Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-25672535-20150526185946/@comment-26298013-20150602192821

Most of these points are correct-ish. A pike CAN be used with a shield, there's nothing stopping you from using a pike as a spear. However a pike is designed more for anti-cavalry work. With such things as a crosspiece to stop maddened horses from doing just what Samwise said. A normal horse, however, won't charge at an infantry square or any formation with lots of pointy objects facing outwards. They just don't. The difference is that pikes weren't often used with shields. The whole "tower shields" idea I've never head about; the shield-and-spear-using armies I've heard about use shields and spears on the same person. While a group of tower-shield-using people could work in conjunction with spearmen, it's not a common thing.