Semitic Spear Levy

“You thought you could use me. You thought I would do the bidding of Egypt. How foolish you were.”

—Nick Drake, Egypt: The Book of Chaos (cap 33)

In game

Semitic Spear Levy — Vital statistics
Semitic Spear Levy	Mercenary spear unit. Weaker than normal Spearmen, but is trained faster and moves faster. Strong versus melee units, especially cavalry. Weak versus missile units.
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed	Upgrades to
Level 2: Mercenaries Military	4.21s (64t)	150	1	20	2.1s (32t)	21	Medium Spearmen
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 130	: 40	1		4	Melee	Strong versus cavalry Defensive penalty versus ranged units Small attack penalty versus buildings.

Overall strategy

While comparable to Regular Spearmen, Semitic Spear Levy are trained faster but suffer from one glaring defect - they have near to no LOS, meaning that they are not the best units for use for attack since their low LOS restricts their initiative. for the best results they, like most Semitic units, need the guidance of a Semitic Battle-Chief to lead them into the field.

Unit summary

• 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.
• Mental Tartan — Far to the north of Britannia rule the Scots. Their Cliarthaire, while somewhat slow on foot, are highly proficient with the spear, making them the bane of cavalry.

Notes

These units are an upgrade of Spearmen, having some form of armour and a simple helmet, as well as better-looking shields. Armour for infantry, however, remains very poor until the Axial Age when you start getting units with better kit.

History

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.