The Pike

Some time ago I recall a comment about pikes and BTB. I have looked through BTBs equipment but I ddin't notice anything about pikes. Did I miss it?

It is in the Merchant Caravan warband's special equipment list.

By the way: why did you change the "official" rules of the pike.

I thought the rules of the Tilean warbands for the pike made more sense.

Long weapon, so you could attack over 4" like with a whip. Was this to mighty?

The rules for the whip have been changed by a rules review. It no longer can attack over 4". As a result it makes sense to also change the rules for the pike to remove the attack over 4".

As usual Rational is absolutely right.

The official erratum to the whip rules was a good and sensable one and because I really wanted to have pikesmen in the warband I found it necessary to also update the original rules for pikes. Without the official errata I would have just used the original pike rules.

Ahh i never realized that the whip rules were changed.

So this does makes sense in the end.

the BtB rules for the pike are a little boring.

Maybe additionally a +1 S bonus in the first round against a cavalry charge would have made sense.

I do not want to complain about such details.

Thanks for clarifying

SerialMoM wrote:

Ahh i never realized that the whip rules were changed.

You should read the Mordheim Errata file then. There's a lot of important stuff that has been changed... whips, first strike, Shaggy Hide skill...

The revision of the Mordheim rules i do know, but i never had interest in the Sisters of Sigmars so i did not follow their changes.

Thanks anyway.

If I ran the zoo, Pikes would be a two-handed version of what spears USED to be:

Far Reach- A model with a Pike will ALWAYS strike first, even before models with lightening reflexes, chargers, spears, or any of the above combined. The only things that will strike first are magical items, crossbow pistols, and other pikes (i.e.. a charger with a pike will attack before a defender with a pike.) (Ex. A model with a dagger charges a model with a pike- the model with the pike attack first. The charge and the pike do NOT cancel each other out.)

Thus you sacrifice your second hand, but you will ALWAYS go first, initiative be damned.

Far reach sounds as a good house rule. considering that the pike is a really really long spear it would be pretty hard to reach someone trained in its use before they hit you

Personally, I see no place in Mordheim for pikes. After all, there's a reason that they weren't used for skirmishing historically i.e. because they're long, unwieldy and sod all use unless you're in formation with a large number of other chaps with pikes.

In Soviet Russia, pikes see no place in Mordheim for YOU! (seriously, no Soviet smiley? For Reals?)

A fair point, but they do show up enough in Warhammer minis (tileans, mostly), that it makes sense to include them too. Considering you have Ogres and daemonic figures, you can argue that not everything in this game is perfectly historic.

Still, their historical use shows they're completely unpractical for one on one fights - try to hit someone charging you with a pike and your enemy will simply laugh, outmaneuver it and deliver the coup de grace

And two-handed weapons should have "first strike" instead of "last strike"... or so I have been told by someone who knows them.

So what? It's all fun weapons with different rules written by people who have absolutely no idea of how these weapons ACTUALLY work. You could probably tear apart at least half of all the interplay and balance of them if you wanted to achieve historical authenticy. Thank god we don't care for that but for the fun of using all these various options.

Maybe we should make Pikes back into a 4" ranged attack that still uses WS to hit. But goes last in melee and counts as a dagger or something? Could be an interesting way to allow a melee character to have a ranged attack?

Hm, I don't think that would be too useful, as the weapon itself is then pretty bad a close combat, and when are you ever going to use a 4" ranged attack?

If it could be used to support a melee by attacking into it, this could be very useful. Almost game changingly though... Imagine youngbloods hanging back poking people attacking an ogre bodyguard safely while the ogre tanks.