Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-25672535-20150526185946/@comment-26298013-20150601202946

Narvin, the Greeks and Romans (All Greeks, Macedonians under Phillip II and Alexander were different, and I'll cover those) used both shields and spears. Look up the phalanx, and then the hoplite. Both Greek inventions, both used shields and spears to make a shield-wall. The Romans did it differently, using lighter armor and different formations, but the idea of "A row of pointy, metal-tipped sticks and shields make enemies think twice" is still in play. I don't know when the term pike comes into play, but I do know that it is usually used to refer to this: A pikeman is an anti-cavalry unit. He uses a pike, which is a very long spear. This pike is used without a shield. At the time when pikeman became useful (When fighting heavily armored cavalrymen, i.e. mounted knights), crossbows and then, later, guns made shields inadequate. This pike is useful because horses will not charge a wall of spears or pikes or sharpened sticks or what-have-you. They don't like dying.