Long Spearmen
From Warbirth Wiki
Behind the advance guard pushed on with bronze helmets and breastplates — the Greek companies, whose measured tread called to mind blows of heavy hammers. — Boleslaw Prus, Pharaoh (cap 1)
In game[edit | edit source]
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Heavily armed but slow-moving unit that bests all other units in close-up encounters.
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| Prereq: | Build time | HP | LOS | Attack | Attack speed | Movement speed |
Upgrade of | Upgrades to |
| 12.5s (230t) |
203 | 5 | 27 | 2.1s (32t) |
16 |
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| Cost | Created from | Armour | Weapon range | Specialty | ||||
| Base | Ramp | Pop | ||||||
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1 | 
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15 | 1-2 |
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Overall strategy[edit | edit source]
A unit unique to the Argives, Long Spearmen are heavily armoured spear units who in effect are heavy pikemen - the weight of their armour is an impediment to their movement, but their ability to hold a battle line cannot be questioned. Long Spearmen can be a rather powerful force, but the cost of equipping these units can be exorbitant and so only the most warlike and wealthy of Argive players can obtain them. Long Spearmen do not last very long though - in the Axial Age they will be replaced with the cheaper but weaker Hoplite.
Long Spearmen have the ability to resist war chariots and elephants well, so choose wisely: their upgrade, the Hoplite, automatically loses the ability to resist chariots.
Unit summary[edit | edit source]
- Amongst all other infantry types, Spearmen have the highest cost in resources, so you might wish to supplement them with light infantry.
- Spearmen are most effective but only as either purely defensive or offensive units, due to their speed. This also makes them vulnerable against more versatile units, such as missile infantry and cavalry, which can easily take them apart or massed light infantry.
- Rising Sun — The Japanese spearmen are instead salaried with more food as opposed to metal. While this may seem like a handicap, it in fact makes them very cheap in later stages of the game, helped by their being able to be spawned from the Barracks for free once completed.
- Hittite Spearmen — These Hittite units are vastly more powerful, and faster on foot, but they cannot be upgraded to Medium Spearmen.
History[edit | edit source]
A spear is a weapon made by attaching a sharp blade to a stick. In battle this allowed early man to attack his foes from a few feet away. This was a major advantage. A man armed with a spear could defeat many attacking warriors with getting hurt himself. Bronze was made obsolete when ironworking was developed. From the spear, the pike was developed. The pike was a longer spear with different iron tips for a different situation. Pikes and spears were commonly used as a defense against charging cavalry. Template:WBI units tab