then push back out in front of the melee when it's safe to volley again. It's usually why I F6 them: They do a better job of microing what I wanted them to do, so I can do whatever I want to do.
I wish there was a pike formation option for formations. The tight pike formation with the first 2 rows pointing out and acting as a pointy barricade. This was effective against Infantry just as much as being a defense against cavalry. Their only weakness was missiles
It great to see you still playing bannerlord bro let get this game out there so it can get the recognition it deserves 💪💪💪💯💯
We need more of this 🐐❤🐐
You forgot about nomad archers. They approached very close to make bowmem run and shoot pikemen in short distance. To prevent this you need heavy chivalry)
I love pikes with RBM❤
Since your main source of damage comes from archers, replacing pike with shield would be an improvement.
I normally min max it to 2 groups of 50-100 heavy shield carriers in the front with a slight gap and the rest with archers at the rear.
Sometimes I dismount my calvaries in front of my front line to add an extra layer of meat shield if my enemy have a lot of horses.
Agreed, but then I couldn't call the video pike and shot :D
@@Strat-Guides Giving you a new title for future video "Meat Shield and Shot"🤣🤣🤣
Its all about combined arms warfare. Its as old as war deapite commonly attributed to the modern era. Its just the different arms were artillery, heavy infantry, skirmishers, archers, amd cavalry. The specifics changed over time but the idea of combining and coordinating different unit types to cover each other's weakness is a classic
what I took away from this video is vanilla has like 0 balance.
Coool, im gonna try this tactics , nice work man :D
No problem! It's nice because it's very simple to pull off :)
3:30
They only effective against calvary in vanilla then my Legionaries start getting killed by veteran Falxman 😭😭😭
Lol love the name of your companion or character. "El borracho" means the drunk 😂
I'd love to see a colab with HistoryMarche.
I'm such a small channel compared to them, but I'm thinking about making my own video like this, but make it cinematic and cover an historic battle. I think it would be interesting!
I use two ranks of pikemen in the first and seocnd line,srchers third and fourth line and rest i use shock infantry.
I've been playing this way since Warband to great effect. Rhodoks never die.
This tactic would still work very well with friendly fire. There's no avoiding the chaos it would cause on friendly units at that point, but that's when you just treat your spear infantry as expendable. And honestly, they are. Infantry are cheap to recruit, cheap to upgrade, easy to upgrade, and can easily be recruited in large numbers. I haven't seen any other practical uses for a spearwall such as this in Bannerlord - compared to just fielding a mass of Fians and KG - so, nice job with the strategy.
The main issue with bannerlord and pikes and other cav-deterrent formations or weapons is the fact that cavalry have 0 life preservation instinct and just run through every formation. This applies to every unit in the game but it makes cavalry in particular have a VERY different dynamic than they would irl.
Friendly fire can be actually easily modded into the game if you are interested in testing it. Just add MissileWithPhysics="true" to the weapon flags of ammo such as arrows and bolts. But be warned, AI does not understand that it can team kill and it will do so with extreme prejudice (archers will kill 25% of their own archer formation for example).
I would be interested in starting off with the archers within the pike men but as the enemy begins moving forward, pull the archers out to the wings and shoot the enemy in the flanks, head of or behind the pike men.
I think with a wide enough pike line it could work! The only issue is cavalry are usually still roaming at that point, which does cause some issues.
I was like "cool, let's see how some good and effective tactic works in this game", all of the sudden, I read "El Borracho gained a level" and my spanish blood goes BRRRRRRRRR
Lol El Borracho chingon!
Maybe do hammer and anvil tactic, although I already know it's good
Ramsay Bolton wished he was Longshanks … archers ! But sire we will hit our own troops?!… yesss but we’ll hit theirs too!
I think what Bannerlord needs to do is introduce Combat Styles for units. There's more than one way to fight with a single weapon type - right now, each weapon type assumes only one fighting style. In the real world, there were different ways to use a spear.
Combat Styles would also make it possible to tell a unit to only thrust rather than stupidly swing a spear.
I thk the best strat would be to put 1 row of shield in front and put pikes on scatter form behind.
This would block arrows and enemy infantry, which pikes are vounerable to, while stopping cav affecting the form. Then, just move the 2h infantry where enemy cavs are stuck.
As for cavs charging at archers, I just put my own cav right behind the archers so they are stuck there. Then my archers usually finish them off.
Additionally, when using horse archers, dont just charge them. Put them behind the enemy shields so they get clear shots. Great for stacking up kills. (Accuracy falls dramatically when left on charge due to speed and hence, poor dps).
If u have bunch of Khuzait elites, place them on unprotected enemy archers to wipe them off.
Mods save BL, and are now essential !
I mean medieval strategy aside, just per the bannerlord mechanics, a shield infrantry in the middle would just do better. Their shields would protect from the onslaught of the cavalry better and they can sustain shots, while you can use two formations of archers to the sides with the same effect.
I once tried a mod that implemented teamkills, to make the battles more immersive.. It just looked absolutely ridiculous. My men were killing each other by accident through mele hits in an extremely high rate.. The mod however does not affect skirmishers and archers. It seems these units never hit allies, no matter what.
The worst is during the sieges, when armies clash in a tight location.. Units start massacring each other as much as their teammates.
Woppaaaaaa ive been waiting for this for so long
Love the game of thrones reference
Maybe in practice we should use voulgers or or vl. sergeants instead of pikemen. They would stop cavalry effectivly as well,but be less vulnerable to infantry and shooters.
And in this case we would be some kind of cosplaying swiss combat style.
Rbm mod makes everything better, only problem i have with it is the way it changes unit gear.
IRL, a formation of pikes is more efficient in a dense formation, a hightest number of man in the tightest space equal bigest wall of pikes and solid/impassable formation. Then add shooters in mobile formation to come and go around the pikesmen and you optimize the strategy (you will need long range shooters to compensate the travels time. Try it like this in the game. (sorry in advance, english is not my first language)
cavalery is a good option to cover the flanks of the pikesmen formation
I used Hannibals tactics at Cannae in Bannerlord! The philosophy is to have strong flanks and weak center.
So i place my shilded infantry at flanks against massive cavalary and infantry charge, archers are in center harising the enemy until it comes to contact.
When contact begins i order infantry at flanks that are in shield wall to charge, then i order archers to stop firing and charge as well. Cavalary charges to harass enemy cav and archers.
Results are massive!!!
I managed on a flat ground to defeat enemy in 100vs200 battle. My only advantage is that i had level 5 troops while enemy had Level 3-4.
In battles when you outnumber the enemy or you are even, you can expcect minimal loses, like 5-10 KIA in battles like 100vs100
P.S. The trick is to pull back archers like 20 meters away from the flanks, so you make a bulge. I didn't mention that.
Additional info: I am at patch 1.1.6. I played Campaign trying to siege down Gersegos castle against western empire, and out of nowhere that horde of 200+ people came, I lost 45 man KIA, 30 were wounded.
Battle gave me 33,1 renown
Pike and shot was invented in the time of pikes and crossbows and mainly implemented by the swiss.
You said that whit realisum it will not work, but you forget that cavalry never ran into big pointy objects.
Also pikes couter infantry even if they are whit shields as we have seen in medieval times or in the greek sarisa phalanx.
The pike and shot formation was pikes infront and crossbows behind them so there wasnt friendly fire. The swiss formations where the best in Europe for many years.
Interesting, I've only ever heard/read about Pike and Shot in the gun powder era! I'll have to do a bit more thorough research next time, thank you for the info :D
@@Strat-Guides Aways glad to help.
I have to say, reshade is fantastic with Bannerlord.
I'm a bit behind and I'm sure someone's said this already, but one of the biggest factors that's kind of missing from these tests is that Pike and Shotte formations weren't typically JUST pikes and gunners/crossbows -- there was almost always a third type of infantry, usually swordsmen or halberdiers, to aid the pikemen once the melee had begun. Historical armies were well aware of the disadvantage pikes had against closer-range melee troops, and they almost always accounted for this.
This is only true for the 1500s, starting around the second half of the 16th century pike and shot formations in european armies gradually faced out other types of infantry such as halberdiers or sword and buckler to the point of only having pikes. The proportion of shot to pike was also increased paralleling the advancements ocurring in firearms. While maybe around the start of the 16th century spanish tercios would have a rough proportion of 1Pike, 1Sword and Buckler and 1 shot, towards the end of the century it would be more akin to 2 Pike, 3 Shot, since shot had become so effective, pikes now were mostly needed to counter cavalry or stop a "push of pikes" from the enemy. Roughly the same evolution occured in other "pike and shot models" such as the dutch and later the swedish model(which increased the proportion of shot to pike even more), allthoug as fas as i know english armies were amongst the slowest ones in modernizing their pike and shot formations, Billmen and Longbowmen still being seen in english armies very late in the 16th century and i think even around the start of the 17th. (Allthough i am not sure about that, someone correct me if i am wrong)
Pikemen also often carried swords as well.
Now i wonder: would this work in mount and blade with fire and sword? its a historic setting with gunpowder but i dont know if the games Orders would allow it.
Yes. Pike and shot is a big part of WF&S. Pike troops will automatically kneel and brace in front of your lines of marksmen. Game is criminally underrated. We need more videos on it!
I subscribed and couldn't stop watching these tactical videos! Im running a playthrough myself and was wondering if this is a mod? Wish I could command my army like this. lol
Thanks for watching! The top down view is called RTS mod
Pike n a shot is what I'm having fer dinner
When i use pike men i do it like this. One line of pike men two men deep to stop the first charge then either cavelery shock troops or more pike men to kill them when they get to other side of formation
ever considered making some total warhammer 40k videos, your strat style theme might fit that.
I thought about it, just not sure. I used to play the TW games back in the day, I should give them a try. OR load up one of the older ones that I already own and try something similar :)
yes more of this yes
Great video
Thanks!
Hell yea, they do!
lol battle of the bastards always come to mind with my questionable archer placement
Charles V has entered the game
Thanks!
I have a question can you make a video on modding basic for people who want to start modding like me so we can understand the basics and how to do it
I want to add a few things to bannerlord I really want to get the game files and expand the map and add more kingdoms and Nations beyond the world calradia
A few other things to make more of the nation's be more medieval to their real-life counterparts on what they practice in did and that will get interesting😂😅
Also, just to add the pike and shot name is a bit misleading. There were also swordsmen and in later iterations halberdiers in these formations. Giving them a better chance in the areas that the pikes couldn't cover. A great example of this is the Swiss pike and shot formations/Spanish tercio of the late Middle Ages/early renasaunce.
Those were the longest pikes I’ve ever seen.
More like this
Okay, so historian here. The tercio formation originally had crossbows instead of gunpowder weapons and it still had great success. So yeah, pike and shoot is doable with crossbows
Have you tried out a hoplite phalanx? Is it possible to do well with spearman in a shieldwall with javelin armed skirmishers covering the flanks?
AI dont use spears againts foot units if they have another weapon so its usually impossible
@@trebuchet8568 Custom unit mod would permit such a thing. Honestly can't play the game without one at this point.
Pikemen confirmed S tier
Try this again but put the pikemen in a square or shield wall formation
This is the tactic of the Spanish tercios in the early times
Finally. Time to beat the Empire's and Kuzhait's asses
How did you get the bird eye view
Let’s gooooo
Which Med mod are you using looks great!
I had RBM, True Armies of Calradia and RTS Camera for this one!
I love your content but id like to know where you take the knowlege about medival warfare did you just research or are you a Historian who studid medival warfare(sry for my bad englisch
Im german so sry)
Why not use shock troops instead of pikes? Way more reliable to get and would wipe shielded infantry when the lines meet
100% agree, they would be better. The only reason I used pikes is because it's in the name of the tactic lol Hard to make a pike and shot video without either pike or shot and I already took out the shot :D
the rodhoks thought you well
Can't you make the pikes go in close order? They each defend way to much space now.
The point of using the formation like this is to allow the pikes to work together with the crossbows. If you put them in line or shield formation, they will block the crossbows from being able to shoot. Pikes are better when they are closer together, BUT they are even better in loose with crossbows to support.
Ngl I do use Pike and Shot in singleplayer BUT I also mix Voulgiers with the Pikes so that way they can not only repel cavalry but also at least hold the line in melee. Sadly however against elite troops or heavy infantry- The line will begin to break if the crossbows/archers don't break the enemy fast enough; however, can remedy that by having a melee cavalry detachment but only if they are not currently preoccupied meleeing other enemy cav units. Pike and Shot fun when on the field but during sieges- Uhhhhhhh. Don't try it lolz.
"El borracho" lmao
I used Haki Conqueror to dominate Calradia..
Can you make a phalanx in bannerlord or what's the closest you can get to it
Yeah you can! You need to use the RBM mod, but it definitely works
100% agree vanilla cav is trash specially against inf
this is like tercios of spain formation
Crossbows we’re used in like and shot warfare though?
The Rhodok tactic
Can you do videos on console? I use terrain, strategy and everything and ai simply respawns reinforcements right behind my troops, flanking me. So I always need to be on the lookout for reinforcements appearing out of thin air 😅
can you do a campeign where your party only consists of clan members and you go for a world conquest?